nineteen
Callie
I’ve been planning this since I asked Aviva if she thought Nico would want to adopt me. While I’m exhausted after getting back to the house, well past curfew, it can’t derail my excitement. I had expected to be nervous, but that’s not the case at all. I’m stoked. When I see Aviva and Nico get out of the car in the parking lot of the Autism Center of Bellevue, I’m bouncing on my heels. Nico goes to the back to get Vance, I assume, but Aviva, she looks for me like I knew she would. When she sees me, she grins so widely, my heart almost bursts in my chest.
Oh, I love my sister.
She comes toward me, and I meet her halfway, our embrace tight. Aviva’s hugs are one of my favorite things in the world. As she holds me, I close my eyes, taking in her citrus scent as time stops around us. When she pulls back, she looks down at me, grinning as she cups my face. “I swear Nashville looks good on you, Calliope.”
I grin back at her and hug her once more. “I’ve missed you.”
“Same,” she says in my ear, and then I hear Vance screech. I turn to see Nico holding him, both of them smiling so big, and my heart melts. It’s hard being away from Aviva. It was always just us two, but now that Nico and Vance are around, it’s just as hard being away from them, too. I go to them, and Nico hugs me tightly into his side as Vance smacks my face. I laugh as I kiss him and then Nico before taking Vance from him.
“Are you Auntie’s baby boy? Look at you! You’re huge!”
He laughs, babbling something as Nico wraps an arm around me. “Missed you.”
I smile up at him, hugging him close. “I missed you. How was the trip in?”
“Good, easy, no biggie. Excited for the tour and for tonight.”
“Me too,” I agree, and then I take his hand in mine. He seems a little surprised by that, especially when Aviva takes Vance from me. I lead him toward the ACOB building, and I sigh. I’m nervous all of a sudden. “So, this is it.”
He looks up and nods. He volunteered for the Bullies this morning, and instead of going to lunch as we planned, we decided to have a picnic on the grounds after I showed him the ACOB building. When he donated money to the school my freshman year, most of it went to the gymnastics and hockey programs, but some was left over. They offered it to me, but I asked for the remainder to be donated to the Autism Center of Bellevue in my name so it wouldn’t link back to Nico since he wasn’t open about his diagnosis at that time. This year, though, he made donations to all three. In his own name.
I’m so proud.
Nico hasn’t seen the Autism Center of Bellevue yet, and I want to share it with him. Not only because he’s donating money to it, but because I want to open one in South Carolina. “It’s my dream to own a place like this so I can give the support and love to kids like you needed.” I feel his gaze on my face as his fingers thread with mine. “I’ve always wanted to help people, and since it hurts too much to be involved with breast cancer patients, I want to do this. I want to make sure that all kids with an autism diagnosis know they can do whatever they want.”
I meet his gaze then, in time to see him swallowing hard. “I’ve always known you’d do something like that, Callie. Ever since the day I met you, you’ve had a heart of gold.”
I smile. “But do you know why?”
His brows come in. “Why? I suspect it’s because your sister raised you.”
I laugh. “No, not that. Do you know why I want to do this?”
He looks confused. “Because you’re a good girl?”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “It’s because I love you so much.”
He takes in a shaky breath as his hand comes to his chest. “I love you, Callie.”
“I know. I’ve always known,” I say, tears filling my eyes. I can hear Aviva crying, and I know if I look at her, I’ll start sobbing. “In a very short time, you’ve become such a rock in my life, and I want you to do something for me.”
He can’t look me in the eye, and I know it’s because he’s overwhelmed. “Anything,” he whispers.
I point toward the building, and there are my teammates, each holding a letter, asking Nico to adopt me. I watch as he takes in the letters, forming them into words, and then reading them as a sentence. I know how his mind works, and I know the exact moment he realizes what I am asking. He looks down at me, his eyes locking with mine, and that doesn’t happen a lot. He swallows hard as the love and adoration he has for me pour off him in waves. “Are you sure?”
“Nothing would make me happier.”
He looks back at Aviva, and as I suspected, she’s sobbing like a baby. He then reaches out, pulling me into his arms, and kisses my temple. “I don’t need papers to say you’re mine, because you are. But giving you my name would be the greatest honor of my life, Callie.”
I squeeze him hard as everyone cheers around us, and emotion floods my senses. It’s unfair that I grew up without someone like Nico in my life. I lost the person like him, my mom, but I swear, in my heart, I know she sent him to us. She knew that we would need someone who would love us unconditionally, and that was Nico. In all the ways society says he’s imperfect, his love is beyond perfect. My heart soars when I see the tear roll down Nico’s face, and his lips curve in an unstoppable grin. I knew he’d say yes, but relief completely fills me.
Once we take pictures with the team, they gush over Nico and me, and love all over Vance. When everyone is just standing around, doing nothing, I know it’s time to show him the building.
“Ready?” I ask him, and he nods, a little unsure of himself. I assume he’s excited and was distracted by my request, but that doesn’t mean the anxiety of meeting new people and seeing a new building hasn’t come back. It’s been a lot for him in South Carolina with all the events he’s been invited to. He hasn’t gone to all of them, but he tries to do two a month. Aviva goes to all of them, though, because she’s basically an angel.
“Callie, I’d give you the world at this point,” he says, lacing his fingers with mine. “We don’t have to do the tour. We can just go celebrate.”
“I agree. Let’s go celebrate!” Aviva suggests.