I HAVE NO CLUE HOW Molly has kept our secret this long, but one week turned in to two, and then two went into three. Before I knew it, work had kept me from executing my plan for a month. Somehow I had gotten roped into working every weekend for the last four straight. When Barnes, one of the other HTPD officers, asked me to work tonight for him, I gave him not just a no, but a hell no.
With our schedules being as crazy as they are, by the time I would get to Megan’s, Molly would either be going to bed, or already asleep. What little time I’ve had with her, has been rushed.
I had been hesitant to start spending the night more than every once in a while, but it wasn’t Megan who had put an end to my reluctance. Two weeks ago, it was Molly.
“Never leave us, Daddy! Never, never, never, ever! Please don’t go. Stop going. We need you.” Molly sobbed against my chest, where she had launched herself when I tried to leave the house two weeks ago.
Megan gasped, her hand going to her mouth and her eyes filling with tears. She had heard Molly call me Daddy a few times, but they had been infrequent as if she was testing the waters. There was nothing unsure about the way it came out of her mouth this time. Unable to do anything else with a small human attached to my body like she was trying to fuse herself to me, I sat back down on the couch I had just climbed up from and wrapped her in my arms.
It was very rare for Molly to have any sort of temper tantrums. Even more unusual for her to cry. I’ve only seen her cry a handful of times. She fell off her bike a month ago and tore her knees to shreds, not one tear. But what’s coming from her right now is rivers of tears.
“Sweetheart, what’s going on?” I ask and rub her small back, willing her to calm down.
“You can’t leave us. Please don’t go. We want you forever,” she pleads.
Hearing her little voice while it begs me to never let go, killed. I look over to Megan to see her shake her head, her eyes red with the strength she’s putting out just to keep her tears locked tight.
“Molly, look at me, honey,” I request, feeling her body shake with sobs. “Baby, look at me.”
Her head comes up, brown eyes red rimmed and her nose and cheeks reddened. I reach over, grab a tissue off the side table next to the couch, and help her dry her face. She sniffles a few times and I give her what I hope is a reassuring smile.
“I’m not going anywhere, baby. I was just going to go back to my house tonight. I wasn’t leaving you. I’ll never leave you.”
“Wh . . . why can’t you stay?” she demands, her voice shaking with the sadness leftover. “Why can’t you just live here?”
I look back up to Megan, waiting for her help guiding this conversation. With a nod, she sits down next to us, taking my hand in one of hers and placing the other against Molly’s back.
“Little bird, it isn’t that he doesn’t want to stay with us, that’s just a big step that when adults decide to make it, they talk about it first.”
Molly’s eyes look between the two of us a few times and then with all the wisdom of a small child says, “Then talk about it.”
“Uh,” Megan stutters.
“Mommy, do you want Daddy to live with us forever and ever and always?” she asks, Megan, her small voice strong and sure.
Megan looks at me, her eyes wide, and I watch as she has a million emotions filter across her face, until finally settling on love.
“Yeah, little bird, I would love it.”
Molly looks from her mom over to me and smiles a little bigger.
“Daddy, do you want to live with your girls forever and ever and always?”
With nothing left but to accept that a five-year-old has just put two adults in their place, I tighten my hold on Molly, reach out and pull Megan into our embrace and after moving my head close, I tell her without a shadow of doubt, “Yes, baby. I would love nothing more.”
We waited until Molly had gone to bed that night before we finished the conversation. In the end, I moved what I needed and settled into their home. We both decided that selling the only house that Molly has known was a step that would come later, for now, all three of us wanted to be together and together we were.
Now, a month later from when I had originally planned it, I was coming off a shift and meeting Megan with the rest of our friends at Mike’s.
After folding my body into the truck, I was about to call Megan when my phone rang.
“Hey, darlin’,” I answered.
“Hey you. We’re at Mike’s now. Are you on the way?”
“Just left the station. Did Molly do okay tonight when you left her?”
Megan laughs, “Yes, honey. Her fever is gone and she’s jumping around all over the place. I told you the doctor said it was just a little virus and it would run its course.”
