The fact is I’d lived through my mother’s pain. I had held her when she had cried. The devastation my father had caused was so deeply ingrained in me, there was no fucking way I’d ever do that to Riley. I could never want anyone but her. Even when the bills were past due, and the kids were all screaming, and I hadn’t gotten her to myself for weeks. I would just want her. Only her. Even if it was the moment I got to hold her in the morning before I left for work. It would just be her.
The thing I hadn’t considered while I struggled with fear of marriage was that I wasn’t weak like my dad.
I was strong like my mother. I loved the way she loved. Unconditionally. Just because I was a man didn’t mean I was a product of my father. My mother’s love had taught me more than he ever had. I was the man she had raised me to be. Not the man my father had been.
CHAPTER FOUR
RILEY
Pink icing smeared across the smile on Bryony’s face as she raced by me toward the inflatable slide and jump house my parents had rented made this all worth it. Her laughter filled the backyard and she turned to grab her friend Amy’s hand as they climbed into the jump house in their princess dresses.
Two hours had passed, but the party was still going. Adults were enjoying the cocktails I had made while the kids were still working out all the sugar they’d consumed. My baby was seven years old. I’d been so busy today, I hadn’t let that sink in. How had seven years come and gone so quickly?
When they’d placed her in my arms, I’d been so terrified. I had been a kid myself, but one little look from her sweet face and I’d known I would move heaven and earth for her. I had no regrets. Not one. I would go through it all over again to have her. She was a gift that had turned a nightmare into something else.
Brady walked across the lawn toward the inflatable and waited for Bryony to come down the slide. I watched him, feeling my heart squeeze as he laughed at her sliding down sideways. She beamed up at him and threw her arms around his neck. I loved that man. More than I’d ever thought possible. Every moment I watched him be the dad to Bryony that I’d never thought she’d have, I loved him more. So much, my heart felt like it would explode at times. Although he hadn’t asked me to marry him, we were a family already. We didn’t need a marriage license to make us one. I knew that deep down Brady struggled with marriage because of what he went through with his parents. I understood that and having his love was enough.
He whispered something to Bryony, and she nodded, then took his hand, and they walked toward the house. I studied them, wondering if he had a present he hadn’t told me about for her. We had already given her the bike she’d wanted so badly. Although Boone’s gift had been a close second. The newest Barbie Dreamhouse, complete with agarage and Tesla, was a massive hit with her too. It was also far more expensive than her bike had been.
I started to walk toward the door to see what they were up to in there when my mom called out my name. I turned to see her at the punch fountain. “We need more purple shiny juice,” she told me. “The kids are getting thirsty again.”
I walked over to her and reached under the table to find the bottle of apple juice I had in a cooler. I had already put the purple food coloring in it, along with the edible glitter. “We just add this,” I told her.
“Why didn’t we get sparkly drinks?” Gunner asked.
“You can always drink the fancy apple juice,” I told him.
He looked as if he were considering it. “I’ll stick with the whiskey.”
Laughing, I shook my head and turned to check the adult beverage table to make sure it didn’t need restocking. The party didn’t seem to be winding down.
I realized the Disney playlist that Bryony had chosen had stopped playing, and I started out of the tent to go restart the computer. It had probably gone through all thirty songs again. Just as I made it halfway across the yard, Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” started playing, and I paused. Bryony loved that song, along with everything else Taylor sang. Had she changed the playlist?
The back door opened then, and Bryony came out doing the choreographed dance she had taught Brady weeks ago. They did it to many songs at the house. She thought it was funny to get him to dance, and he had a hard time telling her no. Once she batted her eyes at him and begged, he always gave in.
I stopped and watched her, highly entertained by her performance. When Brady then followed her out the door and began doing the same dance, a burst of laughter came from me as well as some hoots and cheers from the guests behind me.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I watched as the two people I loved most in the world sang along to “Love Story” and danced. Unable to stop the grin on my face. Brady swore he would never do this dance in public, but here he was making Bryony’s birthday party epic. That man would do anything for her. One day she would realize how incredibly lucky she was.
When Bryony reached me, she stopped and sang, “It’s a love story, baby, just sayyes,” with a huge grin on her face, then stepped back, and Brady stopped in front of me.
In that moment, it was if time had stilled. Everything and everyone around us had faded away as I watched Brady go down on one knee. I heard Bryony’s squeal of delight, but all I could see was him. Looking up at me. His crookedgrin and then the small ring box he opened in his hand with the most beautiful diamond I had ever seen.
“This is forever,” he said. “It’ll always just be you… Marry me?”
I let out a sob, then covered my mouth as tears started streaming down my face. I managed to nod, then blurted out, “Yes!”
Bryony threw her arms around my legs, and the clapping, whistles, and cheering filled the backyard.
“We did it, Daddy! She said yes!” Bryony’s excitement made me cry even harder. “And I get to be a Higgens too, Mommy! Daddy said he wants me to be a Higgens too!”
The sobs came harder as Brady stood up and pulled me into his arms, then slid the ring onto my finger. I could hardly see it through my tears, but what it looked like wasn’t important. I would have happily worn a string on my finger if he had put it there.
Brady cupped my face and wiped away my tears with his thumbs, then pressed a kiss to my lips. “Always, Riley. You and Bryony have been my forever since the day you climbed into my truck to get out of the rain. I just didn’t know how damn lucky I was. But I swear to you I will never forget.”
“This is the best day ever!” Bryony said.
Brady bent down and picked her up, then pulled me tohis other side. “It’s not every day the two most beautiful women in the world agree to be mine,” Brady told her.