Chapter Twenty Nine – Evan

“How are you doing, son?” I ask Liam while I ruffle his hair. “Are you enjoying the day?”

“Yeah, I am, Daddy, but I wish Katy was here.” He pouts out his lip and crosses his arms over his chest in a stubborn gesture. “I don’t like having my birthday party without her.”

“I know, I know, but you had all your friends around, and that was fun, right? We had those trampolines. You certainly looked like you were enjoying that, and you still have birthday cake all around your mouth.” I wipe his lips. “You’re all covered in chocolate. And you love your new bike.”

“Yeah I do. Thank you, Daddy, but I miss Katy.”

It makes me laugh how much Liam loves Katy. He really does adore him. He does have his friends, but I think she might be his best friend ever. That hasn’t changed at all in the six months she’s been living in our home. If anything, their bond has gotten deeper.

“You know that Katy would have loved to be here but she had a meeting that she couldn’t miss. It’s all linked to her brand new business so it’s all very exciting…”

“She’s not going to start being at work all the time, is she?”

“No, no.” I hold Liam’s shoulders so he’ll look at me as I answer this. “The reason that she’s starting her own business is so she doesn’t have to work all the time. It might take a little while to get it all set up, but once she’s done it’ll all be good. I promise that you’ll see her all the time. And don’t forget we’re having our birthday dinner for you in a moment.”

“Will she have a present for me?” Liam’s eyes lit up as the thought of more toys cheered him right back up again. “Do you think she will? Did she say that she will?”

“I’m sure she does.” I ruffle his hair again. I don’t seem to be able to stop myself from doing that. “But don’t forget that we have a present for her too. Are you still up for doing that?”

I bring the small box out of my pocket and I show it to Liam meaningfully. We’ve been talking about this for weeks so I know he’s aware of what I’m on about. He’s always spoken so positively about it, I just hope now he doesn’t change his mind. The only thing that will stop me from going ahead with this is Liam. I’m pretty sure he’s happy, but I need to be certain.

“I remember.” He nods slowly. “You’re going to ask Katy to marry you. Then you’ll have a big, white wedding. And then… and then she’ll be my new mommy.”

That causes my breath to catch in my throat. I wasn’t expecting him to say that at all. “Oh, right well I don’t know about that. You do already have a mommy.”

“But my mommy is in heaven.” I do feel much better that he knows more about Victoria now. It makes things much easier, but it hurts me still every time we have to talk about it. Liam takes it all with so much maturity, but it isn’t fair. He doesn’t deserve this. “And everyone else has a mommy. I want a new mommy for my birthday.”

I don’t know how Katy will feel about that, but considering how well she’s handled everything so far, I’m sure she won’t mind. “Oh well, she will be like your mommy because she’s married to your daddy.” I’m trying to handle this as tactfully as you can. “But you’ll have to talk to Katy about what you want to call her, okay? That’s up to you and her.”

“Oh well, Katy won’t mind. Me and her have such fun. She will like it.”

I smile, knowing that he’s right. I’m sure she will but I don’t want to put words in Katy’s mouth. What happens between her and Liam is between them.

“Right.” I clap my hands together, snapping into action. “Shall we get the party tidied and get dinner sorted? Of course, you don’t have to do anything since you’re the birthday boy, but someone needs to. So why don’t you go and watch TV while I get everything set up?”

“No, no, no, I want to help! Let me help you sort it out. I want to. I want to do it for Katy.”

Sometimes my boy blows me away with his attitude, at moments such as this. He’s such a brilliant child, I’m so glad that I know him now. There’s been so much that I’ve missed out on, but I won’t ever make that mistake again. Now I’m fully on board with this parenting thing.

“Okay, Liam. You are an awesome kid. Let’s do this.”

***

“Was that her?” Liam whispers secretively to me. “Was that Katy?”

“You don’t have to be quiet,” I chuckle. “We aren’t doing this as a surprise. Or are we? Actually, that might be a good idea.” I cock my head thoughtfully. “Actually, yeah let’s do it. Let’s hide.”

Liam dives behind the couch and I join him, giggling madly. It hasn’t escaped my attention that I’m completely the opposite man that I used to be. I used to be all bravado, making business deals and caring only about the office, all the while everything was slipping through my fingers, having meaningless sex with my PA. Now, I’m laughing like a loon with my boy, waiting for the woman that I love, with a big diamond ring in my pocket. What a turn around of events.

“Yep, that’s her,” Liam whispers loudly to me as the door swings open. “She’s coming.”

“Let me know when you’re ready to jump up, will you?” I reply. “Say the word.”

“Hello?” Katy calls through the house. “Is anyone there? Hello?” We can hear her moving through the rooms. She’s probably wondering what the hell happened at Liam’s party and why we’re suddenly nowhere to be found. I feel a bit mean since I know how much she wanted to come to the party, but I’m sure she’ll forgive me by the end of the night. “Hello? Liam? Evan?”

