“I tried to live without you Harper, I tried to let you go and I couldn't. To me, there is no one else, it's only been you since the day I met you. I love you, which means I love him too. Those flashes you get? I have them all the time.” He cupped my face gently and leaned back to look in my eyes, “It doesn't matter to me that he isn't mine. If you let me, I'll raise him like he is, I'll take care of both of you for the rest of my life, and I promise I'll be right there with you to tell him about Chase, and how great his dad was.”
Tears filled my eyes and eventually pooled over, I don't know what I ever did to deserve men like Chase and Brandon, and their families, but I was thanking God for putting all of them in my life. “If we do this,” I warned, “you won't be able to get rid of me again.” I laughed and kissed him softly, “I'm in this forever if you are.” I whispered against his mouth.
“Forever.” He agreed and scooped me into his arms, carrying me to the living room, our lips never parting.
When he sat on the couch, I pulled back slightly to smile at him, and caught a glimpse of my family still sitting at the table. I looked closer to see the three of them smiling at us, Bree and Mom had tear-streaked faces. I remembered how much the entryway echoed and knew they'd heard everything. Having them support me and being happy for us meant the world to me, as I'm sure it did for Brandon.
Brandon had been looking at them as well, and turned to smile at me, “I love you Harper.”
If my heart could sing, it would be now. We'd told each other in discussions that we still loved each other, but hearing him say it right now, like this, was like the world was finally right again. “I love you too.” I trailed my fingertips down his hard jaw, and reached up to kiss him again. “You're sure you want to do this? Be a dad, early morning feedings, school and sports, teenage years...be with me for the next sixty years?”
“I think we could try for seventy.” He whispered, hovering over my lips. Now that we’d had a taste of each other again, it seemed like having our mouths apart from each other would physically cause us pain. “And yes, to all of the above.”
***
“Is everything okay Brandon?” I asked him a few hours later as we sat near the pool after lunch. He'd gotten oddly quiet all of a sudden.
He thought for a second before responding, “I'm afraid I'm going to move too fast for you. You were with Chase and planning a future and family with him up until the accident. All I've been able to think about is you, I knew there wouldn't ever be anyone else. Over the last couple months, I tried to only be your friend, and I would have stayed that way if you asked me to. That didn't stop me from thinking of everything I would do if I ever got you back though. But now that I have you again, the only thing the time away from you did, was make me want you more. So now I'm right back to where I was before we broke up, wanting nothing more than to buy a house with you and marry you. But I don't know when it would be okay to do any of that because of what happened. And I know what you said about raising him with you, but I don't know if that's all you actually want me to do when it comes to him, just be the guy that helps you raise him. I want to be the dad that raises him, his dad. I just don't know if that's okay with you or if you think I'll be trying to take Chase's place.”
“Brandon,” I frowned a little, with what we'd been talking about earlier, I thought we were on the same page. Apparently not. “okay let's clear this all up, so there's no more confusion. Considering everything we had before, I think we are way beyond worrying about moving too fast. I want to marry you, more than anything. But I don't care when that happens, it can happen tomorrow or it can happen two years from now. I had tried to explain it to Chase, but I don't think he actually understood that I didn't need to be married just because I was having a baby. With Chase though, I hadn't been planning a future with him until after he found out about the baby, I had already known way before that, that I wanted to marry you.
“I'll admit I was worried just being with you would be moving too fast after the accident for other people, but with the way I feel, and after talking to Mom, Bree and Konrad, I don't think we are. Mom was right, our situation is completely different, and it doesn't matter what other people think. This is our life together, not theirs.” I laid down on my back, and put a hand over my eyes to shield the sun, “Answer me something before I continue. Being his dad, you really want that?”
He turned onto his side, his face hovering over mine, “I do.”