“You’re right. Weddings are about family, which is why we should head over to my parents’ house and share the news with them.”

She jerked back and stared at me with wide eyes. “What? Really? Is that what you want to do?”

“Yeah, baby. It’s exactly what I want.”

Her smile was all I needed to see to confirm it was the right thing to do for both of us. “Are they even home right now?”

“There’s only one way to find out.” I turned on the engine and hit the button on the in-dash screen to pull up the phone app. “Call Dad.”

I confirmed that’s what I wanted it to do, and then the phone was ringing through the speaker system. He picked up on the second one. “Dillon?”

"Hey, Dad.”

“It’s good to hear your voice, son.”

“I’ve got Faith with me.”

“Hey, Faith. You guys okay?”

“Yeah, Dad. It’s better than okay.” Faith and I shared a secret smile. “We’re in the car, and we were calling to see if you and Mom were at home. We wanted to stop by if you guys were available.”

“Yeah, we’re home.” He cleared his throat roughly. “And we’re always available to you and Faith. Any time. Day or night.”

“Can we come over now?” Faith asked.

“Now definitely works for us.”

“Tell Mom to break open a bottle of champagne, will you?”

I knew he’d catch the hint and realize we were coming over for a good reason. Just like my mom used hot chocolate for bad times, champagne was for celebrating. She’d even let Declan and me have it during the bigger occasions, but she mixed it with juice when we were teenagers.

“I’ll do that, son.”

When we pulled up in front of their house, my parents were already waiting for us at the door. After I parked the car, I led Faith up the steps. Then I dropped my hand from her back and moved to my mom, wrapping my arms around her. “Hey, Mom.”

“Oh, Dillon,” she cried. She hugged me back, her hands gripping me tightly.

When she finally let go and stepped back, there were tears on her cheeks but she was smiling. I turned and found Faith standing with my dad’s arm around her shoulders, but she quickly moved forward to give my mom a hug too. My dad did the same with me.

“It’s great to see you two,” he said as he ushered us into the house.

“And your dad said something about needing bubbly?” my mom asked, her eyes filled with excitement as they darted between Faith and me. When she glanced at Faith’s belly, I groaned.

“Yeah, Mom. But not for that reason.”

“That reason?” Faith echoed. “What’d I miss?”

“If I had to guess, Mom thought maybe we wanted to celebrate me knocking you up,” I murmured in her ear.

“I’m not pregnant!” she gasped, her cheeks filling with pink.

“I know, but my mom is baby crazy,” I whispered. “So now that we’re engaged, be prepared for her to repeatedly ask when we’re going to give her a grandbaby.”

“She’s going to have to wait for that,” Faith whispered back. “I have a master’s degree to earn first, and with my health issues getting pregnant probably won’t be easy.”

“I had assumed you had told your dad to have me break out the champagne because you had good news, but with the way you two are whispering back and forth I’m starting to wonder.” The happiness that’d been in my mom’s eyes out on the front porch had dimmed, and now she looked worried.

“We do have good news,” I reassured her. “But before I share it with you, I wanted to let you both know that I appreciate the time you’ve given me to come to terms with what happened. You backed off and gave me the time I needed, and I know that couldn’t have been easy for either of you.”

My mom reached out for my dad’s hand, and they held on tight to each other while they listened.

“The therapist I’ve been seeing has helped me work through my feelings about what happened with Declan. To understand it was an accident, and I wasn’t at fault for what happened. And that you guys did the best you could in a horrible situation.”

“Dillon,” my mom gasped. “Does that mean you forgive us?”

“Of course I do, Mom. But only for lying to me about it for so long,” I added. “Because you never needed my forgiveness about the decision you had to make. For that you have my gratitude because you saved my life.”

My mom and dad rushed forward to hug Faith and me again.

“I’m proud of you, son. Your forgiveness and acceptance is more than I expected and in less time than I anticipated.” My dad patted me on the back before letting go. "Someday, God willing, you'll have children of your own. Then you’ll understand how hard our decision was, and how much your understanding means to us.”

“It wasn’t easy, but you taught me to not give up when the going gets hard. Especially when you’re fighting for something important, and family is everything.”

He clapped me on the back again. “I can’t tell you how good it is to hear you say that, Dillon. Seeing you in the office these past weeks and knowing you were in pain; it’s been difficult not being able to do anything about it.”

“It wasn’t easy for me, either.” I’d always been close to my dad, and I hadn’t been sure how to act around him with the distance between us—even though it’d been at my request. “But it means a lot that you trusted me to figure it out on my own.”

“There’s a time in every parent’s life when they’ve got to let go and trust in the fact that they raised their children right. Your mom and I are lucky because even with all the challenges over the past five years, you turned out so well.”

“So very well,” my mom added, giving me another hug.

When Faith moved to my side and laced her fingers through mine, I realized we’d gotten sidetracked and I still hadn’t given them the big news. “You also have my thanks for saving my fiancée’s life.”

“Fiancée? You’re engaged?” my mom shrieked. Her gaze dropped down to Faith’s hand, and she frowned when she didn’t spot a diamond on her finger. “No ring?”

Faith shook her head and answered for me. “Not yet.”

“Dillon! Did your father teach you nothing about being romantic?” my mom admonished me.

“Actually,” I drawled, looking at my dad. “I was hoping you’d let me have Grandma’s engagement ring. I think Faith would love it, and it’s an heirloom which makes it even more perfect because she’s already family.”

“Dillon! No, you don’t have to do that. We can go pick out a ring or something. I’m not even used to wearing jewelry. It doesn’t have to be something fancy,” Faith protested.

“Oh, sweetie.” My mom’s eyes filled with tears. “That’s going to change if I have anything to do with it.”

“My son’s right,” Dad added. “My mother’s engagement ring would be perfect for you, and it might just be big enough for Dillon to be satisfied. It’s in the safe in my office. I’ll go get it.”

“Big enough?” Faith echoed softly.

“Yeah, baby. To warn off other guys,” I explained.

“Don’t blame Dillon. He comes by it naturally.” My mom held her left hand out and laughed. “It took years for me to get accustomed to the weight of wearing this every day, and I was already a big fan of jewelry so I had a head start on you.”

Faith pointed at my mom’s ring and stared up at me with wide eyes. “Your mom’s ring is huge. I noticed it when we first met, and I never pay attention to jewelry. Please tell me your grandma’s engagement ring isn’t that big.”

“Well,” I laughed. My mom burst into a fit of giggles. They were just dying down when my dad came back in the room. “Get ready to crack open that bottle of champagne, honey. We get to see our boy put my mom’s ring on our girl.”

To anyone else, his choice of phrasing might’ve sounded odd; like incest or something since he’d called me their boy and Faith their girl. But for Faith, I knew it sounded like exactly what it was—unconditional acceptance. Or in one word...family. Something she’d never experienced before. But I could give her that.

My dad gave me the jewelry box, and I flipped it open. I remembered my grandma telling me about her engagement ring when I’d asked her if the stone was dirty since it was yellow. I was only six at the time, but her lesson about canary yellow diamonds stuck with me. At five karats, the stone in the ring was big, even by my mom’s standards. I figured that the only reason I was able to get it on Faith’s finger without her freaking out was because her vision was clouded by tears at what my dad had said. But that was fine by me. It was on there, and it was never coming off.