by Cole
Cole had a pretty good idea of what it was like to be with Ev, though. She and I had gotten pretty good at traveling to see him. After my first couple of trips to Alabama by myself, I started taking Everleigh with me. Our first trip together was the week of Halloween. It was fun becaue she’d never flown before, and I was excited to experience that new adventure with her. Part of me worried that Cole’s mom and dad wouldn’t love and accept her as their own. That seems to be a silly fear to me now, knowing them as I do, but I was afraid she might throw a fit or have a meltdown and Cole’s family would think, Wow, Savannah’s kid’s a brat. Every mom reading this knows exactly what I am talking about.
From the moment Ev and I walked into Cole’s parents’ house, I knew I had nothing to be afraid of. Right from the start Cole’s mom and dad scooped up Everleigh like she was their biological grandchild. Watching them with her almost made me cry. We felt like one big, happy family. Everleigh and Cole’s sister, Lily, hit it off immediately. I think Lily was so happy to have another girl in the house after living with five brothers her entire life.
On our next trip to Alabama, Ev and I got to spend Thanksgiving with Cole’s family, and I mean his whole family. Right after we got off the plane, we got into a fifteen-passenger van his dad had rented and drove eight hours down to St. Petersburg, Florida. Everleigh learned very quickly during the car ride that living with boys is very different from living in a house full of girls. Cole’s brother Clay farted at least once every five minutes. The van stunk, but Everleigh just laughed. She really had bonded with Cole’s immediate family. Once we got to St. Petersburg, she met Cole’s Nana and Pop-Pop. I was also nervous meeting them. I didn’t know what they’d think of me and Everleigh. They turned out to be genuine people who treated us with unconditional love and acceptance. The rest of his family was also great. I loved bringing Everleigh into a much larger family who welcomed us with open arms. She and I both felt like we were really part of the LaBrant family now.
Even as much as Everleigh already loved Cole and his family, I didn’t know how she’d do having Cole with us all day, every day. Just as Cole had been with Ev for only a few hours at a time a couple of days a month, the same was true for Everleigh. When Cole came out on the big event trips, he played with her and did whatever she wanted to do. What would she do when they had a normal relationship, when he couldn’t always play because we had to run errands or work or any of the other things you have to do in real life? I also didn’t know how she’d do sharing me with him. All of her life it had just been the two of us. When Cole moved closer, she wouldn’t always have my undivided attention. I didn’t know how she might handle that. I couldn’t know until he actually moved to California.
The big question was where Cole would live. In Alabama he shared a cheap apartment with four guys. He didn’t know any guys in Huntington Beach with whom he could share an apartment. Renting a place by himself didn’t make any sense. A cheap, one-room apartment around here runs more than $2,000 a month. Our social media following was growing, and we were making some money from it, but we weren’t making that much money.
There was another possibility. Ev and I lived with my mom in her four-bedroom house. My mom had a room. Ev had a room. I had a room. That left one empty bedroom. Why not have Cole live there? I wondered. I talked to my mom about it. She was 100 percent on board with the idea. Believe it or not, having Cole live in my mom’s house with us made it easier for us to keep our commitment to purity, something we will talk about later.
Once my mom agreed to let Cole live in our house, all that was left was for Cole to finish his classes and actually move out. Counting down the days to his moving day made me excited but also a little nervous. My last few questions about our relationship were about to be answered. I was pretty sure I knew what the answers were going to be, but you never know how things are going to turn out until you actually try. As crazy as it sounded to both of us, we were going to do it. Our long-distance days were numbered. We were about to have a normal relationship. I could not wait to start.
16
Making a Decision
Cole
As much as I wanted to live close to her, I wanted to make sure Savannah felt exactly the same way about me that I did about her. I didn’t want to move out there and discover she was not on the same page as me in our relationship. Toward the end of the first semester of my sophomore year, I started meeting with my professors to make all the arrangements to do school online for the spring semester. “If you are one hundred percent serious about me moving out there in December, I will,” I told Savannah. But I gave her an out. “If there’s anything holding you back, just tell me. I’ll totally understand and we’ll wait until May or later and just make the long-distance thing work until then.”
“No! Come out. One hundred percent. I feel just as strongly as you do,” Savannah reassured me. But that didn’t stop us from asking each other multiple times, “Do you still want to do this? How do you feel?” We’d gotten to the place where we not only communicated really well, we trusted each other with the truth—whether the truth felt good or not. Our relationship was a safe place.
And we knew this was about more than me moving out to California to be closer to her. The move was the final test, the precursor to me proposing and us getting married. To forever. Honestly, I didn’t have any doubts, and it seemed neither did she.
The closer I got to the end of the semester, the more excited we both became. I don’t know how I even took my finals. I had a lot of friends who helped me with my schoolwork and prepare for finals, and somehow I finished with a decent GPA. I guess I could have just blown off the semester, but I did not want to close the door on going back to school. As it turned out, once I got to California, our social media took off so much that I had to put college on hold and stop taking online classes. So did Savannah. However, we both know that our online careers could end anytime. For most people, stardom in any media doesn’t last very long. If our social media career ended tomorrow, we want to be ready to move on with a more traditional life. That is why we set aside enough money in savings to live on for a couple of years if we need to while we both finish our college degrees. That’s why I say we put school on hold for a while. We didn’t drop out. We both plan on going back.
