Page 71 of We Thought We Knew It All
My head was too full and I needed space so I pushed him back gently. “It isn’t just me, Jamie. There are strings attached to me.”
“The boys.” He understood me without an explanation, he always had. He ran his fingertips under my chin. “It took me seconds to fall in love with them. I want them, Cal. I’m not their father, but I want them to be mine.”
He wiped a tear from under my eye with the pad of his thumb.
“Do you remember the proposition I gave you before we became friends?” he asked.
I nodded, resting my cheek against his palm. “It was the beginning of senior year - our last hurrah. You wanted to have an amazing year. You wanted to be epic.”
“So be epic with me, California McCoy.”
I nodded as I held in sob.
“You already proposed to me, so I think I only need to say yes.”
“I did not propose!” I shoved him.
He laughed. “Oh yes you did. On Riley King. I think your words were ‘I want to marry the heck out of you.’ Not very original, but I’ll take it.”
“That was not a proposal, especially since you said it first.”
He grinned. “If neither of us proposed, then what do we do?”
“I guess we go our separate ways?” I shrugged.
“Yeah.” He stopped, reaching out quickly to grab me around the waist and pulled me against him. “Marry me.”
“I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it.”
“Marry me,” he growled.
I fake sighed. “I guess if no one better comes alone.”
He brought his mouth down so hard against mine, I thought he’d swallow me alive. I wound my arms up around his neck, digging my fingers into his hair. His hands slid up by back.
Seagulls squawked overhead, the sea rolled and foamed, and somewhere on that beach there were a couple of high-schoolers wishing they could surf. They didn’t yet realize that sometimes the best things happen when life didn’t go as planned.
Colby and Jay joined us with their congratulations, and then we headed home to tell my kids that our family was whole.
28
Callie
Thirteen months later
The place was filling up quickly. Reporters, reviewers, industry professionals. This night had been highly anticipated since it was announced.
A sign hung in the doorway, painted with the restaurant’s name;Emma’s.I smiled just as I did every time I saw it. This place was hers. The part of my mom I hadn’t known until I wrote my first book.
But this night wasn’t about the book that shared her Hollywood name. It was about the one that followed.
Invincibletold the story of the night that forever changed my outlook on the world. It was about the people who got each other through it. The boy who was everything to me and was currently standing behind the bar in front of the mirror that stretched the length of the wall. He glanced up at me, a grin splitting his face.
Invinciblewas about the brother who was my rock. Colby sat with his new girlfriend at a high-topped table off to the side.
Invincibletold the story of the girl who everyone loved. The one who’d lost more than anyone and managed to come back to us. The one none of us could live without. Morgan and her husband Dean had flown in from London just for this. Her eye caught mine as she led her mother through the door.
Eleven years later that day was finally behind us.
