“Really?” he asked. “It’s good?”
I nodded. This newest flavor was promising, a mix between floral and fruity, and despite how long I’d chewed, it had retained its pretty blue color.
“You’re my first tester besides Trevor, but he always says that it’s good,” he told me. He and his boyfriend had been together for a few years and it was correct that Trevor was much too nice to be as critical as I was. But you needed that in a business partner.
Gum was only part of what we did. It felt like a million years ago that Corbin had suggested that I apply for a job with his father’s import/export company. I’d been hired shortly after I movedinto the duplex. Maybe he had exerted some pressure, but the advancements I’d made within the ranks had been due to my efforts alone. When his dad had retired, I was right there beside my friend and we were doing great. It was hard work but I loved it.
“When do you leave?” he asked me, and I checked the time.
“Oh, shit,” I said. He laughed as I rushed out of the office and to my car. We had a flight to catch!
“Molly,” Shane said when I ran into our house, his voice deep. He shook his head.
“I know. I know, and I’m sorry.” I kept running, right over to kiss him.
He picked me up. “If I didn’t love you so much…”
“What would you do?” I asked. I kissed him again, a longer one.
“You made me forget,” he told me. We both smiled. “Are you ready to go?”
We were on our way to visit his parents in Arkansas for Christmas. Now that our lives didn’t revolve around the football season, it was much easier to make plans and stick to them. Shane had worked for two years as a Woodsmen coach before he’d decided that he was done. By that point, I had moved into his side of the duplex, and he had made a lot of plans. One of them was to put a ring on my finger.
We’d had a beautiful wedding. A lot of the guests were guys he’d reconnected with, former teammates and old friends. My brother had walked me down the aisle because Dad had alreadytaken off—it had been years since we’d heard from him. After he’d disappeared from our lives for a second time, we hadn’t bothered to search or even to miss him. Walter’s was doing great with a new cook and Max’s management.
The other plan that my husband had devised was about his career. He’d decided to go back to school to become a sports psychologist, working with a lot of the guys he’d formerly scouted and coached. In my mind, he was perfect for that. He was compassionate and caring, but he didn’t shy away from getting tough when his patients needed it. Of course, I thought he was perfect at everything—almost. It still annoyed me how quick he was to pick up our dishes. What if we weren’t totally done?
But right now, everything was wonderful as he nuzzled my neck in exactly the right way. “You smell…like strawberries?” he suggested.
“New gum,” I explained. “Oh, I love that.” I didn’t mean the gum, but what he was doing with his tongue. “How much time do we have before the flight?”
“Not enough,” he was saying and at that point, we were interrupted.
“Ew,” our daughter Morgan said. She rolled her blue eyes, the same color as her father’s, in exactly the same way that I had done at her age. I was impressed with the level of disgust she was able to convey.
“Hi there, honey!” I said. She shrugged. “How was your day?” Another shrug.
“Morgan, did you pack like I asked?” Shane asked her.
“Yes, Daddy.”
“Really?” he prompted, and she turned on her heel and went back to her room. “I heard in her voice that she hadn’t done it.”
“You read her like a book,” I complimented. Her namesake, my sister, was also good at reading her niece. Morgan the elder now lived in Europe with that Daniel guy, who wasn’t my favorite. I blamed him for being too nice and cute, so that my sister had decided to take off for another continent to be with him. We did visit but I had hopes that one day, they’d decide to give life in Michigan a try. Mom had moved to Florida for the weather but came back to stay in the summer, and Avonlea and Max had provided us with five—five!—nieces and nephews who lived nearby.
“Daddy?” a little voice called. Our son John wandered into the room and unlike his big sister, he was very happy to see me. “Mama!” Shane and I received a tackle of love.
“Hi, buddy!” I said, kissing him. He was fortunate to look like a tiny version of his father, but with my dark hair. “You know, I think you’ll need to put on pants before we go on the airplane.”
“Grandma! Papa!” he sang happily, and we put him down so that he could return to his bedroom for more clothing.
“I had also reminded him about pants,” Shane told me. He returned to my neck. “We could go to our room and I could take off mine.”
“I don’t know why you ever wear any. I like you a lot without them,” I said.
“Is there time?”
I sighed. “No, unfortunately. We better get going.”
