Page 150 of The Incredible Ordinary

We celebrateRory’s birthday with a surprise party. He looks at the cake and presents with wide eyes where hope is battling caution.

We sing him happy birthday and laugh about being off key. Rory blows out the candles and opens his presents, and later we play board games, and I laugh more than I ever remember laughing about card games.

March settlesin with uncommonly warm weather, so soccer practice moves back outside.

Twice a week, we make sure Theo and Rory both get to practice on time, and then we sit on the bleachers and watch them play.

After, we walk home, the four of us, and while the boys take Dog to the park for his evening walk, Milán and I sit on the front steps of my house and talk. We never run out of things to say.

On Saturdays, we have movie nights. The four of us and whoever else happens to be in the house, sprawled out on the couch. Bowls of popcorn and chips passed around while we’re arguing about what to watch.

Whenever we can, we make dinner together with Theo and Rory sprawled out on the floor, studying or playing video games.

We eat together and talk about our days.

And I look around the table.

And think.

What if?

“Something’s different about you,”Wren says when we’re walking back home one day after grabbing lunch together.

“I got a haircut the other day. Took you a while to notice.” I lift my face up to the sun and close my eyes. Early spring has never been so beautiful before.

“No. You’re being all… happy.”

I turn my head to look at him. “Is that bad?”

“I’m just saying, share the joy,” he says. “What’s up?”

I shrug. “Nothing. Just having a good day.”

Not just one. So many of them in a row I’ve lost count.

And maybe that’s the key. Maybe it’s not about grand gestures and big moments. Maybe true happiness is a series of ordinary days made incredible by somebody else living that same ordinary life with you. Maybe happiness is the ordinary moments with someone you love at home after the end of a normal workday. The dinners and board games and soccer practice and movie nights. Those small moments of pleasure you think back on and smile about. Lying in bed together, talking and laughing. Just being alive. Together.

I almost stumble over my own feet.

Wren raises a brow at me. “You okay?”

My mouth is dry, and my heart won’t stop pounding.

Am I okay?

“Yeah,” I say.

And I smile.

Because everything is just right.

JORDAN

It’s rainingcats and dogs.

I’m late.

I just spent twenty minutes stuck in a stalled subway car.