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She sighed as she relaxed into me, slowly catching on to how perfect he was for her. “He’s such a fantastic guy. Isn’t he?”
My heart ached for Carolyn and her kids and their entire world being turned upside down in an instant. But even in all the horribleness they were going through, something wonderful seemed to be brewing for them. “He sure had a big smile on his face when he said you guys were staying with him until you got back on your feet.”
I heard her gulp as she nodded. “That’s going to grow old quick for him, though. He’s used to living by himself, and we’re all” — she flung out her fingers — “loud and in your face all the time.”
Squinting down at her, I jerked my shoulder gently so she’d look at me. “Carolyn, the man has been in love with you since we were little kids. He’s living the dream right now. Trust me.”
As much as she was able to with her swollen cheek, she popped her eyes open wider. “Really?” Realizing two decades too late how different her life may have been, she fluttered her lashes against the tears dripping from them. “Why didn’t he ever tell me?”
I drew a deep breath through my nose and hummed back at her. “Mmm. Because he was the funny, chunky kid no one took seriously, and you were head over heels in love with the band teacher.”
The too-long arm of his sweatshirt she had to fold over five or six times dabbed across her eyes. “Why can’t we go back in time and tell our younger selves not to be so damn stupid? It’s not fair.”
Laughing back at her, I shook my head. “Because we wouldn’t have listened, anyway. Some things have to come the hard way, I think.” Swaying with the cool morning breeze, I moved her with me when it pushed me forward. “We just have to try to build something better this time for those little girls we used to be.”
In the corner of my eye, I saw Jason’s checkered flannel veer toward us again as he leaned back. “He’s dying to take care of you guys, so let him and see how it goes between you two.”
I could have gone another year or two tossing the idea around, but that clock inside me seemed to move at double speed those last few days. Could I actually do it, though? “Plus, having you right next door will be helpful because...” Dom and Dad were stacking the wood they cut up from the downed trees, and when I looked back at him, Dom smiled and blew me a kiss. “I’m going to try to have a baby.”
“Whoa!” Her hand came up between us, pushing her away from me. “Are you for real?”
I flipped up my fingers from the half wall. “I know it’s crazy since we only got back together. But I’ll be thirty-nine before you know it, and I don’t want to miss the chance. There’s no one else in the world I can imagine having one with, anyway.”
Flinching from the pain, she shifted toward me more to pick up the coffee mug behind her. “I don’t think it’s crazy, Faith. Besides, no one bats an eye at the age thing anymore. Half of the moms from the team are older than I am.” She sipped a little of the coffee away from the rim. “I think it’s awesome, and I’ll help you any way I can.” While taking another drink, her eyes shifted behind us for a beat before she set her cup down. “What does Dom think about all that, though?”
“He kind of put the idea in my head with that I’m-joking-but-I’m-also-serious thing he does, but it just feels right. You know?” My finger made a circle by my ear. “I only needed someone to tell me I wasn’t out of my mind before I discussed it with him some more. Because if he even thinks I might want a baby, it’ll be his life’s mission to make it happen.”
Shaking her head as she gazed across the lawn to Jason’s house, I heard her chirp a laugh. “I’m living in a castle, and you’re going to have a baby. What a difference a couple of days can make. Huh?”
I put my fingers through hers and brought them to my lips. “Yes, they can. And I think it’s only going to get better for us from here on out.”
56
Our Story
Faith
The fallen leaves crunched under our feet, painting the ground brown, red, and orange as we took the long way around the river path this time.
Like the early summer that brought us back together just a few months ago, the transition to early Fall signaled lots of changes coming into our lives. We were ready for it, though.
After some convincing by his doctor, Dom restarted his medication and went to counseling every other week. Life was good, better than that, and he seemed to just radiate joy from every single pore.
His arm around me jerked, pulling me closer to him if that’s possible, and his lips squished against my cheek as he gave me a noisy kiss. “Did I tell you how good you look today?” His forehead rocked against me as he made his eyes wider. “Not that you don’t always. But today,” — his eyes fell down my body — “you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Thanks to his intuition, keeping a secret from him was impossible, so I laid my head against his shoulder to keep his eyes off me. “You’re certainly in a great mood today.”
He took a deep breath of the cool, sunny morning air through his nose, making his shoulders pitch upward. “Wonderful day to be alive is all.”
I nodded against his brownish barn coat to agree with him because, since the night of the tornado, each day had been better than the last.
When he wasn’t busy with me at home or work, he helped with the cleanup or hung out at the lake with Dad. That stunted part of him that never fully made it out of childhood figured out how to function in the grown-up world at last — and he lived each second to the fullest.
The old picnic table met its long overdue demise the night of the storm. Dom, being Dom, though, was eager to preserve the memory of our first kiss, so he donated a couple of new ones.
Seeing the opening they sat in coming up on the right, he turned around and motioned to them with a head tilt. “Check this out.”
The most whimsical person I had ever encountered in my life to balance out my being the most practical, Dom wanting to recreate his love-struck teenage promise to me was expected. But when I bent over to read the heart’s inscription, it only read, ‘Marry me?’
