It had broken Olivia’s heart there for a while.
Both she and her mother had been distraught. Bernard and I tried to be there for them as much as we could, but we both knew they had to take this up with Daniel. They needed to address their hurt to his face. They needed to tell him that he wasn’t welcome if the only thing he was going to do was use them the way they had been used in the past.
Talk about history repeating itself.
“Wait, why are there so many cars in the driveway?” Olivia asked.
“Everyone wanted to greet you coming home since I didn’t allow much visitation time at the hospital. You needed your rest, but I couldn’t bat them off any longer,” I said.
“Is my father here?” she asked.
I looked over at her and nodded. “He is, yes.”
“Good,” she said, smiling.
That was the part that still got me, the part that shocked me more than anything. Despite all of it, Olivia and her mother were willing to find it in their heart to forgive him. Because all they’d ever wanted was the truth. They didn’t want to be swindled. They didn’t want Daniel to portray some sort of picture that his life was grand and fantastic. All they wanted was him, in whatever form he was there for. So long as he wasn’t turning back to drugs to cope with the issues that had arisen in his businesses, they wanted him to be part of their lives.
It was taking Bernard and me longer to swallow that pill. But we were getting there.
We’d eventually get there.
“Come on. I’ll get Aiden and you can head on inside. Just let everyone know he’s sleeping, so they have to be quiet,” I said.
“Sounds good to me. I’m kind of hungry anyway. You want anything?” Olivia asked.
“You let me worry about things like that. You go inside, tell them to keep it down, and then get yourself sitting down. Okay?”
“You’re going to be like this for a while, aren’t you?”
I reached over and captured her lips as I unbuckled my seat belt.
“Yep. So deal with it,” I said.
I got out of the car and slowly unlocked Aiden’s car seat from its base. I heard everyone cheering from the front door as Olivia walked in, and I smiled at the sound. I slid my hand into my pocket and wrapped my hand around the small box sitting there. I gave myself a second to collect my thoughts and walk myself through the plan I had.
The plan no one knew was coming.
When the cheers and the talking died down, I walked Aiden inside. Brittany rushed me and hugged me close, and I felt someone take Aiden’s car seat from my hand. I looked over and saw Olivia’s mother and Bernard walking Aiden into the living room before slowly removing him. Then, his little sleeping form got passed around. Daniel held him. My parents held him. Even Brittany and my younger brother held him for a little while. Everyone was very gentle and incredibly quiet. But once he got passed to me, I knew it was time.
I propped my sleeping son onto my shoulder, then pulled the box out of my pocket.
“Oh my gosh,” Brittany gasped.
“Brett?” my mother asked.
“Is he about to do what I think he’s going to do?” Bernard asked.
And when I looked over at Daniel and flipped open the box, I watched him nod his head at me.
“Brett?” Olivia asked.
I turned back to her and smiled. I slipped down onto one knee, holding out the ring as I cradled our son against my shoulder. I gazed up into her beautiful blue eyes. They filled with tears as her hands flew to her mouth. I savored the moment. Drank it all in. Committed every single detail of it to memory.
I didn’t want to forget a second of it. Just like I hadn’t forgotten anything about our journey leading up to this moment.
“Olivia, you are the love of my life. And while we’ve had a rocky road getting to this point, I wouldn’t change a thing about it. Now, you were insistent that Aiden have my last name. That my son have his father’s name. But it doesn’t seem right for us to share a last name and not have you as part of the fold. He might be my son, but you are his mother. And you’re not just his mother, Olivia. You’re the woman I adore more than anyone else. Aiden has my last name, but I’m on my knee today asking you if you’ll take it as well. If my last name is good enough, Olivia Masters, then will you marry me?”
She fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around myself and our son. Her lips crashed to mine as tears flowed down her cheeks. Oh, she’d become a crier since having Aiden. And I loved it. I loved that she wore her heart on her sleeve, that I could easily read her emotions in her eyes now. I wrapped my arm around her, holding the ring as she nodded against my lips.