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Our pinkie fingers linked together as we shared a tender smile and the two children ran into the bedroom to show Tara their new toys.
A deep-rooted part of me had always wanted to foster children one day. The forgotten. The unloved. The homeless and abused. It was a blooming desire that grew wings with every passing day. Reed was fully supportive of the idea, so a year into our whirlwind relationship, we fostered newborn twins that had been pulled from a drug-addled home: a girl and a boy.
Mina and Jayce.
Mina meant “love,” and Jayce meant “to heal.”
Of course, my heart hadn’t been built for giving up two precious bundles of pure love, so it wasn’t long before we were signing the adoption papers. Once the kids grew older, I wanted nothing more than to keep fostering, keep nurturing, keep sharing my home with sweet, lost souls.
I’d been lost once.
Sometimes all it took was a helping hand to guide us in the right direction. To allow us to find ourselves again.
When Tara and Whitney joined the kids in the bedroom, I ambled into the kitchen, where Reed was checking on the casserole. I came up behind him and wrapped my arms around his middle, pressing my cheek to the warmth of his back. “Mmm. You smell good.”
“I showered.”
“I remember.”
He swiveled in my arms with a wink, then pressed a kiss to my forehead.
“I might want to shower again later,” I confessed.
“Yeah?” His eyebrows arched as lust glinted in his eyes. “You’re insatiable.”
“I’m in love.”
He pulled me to him, resting his chin on top of my head and stroking a hand down my spine. Tingles erupted, blooming like the balloon of happiness in my chest. “I always knew we had that kind of love,” he told me, sighing with an air of solace.
“What kind of love?” I was putty in his arms, a sagging, boneless heap.
Reed swayed me gently, side to side. “The growing old together kind.”
My eyes closed.
Tears prickled as my heart soared.
While I’d never felt the need to get married, knowing our love story burned brighter than wedding bells and legal binds, Reed had asked me to marry him in the fall of 2000. Of course, I’d said yes. It was a simple ceremony at a local lake with our closest friends and family, and Monique had been overjoyed to capture our blissful day, leaving me on the other side of the camera for once. Now, we had gold rings on our fingers, a home we owned and cherished, and two precious babies who blessed us daily.
We had it all.
Growing old with the one you love was an underrated treasure. Aging was frightening. Death was an ominous certainty that nipped at our ankles. But the journey to the other side of this life with someone who held your heart, who shared your dreams and fears, who knew you in the deepest corners of your soul, was a privilege beyond measure. It was a promise of companionship through every storm. And as Reed’s words encompassed me like a comforting embrace, I knew that no matter what lay ahead, we would face it together.
I was good at doing hard things.
And the hardest things in life gave way to the greatest rewards.
We ate dinner as a family, a CD playing from the speakers in the living room. Stop Crying Your Heart Out by Oasis was a well-loved soundtrack to our meal—our children’s favorite song on the album. Luckily, I’d stopped crying my heart out a long time ago, so the song only brought a smile to my face as we shared stories, laughter, and plans for the future.
When supper was finished, we gathered in the living room beside a stack of photo albums, featuring old pictures passed down from Whitney, as well as my photography portfolio.
And our own book of family memories.
Mina flipped through the leather-bound album, her chubby finger pointing at every picture. “That’s Daddy.” Her chocolate-brown eyes widened with awe as she glanced at another image of us together. “Mommy and Daddy at the beach.”
“That’s right.” I smiled, my soul alight and filled to the brim. “We were going for a swim. It was the day before we brought you home, and we wanted to celebrate with a dip in the ocean. One last day of just the two of us before our home got bigger and our lives changed for the better.”
“What’s this one?” Mina wondered.