Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 46858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
She’s moved into my apartment. We’re looking at houses.
We’re waiting for the day the pregnancy test tells us the next step is beginning.
Anything, I text.
I want you to be with me and Hudson when we go to mom and dad’s grave. It’s the first time and I’ve sort of freaked every time before.
I’ll be there, I reply. Always.
Thank you. I love you.
I drive across town, heading toward the meeting point.
Hudson is picking up Della from our apartment since I had to drive to Second Chance College for my meeting with Jocelyn. It’s good to know she’s decided to let me stay on, provided I can prove that this isn’t a ‘repeated pattern of behavior’….
I almost told her, Ma’am, I was a virgin before I met my woman, and I say that proudly. She’s the only one I’ll ever need.
Instead, I said, “We’re engaged. You’ll never find me showing interest in another woman.”
But though I’m relieved to be able to continue my Second Chance work, it’s difficult to smile or feel anything other than support for my woman. She’s told me how difficult it is for her to visit her parents’ grave.
She hasn’t done it since they passed.
I pull up outside, get out, and lean against my car. I made sure the meeting would end so I could get here fifteen minutes early.
The last thing I wanted was my woman arriving without me, having to wait as her nerves amped up.
As I wait, the wind makes the cemetery sign squeak. It’s an overcast day, the world a dark steel hue. I breathe in the bracing air, thinking about the man I was before I saw my woman on the bus, and she caused love to grip me, to guide me.
I had no way of knowing my waiting would be worthwhile. At forty-one, my life has truly begun.
Hudson pulls up in his new car. He tried to tell me no when I offered it, but I told him he could think of it as a company vehicle. Or he could pay me back one day. I don’t care if he does. I just wanted him to take the car.
He deserves the freedom, especially since he’s driving back and forth to Tina’s so often these days.
They step out together, my fiancée walking toward me.
She’s wearing dark trousers and a black raincoat, her hair tied up. I go to her and spread my arms, pulling her into a gentle hug and kissing the top of her head.
Last night, when we were lying in bed together, she said, “I love it when you do that. It makes me feel so wanted and…and safe, somehow.”
She squeezes onto me, then looks up, her eyes glimmering. But it’s like she’s holding back her tears, a tough expression on her face despite the sadness.
It’s a mixture that has me proud and flooded with supportive signals at the same time.
“Before we go in,” she says gently, “I want to tell you something…I wanted to do it here, a place that symbolized the end of something wonderful.”
I hold her as she lets out a sob, squeezing onto me, pressing her face against my chest. As she cries, Hudson and I exchange a glance.
His face is hard, but his eyes are shimmering too.
He nods as if to say, Thanks for taking care of her.
I nod, silently telling him, Always.
“I wanted to tell you here,” she goes on, staring up at me. “Because where something ended, something else can begin. At a place of death…that’s where I want to start our life, Eli.”
I wait, not wanting to presume anything even as the notion pulses through me, tempting.
Please let it be.
“I did the test yesterday,” she says, her sob cracking as she laughs when smiling, bringing light into the possible darkness of the moment. “And two more, just to be sure. They were all positive, Eli. I’m pregnant.”
“We’re going to have a baby,” I say, my voice low, and then, when it hits me, my voice rises as joy swells it. “You’re going to make a perfect mother. And you, Hudson, you’re going to be the best uncle!”
Della laughs in delight, clinging onto me. “And you’re going to be the best dad.”
We kiss, love blooming between us, and then I take her hand. She turns us toward the entrance as Hudson walks up beside us.
“I’m ready,” Della says, taking the first step.
EPILOGUE
SIX MONTHS LATER
Della
I lie in bed, my eyes closed, but the love-flooded beating of my heart makes it impossible to sleep.
We’re getting married at a gorgeous venue, a hotel with a large interior garden. We’re going to be standing in the middle of a fairytale, on a small bridge with a stream between us, surrounded by shining glass as our guests look on.
The garden is always mentioned whenever this hotel comes up in conversation. When I saw it in the photos, it took me back to the day on the bus, looking out the window and just knowing this was the right choice.