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Aria pov 1
Noah beamed and squirmed down to go retrieve something he’d apparently left inside, leaving us in the doorway.
–
Mrs. Dora appeared a moment later, unruffled as always the woman who had been Noah’s safe harbour when Damien and I had been so busy running our business, dealing with Marcus threats. She was one of the people we could trust with Noah. She knew every one of Noah’s moods and preferences and hiding spots. She looked between us the way she always did, taking quiet inventory, checking that everything was as it should be.
Whatever she saw seemed to satisfy her completely.
“He ate a full breakfast,” she said with the warm authority of someone who considered this a personal achievement. “Two eggs, toast, and most of a banana. My sister’s boy Theo has him convinced that breakfast is only fun if someone else is eating the same thing at the exact same time.”
“That might be the most Noah thing I’ve ever heard,” I said.
“They were wonderful together.” Her expression softened with something genuine. “Honestly, watching those two – same energy, same nonsense, same absolute refusal to sleep when told.” She smiled, her eyes moving between us with the easy familiarity of a woman who had watched this family slowly, painstakingly become whole. “Your boy would do well with a sibling, Mr. Blackwood, Just a thought from someone who knows him very well.”
I pressed my lips together.
Damien, to his credit, kept his expression perfectly composed. “Noted, Mrs.
She gave him the particular look she reserved for moments when she felt she has exactly the right thing–warm, unhurried, entirely unapologetic back inside to help Noah find whatever he’d left behind.
I turned to look at my fiancé. He was staring very
above the door frame.
very inf
“Just a thought; I said pleasantly. “From someone who know
and chisappe
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“She raises a valid point.”
“Damien.”
“Noah would be an excellent big brother.” He still wasn’t looking at me, but the corne of his mouth was doing something suspicious. “Very nurturing. Good fort–building instincts. Strong leadership qualities”
“We are not taking parenting advice from a morning pickup.”
“I’m not saying now.” He finally looked at me, and the expression on his face was so transparently, helplessly hopeful that I almost laughed out loud. “I’m saying — eventually. In theory. As a concept worth exploring.”
“As a concept.”
“At some point in the future.” He paused. “When you’re ready. Entirely your decision. I’m simply… open to it.”
“You’re open to it,” I repeated.
“Very open.”
I looked at him
—
this man who had once been made entirely of walls and distance, now standing on a doorstep at nine in the morning trying very hard to look casual about wanting to have another baby with me and something in my chest turned ove completely. “Let’s get through the wedding first,” I said.
—
His face did something warm and immediate that he couldn’t quite contain. “So that’s
not a no.”
“That is absolutely not a no.”
He reached over and tucked a piece of hair behind my car with a gentleness that still, after everything, caught me off guard. “Good,” he said softly. “That’s good.”
Noah burst back through the door at that precise moment, holding up a small toy dinosaur triumphantly, “Found him! He was under Theo’s pillow. Theo says I can borrow him till next time.
“That’s very generous of Theo,” I said, composing myself.
Mrs. Dora appeared behind him in the doorway, arms folded, watching Noah take both our hands our cach with the satisfied expression of a woman who had been quietly rooting for this exact moment for a very long time. When she caught my eye
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she simply smiled, small and certain, and lifted her hand in farewell.
Go on, that smile said. You’ve got everything you need.
“He’s my best friend,” Noah was saying, already swinging between us. “Can we get pancakes on the way home?”
Damien and I exchanged a look over his head.
“Pancakes,” Damien confirmed. “Definitely pancakes.”
And Noah swung between us all the way to the car, completely unaware that he had just, in his small and unknowing way, shown us exactly what we were building towa
More of this.
More of him.
More of us.
Later That Afternoon
–
Penthouse
–
After lunch – takeout, because none of us could cook to save our lives Noah was buzzing with the particular energy of a child who had slept in a fort, fought dragons and eaten hot chocolate with the good marshmallows, and was not even slightly read to wind down about it.
“And then,” he said, for approximately the fourth time, waving a dinosaur at Damien, “Theo said we should add a moat next time. A real one. With water.”
“We’ll discuss the water,” I said.