As soon as I finished my last final, I jumped on a plane and flew to Los Angeles. (This was not my official moving trip. I didn’t move until after spending one last Christmas with my family in Alabama.) I even took my last final early to make it in time for Ev’s fourth birthday party. Savannah and I texted continually between the time I arrived at the Atlanta airport and when I got on the plane. As the cabin doors closed, I texted her 4 more hours right before I shut off my phone. Those were always the longest four hours—because I was unable to text her. But it was a relief knowing that this would be the last time I’d make this flight alone.
My plane landed, and I texted Savannah telling her I was on the ground. She and Everleigh were already at the terminal, waiting for me. It took forever for the plane to taxi to the gate. As soon as we stopped, I grabbed my stuff and got off the plane as fast as I could. I ran down the Jetway and out into the terminal toward the “magical” escalator that led to baggage claim. We called it the magical escalator because as I started down, I couldn’t see anything beyond the escalator. But there came a point a little over halfway down when I could finally see the baggage claim area, and there at the bottom of the escalator would be Savannah and Everleigh. Ev always jumped up and down while Sav stood back, looking gorgeous and dressed like we were about to go on the greatest date in the world. It always meant so much to me that she made an effort to look great no matter how early or late my flights came in.
This last trip alone down the magical escalator was no exception. Savannah and Everleigh were waiting at the bottom for me. Ev sprinted over to me and jumped into my arms. Then Savannah came and kissed me and hugged me and, oh man, Christmas might have been less than two weeks away, but this was be
tter than every Christmas morning rolled into one. Except for a brief time when we spent Christmas with our respective families, we were never going to be apart for an extended period of time ever again. I felt so relieved.
Later, at Everleigh’s birthday party, I felt different than I had on my other trips to California or when they came to see me in Alabama. Maybe it was just knowing that I was about to move out there permanently, but standing next to Savannah, while Everleigh blew out the candles on her cake, I felt such a huge confirmation in my spirit that this was how I wanted life to always be. I belonged here, and we belonged together. I could not wait to be Savannah’s husband and a dad to Everleigh.
Savannah
A few weeks before Cole flew out for Everleigh’s birthday he surprised me with an amazing gift. The two of us were talking on the phone and Cole said, “Guess what?”
“What?” I asked.
“My family’s going on this awesome cruise to the Bahamas for Christmas,” he said.
“That’s awesome!” I said. “Have fun. I wish I could go.”
“I know,” Cole said. “I wish you could go too.” Then he paused and said, “Yeah, that would be really awesome if you could go with us.”
“I would love to do that,” I said. “It’d be so fun!”
Then he said, “What if we just book your room right now?”
I thought he was joking so I said, “Hey, I would totally do that.”
“Okay, let’s do it,” Cole said.
That’s when it hit me that he was actually serious. “What are the dates?” I asked. We then talked about all the details of their trip. He was really going to do this for me! I ran downstairs and asked my mom if she’d keep Everleigh for five days while I was gone. Asking her to keep her granddaughter is like asking Cole if he wants waffles and bacon in the morning. The answer is always yes. So when I told her about the cruise with Cole’s family, she said, “Of course!”
I ran back upstairs and texted Cole: Hey, if we want to make this work, I have a babysitter.
He said, Are you kidding!? Hang on a second and let me call to see if they have rooms available. I sat there on my bed, staring at my phone, so excited, waiting for Cole to text me. Finally he did. He’d booked a room for me and my flight, everything, and refused to let me pay for any of it. Merry Christmas, he said.
When Cole went home after Everleigh’s birthday party, I got to fly back east with him for the first time! We met his family in Alabama, then all of us loaded into a van for the six- or seven-hour drive down to Port Canaveral. Once we stepped on board the cruise ship, everything felt like a fairy-tale honeymoon—except we stayed in separate cabins. Since Everleigh wasn’t there, I got to spend a lot of undistracted time with Cole and with his family—which included some of his cousins and grandparents. I felt very official because everyone knew that we were probably going to get married. I mean, Cole had never brought a girl around, and now he had me go on this dream vacation with his entire family! Everyone knew what that meant. At least, I hoped this meant what I thought it meant. Cole had hinted that he was going to propose, and I kept waiting for him to finally do it, but he never did. It became a kind of game we played with each other: When Will Cole Propose? He liked the game a lot more than I did.
Aside from constantly wondering if Cole was going to pop the question, the cruise itself was so relaxing. We laid by the pool aboard the ship and ate tons of incredible food. Every day Cole amazed me by how much of a gentleman he is. He’d ask if I wanted something to drink or if I was hungry or if I needed anything. He always put me first, which was something I had never experienced with any other guy, at least not consistently. At night we went out dancing with his mom and dad. They were as much fun and as crazy as Cole. I can see where he gets it. One night we all sang karaoke, which was just hilarious. Cole’s mom and I got up there and sang together really loud, and we danced until we laughed so much we could hardly sing. The two of us really bonded on this trip.
