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“Start over?”
“Can I take you on another first date?” He steps forward and pulls me toward him. His arms are comforting. Secure. “Can I kiss you again for the first time? Spend the night with you again for the first time? And then stay with you the next day instead of being an idiot and running off?”
All the anger I previously felt toward him has washed away. I smile up at him. “I’d love that.”
“I’m sorry, Victoria. I’m so fucking sorry.” He lifts me up and I wrap my arms around him. When his lips press against mine, his kiss is full of unwavering love.
Chapter Nine
Epilogue –Ethan
One Year Later
“Hey,” Victoria says as we’re loading the grocery bags into the trunk of the car. “You know what day it is?”
“I do.” I grin over at her. “It’s our one year dating anniversary.”
Victoria raises her eyebrows. “Wow. I’m impressed you remembered.”
“Remembered? Baby, I’ve got a whole special massage planned for you tonight.”
“Oh, you do, do you?” Victoria rises up on her toes to kiss my cheek. “Okay, that’s it. You’re officially Husband of the Year.”
I grab the last bag of groceries out of the cart, and when I turn around again, Victoria is already wheeling the cart off to put it away. I smile and shake my head as I close the back of the truck.
One whole year. Nope. I’ll never forget that day. Because it’s the day I almost made the worst mistake of my life.
Thank God Victoria didn’t let that happen.
“You sure it’s okay for you to be running around like that?” I ask Victoria as I watch her jog back to the truck. We both climb in and I hold the bouquet of flowers we just picked up for Ida while Victoria clicks her seat belt into place.
Victoria takes the flowers from me, then reaches across the console and gives me a playful shove. “Hey, mister. Which one of us in this car is a medical professional? It’sgoodfor me to get some exercise, as long as it’s nothing unduly strenuous.”
“Unduly strenuous, huh?” I say. “Sure seems like we got ‘unduly strenuous’ last night.”
The comment immediately causes Victoria to start laughing that beautiful, bright laugh of hers. I’ll never fucking tire of that sound.
We fall into easy chatter as I drive us across town, navigating to the apartment building where Victoria used to live. Once a week, we drop by to bring Ida some groceries and spend time with her. It was the one condition Victoria made me agree to before she agreed to move in with me, and we’ve stuck to it ever since.
Of course, when Victoria moved in with me, a whole lot of other things changed, too. Suddenly, my tidy, minimalist rooms were filled with her knickknacks, and my bathroom was overflowing with her toiletries. Even my garden started to change after a while, the neat, orderly lines of my hedges growing a little softer as I spent less and less time devoted to them and more time on the sofa with Victoria curled up against my side.
“Look at all these damn weeds,” I griped at her one time, when I walked out into the backyard and saw how many of them had sprouted up. The nuthatches were chirping in the yard that day; they’d successfully nested in the tree throughout the season, and had quickly gotten busy making a whole boisterous, noisy family.“You’ve made me go lax.”
“Oh, like you weren’t enjoying yourself doing other stuff,” she’d replied with a smirk, and as soon as she said it, I knew she was right. So what if I was behind on weeding? I was behind because I’d been spending all that time with her—relaxing with her, cooking with her, talking with her, making love to her. I was a happier and better man because of it.
I bought the ring the next day, and two days after that, we were engaged. We got married just a few months after that. Neither of us saw any reason to wait.
Now, we pull up to her old apartment, and Victoria walks slightly ahead of me as we walk up to Ida’s door. Victoria lets me carry the bags of groceries, even though I know she’s still perfectly capable of carrying them by herself. Still, I like to spoil her.
After Ida lets us in, greeting us with a big smile and two warm hugs, Victoria sits down with Ida in the living room while I unload the groceries in the kitchen. I’ve just finished up and am stepping into the living room when I hear Ida cry out.
“Oh my goodness!” Ida says, clapping her hands together, her eyes immediately brimming with tears. “I am so happy for you, Victoria. So happy forbothof you.”
Ida gets up to give me another hug, and I thank her, feeling proud all over again. We all sit at the table together and drink a congratulatory toast of grape juice.
“Youarehappy about this, right, Ethan?” Ida asks me, eyeing me carefully.“I know children weren’t necessarily something you two were planning on.”
“No, I’m thrilled,” I assure her. “I really am. We might have not planned on this, but when Victoria showed me the pregnancy test, I felt nothing but joy.”
