Page 114 of Starting Back
“We’re asking you to move in with us,” Emma said, squinting at her mother. “I don’t know why she’s crying, though. Maybe she changed her mind.”
“I didn’t,” Kristina’s eyes were wet, but a wide smile shot across her mouth. “We all had a little meeting and agreed that we want you to live with us. Keep your clothes here, get your mail here, and stop wasting money on a mortgage for a condo you don’t use.”
She sat next to me and picked up the box. “I guess the key is more symbolic. You belong with us.”
Now it was my turn to get choked up. I blinked the wetness out of my eyes as my gaze drifted to the girls. “Is that true? Was it a unanimous vote?”
“What’s that?” Emma’s brow knit together. “We just all said we wanted you to live here.”
“All of us said yes,” Chloe said, smiling as she glanced at her sister. “That’s what unanimous means.”
“Then, yes. I’d love to live here with all of you. This is…” I scrubbed a hand down my face, not sure if I wanted to laugh or weep like a baby. “This is the best present I’ve ever gotten.”
“Yes!”
Emma rushed over to me and jumped on my lap. I stood, wrapping my other arm around Kristina’s waist and dipping my head for a quick but searing kiss. “I love you all so much. I’m sorry. I never would have been such a crank when I got up if I’d known this was waiting for me.”
Chloe came up to me after I put Emma down.
“I’m glad you said yes,” she whispered.
“As if I’d ever say no to my girls.” I pulled her in for a hug. Even though the days of her looking me over with nothing but distrust and disdain were behind us, Chloe’s smiles still felt like rewards, and a hug this tight from her felt like winning the grand prize.
The tears streaming down my cheeks were the good kind, but I hadn’t let myself cry at all since I’d lost my parents. I’d spent more than half my life feeling like I was in some kind of in-between because I’d lost my family and the life I was supposed to have.
On a beach, at a bar, one year ago today, I stepped into the life that was meant to be.
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