As much fun as I had, it was hard being away from Everleigh for so long. I had come out to Alabama without her when Cole and I first started dating, but I was never away for more than two or three days. This was a four-night cruise, which, when you add in a couple of days for travel before and one after, made for a really long time away from my little girl. Some days I missed her so much that I found it hard to enjoy myself. Cole was so sweet. He cheered me up and reassured me that Ev was having a better time with her Gigi than she’d have on the boat with us. Everleigh had just turned four, so a trip like this didn’t make much sense for her. She couldn’t swim, and with pools all over the cruise ship, we didn’t want to worry about her possibly falling in one.
The time Cole and I had alone together was so special because we rarely had any time for just us without Ev or anyone else around. I knew his family was on the cruise, too, but the ship was huge. It was easy for us to get away from everyone. This was the longest we had been consistently with each other. I loved it. I loved him. I could not wait to start a life together.
Cole
The cruise to the Bahamas turned out to be the perfect way to wrap up the long-distance part of our relationship. We’d never spent that much time together, either in the number of days or the number of hours in the days that we were actually together. Never once did we get short with each other or fight. Honestly, we just could not get enough of each other.
It was a pleasant surprise to find out how much cruise ships have to offer. For instance, you can eat 24/7 if you want. And we kind of wanted to! One of the things I love about Savannah is she’s this tiny, girly girl, but she is not afraid to be herself around me. And this girl can eat. I couldn’t believe how much food we both put away on this trip. Between me and my brothers, I am surprised the ship didn’t run out of food.
When we docked in the Bahamas, I rented scooters for Sav and me to ride around the island. There was some kind of poetry in that—a scooter had led me to meet Savannah the summer before and now here we were riding scooters together in the gorgeous Bahamas! It was like a movie. The water and the sky were so blue. We cruised until we found a private beach. We hung out at the beach for a while, then cruised some more until we found another cool beach to stop at. I wish we could have stayed longer, but with a cruise you go out on the excursions and have some fun, but then you have to get back to the ship before it sails away. I had so much fun on the ship, especially watching Savannah and my mom dancing and doing karaoke together. By the time the cruise was over, my mom and Sav were so close that if I had decided to break up with her—which I never would have done—my mom might have disowned me. After the cruise Savannah wasn’t just my girlfriend. She was family.
17
Preparing for the Move
Cole
Before I talk about moving to California and what it was like to finally be close to Savannah all the time, I need to back up a little bit. A couple of weeks before Savannah flew out for the cruise, I had some business to take care of, and I didn’t have much time to get it done. The first thing I had to do was talk to my mom and dad about something very important. They expected the conversation, but I don’t know that they were fully prepared for it. Everything had happened so fast. How could they have been?
I sat down with my parents and said to them, “Mom . . . Dad . . . I think I’m going to ask Savannah to marry me.” I’d already told them that I planned to move to California after Christmas and New Year’s.
My parents had to expect this because neither had any kind of big reaction. My mom didn’t even cry, which sort of surprised me. For most of my growing-up years, my dad was the one who cried, not my mom. But as I got older, she became more emotional.
I don’t remember if it was my mom or my dad, or maybe both of them, who said, “You know this is a lifelong commitment. Marriage is forever.”
“I know,” I said. “I can’t think of anyone better to spend the rest of my life with than Savannah.”
“Are you sure you are ready to be a dad? It�
�s a lot different being a parent 24/7 than a long-distance dad. Are you prepared for the difficulties that can possibly come from being a stepdad?” they asked.
“I love Everleigh. I already think of her as my own. I can’t wait to be a full-time father to her,” I said.
“You understand the fact that her biological father is still in the picture will make things more complicated? He’s always going to be a part of that little girl’s life.”
“I know,” I said. I reassured them that I had thought through all of this and I had prayed long and hard about it. Savannah is the one I cannot live without, I told them. I knew it was a package deal. If I loved and wanted to marry Savannah, I had to love and want to be a dad to Everleigh. Honestly, I could not imagine my life without Ev.
My parents and I talked for a little while longer. They gave me their blessing, which I appreciated. I wanted them to be as excited about this as I was. I wasn’t, however, asking their permission. No disrespect to my mom and dad, but I didn’t feel like I needed to ask for that. I knew they trusted my judgment. All my life I’d listened to them and now I was living out everything they’d instilled in me. They also knew how seriously I took dating and marriage. I’d never before brought a girl around, so they knew when I finally did introduce them to Savannah that I’d already thought she might be the one. One of my brothers dates a different girl every other week. If he’d come to my parents and told them he wanted to marry a girl he’d only known for a few months, they would have had lots of questions about why this girl and not one of the twenty others he’d dated that year. With me, it was different. My parents also couldn’t say I was too young since they were about my age when they got married. Their marriage worked out pretty well. I knew Savannah’s and mine would too.
