Page 200 of With a Cherry On Top

I look up at Charlotte, who settles on my lap and takes one of the beers. She drinks a sip, one arm circling the back of my neck. “Sixteen, huh?”

“Don’t change the topic. A redleather?—”

“She was only six when I met her.”

Unfair. Nostalgia, today, is an unfair game, and she knows that.

“At Tony’s,” I murmur.

“And she still has never once eaten a pepperoni pizza.”

When her eyes glisten with tears, I squeeze her hand. “You okay?”

“Yeah, just...” She laughs through the tears. “She’ssixteen. You’resoold, Aaron.”

“Jeez,” I say, playfully shoving her.

“I look around sometimes, and it’s overwhelming.” She wets her lips. “Our beautiful house, the little model train I got you on that Switzerland trip, those pots you always whine about?—”

“Ceramic is delicate, I?—”

“And the tree we planted when we got here, or the sewing room you made for me...I look at it all and I just feeloverwhelmedin the best possible way.”

I press my forehead against her jaw. “We’re lucky, aren’t we?”

“So lucky.” More tears escape when she blinks, but her smile is as wide as ever. “She candrivenow,” she says with a more cheerful tone. “Little Sadie with the pigtails candrive.”

I rub slow circles on her wrists. “I know.”

“She’s smart, kind, and beautiful. She’s a full person. A good kid.”

“Yeah.” I kiss the shell of her ear. “We did a good job.”

She melts into me, her face pressed to the side of my head. “In moments like these, I miss her. I miss sneaking her wine after you and Darren mumbled about her bed time.”

Mom. Yeah, I miss her too. In the big moments, and the small ones even more. She became a mom to Charlotte too—a real mother. And she left us when we still needed her so much.

Charlotte must notice the tension in my jaw because she presses a kiss to my forehead. “I love you, you know? You gave me all of this. This life, thisdream. The most perfect family. And yourself.”

“Me? I gave you everything?” I shake my head. “Everything you have, you got yourself. I’m just the lucky man who gets to come home to you. Laugh with you. Build something with you.”

She pulls back slightly to study my expression, and she must see something shereallylikes, because she leans forward and kisses my lips.

“Charlotte?”

We both turn, and the horror of seeing Sadie in an incredibly suggestive red leather dress is quickly smothered when I notice she’s holding out the ring box.

Charlotte gasps, bringing a hand to her lips.

“I think my dad wants to marry you.”

Meeting her gaze, all my confusion dissipates. Of course that’s how we should do it. Together. With her stealing my line, just like old times.

It’s perfect.

“What—wait. Do you mean that?” she asks Sadie. Without waiting for an answer, she faces me. “Doyou?”

I grin. “Well, she didn’t just happen to find a ring your size.”

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