I nod, resting my chin over her shoulder. “She would have loved you. I don’t think she could hate anyone, but for you, she would’ve bent over backward to fulfill your wishes.” My throat constricts, and Autumn shivers in my arms. Her pink nails dig into the skin of my hands as she presses herself back into me more. “Some nights I wake up scared. I can’t stop thinking that all we have is a dream, and you’ll be taken away from me just like her.”

Autumn turns around in my arms. “No one can take me away from you, Lukas. You won’t allow it. You won’t let it happen.”

My rattling heart tries to calm itself upon seeing her confidence in me, which I don’t feel myself right now.

“I want to ask you something.” I look into her eyes, which are brimming with love for me. I’d planned to do this when we were out on a proper date sometime later this week, but right now, before my mother, seems perfect. “I want to get married.”

“But we’re already married. And to be honest, I like my ring. A lot.” She flutters her fingers in the air. “I don’t want to replace it with something else.”

“Me too.” I kiss her hand right over the antique ring. “Every time I look at our rings, it feels like my mother is blessing us from heaven, but there’s something I want to change.”

“What?” Autumn locks her hands around my neck.

“I want to change my memory of our wedding.” My arms tighten around her waist. “Every time I remember your face, I’m reminded of that scowl.”

“You’re saying you don’t like me scowling?” She playfully arches an eyebrow and giggles when I tickle her stomach.

“I love you in every way, Autumn. But when you think of our wedding day, I want you happy, smiling. When you see your friends getting married, I want you to think of the moment I kissed you.” I bring my lips closer to hers. “Not the way I shook your hand.”

She throws her head back in laughter. “That was really awkward. But are you serious? A wedding?”

I nod. “Let’s get married for real, wife.”

Autumn and I stay in the house for another hour, and when we leave, she’s packed some of my childhood pictures with Mom, and even a photograph of my grandparents, into her handbag.

We visit the cemetery and place fresh flowers on my grandparents’ and Mom’s grave.

My heart clenches tight when Autumn whispers to my mother, and it’s so surreal when she kisses the headstone before turning to me with a teary smile on her face.

* * *

We return to Cherrywood the next day, after spending the night at a local hotel.