The Right One
Page 23
“They sure are. I heard they have a baby here too.”
Ruby’s jaw dropped as she saw the cub. “It’s so cute.”
“Just like our baby.”
She rolled her eyes. “Daddy, Anna is a baby, not a lion.”
Elliot grinned at me, shaking his head. I looked back at the lions, the cub rolling around while the others sat, looking bored. At least the little one seemed to be having fun, the only other movement being the lioness occasionally reaching for her cub to pat the baby with a paw and settle her down.
“Becca.” Ruby tugged on my shirt.
“Hang on, sweetie. Look at the cub rolling over. Just like that fur ball at home wanting a tummy scratch.”
“Becca,” she said again, this time sounding more irritable.
“What is it?”
I looked down at her. She had that Elliot grin on her face and in her hand was a small velvet box. I squatted beside her. “What’s this, Ruby?”
She handed it to me and I switched my attention to Elliot. “What are you up to?”
“Open it,” he said.
“Becca, open it,” his little parrot repeated.
The box’s hinge snapped open as I lifted the lid. Inside was a ring with a diamond solitaire stone. “This was Nan’s engagement ring. She wanted us to have it.”
Tears pricked my eyes as I looked at it, unable meet Elliot or Ruby's gazes.
“It’s lovely.”
“You have to put it on,” Ruby whispered.
“Oh, do I?” I reached for her with my free hand, hugging her tight. “Love you, Ruby monster.”
She giggled. “Love you too.”
I stood, and Elliot grabbed my hand. “What do you say, Ms Wallace? Are you going to put it on?”
I wanted to kiss those damn dimples of his. “I don’t know.”
His face dropped. “What do you mean you don’t know?”
“I mean, why would I be wearing it?”
Elliot pulled me to him, taking the box from my hand. “Rebecca Wallace, will you accept this ring and marry the hell outta me?”
I grinned as he took the ring from the box and slid it onto my left ring finger. It was a little loose, but nothing we couldn’t take care of. “Of course I will. I love you.”
He kissed me long enough for Ruby to pull at my shirt again. “Hey, you guys.”
Elliot and I laughed, looking down at her and pulling her into a hug with the two of us.
Maybe we’d all come together in not so conventional circumstances, but the important thing was that we were together.
And we’d be a family forever.
* * *
He used to play in a band sometimes, and will do again someday. I’d never stand in the way of the things he loves. But now he spends his evenings singing lullabies to our little girl as her eyelids flutter, fighting the urge to sleep.
Watching them together is the most beautiful thing I think I’ve ever seen. Emotion overwhelms me at times, and I tear up at the smallest of things. Because of them.
It’s amazing how organised we’ve become, two of the least likely people to end up this way. While I had my work routine, the rest of my life was so haphazard. Now I know where I’m going to be at any given time, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
I have a meaningful relationship with my father now too, more so than I have at any other time in my life. He dotes on Anna and Ruby, and I’ve never seen so much of him. During weekends, he can often be found sitting on our couch watching sport and drinking beer with Elliot. The pair of them are so close.
Dad and Nicola are still as in love as ever. Their little boy will grow up with my daughter. Maybe it’s not traditional, but no one could ever have accused me of being that anyway. We make it work.
We see Mum from time to time. She’s working hard at going to her meetings and doing her best to stay sober for her grandchildren. I will regret all those years she didn’t try for me, but they’re in the past.
Ruby grows bigger every day, and I couldn’t be more proud of her if she were my own. She’s top of her school class and thriving in the loving environment Elliot and I have created. It brings me to tears thinking how her transition to being with us was eased by the love we all share. That little girl has been through so much for her young years, and now I’ll do everything in my power to protect her.
We balance childcare, and I work from home, or when Elliot isn’t working for Logan, he’s at home with Anna. It’s working for us for now, and if something changes, we’ll adapt. That’s what families do.
I never knew just how much the human heart could love, but now I know it’s a lot, judging from the state of mine.
And sometimes, if I’m lucky, in the morning the house smells of bacon.
Also by Ariadne Wayne
Chances Series
Another Chance
Taking Chances
The Friends Series
Loving Rowan
Three Days
Something Real
The Sultan’s Bride
Hot for the Boss
After the Fall
About the Author
Ariadne Wayne loves books and lives in Auckland, New Zealand with her husband and two children. Having always had a prolific imagination she now writes the words down instead of storing them in her head where she can't share them. When she's not writing she works in Telecommunications, frequently banging her head on the desk with the random things that can happen to the ordinary phone line.
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