Six Months Later
There she is.
I chuckle to myself watching her stand on her chair and wave to us wildly with her friend Zoey. There are at least three thousand chairs set up in the field of the University of Connecticut stadium and they’re standing up on two of them making them tower over the sea of people. A large stage and podium has been set up in front of them in preparation for the commencement ceremony. Preston and Skyler and Viv are probably the loudest in our section as the three of them are on their feet waving back and cheering for her. Aidan’s younger sister is graduating college today also, so he couldn’t be here, but I’m sure he’ll show up within the next few days because he can only go so long without seeing Skyler.
I know the feeling quite well.
Serena’s eyes flit down the row to me and she blows a kiss at me before my phone starts to vibrate. “Hey, you.”
“Hi,” she giggles. I lean forward slightly, to adjust myself as her voice is already making me hard. She’s still standing up on her chair and now she’s bouncing slightly. “I might have had a few mimosas since I last saw you.”
“How many is a few?”
“Enough that I want to fuck you. Now.” I look up at her family next to me who are still taking pictures of their daughter and sister, unbeknownst to them that she is seconds from initiating phone sex with me.
“Serena.”
“Come on, don’t be such a prude.”
“Oh, we’re playing that game, huh?”
“I’m not wearing panties under my dress, Landon.”
“Fuck,” I grumble. “If we miss commencement, your parents are going to kill us.”
“Come find me after? The pre-law college graduation isn’t until three.”
“Deal.”
“Lose my family.”
I snort. “Obviously,” I tell her as I hang up the phone.
“Holy shit, the line for the bathroom was insane,” my son says as he makes his way through the row and plops down next to me.
“Don’t say shit.” He snorts as he looks at Serena, who is finally taking a seat in her chair. “Just think you’ll be up there, soon.”
“Scary.”
“No, you got it.”
“I think I’m going to start getting scouted in the fall. You’ll be around, right?”
I look at him curiously. “Of course, why wouldn’t I be?”
“I don’t know, planning a wedding, honeymoon…I figured you’ll be really busy next year.” He shrugs and I smile thinking about the ring in my pocket that I’m dying to get on Serena’s finger.
“Never too busy for you, Griff.” I tell him and he smiles up at me and for a brief second, I’m transported back to a time when he always looked up to me like that.
We are getting there though.
“You’ve seen the ring?” Preston interrupts as he finally sits back down in his seat next to me.
“I was there when he picked it out.” Griffin smiles, and I’m glad to hear the pride in his voice.
Until Skyler stomped all over it.
“Excuse me.” She pokes her head up and leans towards us. “I was there when he picked it out. You got round two.” She smiles at us and I resist the urge to flip off my kind-hearted but royal pain in the ass future sister-in-law.
“You couldn’t just let me have it, could you?” Griffin jokes.
“Pipe down both of you,” Preston says. “It doesn’t make a difference if I didn’t give the okay.”
Viv snorts from the other side of Skyler. “Yeah okay, dear.”
Preston shoots her a fake glare, and I wonder how in the world I ended up in this crazy family with what seems to be all the love in the world. Griffin and I have had several extremely long talks about my relationship with Serena, including how he would feel if she moved in, and he seems to be completely on board. It’s as if my relationship with my son made a complete one-eighty and I couldn’t be happier to rebuild some of what we lost.
“I can’t believe my big sister is getting married!” Skyler cheers.
I can’t believe it either. I never imagined that three months after my divorce was finalized I’d be rushing to get back down the aisle again. But I’m ready. I’m ready to make her Serena West and then quite possibly a thousand little Wests.
Hopefully, Griffin is on board with that idea as well.
Brown hair and blue polyester come charging for me and then she’s in my arms with her legs wrapped around my waist, pressing dozens of kisses to my face. Yep, I can smell the champagne, alright.
“Bambi, how much did you have to drink?”
“I don’t know. Zoey just kept pouring them.”
I rub my nose against hers as she climbs out of my arms. “Come walk with me for a second.”
She doesn’t follow, and when I turn to look at her I see her hands on her cocked hips. “Are you asking me to marry you?”
I freeze, wondering how in the hell she knows, and then I let out a laugh because she knows me. That’s how she knows. I hadn’t planned on it right this second. I had plans to do it after dinner, right before I took her home and ravaged her until the sun rose, but the words tumble out of my mouth before I can think. “Yeah, I am. Is that okay with you?”
She nods as the tears spring to her eyes and she fiddles with her glasses. “Absolutely.”
I’m vaguely aware that we are on a football field surrounded by thousands of people, but I grab her hand and bring it to my lips. “You have been the best surprise of my life. The twist in the second act that I didn’t see coming. I want to spend the rest of my life discovering that magic I feel when I look in your eyes. You are the love of my life, Serena Mitchell, and I want to be married to you for the rest of it. Will you marry me?”
The End.