Page 126 of Only and Forever
Noah leans toward me, and I take him, cuddling him onto my lap. He sets his head on my shoulder and sighs as I rub his back. I smile at Tallulah, who watches me, her own smile tipping her mouth.
Linnea wraps her arms around Tallulah from behind. “Lula Blue,” Linnea whispers.
Tallulah glances back. “Yes, Linnie Loo?”
“Got any tissues?”
Tallulah frowns. “Why?”
“Uncle Viggo’s going to need them.”
I glance their way. “What?”
“We’re here,” Dad says, drawing my attention, “because this house is, more than any place, our family’s home. This is where we come for the big moments—weddings, birthdays—”
Glasses are raised toward me, sweet calls of love and cheers to many more. I smile, swallowing against the lump in my throat.
“Engagements,” Dad adds, smiling at us.
Tallulah sets her head on my shoulder and curls her hand around my arm.
“While I’m so glad we’re all here for this,” Dad says, “while I hope there are many more occasions and happy memories made here, I think it’s fitting to remind us, on our Viggo’s birthday, on his engagement to Tallulah, who we love with all our heart, that even if we lost this place, if we never came here again, this”—he gestures around the table—“would be just as vibrant, just as real.”
Turning toward me with a smile, pride in his eyes, Dad says, “Viggo, you love to love unlike anyone I have ever known. You wrap up everyone you hold in your heart with so much love, even when they don’t know what to do with it, even when that wrapping is alittletight.”
My family laughs. I laugh roughly, blinking away tears.
“We are so thankful for the light you brought to our world, thirty years ago, for all the ways you’ve thrown yourself into loving us, reminding us that love isn’t an idea but a living, breathing thing. We are so happy for you that you found someone who believes that, too, wholiveslove with you.”
He lifts his glass. “To Viggo, and to Tallulah, to both of you, the happy couple whose hearts have found their home in each other.” He glances toward Mom, who takes his hand and smiles. “Tell them, sweetheart. What you’ve always told me.”
Mom glances my way, smiling brighter and says, “Home is not a place. Home is... this.” She glances around the table. “Our hearts, our love, knitting us together, wherever we are. Wherever life takes you, may you know you have a home in our hearts, and may your hearts always be each other’s home.”
I raise my glass as Tallulah does, too, along with everyone around the table. “I love you all,” I tell them, my voice wobbly with emotion. “Thank you.”
Noah’s snore on my chest makes me laugh reflexively, his dark waves tickling my chin, his sticky hand hot on my forearm. I smooth back his hair, press a kiss to his head, then peer over at Tallulah, who watches me with so much love, it makes my heart ache. “How you doing, Lulaloo?”
“Couldn’t be happier,” she whispers, then kisses me. “How about you?”
“The happiest.”
Tallulah tips up her head and kisses me again. I clasp her hand as it rests over my heart, sure and calm, so at peace, knowing that my heart has found its home, that Tallulah will always be by my side. I wrap my arm around the woman I love and rest my head on hers as we glance at the table, filled with my family, the breeze warm and sweet, swaying the lights and candle flames, whispering through the trees.
It could be magic, dancing through the air like fireflies sparkling in the darkness. But I know what it really is, woven between us, as elemental as the breeze, the tides, the sun that will rise and set tomorrow; what’s sustained me, healed me, what gave me this life to share with the woman I adore, this future of ours that I can’t wait to meet—
Love.
