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“This really was a beautiful wedding,” I say to Damir.
“Makes me think of ours.” I feel him smile against my neck from behind me. “Look at her go.”
My eyes are already on our daughter. Evelyn and Damien sit a few feet apart from each other in our backyard, Eva taking slow, clumsy steps back and forth between them. She took her first steps a few days after her first birthday a month ago and hasn’t stopped moving since. When she reaches Evelyn and gets the fanfare she’s looking for, I laugh at her little hands coming together in a clap like grandma’s. Damien uses the baby in his lap’s hands to clap along. Liam was wrong when he thought my baby was a boy, but he wasn’t wrong when he thought his baby was.
“We’re gonna cut the cake now.” Liam’s voice calls out over the music and people in attendance.
Damir and I walk across the backyard of that dream house he promised me and reach the table with the four tier cake. Liam sets his hand on top of Nia’s, and they slice through the cake. She’s such a beautiful bride, the best part about today that her hair is up in a bun. It’s the first time I’ve seen her hair away from her face, and I can tell how happy it makes Liam.
I never, ever saw my brother getting married. Sure, I thought love would strike him at some point, but to see him damn near with hearts in his eyes when he looks at Nia, it makes my heart clench like nothing else. I laugh as he smears some of the icing on Nia’s face and runs away.
“When I catch you,” Nia shouts, hiking her dress up to chase after him.
“Makes me want to get married again.” Damir voices from beside me.
I scoff. “Not me. You didn’t have to plan everything when you were seven months pregnant.”
“We’d get to have Eva as the flower girl this time.”
“Nice try, but no. Marrying me once wasn’t enough?”
He pulls me close, his lips almost touching mine. “Every single day with you won’t even ever be enough. I’d want even more after that. I fall asleep and wake up next to you, and still miss you throughout the day. I want you in my dreams so I don’t miss a moment with you when I’m sleeping. It’s never enough.”
Lord, his words still have the same effect on me they always have, going straight to my heart and burrowing into it.
“You’re so good to me. You know that?” I smile.
“You promised to be mine, and I promised to make you happy. You held up your end of the deal, so.” He shrugs with a grin.
“Well I think I have something that will put a smile on your face.”
“What’s that?”
I move his hand from low on my waist to my front, settling it on my belly. It takes a moment before his eyes widen.
“You’re pregnant?” he asks, wonder in his voice.
“Yes,” I smile. “And this time you’re the first to know.”
He picks me up and spins me around, whooping loudly.
“Happy is an understatement,” he says, setting me back on my feet. “Let’s go tell Eva she’s gonna be a big sister.”
“One second. Something I have to do first.”
“What?”
I smile mischievously. “One last prank on Liam. And I’m pregnant now, so he won’t do anything back.”
“Oh God.” He groans. “What did you do?”
“Let’s just say that suit won’t be too pristine too much longer.”
“You’re horrible.”
“And you love it.”
“I do.”
I watch him walk over to Eva, scooping her up and tossing her way too high for my liking in the air. My mind goes back to the horrible date he saved me from, the date that brought us together. The best prank Liam ever played on me, only because it led to me getting everything my heart desired, needed, and more.
With that in mind, I turn around and head over to where I hid away the dyes for my prank. Because apparently pranks lead to unbelievable happiness. And imperfect beginnings lead to perfect endings.
