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“I’m ready to go if you are,” he said.
“I’m ready.”
They took Katrina’s car, parked in back of the church, and walked in together. Dave usually sat in the closest pew and got down to business, but since going with Katrina, he deferred to her routine.
“I’ll light the candles,” she whispered, first dipping her fingers in the marble wall receptacle filled with holy water.
“I’m afraid of the holy water,” he said, grimacing.
“Don’t be! I touch the holy water since I heard Father puts a couple of drops of lemon-scented bleach in it.”
She giggled, her shoulders rising a bit, and it was so endearing, Dave smiled and got emotional watching her.
Ducking down, he whispered in her ear, “You’re so cute. I can’t stand it.”
“Let’s slide in here,” she said, happy and in love, so lighthearted in church compared to the time she’d come here after their first night together, when she sat alone and cried.
She wasn’t alone any longer. They knelt together, bodies touching, saying the rosary. She could hear him whispering prayers, fingering the beads. The intimate moment solidified the premise that she would tell him he was going to be a father.
When they first got together, they shared the stories of their rosaries; Katrina’s belonged to her Acadian grandmother, Katarina, the beads mother-of-pearl, and Dave’s were his childhood set, with a staff, five stones, and sling; the weapons David, his namesake, used to slay Goliath.
Once mass was over, a welcome breeze swept through when the doors were opened. “I’m glad we’re here together,” Dave said, taking her hand.
“Me, too.”
The drive to New Orleans was wonderful; they had more time to talk about them as a couple. Breakfast was delicious. Afterward, a walk around Audubon Park balanced the fattening meal.
“Tell me. What do you see in your future?” Katrina asked, holding his hand as they strolled along.
“What do I want? I want to be with you, of course. Anything else, I’m still in one-day-at-a-time mode because of the uncertainty, but that will change when I get used to us, then I can plan more into the future.”
“I’m content with my career. If I go any farther, I’d have to leave Cypress Cove, and I don’t want to do that, ever.”
“What about you?”
She looked up at his grinning face. “I’ve never been thecottage with the white picket fencekind of girl, and what do I end up with?”
“It’s just a house, though. You have the promotion to look forward to. You said that was what you have worked for most of your adult life.”
Talking about her upcoming promotion scared her a little because she was going to be honest with him. What if he decided she’d trapped him?
“Dave, I have something to tell you and I’m so scared, I don’t even know where to begin.”
He stopped strolling and held her hand against his chest, his gorge rising a little after the huge breakfast.
“Should I be scared? Please don’t say you want to break up.”
“No! I love you. I want to live the rest of my life with you. I’m worried you might not want to be with me when I tell you.”
“You can’t do anything to drive me away, okay? Nothing.” Then he glanced at her sidelong, amusing her. “What is it?”
“Well, for starters, I’m late. Actually, I missed my friend.”
“Your friend?”
“My monthly visitor. My period.”
“Yikes.” He waited for her to continue, a hot flash of epic proportions flooding his body.
