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SIX YEARS LATER

LEXI

Maybe marrying the love of my life on a holiday, especially one where he’s always working, wasn’t the best idea in the world. We chose the date because we found it to be romantic, and maybe it was. However, it’s our sixth wedding anniversary, and I’m home alone.

I can’t complain because even though we don’t always spend our anniversary together, Boss makes up for it. Every year we get away for a week around our anniversary, renting the beautiful home in the mountains of Tennessee where we stayed years ago. It’s magical, and I look forward to it every summer. We laugh, talk, reconnect, and make love under the stars, and I feel like the twenty-four-year-old girl on the way to life’s grandest adventure, all over again.

And it has been the greatest adventure. These past six and half years have exceeded every expectation I could’ve dreamed for.

We bought a modest home in a nice neighborhood just a few blocks from the Station Twelve where my husband is now the captain. We live close to all our friends, who are more like family.

I work as a receptionist at a local pediatrician’s office. Yeah, so, I’m not saving the world like my husband, but I make decent money and have great hours and benefits. I do have to see children every day. Oddly enough, they aren’t all repulsive.

Boss once told me that I don’t need a job saving people to change the world. He said the world is changed one person at a time by one kind gesture at a time. My husband has made me a better person, no doubt about it. I’m nowhere near perfect, but I try to be better every day. I show kindness to others where in the past I may not have. And, who knows, maybe one act of kindness can save someone’s life. I’d like to believe that it can.

We see my parents several times a year. My dad has retired, and he and my mother are happily in love, traveling the world. They’re currently on a month-long cruise from New York City to Hawaii and back. Last she checked in, they were in Turks & Caicos on a shore excursion day.

Boss’s family has been a wonderful support to us, and I love them dearly. His mom got the grandchildren she’d always wanted. Two years ago, Jeannette fell in love with and married a single mother of four children. Somehow, those kids have wiggled their way into my cold anti-child heart, and I look forward to Auntie Lex and Uncle Tony babysitting days.

The sound of the front door closes, and Boss calls out. “Babe, I’m home.”

My heart beats rapidly within my chest, and I breathe in deep as tears come to my eyes. I blink the moisture away and stare down at the little white stick in my hand—the one with two blue lines.

I clutch the test to my chest, a huge smile on my face, and run out of the bathroom to greet my husband. Jumping into his arms, I circle my legs around his waist and hold on tight. I crash my mouth onto his and kiss him with all the love I have to give.

He pulls away. “Happy anniversary to you, too.” The smile on his face falters when he sees my tears. “Why are you crying?”

I drop my legs so I’m standing before him. Pulling my hand, clutching the test, away from the back of his neck, I hold it out before him.

“There are two blue lines.” My voice breaks as happy tears roll down my cheeks.

“What?” he says, confusion lining his features. The second he understands, his mouth falls open, and his eyes go wide. “Do two blue lines mean what I think it means?”

“Yeah,” I cry. “It does! You’re going to be a daddy!”

He pulls in a ragged breath as tears come to his eyes. “Oh, my God, Lex. I can’t…I’m just…fuck yeah!” he shouts. Grabbing me around the waist, he picks me off the floor and spins us around.

We laugh, and cry, and kiss…and it’s everything I wanted this moment to be.

I’m starting a family with the greatest man I’ve ever known. I’ve always been told that one day I’d want to have children with my husband, and as it turns out—it’s true. We’ve had a six-year honeymoon, every day incredible. But now I want more. I want to raise little humans that share some of my husband’s traits. I can’t think of anything better.

I know that being a mother will be the hardest role I’ve ever taken on, but I’m ready. I’m told that although it’s challenging, the rewards are amazing. I believe it. Boss and I have a marriage that people envy. It’s so good. I know we’re going to crush the parenting game as well.

“We need to celebrate.” He steps back and starts pulling off his uniform. With a giggle, I whip off my sundress and bra, and step out of my panties.

He scoops me up into his arms and carries me to the bedroom.

Once he lays me down, he starts kissing me all over. “You are the best thing to ever happen to me,” he says.

“Same.”

“You’re going to be such a good mom,” he says through kisses.

“You’re going to be such a good dad.” I pull him up so his face is in front of my own. I hold his beautiful stare with my own. I want him to hear every word. “I can’t even explain how much I love you. I’m so blessed to be able to start a family with you. You make me happier than I ever thought I could be.”

“You saved me, baby. I would be nothing without you,” he says, his voice thick with emotion.

“No, you saved me.”

“Let’s call it a tie?” He cocks a brow.

“Deal.” I giggle as his lips press against mine.

If there’s a life grander than this, a love deeper than ours—I can’t imagine it.

Life doesn’t always turn out how you think it will. Sometimes, it turns out even better.