“Mrs. Dora would probably allow it,” he said confidently. “She allowed the fort.
“Mrs. Dora,” Damien said, loading the takeout containers into the bin, “is a braver
woman than most”
Noah considered this seriously. “She’s the best.” He looked up. “I’m lucky to have her. And you and Mama. And Aunt Liv and Uncle Lucas and Emma and Mr. Peterson and He paused, counting on his fingers. “I have a lot of people.”
“You do,” I said, my heart full. “A very big, very loving family”
“Emma says families that choose each other are stronger than families that have to be together,” He went back to his dinosaurs. “Is that true?”
Damien and I exchanged a glance over his head. “Yeah, buddy,” Damien said softly.
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“That’s true. The people who choose to love you, who choose to be in your life thos relationships are very strong.”
“Then our family is super strong.” Noah crashed two dinosaurs together. “Cause you and Mama chose each other and you both chose me and Mrs. Dora chose all of us – she didn’t have to keep looking after me but she did and Aunt Liv and” He looked up. “We all chose each other, right?”
“Right,” I said, kneeling beside him. “We all chose each other. And we keep choosing each other every day.”
“Every day.” He seemed to like that. “That’s a lot of choosing.”
“It is.” Damien sat on the floor with us. “But it’s the best choice we ever made.”
“Okay.” Noah went back to his play, seemingly satisfied with this explanation. Then, almost as an afterthought: “Can Mrs. Dora come to the wedding?”
Damien looked at me. “Absolutely,” I said. “She’s family.”
Noah nodded, like this was obvious, and went back to his dinosaurs. After he was settled in his room with a movie, Damien pulled me onto the couch, tucking me against his side.
“That was intense,” he said quietly.
“Which part?” I rested my head on his shoulder. “The choosing each other speech or our four year old casually defining family better than most adults I know?”
“All of it. He pressed a kiss to my hair. “But he’s right, Aria. Mrs. Dora didn’t have to stay. After everything – the chaos, all the times this family was anything but settled she just stayed, Choose to.”
“She chose him first,” I said softly. “Before we even chose each other again.”
“Which means we owe her more than we’ll probably ever be able to say” His arm tightened around me. “But he’s right about us too. We chose this. Against all odds, despite all the history and hurt we chose each other.”
“Best choice I ever made,” I said.
“Second best,” he corrected. “First was coming back to Ravenwood. That gave us the chance to choose each other again
“Fair point.” I tilted my head to look at him. “Are you scared? About the wedding.
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Making it all official.”
“Not even a little bit.” His voice was certain. “I’m excited. Eager. Ready to make you m wife in front of every person we love and legally bind myself to you for the rest of ou
lives.”
“Romantic.”
“I’m serious.” He shifted to face me more fully. “Aria, I’ve been married before. To you actually. And I screwed it up spectacularly. But this time—” His voice intensified. “Th time I know what I have. What we have. And I’m going to spend every day of our marriage making sure you know how much I love you, how grateful I am, how completely committed I am to this family we’ve built.”
“I know.” I touched his face gently. “I see it every day. In how you look at me. In how you are with Noah.”
He gazed intensely at me as he licked his lips.
“Damien.”
“I’m obsessed with you.” The corner of his mouth lifted. “It’s a new development. I’m leaning into it.”
I laughed and kissed him softly. “All in,” I said against his mouth. “Forever.”
“Forever,” he agreed.
From here, we could hear Noah singing along to his movie, enthusiastic and entirely off–key.
“That’s our life now,” Damien said with a smile that still looked slightly wonder–struck, like he was cataloguing it. “Dinosaurs and off–key singing and fort construction.” “And mergers and press conferences and late–night ice cream conversations,” I added, “And love.” His voice went quiet. “So much love it almost scares me sometimes.” “Me too. I snuggled closer. “But being scared together is better than being alone and safe. We chose the messy, complicated, beautiful life, Damien. And I wouldn’t change a single thing”
“Not a thing” he agreed.
As the afternoon faded to evening, as Noah eventually abandoned his movie to build another fort in the living room, as we helped him construct walls and declare it the
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best fort ever built in the history of forts – I felt something settle deep in my chest.
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