“What is it, my love?”
“Will you let me put your wedding rings on again?” He took up her left hand and kissed the bare third finger. “I keep putting them right here and they keep disappearing.”
She laughed. “Yes.” Digging in her purse, she couldn’t help the relieved laughter that kept coming. Everything was going to work out for her and Damon and their family. “But you have to admit I had a good reason for taking them off this time.”
“The best.” Smiling, he took the two bands from her and slid them into place. “You slayed me back there when you walked into the meeting and took charge.”
She flexed her fingers, admiring the sparkle of diamonds in the sunlight through the huge windows, the sense of rightness filling her.
“It will always hurt—what my father did to me.” There would be a hole in her heart that nothing else would fill, but she looked forward to connecting with Damon’s family. To finding more role models for her son, and to strengthening her own support network with friendships like she’d started with Maresa. “But it felt good to shut him out of Transparent forever.”
“You are an incredible woman on every level, Mrs. McNeill.” He leaned closer to kiss her neck. “I’m going to have the most stunning daisy necklace made for you to replace the old one.”
Her skin heated where he kissed it. “I actually really liked the gift shop trinket.” She skimmed a hand under his jaw to cup his face and looked in his blue eyes.
“You want another necklace from the gift shop?”
She thought about why the impromptu present had pleased her so much the first time.
“For my whole life, I was taught to be the best. That second wasn’t good enough.” She’d been trained from early childhood and she was ready to break free of the mold. “I don’t want to strive for perfection anymore. I want to know that our love is strong enough it can bear a misstep and we’ll trust in each other to get through it.” She warmed to her theme, imagining a future by Damon’s side. “I want to take spontaneous walks in the middle of the workday and not feel guilty about it. I want to play. To have fun. To just be.”
“I can do all of that.” He wrapped her up in his arms. “I can play and have fun, I swear. But I’m still going to work my tail off not to make any more mistakes with you.”
“Just love me the way I love you.” She felt confident saying it because she knew it would be returned in full. Maybe even with interest. “That’s all I need.”
“I’m so glad to have my wife back.” He kissed her lips. Slowly. Thoroughly. “You can’t imagine how happy that makes me.”
Actually, she had a very good idea because it made her glow inside to be reunited with him. But for now, she simply closed her eyes so she could feel the love all around her.
EPILOGUE
One month later
Damon bent over the portacrib and settled his son onto the sheet covered with smiling blue jellyfish. Two weeks ago, he’d relocated his whole family to a private bungalow at the Birdsong Hotel, the property his brother Gabe owned in Martinique. He’d felt the need to solidify the new, expanded family dynamic that included Lucas, Caroline and Caroline’s two younger brothers. Even Victoria had requested a leave of absence from her university program to join them for a week. New McNeills and honorary McNeills filled two bungalows of the Birdsong, giving them time to play together on the shore of the Caribbean, safely away from the headlines about Stephan Degraff back home.
As Damon watched Lucas huff out a sleepy sigh, his arms flung wide in that careless, baby way, Damon’s heart filled with love. Again. The way it did dozens of times a day as he marveled at how full his life had become in such a short time. He’d gone from a year of devastated loneliness to having a beautiful wife and three sons. One by blood, two by law.
He wouldn’t be able to adopt the boys, as much as he would love to, since their father would never sign any more paperwork that would benefit Damon. But Caroline’s brothers knew they would always have a real family now, and they were excited about the idea of attending public schools and being under the same roof as their sister and baby nephew.
Damon turned on the nursery monitor for Lucas’s nap even though he wasn’t venturing far from the crib. He didn’t mind sitting on the deck of the bungalow with the baby monitor while he watched Caroline cavort on the beach with her siblings. Damon double-checked the video feed on the nursery monitor before he dimmed the lights so his boy could rest and dream of happy times.
Stepping out of the baby’s room, Damon wandered out onto the patio to find his brother Gabe already there, sprawled on a deck lounger, a silver bucket full of ice and bottled beers at his feet. Flowers bloomed on either side of the deck, spilling bright petals around them like a private luau. Gabe had been remodeling the property for years, recently hiring a landscaper to redesign the gardens.