“The timing works well too,” I reply. “I won’t be ready until next spring.”

Leo lifts an eyebrow. “Well, then I’m definitely in. Keep me posted, and we’ll work it out.”

“Thank you.”

Leo raises his glass in cheers and we take a sip. Yes, my family is constantly surprising me. The lengths they’ll go to to help each other moves me. I’d known love and closeness before I found them, but it’s no less surprising.

The rest of the evening is full of more laughter, children yawning and playing, and Brynn and Caleb’s twins with their noses stuck to their phones.

“We should get this little one home,” Meredith says, taking a now sleeping Hudson from Alecia. “Thanks for putting him to sleep for me.”

“He’s just the sweetest thing. It wasn’t a problem at all,” Alecia replies.

And so begins the mass exodus of the family, making their rounds of saying goodbye and beginning their hour-long journeys home all over Seattle.

“Don’t worry,” Alecia says to Lia as we walk them out. “It’s going to be awesome. I’ll come with you dress shopping. We’ll take photos for your Instagram, too. You could run a fun contest, asking fans to guess which dress you choose.”

“Oh, that’s a great idea,” Lia says and hugs Alecia close. “Thank you. Really. I know you’re not really doing weddings anymore, but Jules said you’re the best, and I’m grateful that you said yes.”

“It’s fun,” Alecia says with a wistful smile. “I kind of miss the weddings, and you’re giving me a fix. So thank you for asking. Now, don’t worry about a thing, and I’ll see you in a few days.”

Once we’ve waved everyone off, we both breathe a long sigh of relief.

“I love them,” she begins.

“But they’re a lot of work,” I finish for her, making her laugh and nod as I take her hand and lead her back inside.

“They really are. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“I’m glad. I’m also incredibly thankful that I have you alone.”

She grins, giving me the side-eye. “Is that so?”

“It’s quite so,” I confirm. “I have something to discuss with you.”

She frowns now and looks nervous so I pull her into my arms and hug her close, enjoying the way her body melts against mine.

“What is it?” I whisper in her ear.

“I don’t know, I just have a feeling that you’re about to drop something on me and I’m nervous.”

“Well, I am.” I lead her into my office, the excitement building up inside me. I’ve been waiting for a long time for this. “Sit.”

“I can’t sit when I’m nervous.”

“Please, amore, sit.”

She does as I ask and I nod in satisfaction.

“Okay, I’ll be right back.”

“Just tell me that you want a divorce,” she blurts out and I stop cold, staring at her as if, well, as if she just said that.

“Excuse me?”

“I heard you,” she says, her eyes welling with tears. “I heard you on the phone, and you said you hadn’t told me something, and your voice was hard like it gets when you’re angry or super focused on something. Just tell me that you’ve met someone else who can give you babies and you’re moving on because I just can’t take this anymore.”

She covers her mouth and lets the tears fall from her eyes, watching me with anguish, and all I can do is fall to my knees before her, pull her hands from her mouth, and hold them firmly in mine.

“Number one, you’re invited into my office at any time, day or night, and you can listen in on any conversation I have because I don’t have any secrets from you. So you don’t have to eavesdrop. You clearly didn’t hear the whole call.

“Second, if you ever say something like that again, I’ll take you over my knee and spank you silly. Divorce and someone else aren’t part of my vocabulary. My God, amore, didn’t you hear my speech tonight?”

“I did, I just—”

“Stop talking. You are everything in this world that I’ll ever need. Just you. And if we’re blessed with children, well, that will be amazing and I’ll be grateful. But if we aren’t, we’ll be okay then, too. Do you understand me?”

She nods and wipes her cheek on her sleeve.

“I sounded frustrated on the phone because I was very frustrated. Now, if you’ll wait right here for thirty damn seconds, I’ll explain everything.”

“Okay,” she whispers.

“Alecia, don’t ever do anything like that again. You know better than that.”

She nods and I kiss her lips, then hurry from my office to the spare room where I always hide the gifts I buy her. I have to make a stop at the kitchen where Blake’s waiting, unbeknownst to Alecia, with the other part of her present, and I hurry back to my wife.

She’s not crying anymore, but her cheeks are stained from the tears.

It always guts me when she cries.

Her eyes are on the two boxes in my hands, both wrapped with silver bows.

Her jaw drops.

“What’s this? It’s not my birthday, or our anniversary.”

“You did a lot for me over the past few weeks, and we’ve had a rough year thus far.”

“You’re not kidding about that.”

“So I decided to do something to cheer us both up.”

The bigger of the two boxes starts to wiggle, and a little whimper comes from inside.

“Oh my God,” she says, reaching for it. “What’s in here?”

“I guess you should open this one first.”

She opens the lid and gasps as she pulls out a tiny white, fuzzy puppy that immediately licks her face, his tail wagging like crazy.

“Oh, look at you,” she says, crying all over again. “You’re so precious. Yes, you are. You’re so precious. What’s her name?”

“His name will be up to you,” I reply. “He’s a rescue, so we don’t know exactly what kind of pup he is. The vet has some ideas, but we’ll have to see as he grows up.”

“It doesn’t matter,” my sweet wife says, kissing the puppy’s face. “He’s perfect.”

“He is pretty cute,” I agree, laughing as he spins a circle in Alecia’s lap and falls asleep. “That was fast.”

“He’s a baby,” she says, as if that explains everything. “What’s in the other box?”

“Open it.”

She pulls at the ribbon and rips through the paper.

“Pictures?”

She frowns up at me, and I nod. “Keep going.”

“And keys.”

She blinks, looking through the photos. “Wait, isn’t this that place we stayed at in Hawaii?”

“It is.”

“And I said that I loved it so much there that I could live there?”

I nod. I love watching her face as she figures out a riddle.

“What did you do?”

“I bought it for you,” I say simply. “I’ve been working on it for months. That’s the conversation that you walked in on. I closed on it today. Now you have a place at the beach where we can escape and relax.”

“I don’t believe it,” she whispers. “My brain was coming up with the most absurd scenarios, and I laughed most of them off, but then I walked up on you and Matt talking, and you acted like I wasn’t welcome, and it just made it so much worse.”

“I was telling him about the house in Hawaii, and he was asking me where he should take Nic in Italy because he’d like to go there for the holidays before they adopt their newborn. One final trip for just the two of them.”

“Oh.” She bites her lip and pets the sleeping puppy in her lap. “That’s so nice. I’m happy for them.”

“I am, too.”

She swallows hard. “I’m sorry that I jumped to conclusions.”

“You need to always remember that I have our best interests at heart. Both of them. I’m never going anywhere.”