Page 116 of Breakaway Daddies

“Okay, um, so…” he starts, then laughs, hiccuping on emotion. “I wrote, like, three versions of this and lost two of them and the other had a really inappropriate joke in it, so I’m gonna wing it.”

I laugh through my tears. It’s sohim.

“Jinx, you’re everything I didn’t know I needed. You match my energy, you challenge me, you let me be all the weird pieces of me without ever asking me to shrink. You’re the fire I want to dance in forever. So I promise to keep you laughing, to never stop trying to impress you, and to love you like it’s my job, which it kind of is now, huh?” He smirks through the tears. “I love you. And I’m all in. Always.”

Rowan steps up last, eyes locked on mine like no one else exists.

His voice is steady, deep, but there’s this emotion riding underneath that hits me square in the chest.

“Jinx,” he says, voice hoarse, “you’re the only plan I’ve ever made that felt right. You’ve always been the one who could undo me with a look, steady me with a touch, and build me back up with your chaos. You made me believe in more. In a future I never let myself want.”

He reaches up, thumb brushing a tear off my cheek.

“I promise to fight for you, to choose us again and again. I promise to protect what we’ve built, to show up even when it’s hard, and to never stop loving you with everything I am. You’re my person, Jinx. You always have been.”

And when he kisses me, it’s not wild or desperate. It’shome.

Afterward, Bruno’s grandmother wipes her eyes with an embroidered handkerchief and hugs me tight, murmuring,“You’ve made him so happy.”

I tell her she raised a man worth loving, and she kisses both my cheeks and calls me her granddaughter.

My mother floats over next, holding my oldest on her hip, both of them smeared in frosting somehow. She cups my face, brushing her thumb gently across my cheekbone like she did when I was a kid.

“You made such a beautiful bride, Jinxie.”

I press my forehead to hers for a moment, full of warmth and disbelief and love. “Thanks, Mom.”

Then my brother barrels up with a woman on his arm, shockingly gorgeous, confident, and clearly used to his chaos.

“Hey.” He grins, then stage whispers, “Congrats, weirdo. You pulled it off.”

“She did,” his date says, smiling at me. “You look amazing.

He slings an arm around her and says, with zero shame, “So… can we have a harem too? Or is that like a seniority thing?”

She raises an eyebrow and steers him toward the open bar with a muttered, “You need wine. Immediately.”

I cackle. Of course.

The rest of the night is a beautiful blur. Speeches that make me cry. A kid meltdown during our first dance. Thomas dropping a cupcake and then pretending it was a dance move.

Bruno slow dancing with the baby strapped to his chest. Rowan sneaking me outside when it gets too loud and dancing with me under the stars while I rest my head on his chest.

We end the night curled up together in a suite upstairs, the kids asleep in a pile across two beds and a couch. I’m sandwiched between Bruno and Thomas, with Rowan tracing lazy circles on my leg.

“I’d marry you all over again,” I whisper.

“You’re going to have to,” Thomas says, already half asleep. “Anniversary vow renewal. With roller skates next time.”

Bruno snorts.

Rowan murmurs, “You’re stuck with us, Jinx.”

“Good,” I say, kissing the nearest warm skin I can reach. “That’s exactly what I wanted.”

Bruno reaches for my hand, his touch gentle. “Was it everything you hoped for?”

I nod, heart too full for words at first. “Yeah,” I manage, tears rising again. “You guys gave meexactlywhat I wanted.”

Rowan leans in, brushing his lips over my temple. “That’s all we’ve ever wanted to do.”

Thomas throws an arm around my shoulders with a proud little bounce. “Mission: marry the hot goth mom of our dreams? Accomplished.”

This life… this wild, sprawling, wonderful life I never planned for… is mine.

And I am so damn lucky.

The end.