Page 117 of No Longer Innocent
Then she packed up the baby, kissed Poppy goodbye, and hauled Ace back to the lodge to complain about the altitude. I’m still not sure if she realizes how loud she is. So it was just us.
Just Poppy and me rediscovering each other—slowly at first, then not slow at all. Just Jane exploring the woods with wide eyes and bigger boots. Just quiet mornings with coffee, loud evenings with laughter, and nights filled with warmth I never thought I’d have again.
It was odd—having a full home.
Odd hearing giggles echo off these old wooden walls.
Odd smelling home-cooked meals instead of whatever I thought I was cooking before. Don’t get me wrong, it took a little bit… Poppy wasn’t a chef or anywhere near it when she started out, but she was better than I was. She constantly watched cooking videos and was trying her hardest. Her biggest complaint was the lack of takeout. I almost told her what the grannies said when they first showed up about how money could buy anything—even takeout in the mountains.
It was also odd waking up to find Jane sprawled on the couch with a book, Poppy humming to herself in the kitchen, and sunlight crawling across the floor.
Odd… but good. Better than good. Itwas everything. Everything I didn’t know I needed. Everything I thought I’d lost my chance at.
And when winter rolled in fully—snow piling high against the cabin, frost dusting the windows—I realized something as I watched Poppy and Jane build a crooked snowman outside: I wasn’t alone anymore. I wasn’t meant to be. This—this family I never expected, this life I’d never planned for— was mine.
And there wasn’t anything or anyone that would ever take it from me again. I would burn the world before anyone tried. I would burn the world before I saw them unhappy. It filled my chest with the type of belonging I never could have planned for, and now I couldn’t picture my life without it.
“I have my bags packed!” Jane announced from the stairs.
“You have your swimsuit?” Poppy asked from our bedroom.
“I miss the sun, I wouldn’t dream of forgetting it!”
I smiled as they bickered back and forth about the vacation we were about to take and who would actually show up in my family. All I could do was chuckle and shake my head as I loaded the truck with more luggage than they could have ever needed. Poppy passed me on the way to the passenger door and I grabbed her hand to stop her. She shot me a confused look.
“When do you think you’ll be ready to continue your studies?” I asked, hopeful.
Her eyes lit up. “You mean that?”
“I thought Europe would be a great place to start.”
She threw her arms around my neck and peppered kisses on my face. “You mean it?”
“Of course.”
The End
