He no longer wore his uniform to family gatherings.
His relationship with the boys remained complicated, but he had learned not to demand a place that had to be earned.
Miles stood beside me on the back terrace while the boys launched snowballs at Grant.
Owen hit him squarely in the chest.
Grant dramatically dropped into the snow.
“I surrender!”
Carter stared down at him.
Then threw another snowball.
“That one was for eight missing birthdays.”
Grant nodded from the ground.
“Fair.”
Carter tried not to smile.
He failed.
Miles squeezed my hand.
I turned toward him.
He looked nervous.
Very nervous.
“Lauren, there’s something I wanted to—”
I laughed.
“You have been carrying a ring in your coat pocket for six weeks.”
His mouth opened.
Behind us, Reid shouted,
“I told you she knew!”
The boys came running.
Miles dropped to one knee anyway.
“I’m not asking to replace anyone,” he said. “I’m asking to keep being part of the life we have already built together, for as long as you’ll have me.”