“That was five days ago,” I complain. “Five days of her running a fever doesn’t make me happy.”
Megan lets out a small laugh, “You’ll get used to it, Lee. She’s a kid. They sometimes get sick like that.”
“Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“All right. Let’s take the over-protective mode down a few degrees. She’s fine and need I remind you that she’s with your parents? Parents that have raised a son perfectly, I might add.”
“My mom let me wear her heels, baby. I’m not sure we can say perfectly.”
Megan laughs and I hear the noise of Mike’s start getting louder.
“You going in now?” I ask.
“Yeah, I think everyone else is here. Cohen and Dani are waiting by the door for me.”
My chest swells when I think about all of our friends being there for this. It wasn’t hard, talking everyone in to my plans. Hell, they didn’t need a bit of urging. When I mentioned the ring, the girls would never have been able to stay away. The guys don’t care about that like the girls, but I know my friends are just happy that Megan and I have found this together.
“Right, darlin’. Go inside and grab a drink. I’ll be there soon.”
I get her sweet voice telling me she loves me and any nerves that I had earlier evaporated instantly.
It’s time to go get the girl.
The bar is crowded when I walk in. I look over to our usual corner and see that Dani had followed through, making sure that Megan was in the chair with her back to the stage. Nate and Cohen see me the second I walk in, clearly being tasked with lookout duty. I watch as dumb and dumber smile huge. Cohen knocks his knee over and it hits Dani, who snaps her head up and looks toward the door. Her eyes connect with mine and I watch as they start to get misty.
Jesus, that girl.
Nate coughs so loud that I can hear him across the room and over the music. I shake my head at his obvious move to clue the rest of our friends in that I’ve arrived. Lyn and Lila make a slow circle, looking around the room until they see me. I get a wink from both of them, which always freaks me out when they do twin things. Stella stands and stretches, looking behind her and I get a smile before she turns back toward the group and drops back down on the couch next to the twins.
Maddi and her sister, Ember, are less obvious. They’re facing me on the other couch and they don’t react, just give me their eyes as both of them tip their lips up slightly.
The only one that doesn’t move or react is Zac, but with him sitting next to Megan, there isn’t a way he could do that without her catching on. But I see his hand come out and rest on the back of Megan’s chair. She laughs as he continues whatever they’ve been talking about and without missing a beat, his thumb comes up on the hand resting behind her.
With a light step, I make my way over to the side of the stage and wait for my turn. I called ahead, so they know what’s going on, but because I got held up at work I wasn’t there right on time.
I nod at Bennett, the guy in charge of handling the karaoke end of Mike’s, and let him know I’m ready when he is. I wait as two drunken idiots butcher Friends in Low Places and then it’s my turn. Bennett doesn’t announce me, or the song, he just hands the mic over and starts up the only song I requested.
The first cords of Train’s Marry Me fill the room and I walk to the center of the stage, not feeling a lick of my stage fright as I clear my throat and open my mouth.
My eyes don’t leave Megan’s back, so I don’t miss her jolting when I sing the first line. She doesn’t turn until I start the chorus. The second those two words are out of my mouth, I watch Zac snag her glass right before it goes crashing to the ground.
Then I move.
I jump off the stage and ignore the crowded bar full of people screaming and cheering. I only have eyes for the beautiful blonde staring at me with huge tears rolling down her face. I take the long path, going around all the tables before I even get close to her. I give everything I have while singing that song to her. Smile on my face and a love so strong for this woman that I feel the emotion of this moment filling my body.
My feet take me to her and I reach out to grab her hand before I drop to my knee. Singing the last word out clearly until the last note in the song plays.
“Well, darlin’? Make me the happiest man in the whole world. Marry me and give me everything this time?”
She nods, her head bobbing swiftly and her tears picking up speed.
“God, yes!” she screams.
I reach my hand out, not caring who takes it, passing off the mic. Before I move from the floor, I grab the ring that had been burning a hole in my pocket, and slip it onto her waiting hand.
Then I grab my woman, ignoring the catcalls that follow as I place an arm under her knees and another around her waist until I have her in my arms. She throws her head back, laughing through her tears and I carry her out the door.
To our future.