“Oh? I didn’t know we were exchanging wedding gifts. Now I feel like a chop for not getting you anything.”
“That’s okay. I wasn’t expecting anything. I’ll be back in a minute,” she said and went downstairs.
I wished my parents were alive to enjoy my family. They would have fallen so deeply in love with Angel and Dasha. I was grateful to have Inessa and her family. The cousins would carry on the legacy of the Mikhailov’s, but in a way that would make Inessa and me proud.
No more fears of days gone by where neither Inessa nor I had any say in our own happiness. We were finally in a place where we could live in peace and love our families with everything we had. I was filled with immense gratitude.
“Close your eyes,” Angel said when she reappeared on deck.
“Should I be nervous?”
“What? A big, strong man like yourself, afraid? Surely not.”
“Angel, you have the ability to scare the pants off me.”
“Just keep ‘em closed.”
“Fine.”
I closed my eyes.
“Open your hands.”
“This better not be something gross or I will have to put you over my knee.”
“Open.”
I opened my hand and waited. Then I felt something like a pen in my hand.
“Should I guess?”
“You’ll never get it right.”
“Hey, I may surprise you,” I countered.
“Okay, take a crack at it, Sherlock Holmes.”
I ran my fingers up and down the object. It was flat and about the size of a pen.
“Okay, I give. What is it?”
“Open your eyes.”
“Let’s see now, it’s a…”
I stared at the object in my hand and then at Angel.
“Surprise!” she grinned.
“What? Are you serious?”
“Yup. Looks like you’re going to have to upgrade from a two-door to a sedan, Baby Daddy.”
“I had no idea I was so fertile!”
“Yeah, I’ll be keeping an eye on that member of yours, Mikhailov, or we’ll be parents to a baseball team before we can blink an eye.”
Another baby!