“Let’s go now,” Liam whispers. We both leap up rapidly and yell “surprise!”

“Oh my God.” Katy clutches her hand to her chest in shock, dropping all her papers as she does. “You scared me there, guys. Are you two completely mad?”

Luckily she’s laughing, and as Liam wraps his arms around her, her face completely melts. I shoot her an apologetic look but she doesn’t seem to need it.

“So how did your meeting go?” I ask her over Liam’s head. “Was it positive?”

“It was, really positive. I mean it was awesome, I’m really happy about it.” She blows out a deep and weary breath. “So, I mean I’ll tell you all about it in the morning I think. Right now, I just want a drink. Oh!” She reaches into her bag and pulls out a nicely wrapped gift. “I suppose I better give this to the birthday boy as well.”

Liam screeches with excitement and he takes the gift from her, unwrapping it at the speed of light. He quickly finds another superhero toy in there which of course fills him with utter excitement. He races around the room with it in his hand making it zoom.

“I think he likes it,” I say while hooking my arm around Katy’s waist and pulling her in for a kiss. “Good choice by the way. Oh, and we have a dinner for you. A birthday dinner that’s waiting in the dining room.”

“Oh, that sounds lovely, I’m starving.” She rubs her stomach happily. “And it smells home cooked. What is it?”

I don’t answer her, I just take her hand and lead her into the kitchen. Liam has scattered rose petals all over the floor, in a bit of a haphazard way, and there are champagne flutes on the table, one with apple juice in for Liam, and candles lit. The food is there too, but that’s the least important bit.

“Oh my goodness, this is lovely.” Katy furrows her eyebrows in obvious confusion. “Am I forgetting something? Is it like an anniversary or something? If so I’m sorry. I’ve just been so…”

“It’s not an anniversary.” I glance towards Liam and I can see that he’s bursting with the news. I know that if I don’t do it now he’ll end up ruining the surprise for me, so I tug the ring box out of my pocket and I fall to one knee on the floor in front of Katy. “But I might be about to make it one.”

“What are you doing? She gushes while clapping her hands across her mouth. “Oh my goodness. Evan, what are you…?” She glances to Liam. “What is happening here?”

“Katy.” I need to bring her attention back to me at the moment before Liam says anything. “I want you to know how much I love you. You’ve done more for me than I could have ever asked anyone to do and you’ve made me fall in love with you more and more each day as you have. I honestly don’t know what I would do without you now…”

I can’t stop him anymore. Liam jumps in, but actually it comes at a good time as the lump in my throat balls up and thickens. “My daddy wants to marry you,” he declares. “He wants you to be my new mommy.”

I freeze for a moment, wondering if that’s going to be too much, but Katy’s face breaks out into a bright, happy grin. “Oh my goodness, Liam, are you serious? You want me to be your mommy? I want to be whatever you want me to be. If you want me to be Mom, then that’s what I’ll be.”

As they embrace, I almost chuckle to myself. It’s so typical of my new family that Katy and Liam would celebrate this before me, but that’s fine. That’s even better than I ever could have hoped for. The fact that they are so adoring of one another is wonderful, it makes my heart swell with absolutely pride and happiness. All the jigsaw pieces of my life have finally come together.

Soon though, Katy drags herself away from Liam and she looks up at me. “So are you going to ask me?” she whispers. “Or are you going to just let Liam do it for you?”

“Oh no, I want to ask you. I definitely want to ask you.” I prize open the ring box and grin up at her. “Katy Atwater, I love you very much. Would you do me the absolute honor of making me the happiest man alive and becoming my wife.”

She glances into the box, looking at the princess cut diamond I picked out especially for her and she gasps happily. “Oh, my goodness! Of course, I will be your wife. I couldn’t think of anything I would like better than to be Mrs. Debroils.”

“Famous lawyer, Mrs. Debroils.” I chuckle. “Or at least the famous lawyer who somehow manages to have a life as well.”

As she embraces me and falls into my chest, I want to yell with glee. I’ve wanted to propose to Katy for a very long time but I’ve been holding myself back so I don’t act out too soon. Maybe it’s still a bit quick but I don’t give a shit. Me and Katy aren’t living our lives for other people, we’re doing this for us, to make us happy.

“Can we eat now?” Liam calls out, breaking the magic of the moment. “I’m so hungry.”

“Yeah me too,” Katy agrees. “And this all looks so amazing. You guys must have worked very hard on it.”

“Oh we did,” Liam nods as he declares happily. “We did it all for you… Mom.”

Hearing Liam call Katy Mom and seeing her happy reaction makes all of this feel even better. It’s scary, but in a great way. I absolutely love this journey.