Page 151 of Rescued
He scoffs at that. “Duh.”
I can’t help but smile. It’s nice to know he can still be his usual sassy self without it coming from a place of fear or anger.
Jasper rounds the kitchen counter to start making a pot of coffee, and I sit down next to Nora, surprised to find a pencil and paper in front of her. “What do you have there?”
She turns to me, a wide grin stretching her lips. “I’m writing another story. I want to show Luca the next time he comes over.”
My heart thumps. “I think he’ll love that.”
She lights up. “You think so?”
“I know so.”
Jasper sets a cup of coffee in front of me with a flourish, and I blow him a kiss.
“When do you wanna tell the kids?” Jasper asks, eyeing me over his own steaming mug.
“Tell us what?” Salem asks, reaching up into the cabinet to pull plates down.
“Let’s wait until we’re all sitting down.”
Ten minutes later, we’re all packing our plates to the dining room table.
“Okay, tell us,” Salem says as soon as his ass hits the chair. “I get anxious about not knowing stuff.”
My heart contracts. That’s huge. Admitting something like that. Fuck. “Jasper and I are engaged.”
Salem’s eyebrows raise. “That’s it?”
I glance around. “Is that… Is that not enough?”
He shrugs. “Thought it was something serious, like something bad.”
“And also,” Jasper says, glancing at me for approval. I’m pretty sure I know where he’s going, and I’m good with it. I want to tell them. Give them the choice. “We’d like to start the process to adopt you both. We’d—”
Jasper’s voice cuts off as Nora jumps up from her chair and rushes around the table, slamming into first me and then Jasper. “Really? You really want to adopt us?”
“We really do,” I choke out, surprisingly emotional about the whole thing.
“When?” Salem asks. “We’ve gotta wait for Mom and Dad to get their shit together, right?”
I shake my head. “The state of Tennessee is very close to terminating their rights. As soon as that’s done, we’ll be free to go forward with it.”
“Both of you, right?” Salem asks, side-eyeing Jasper a bit.
“Both of us,” Jasper says. “Like I was saying before. We’d like to wait until we’re married because it’s the easiest, legally, for me to be on the adoption papers.”
Salem nods slowly. “How long will that take? Getting married, I mean.”
“Well,” I start, “we’ll need to plan and figure out—”
“If I didn’t want to give your brother the wedding he deserves, I’d have him at the courthouse Monday morning,” Jasper blurts out, cutting me off.
“That soon?” I ask, smirking at him.
He nods, eyes earnest. “Yes.”
I glance at Salem. “Not a courthouse wedding, but I’m sure we could do something soon. In the next few months, maybe. In the summer.”
