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with the love of my life.

Twenty-Six

Ryan

“Then with the power vested in me by the State of California, I now pronounce Emma Gentry the official legal guardian of Zoey, Hunter, and Benjamin Aaron.”

The gavel came down onto the judge’s stand and the kids rushed Emma. A few days after the renovations on the apartment were over, a phone call had rolled in from the family lawyer. Valentina was slipping, and she was back in the hospital because of an overdose. The pharmaceutical company was tanking in the stock market again, and it didn’t show any signs of recovering. Even though I had full rights to them as a legal guardian, Valentina was still considered their other legal parent.

Until CPS stepped in and gave her some options.

Valentina voluntarily gave up rights to her children for good, and that’s when I saw a side of Emma I knew I’d never be able to give up. The children were distraught. Crying. Asking questions as to why their mother didn’t want them. Didn’t love them enough to ‘make herself okay again’. It was the roughest night in my entire life, trying to get them bedded down.

But Emma stepped in with an idea that had now become a reality.

I watched Emma open her arms as the kids came running at her. Seven months pregnant and she still acted as if her body wasn’t growing three human beings at once. Zoey, Hunter, and Benjamin ran into her arms, crashing against her body and peppering her face with kisses.

Emma was officially their mother.

The smile on her face brought tears to my eyes. I looked back at the judge and thanked him for rushing this as much as he could. Usually, an adoption process like this took at least a year, but I didn’t want to wait that long. Emma was a good woman. Had a great track record with the kids. Hell, she was my fiancé. The mother of my children. Living with us, for fuck’s sake!

The judge took all of that into consideration when I went and talked with him personally about it. And the donation I made to a charity he founded last year helped matters a bit as well.

“Come you, guys,” Emma said. “Let’s go celebrate.”

“Can we?” Zoey asked.

“Is there ice cream?” Hunter asked.

“Can there be pizza, too?” Benjamin asked.

“Trust me,” I said. “I think you guys will like what we have in store.”

I helped Emma up from her seat and we walked hand-in-hand. She couldn’t fly or get on any kind of boat, but she could still travel so long as it was by car. I had our things packed and stowed away in the trunk of an SUV I had just purchased that morning. The kids were excited and Emma was shocked. I leaned over and pressed a kiss to her cheek, then moved my lips to her ear.

“When you can drive, this is yours. But for now, we’re going to break it in as a family,” I said.

“What in the world is going on, Ryan?” she asked.

“Kids? How would you like to go to the beach!?”

“Yeah!” they all exclaimed.

“The beach?” Emma asked.

“Do you trust me?” I asked.

I took her hands within mine and traced the diamond sitting on her left hand.

“Always,” she said.

“Then trust me. We’re going to the beach, and you’re going to love it.”

We all hopped into our new family car and drove out to Big Sur. I couldn’t wait to show them what I’d done. I drove through the kid’s favorite ice cream place and got them cones to eat, then placed a phone call for pizza delivery before I whispered the new address. This was something I’d been working on for a while now. It took me a long time to get the building permits and to find a construction company that would work with me on what I wanted to do. I had to hire my own team to pave a road to and from the structure I’d built, and there was no more appropriate time to show my family than now.

Especially since we were officially a family in the eyes of the state.

“Where are we going?” Emma asked.


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