"Oh, Travis," Olivia whispers, wiping the tear from the corner of her eye.
"You don’t get it," Casey says, his voice softer. "You won’t get it until you have a child of your own. But we watched her for the last four years skid through life. She was here with us, but the light in her eyes was gone. She would laugh and smile, but you could see that it was just a front. It’s the single hardest thing watching your kid not living life. She had everything she ever dreamed of, yet she was missing something." He shakes his head. "Then a month ago, she goes to your wedding, and the minute she came back, and I mean the second I saw her, that light was back. Her shoulders didn’t fall forward anymore. Her eyes would light up when she smiled. She was back, at least a little bit of her was, and then her plans would change, and you could see the dim come back." My chest literally feels like an elephant has just decided to sit on it. "She came to me and asked me to help her, and as her father, I would help her do whatever the hell she wanted, even if it was to go back to you. Even though I don’t think you deserve her."
"Let’s be honest for one more second," Olivia sniffles. "He would think no one was good enough for her."
I can’t help but laugh at her. "He isn’t wrong," I say. "I don’t know how I got as lucky as I did to get her not to only fall in love with me once but twice. I’m the luckiest man in the world and I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure that she knows how lucky I am." I look down at my feet. "I know that you don’t believe me and I’ve broken your trust. I know that I won’t have your blessing right now, but I hope in time I will get it."
"Does that mean that if we don’t give you our blessing, you won’t ask her to marry you?" Casey says.
"As much as it hurts me to say this." I swallow, knowing that if he didn’t want to shoot me before, he might want to now. "I’m going to ask her to marry me regardless of your blessing."
"Well, then," he says, looking at his wife, then looking at me. "Since you put it like that. I’ll put it like this. If you hurt her again." He’s about to say something when Olivia puts her hand in front of his mouth.
"I’ll hand you the gun myself," I declare, and he throws his head back and laughs loud.
Chapter 28
Harlow
"Travis!" Shelby yells his name. "She’s here," I hear when I get out of the car and look over at my parents parking behind me.
"Hey," I greet, putting my hand over my eyes to see her and smiling when Travis comes out of the house. He walks down the steps at the same time that my parents get out of the truck, and my brothers pull up behind them in another truck.
"You’re here," he says. When he gets close enough, he puts his hands on my face and bends to kiss me. "Hi," he adds between kisses.
"Romeo," Clarabella says from behind us. "You want to get out of the way so we can get the things unpacked."
"Yeah, that sounds good,” Reed says, getting out of the truck. "You go and direct us and we will bring out the boxes."
"Um, Harlow," Presley says. "Besides two hot married brothers, do you perhaps have any available cousins?"
I shake my head and laugh as I walk up the steps to what my new home will be. This past week has been bittersweet. I’ve said goodbye to my family, and even though I said I wasn’t saying goodbye, I got sad thinking that I wouldn’t see them every day. We walk into the house, and I look around, seeing it almost empty.
"Oh my God," my mother says from behind me. "Um, honey." She looks over at Travis, then around the bare room. "Did you live here?" she asks, stepping in just as shocked as I am.
"He did," Clarabella shares. "Trust me, it’s better now than before." My mother looks at him and then at me with tears in her eyes.
"What the hell?” Quinn says, carrying in two boxes. "Were you robbed?"
"As if anyone wanted his stuff," Shelby says, laughing.
"I didn’t know how you felt about my stuff," Travis says. "So I got rid of it, and tomorrow we can go and pick out all new stuff."
"Oh my God," my father says when he hears my mother squeal.
"Great, now you’ve done it," I mumble to Travis when my mother rushes over to us.
"I’ll do it," she says, looking around, taking out her phone. "Leave it to us. It’ll be our present to you."