Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 115288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 576(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 576(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
When I’d set her down and held her hands, she’d taken a tentative step and let go of my hand, and then she’d taken another and let go of the other one.
Judith had captured all of those moments, including the one when Gavin’s face had broken into the most glorious smile, and he’d rushed over and scooped her up and covered her face in kisses.
In another family celebration, there’s a picture of me holding Peyton’s hand. She and Gavin are looking at each other with complete adoration, and I’m smiling as I watch that love being realized. It’s a special moment that I’d been part of. We keep flipping pages, chronicling milestones in Peyton’s life until we reach the move back to Colorado Springs and the months since I’ve been back in their lives.
There are pages already decorated waiting for pictures from today, and more empty pages waiting to be filled.
“There’s space for more chapters in your life, and we’ll get to write them together,” I tell her and motion to our family, still sitting around the room. “All of us get to be part of your story.”
“I’m so glad the angels sent you and brought you back.” She throws her arms around my neck, and I wrap mine around her small frame, smiling through my tears of joy.
“Me too, sweetie, me too.”
“Me three,” Gavin whispers.
My heart is so full of love for both of them.
Epilogue
MY FAMILY
PEYTON
TWO YEARS LATER
“Peyton, are you ready to go?” Dad calls out from down the hall.
I check my reflection in the mirror one more time and make sure my dress doesn’t have any lint on it. I don’t feel any older than I did yesterday, but today is my twelfth birthday.
And it’s a big one.
I pat my tummy, hoping to reassure it that there’s no need for the butterflies and that everything is going to be fine.
My gaze catches on the picture of my mom and dad on my dresser. Before Dad had crinkles in the corner of his eyes. In it, my mom was pregnant with me. Her smile is wide and her hand rests protectively on her bump. My dad smiles, but he’s not looking at the camera, he’s looking at my mom. I blow out a breath and accept the pang of sadness that hits me whenever I really stop to look at this photo. I’ll never know what my name sounds like on her lips. Not while I’m alive anyway. But one day, a long time from now, I’ll meet her. For now I have pictures and stories, and a whole life ahead of me.
And today I get the birthday present I’ve secretly been wishing for all my life. The other wish will come true in a few months, when I finally get the baby sister I always wanted.
I press my fingertips to my lips and then touch the corner of the frame before I turn away and cross my room. “Coming,” I shout on my way down the hall.
When I reach the front foyer, my dad and Harley are waiting for me. Harley’s round belly has the phrase SISTER IN THE MAKING written across it. My granny and nana and I went shopping as soon as we found out Harley was pregnant and bought her all kinds of fun clothes. I picked this one out. I already took the babysitters’ course so I can watch my little sister when Harley and my dad have their date nights. I know twelve years is a big gap, but I love babies the same way Harley does, and being a much older sister is a special relationship.
I’ve already started babysitting for our neighbors down the street a couple of afternoons a week. They have four-year-old twins, and their mom calls them “holy terrors,” but she’s always smiling when she says it. I think they’re hilarious and so much fun. I can’t wait to teach my little sister all kinds of things. Like how to make rainbow glitter flowers and bunny pizzas.
Harley smiles softly at me, and I feel her love like an invisible hug. Last year Dad asked me how I would feel if he asked Harley to move in with us.
I asked him if that meant they were going to get married and if I would have a brother or a sister one day. He laughed and said one thing at a time. But he didn’t get sad, or mad, or say no, and I took that as a good sign.
A great sign, actually.
Because a few months after Harley moved in with us, Dad took me out with him on a special trip to a jewelry store, and I got to help him pick out an engagement ring for Harley. We took it with us on our family vacation, and I got to be there with him when he proposed and she said yes. Six months ago they got married. I was a junior bridesmaid and Ella was a flower girl. Even though Aunt Avery’s baby, William, was too small to be the official ring bearer, we made him part of the ceremony. Five minutes after it was all over, he exploded the back end of his diaper and needed a full change of clothes. Uncle Declan had fun with that one.