Soulmates and Exceptions #Wattys2016

Nothing Else Matters

      "What's wrong Michael?" Rose went to Michael's side and read the nametag for herself. "Jessa-Rose Thomas." She hugged Hope closer to her chest. "Gabriella...Spencer...Jackson..." She too teared up.

      "I know we didn't need to, but we wanted to." Brea stated honestly.

      "We named our son after the two most important men in our lives, why not name our daughter after the two most important women?" Jackson explained.

      Spencer led Rose to the chair. "There's one more thing, Rose." He took his sister from her and handed her over to their dad. "Would you hold Hope for a moment?" Michael took his daughter. "Thanks." Spencer nodded to Jackson, and the two retrieved a couple of items from a bag in the corner of the room.

      "These are for you." Jackson handed her a bouquet of brightly colored daisies that had one red rose in the center. "Now that I have my own daughter, I'd like to apologize for getting matched and bonded to Brea way earlier than I should have. Also, thank you for not killing me when you found out." Rose smiled. "I can only hope that I show as much restraint when some boy tries to come near her."

      Rose laughed. "Come here." She stood to hug him.

      "Time to take a seat again." Spencer announced, holding something behind his back. Rose did as she was told.

      "Wait Spence. We wrote it down, remember?" Jackson patted his pockets down and found the folded slip of paper. He opened it and handed it to his brother.

      Spencer cleared his throat. "Rose, Jacks and I lost our mom at a young age. Not only did we need to face her loss, but we faced the prospect of losing our father. The first year passed us by and we still had him around. More years passed and he stayed with us. More and more people began to avoid the three of us and allowed their children to taunt Jacks and me. We lived in a world of near complete social isolation when you came into our lives. The kindness you showed us when we ran across your yard and Jacks knocked those boxes over, was something we had only seen from our dad. We had never seen the type of kindness you bestowed upon us from a woman since before our mom passed away." He wiped a tear from his cheek.

      Jackson took the paper from him and continued. "You were adamant that my brother, father, and I join your family for dinner – even after you learned about the unusual circumstances of our family. Not only did you invite us over for dinner that night, but nearly every night after for the next ten years."

      Rose covered her mouth with her hand, in a weak attempt to hold her tears back. "I..."

      "Let them finish Mom." Brea scolded.

      "Now that we're older, we understand why you did it. You managed to take the small grocery budgets of two limited-income households and make meals large enough to feed six of us. You made sure that, despite our dad working as hard as he could for little pay, my brother and I had at least one – if not more decent and filling meals a day. You not only fed us, you mended our clothes, bandaged our wounds, and showed as we grew into men, what women were supposed to be like and how we needed to treat them. You even helped our dad explain to us all of the things involved with soulmates and bonding. I don't think he could have managed that without you. You never once looked at us in fear or disgust. You looked after us as if we had been your own sons." Jackson swallowed hard and handed the paper back to Spencer.

      "The most important thing, at least to us," he motioned his finger between himself and his brother, "is not just how you became a second mom to us, or how you helped us through all of the challenges of growing up, or even how you didn't kill either of us when it became obvious we had both fallen madly in love with Brea."