Page 82 of Love is Grand

“I love you. I don’t care. We’re in this together,” he said.

Slipping the ring on my finger, Cal kissed me and held me close to his side until there was a knock on the door.

Someone called out, “What’s going on here today?”

“That’s Jack,” Cal said, squeezing my shoulder gently. “I needed him to drop something off for Weez. Can you get her?”

Typical Cal, calm and collected, had this whole scenario worked out in his head, and all was going to plan.

I side-eyed him, having a bad feeling about this delivery being more bribery. “She needs a stern talking-to, not packages.”

“It was an emergency,” Cal said, heading to the door.

I pushed to my feet and called out to my daughter from the bottom of the stairs. “Weez, can you come here?”

She came slowly down the stairs, then rushed to give me a hug. “I’m sorry, Mom, but I was scared.”

“And you didn’t call Abuela?”

“I didn’t want to scare her. Cal’s better.” Without waiting for my response, she bounced on her way to the door. Apparently, my little one had more in common with Cal than Ricky.

When she wrapped her arms around the man of the hour, he said, “Hey, baby girl. Everything’s all right. Say hi to Jack.”

My daughter smiled at Jack, waving hello, and then of course, asked, “What’s that?” eyeing the stack of boxes on my front porch.

“Jack brought these over for you, Weezie. They’re from Ry, Adam, and me, welcoming you to the family.”

“This man ...” I growled for real this time.

Cal turned and shook his head at me, signaling for me to let it go.

“Can I open them?” Weezie asked him.

“Ask your mom,” Cal had the sense to tell her.

She looked at me, and when I nodded, Jack and Cal carried the boxes inside.

“Hey, Shell,” Jack said.

“Hey, Jack.”

“Anything else?” he asked Cal, who told him to go enjoy the rest of his day.

Weezie was already ripping open boxes, making a royal mess, and shouting, “Look!”

In front of her was a huge American Girl doll haul. Clothes, a million toys to play with while using the doll, and a new baby with accessories were scattered all over my small living room.

“I have my own baby,” she yelled, her braids whipping around. “A baby.”

I started to say something, but Cal put his arm around me and kissed my temple.

“All’s going to be good, darling,” he whispered.

“Sometime in the last week, I went from babe to darling,” I said, grinning at him.

“Making an honest woman out of you.”

I punched Cal’s arm, and he ignored me before going to help Weezie open boxes.