One Year Later

Cassandra and Jacob had indeed found it unbearable to spend time apart and it wasn't long after they got together that she was subletting her apartment and living full time with Jacob and Max. A few months later, when his lease expired, they'd rented a bigger apartment, thinking about buying a house the next year.

Today was Cassandra and Jacob's one year anniversary. He'd originally wanted to take her somewhere romantic via the Back Door. But she'd insisted that they spend the day together as a family. And so two weeks before, he'd begun to put plan B in motion for that day, with Max's help.

Now they were on Plan C because stormy weather had rolled in, ruining their plans for a picnic in the park. But both Max and Cassandra had laughed and decided that a living room campout would be even better.

While Cassandra and Max were having a blast in the living room, making a fort out of blankets, chairs and pillows, Jacob was in the kitchen making dinner.

As he was working, his thoughts kept wandering over the months he and Cassandra had been together. Living together had been a bit awkward at first, but it soon became natural. They'd hit a bit of a rocky patch three months prior when Josie had finally decided to move out to Portland.

It had been weird, they hadn't really wanted to let her in on the whole Library idea but Jacob had decided it was time to tell his ex-wife about who he really was. Josie had taken that better than he'd expected, she'd long suspected that Jacob hadn't exactly been telling her the truth. Cassandra wasn't jealous of Josie . . .exactly. But it had turned out that Cassandra had still harbored a bit of insecurity about his relationship with his son's mother. And he'd realized just how deep into playing mother Cassandra had gotten. It was hard for her to cede some of that role to Max's actual mother.

No amount of talking that out had really completely unbroken Cassandra's heart. Sometimes Jacob wished he could talk Cassandra into a child: via adoption or maybe a surrogate. Perhaps having a child whose mothering she didn't have to share would ease her pain. But she still hated babies and he knew she still had worries about her future, so while he'd brought it up once or twice, he hadn't pushed. He'd just hoped that time and the fact that Max lived with them and not Josie would help. Josie had tried to meet them more than halfway. She'd been kind to Cassandra, she'd enrolled herself in school and had told Jacob that Max was still better living full time with him. Josie still had a long way to go in her own journey and Jacob realized that Max would probably always be with him. Which was just fine for the selfish part of him.

But he wasn't gonna dwell on that. He had plans for today. Talks about how they felt about marriage had gone much more smoothly. He'd come to realize that marriage could go well if you were marrying the right person for the right reasons. And not long ago Cassandra had told him a similar thing. Which had been exactly why he'd originally planned an evening for just the two of them in some romantic city.

But then as he brought dinner out to the fort where his girl and his son were waiting, he'd realized that Plan B was even better. This was the life that they were going to lead: adventure, romance and an exuberant little boy.

Dinner went off with only the most minor of messes to the carpet, Cassandra's skirt and Max's shirt. Cassandra had managed to clean them both up without leaving a stain, though they'd have to do some laundry later. Then Jacob asked Max to help him talk the dishes back into the kitchen and help make dessert.

"I can take some stuff too," Cassandra said, beginning to gather things up.

"No, we have men business!" Max exclaimed and Jacob held his breath, afraid the whole thing was blown.

But Cassandra just laughed and looked over at Jacob, who shrugged and pretended to look puzzled. She seemed to buy that. He leaned over and kissed her. "We got this, you just hold down the fort, you know literally."

She giggled and the Stones headed to the kitchen.

"Did I mess up, Daddy?" Max asked, his little face worried.

"Nah, cowboy, we covered it up."

"She's gonna say yes, right Daddy?"

"I sure hope so." Jacob walked over to the cabinet where hidden behind the box of graham crackers for their microwave s'mores was a ring box. He'd bought Josie a ring, pretty much the day before they'd gotten married. But for Cassandra, he'd looked for something a little more meaningful. Jess had given him a ring that had in turn belonged to their grandmother and mother. It might have even been their great-grandmother's, they weren't sure. He'd had it reset in a more modern, yet still vintage looking style for Cassandra, the antique yellow diamond holding the place of honor. He'd been inspired by the design on the doors and arches of the Library and had talked a jeweler through what he'd wanted it to look like. It was perfectly Cassandra.

"Alright, you remember what to say?" Jacob asked as he took the s'mores out of the microwave. He handed the ring box to his son. "Careful with that, make sure she doesn't see it yet."

Max nodded. "I've got it, Daddy."

"Alright, come on Team Stone."

They slipped back into the fort and Cassandra reached for a s'more but Jacob stopped her.

"Before we have dessert, we have something we wanna say to you."

Cassandra smiled. "Okay."

Jacob took her hand and he could hear her intake of breath. He was pretty sure she'd caught on now. "Cassandra . . . ." Jacob had been so worried about Max forgetting what he was going to say as simple as it was, that he'd forgotten his own speech. It had been romantic and heartfelt and damned if he could remember a word of it. Not when faced with those blue eyes filling up with happiness and love staring at him. "I . . .I love you. And . . . ."

Thank God for his bright little son. Max took out the box and pushed it between them, his lack of grace forgotten with him remembering his words. "Andra, will you marry us?"

Jacob laughed even as Cassandra burst into a combination of happy tears and laughter .

Max looked a little confused, not realizing Cassandra's reaction was an affirmative like his father had. "Andra?"

"Yes, sweetheart, yes. Oh yes!"

"I had this whole thing," Jacob said as he opened the box for Cassandra to examine. "And I forgot every single line. I wanted this to be perfect . . . ."

"It is! It was. Oh gosh, I love you so much and is that . . ." she took the ring out of the box and Jacob helped slide it on her finger. "Is that the Library?"

He nodded. "Yeah, Jessie gave me an old ring that belonged to my mother and her mother, and maybe even my great-grandmother. And I thought it would look good reset into something that looked like the Library."

"It's beautiful," she reached over and kissed him until Max made noises behind them. And then she reached over and kissed Max's cheek as he squirmed. "I love it. And I love you both."

"Can we eat the s'mores now?" Max asked.

Laughing, both adults agreed. Much later, a sleepy Max had been allowed to settle in his sleeping bag in the fort. Cassandra took her turn kissing him good night.

"I love you, Mommy Andra."

Cassandra blinked back the tears. "I love you too, Max."

Much later, in the afterglow of a much more adult celebration of their engagement, Cassandra asked softly, "are you okay that your plans didn't go right? Now I know why you wanted us to go away somewhere for our anniversary."

He shook his head, pressed a kiss against her forehead. "I'm disappointed I forgot the speech that I worked on for two weeks. But it's better this way. This was us. Our lives are full of adventure, we don't need artificial romance, we create plenty ourselves. It was perfect . . .at least I hope so."

"It was, absolutely perfect. So how do we top this for a wedding?"

"Well, darlin', we ain't getting married in no blanket fort."

And Cassandra laughed so hard that Jacob had to silence her with kisses. Which lead to another celebration.

Their lives were not normal, adventure and danger lay ahead. But they were together. And their future was going to be a happy one.

The End