Under the Mistletoe

"Yes! Yes, I will marry you!" she told him as the room went crazy.

Layton slid the ring on her finger, stood up, then smiled at her before kissing her in front of everyone.

Kodi melted into his arms and kissed him back as they both said, "I love you," even as the noise got louder and louder all around them.

Nothing else mattered but each other as they stood there kissing, now engaged to be married.

"Is this as good as our first kiss under the mistletoe?" he asked as people began lining up to congratulate them.

"Every kiss has been amazing, honey," she told him. "But I will never forget that first one as long as I live."

*****

Kodi never did forget it. She actually recalled it many times, and that was especially true when she learned she was pregnant for the first time some six months later. Layton was with her when she found out, and he was so excited he knocked some papers off the doctor's desk when he jumped up and fist pumped into the air.

"Yes! I'm gonna be a father!" before turning to his wife and saying, "Oh, God. Honey...are you okay?"

Kodi was laughing and crying tears of joy as she said, "You goof! Of course I'm okay. I'm pregnant with our baby. How could I not be okay?"

Layton forgot about the doctor as he sat back down and took his wife's hand.

"So it was worth waiting for?" he asked quietly. "For...this?"

As tears of...contentment...streamed down her face, she smiled and said, "Yes. It was worth every minute."

"I love you, Kodi Russell," he told her.

She said it back to him then Layton lowered his head and put his hands and face on her tummy and said, "And Daddy loves you, too, little Russell person," as Kodi held him close to her and thought yet again about their first kiss under the mistletoe.