"Come on, Sarah. There’s cake inside!" She grabs her hand and drags her down the small makeshift aisle.
Sarah and I got married in the patio garden of a downtown restaurant. One night while walking home from dinner, Liv spotted the small fountain and wanted to go in and check it out. I dug a few pennies out of my pocket and she tossed them in. It was then that she turned to Sarah and told her that she wished for us to get married. Until that point, I hadn’t realized that she even knew we weren’t. And honestly, our lives had been so busy becoming a family of three that I’m not even sure Sarah and I realized that we weren’t either. We felt like a family. No paper was going to change that. But in that moment, nothing had ever been more important. I dropped to my knee and asked Sarah to marry me all over again, this time with Liv laughing and clapping beside me. Of course she said yes, and less than a month later, here we are, in that same little garden, only now the three of us share a last name.
"Oh my God. I can’t believe she actually married you," Erica says, pulling me in for a long hug.
"Babe, are you crying?" I tease.
"Shut up," she mumbles, releasing me.
I glance up to Slate, who is standing behind her holding baby Adam. Sarah is standing just a few feet away with Emma and Caleb, watching Liv try to pick up Collin like a baby and laughing when he wants absolutely no part of it. Liv bonded quickly with Emma. She loves Collin, and surprisingly enough, she actually warmed up to Caleb pretty quickly too. Last week, she spent an hour sitting on the couch beside him, adding more designs to the tattoos on his arms with a Sharpie. I tried to stop her, but Caleb just laughed and continued to point out empty spots for her to fill in. They were kind enough to invite Liv for a sleepover tonight to give Sarah and me some time alone. God, do I have plans for those twenty-four hours.
Having a child has been an interesting transition for us, but we are all doing the best we can. Jesse comes over once a week to hang out and talk with Liv. I can’t imagine what we would have done without her. She is absolutely amazing. I pay her every week, but it’s not nearly enough. No check in the world could adequately show my appreciation for how far she has helped Liv come in such a short period of time.
Thankfully, Brett never came back after that first night. He’s not a bad guy, and I have nothing against him. But hanging out with the ex-husband is pretty fucking low on my list of ways I’d want to spend an evening.
We still have our Thursday nights. Sarah thought it was important to keep those, and I can’t say I disagreed with her. However, now, with Liv in the mix, it has turned into more of a family night. We talk about our week while the girls cook. Then we end the night playing board games, which Sarah almost always wins. I think even Liv has learned to not bother trying to beat her. Sarah is not above cheating at Candy Land.
I snake a hand out to the side and tug Sarah into my side. "Hey, ángel." I lean forward, kissing her exposed neck. She picked out a simple, white, strapless dress to wear today. But like always, her svelte body transformed it into something that could have come straight off the catwalk at Fashion Week. There isn’t a word in English or Spanish that would ever do justice to how beautiful she looks today—or, really, any day.
"I’m hungry," she murmurs, turning her head to the side to allow me access to her neck.
"Well, dinner’s next, then cake, then we have to drop Liv off, but then I’ll be happy to give you something to put in your mouth." I graze my teeth across her neck.
"Leo," she moans.
I swear to God, if there were not children present, I would take her right here in the middle of a restaurant. Or at the very least make her come on my hand under the table.
"All right. Save something for the wedding night," Johnson says as he walks up, holding hands with Chris.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I turn to face him. "Glad you could make it," I joke because I saw him sneak into the back during the ceremony.
"Gee, sorry. My asshole of a boss scheduled me to work today, so I was trying to keep Slate from being mauled out front." He rolls his eyes.
"Hey. It was cost effective. You were both coming to the same place anyway. No sense in paying another man when I can make you work for free." I smile and he shakes his head.
The week after Liv moved in, I decided to move the Guardian Protection office out of our apartment. When it was just me living there, it was convenient and really saved me on overhead. However, now that Sarah and Liv live there too, it was time to make that apartment a home. So Guardian Protection officially moved to the top floor of a building a few blocks away. Sarah has been instrumental in the success of the business. She’s extremely good at the social side, and the clients love her. I kept my office in the security room, so she works from home most days after she drops Liv off at school.