Aria pov
Noah bead and squird down to go retrieve sothing he’d apparently left inside, leaving us in the doorway.
Mrs. Dora appeared a mont later, unruffled as always — the woman who had been Noah’s safe harbour when Damien and I had been so busy running our business, dealing with Marcus threats. She was one of the people we could trust with Noah. She knew every one of Noah’s moods and preferences and hiding spots. She looked between us the way she always did, taking quiet inventory, checking that everything was as it should be.
Whatever she saw seed to satisfy her completely.
"He ate a full breakfast," she said with the warm authority of soone who considered this a personal achievent. "Two eggs, toast, and most of a banana. My sister’s boy Theo has him convinced that breakfast is only fun if soone else is eating the sa thing at the exact sa ti."
"That might be the most Noah thing I’ve ever heard," I said.
"They were wonderful together." Her expression softened with sothing genuine. "Honestly, watching those two — sa energy, sa nonsense, sa absolute refusal to sleep when told." She smiled, her eyes moving between us with the easy familiarity of a woman who had watched this family slowly, painstakingly beco whole. "Your boy would do well with a sibling, Mr. Blackwood. Just a thought from soone who knows him very well."
I pressed my lips together.
Damien, to his credit, kept his expression perfectly composed. "Noted, Mrs. Dora."
She gave him the particular look she reserved for monts when she felt she had said exactly the right thing — warm, unhurried, entirely unapologetic — and disappeared back inside to help Noah find whatever he’d left behind.
I turned to look at my fiancé. He was staring very intently at a fixed point sowhere above the door fra.
"Just a thought," I said pleasantly. "From soone who knows him very well."
"She raises a valid point."
"Damien."
"Noah would be an excellent big brother." He still wasn’t looking at , but the corner of his mouth was doing sothing suspicious. "Very nurturing. Good fort-building instincts. Strong leadership qualities"
"We are not taking parenting advice from a morning pickup."
"I’m not saying now." He finally looked at , and the expression on his face was so transparently, helplessly hopeful that I almost laughed out loud. "I’m saying — eventually. In theory. As a concept worth exploring."
"As a concept."
"At so point in the future." He paused. "When you’re ready. Entirely your decision. I’m simply... open to it."
"You’re open to it," I repeated.
"Very open."
I looked at him — this man who had once been made entirely of walls and distance, now standing on a doorstep at nine in the morning trying very hard to look casual about wanting to have another baby with — and sothing in my chest turned over completely. "Let’s get through the wedding first," I said.
His face did sothing warm and imdiate that he couldn’t quite contain. "So that’s not a no."
"That is absolutely not a no."
He reached over and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear with a gentleness that still, after everything, caught off guard. "Good," he said softly. "That’s good."
Noah burst back through the door at that precise mont, holding up a small toy dinosaur triumphantly. "Found him! He was under Theo’s pillow. Theo says I can borrow him till next ti."
"That’s very generous of Theo," I said, composing myself.
Mrs. Dora appeared behind him in the doorway, arms folded, watching Noah take both our hands — one each — with the satisfied expression of a woman who had been quietly rooting for this exact mont for a very long ti. When she caught my eye she simply smiled, small and certain, and lifted her hand in farewell.
Go on, that smile said. You’ve got everything you need.
"He’s my best friend," Noah was saying, already swinging between us. "Can we get pancakes on the way ho?"
Damien and I exchanged a look over his head.
"Pancakes," Damien confird. "Definitely pancakes."
And Noah swung between us all the way to the car, completely unaware that he had just, in his small and unknowing way, shown us exactly what we were building toward.
More of this.
More of him.
More of us.
Later That Afternoon – Penthouse
After lunch — takeout, because none of us could cook to save our lives — Noah was buzzing with the particular energy of a child who had slept in a fort, fought dragons, and eaten hot chocolate with the good marshmallows, and was not even slightly ready to wind down about it.
"And then," he said, for approximately the fourth ti, waving a dinosaur at Damien, "Theo said we should add a moat next ti. A real one. With water."
"We’ll discuss the water," I said.
