Page 37 of Finally, Our Forever

“Yes! Can I call you Dad and everything?” Bennett asks, excitedly.

“Of course, you can. Whatever you want.”

Unable to hold myself back any longer, I walk in and find the two of them snuggled on the bed. Bennett is in Reece’s lap with his arms wrapped around his middle, giving Reece the biggest hug he can muster for a four-year-old. Reece looks up at me with moisture in his eyes and a huge grin.

“Come here, baby,” he rasps.

I walk over, and before I can do anything, Reece has his arm around my waist, pulling me into the both of them. I relish this moment for what it is: the very first time I have felt part of a family—part of my own little family, that is. As the happy tears fall, I hug my guys tighter, feeling blessed for having yet another magical moment today.

“Uh, Mom, Dad, you guys are squeezing me too hard.”

We all laugh and release each other.

“Good. I thought you guys were going to squeeze me into slime,” Bennett says before sliding off Reece’s lap and running out of his room without a care to be had.

I watch him disappear, and just as quickly as he ran out on us, all the stress of the unknown slips away and my soul is light and free, like it hasn’t been since I was a child. For I do know. I know that Reece will be there for it all. He’s the one person above all else I can count on.

“Why the tears, baby?” Reece asks as he wipes away the few that I didn’t know had escaped.

“Oh, I didn’t even realize those had dropped. These are happy drops,” I say while still holding onto Reece as he slides me onto his lap.

“Happy drops? I’ve never in my life heard of these. How about you tell your fiancé about them.”

“No one has ever told you about ‘happy drops’? I’m shocked! The outrage! You’ve been deprived for so long,” I say, clutching my chest.

“Brat. Tell me,” he says, right before tickling my side and making me giggle.

Settling down, I continue. “They’re special, you know. Hard to come by in your life. There are few moments that touch you so profoundly that the happiness filling your soul seeps out of you. You see, you’re not crying, because tears and crying are for moments when your soul weeps in despair of a circumstance you contain within you. Happy drops are the opposite.”

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