Limitless Love (Lotus House #4)(90)
“Tonight, we celebrate the marriage and the new life that my best friend Mila and her husband Atlas share. She didn’t want a big to-do; she just wanted Atlas. Atlas didn’t care what they did as long as he had the woman he loved marrying him for life. I think that’s what it’s all about. The heart wants what the heart wants, and it doesn’t matter in what form it comes, as long as we listen to it and follow it to our happily ever after.” I raised my glass, and the thirty guests followed. “To happily ever after. Mila, I’m so glad you found yours in Atlas.”
Mila smiled at me and blew me a kiss. Clayton wrapped his arm around me and took hold of the mic. “My turn.”
I sniffled and smiled, wiping at my tears of joy, so thrilled that this day had finally come for my best friend.
Clayton’s voice was strong and deep when he spoke. “Atlas and Mila are not only a great couple but are made for one another, because honestly, who else could handle their feistiness?” The crowd laughed, and several nodded in agreement at his joke. “But they are also going to be amazing parents in the very near future.”
Atlas took that moment to rub Mila’s belly affectionately, bent down and gave it a kiss, and then kissed his wife. “I wish them the best this life has to offer…” Clayton continued. “Because I know as long as they have each other, it’s going to be amazing.” He lifted his glass and everyone followed.
A chorus of “hear, hear” and “kiss the bride” rang out over our friends. Once they’d followed through on the requests, Clayton turned to me.
“And now, with the approval of our happily married couple, I’m going to do what I’ve wanted to do since the first day I took care of my sweet Lily all those months ago and laid eyes on her mother the next day. Monet…” Clayton took something out of his pocket and in front of God and everyone went down on one knee.
I broke out in chills, gooseflesh starting at my hands, running up my arms, over my chest, and spreading along my entire body. My hand felt clammy as I clamped it around my champagne flute so tight I worried it would break. Tears pricked at the back of my eyes as Clayton reached for my other hand.
“Monet, beautiful, you are the love of my life. I told you once before that you were it for me. You and Lily are everything I could have ever dreamed of having for my own. I want to make our love and our life together official. Will you be my forever?” His voice shook on the last statement, but he held strong, his gaze never leaving mine.
I nodded through the tears pouring down my face and set the glass down on the nearby table so I didn’t drop it.
Clayton grinned, his eyes shining with so much love and affection they stole my breath. He flicked open a small velvet box and presented it to me. The most gorgeous ring I’d ever seen stared back at me, sparkling under the twinkle lights above. And my goodness…the thing was huge! I covered my mouth with my hands, choking back the sob that threatened to tear through me at any second.
Clayton smiled softly and squeezed my hand. “Will you make me the happiest man alive and marry me? Allow me to adopt Lily as my own?”
I smiled wide and fell even more in love with him for bringing Lily into his proposal.
With perfect timing, my little one ran over to me and hugged my legs. She peered into the box and tipped her head, assessing the ring and Clay, as was her way.
“It’s not a crown, but it will do the job,” she said, tapping on her bottom lip.
The crowd laughed. Clayton grinned, and I shook my head.
“So, I’m wearing a hole in my pants here, beautiful…” Clayton grinned.
My eyes widened, and my cheeks flushed with heated embarrassment.
“What do you say?”
I looked around the space at all our friends, each couple holding one another. Happiness exuded around me in heaping doses, but nothing like the waves of love coming off the man kneeling before me.
“Yes! A million times yes!” The words spilled from my lungs as if they had gossamer wings.
Clayton pulled the ring out of the box, slid it on my finger, looped an arm around my waist, and hauled me against his chest. His lips crushed mine in the most important kiss I’d had to date. He kissed me long, hard, and so deeply I had to grip his shoulders so I didn’t pass out. He pulled away, set me on my feet, and cupped both of my cheeks.
“I’m going to make you so happy. Big family, big life. Everything you ever dreamed of. I’m going to make it happen.”
I knew down to the tips of my toes he meant every word, and it all sounded perfect.
I smiled softly and trailed a finger from his temple to his bottom lip. “Don’t you see? You already have.”
He grinned and kissed me again.
CLAYTON
The last of the crew sat at a round table. Me with my fiancée cuddled into my side, the happy newlywed couple snogging and whispering to one another in their own love-drunk world, Trent Fox and his wife, Genevieve—Will playing in the yard—and my buddy Dash Alexander and his wife, Amber.
I sat around, watching each of the couples at the table. I’d lay down my life for every person here. Monet might not have blood relatives in her life, but this was her family, right here, the people sharing in the beauty that was this day and evening. These people would be there for our wedding, any babies Monet would give me, and all of the happy times we would have down the road. School events, sports activities, recitals, family dinners, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations. Name it, and they would be there during the important times. The times I would want to remember.