"Mrs. Dora would probably allow it," he said confidently. "She allowed the fort."
"Mrs. Dora," Damien said, loading the takeout containers into the bin, "is a braver woman than most."
Noah considered this seriously. "She’s the best." He looked up. "I’m lucky to have her. And you and Mama. And Aunt Liv and Uncle Lucas and Emma and Mr. Peterson and" He paused, counting on his fingers. "I have a lot of people."
"You do," I said, my heart full. "A very big, very loving family."
"Emma says families that choose each other are stronger than families that have to be together." He went back to his dinosaurs. "Is that true?"
Damien and I exchanged a glance over his head."Yeah, buddy," Damien said softly. "That’s true. The people who choose to love you, who choose to be in your life — those relationships are very strong."
"Then our family is super strong." Noah crashed two dinosaurs together. "’Cause you and Mama chose each other and you both chose and Mrs. Dora chose all of us — she didn’t have to keep looking after but she did and Aunt Liv and" He looked up. "We all chose each other, right?"
"Right," I said, kneeling beside him. "We all chose each other. And we keep choosing each other every day."
"Every day." He seed to like that. "That’s a lot of choosing."
"It is." Damien sat on the floor with us. "But it’s the best choice we ever made."
"Okay." Noah went back to his play, seemingly satisfied with this explanation. Then, almost as an afterthought: "Can Mrs. Dora co to the wedding?"
Damien looked at . "Absolutely," I said. "She’s family."
Noah nodded, like this was obvious, and went back to his dinosaurs. After he was settled in his room with a movie, Damien pulled onto the couch, tucking against his side.
"That was intense," he said quietly.
"Which part?" I rested my head on his shoulder. "The choosing each other speech or our four year old casually defining family better than most adults I know?"
"All of it." He pressed a kiss to my hair. "But he’s right, Aria. Mrs. Dora didn’t have to stay. After everything — the chaos, all the tis this family was anything but settled — she just stayed. Choose to."
"She chose him first," I said softly. "Before we even chose each other again."
"Which ans we owe her more than we’ll probably ever be able to say." His arm tightened around . "But he’s right about us too. We chose this. Against all odds, despite all the history and hurt — we chose each other."
"Best choice I ever made," I said.
"Second best," he corrected. "First was coming back to Ravenwood. That gave us the chance to choose each other again."
"Fair point." I tilted my head to look at him. "Are you scared? About the wedding. Making it all official."
"Not even a little bit." His voice was certain. "I’m excited. Eager. Ready to make you my wife in front of every person we love and legally bind myself to you for the rest of our lives."
"Romantic."
"I’m serious." He shifted to face more fully. "Aria, I’ve been married before. To you, actually. And I screwed it up spectacularly. But this ti—" His voice intensified. "This ti I know what I have. What we have. And I’m going to spend every day of our marriage making sure you know how much I love you, how grateful I am, how completely committed I am to this family we’ve built."
"I know." I touched his face gently. "I see it every day. In how you look at . In how you are with Noah."
He gazed intensely at as he licked his lips.
"Damien."
"I’m obsessed with you." The corner of his mouth lifted. "It’s a new developnt. I’m leaning into it."
I laughed and kissed him softly. "All in," I said against his mouth. "Forever."
"Forever," he agreed.
From here, we could hear Noah singing along to his movie, enthusiastic and entirely off-key.
"That’s our life now," Damien said with a smile that still looked slightly wonder-struck, like he was cataloguing it. "Dinosaurs and off-key singing and fort construction."
"And rgers and press conferences and late-night ice cream conversations," I added.
"And love." His voice went quiet. "So much love it almost scares sotis."
" too." I snuggled closer. "But being scared together is better than being alone and safe. We chose the ssy, complicated, beautiful life, Damien. And I wouldn’t change a single thing."
"Not a thing," he agreed.
As the afternoon faded to evening, as Noah eventually abandoned his movie to build another fort in the living room, as we helped him construct walls and declare it the best fort ever built in the history of forts — I felt sothing settle deep in my chest.
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