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Every anniversary, I’d plan a trip for us and she would be blindfolded until we arrived. And every time she would act as if I’d performed magic getting us there.
When I took her to Paris and we emerged from the airport, she walked into the Parisian sunlight and a beautiful bunch of finches flew around her very delicately. She had commented how it made her feel like Cinderella, and everywhere we would go, we would spot the finches.
Not just in Paris though, everywhere we went we’d joke that we were part of a Disney movie and that the birds were telling us we were about to find magic.
The day she passed, a finch sat outside my window sill all day.
“Thank you so much, James,” Haley said. “You’re amazing.”
“You’re very welcome,” I said. “I’m honored that you would let me take you before some younger stud decides to ask you.”
Haley laughed. “I’ve had the younger guy, remember? I want you.”
The room was still for a minute, not even our breathing was audible. Then I leaned in and kissed her as deeply as I could, putting my whole arm around her waist feeling that nothing would ever be close enough.
Then Haley’s phone buzzed and she grabbed it. “Anna’s here,” she said. “Gotta dash now but I’ll catch you later. Okay?”
I nodded and gave her a small salute, happy as can be with the deep realization that I was definitely going to marry her someday if she would have me.
“Bye,” she said, waving as she slipped out the door.
“Bye,” I called back.
When she was gone and the girls’ voices disappeared down the hall, I decided to go to the drawing-room where Jane had once put a grand piano. We both learned how to play in college and I hadn’t touched it since she died.
In fact, when she died, it was one of her last requests.
“Play music, Jamie,” she’d said. “Never stop playing music for me, for us.”
I sat down on the bench and ran my fingers over the keys, breathing in the smell of the wood, realizing that Leann was almost old enough to take lessons. Hell, all of them were.
I closed my eyes and began to play softly, and like magic, I could feel Jane’s presence. It had been so long, and my heart had been so heavy. This felt like the first day of spring.
Once one song was complete, I got to the next, and then the next, and the one after that, until I heard the door open and three little voices chattering wildly echoed down the hall.
Hearing their little conversations made me smile, and I stood, closing the lid to the keys. I placed a hand on the instrument and sighed deeply then I turned to go and greet them in the living room.
But as I moved for the door, something caught my eye out the window. Something small and yellow was planted to the bit of roof that existed outside of the music room.
A finch.
We met eyes and for a moment, I felt something unexplainable wash over my very being. Something that felt like freedom, happiness, and contentment. All the pain of losing Jane melted away at the sight and the doors opened to appreciate the beautiful moments we shared.
And then the bird flew away.
And I felt sure that some magic lay ahead.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Haley
I wasn’t sure at first how to respond to James’s proposition, but I couldn’t help but continue to feel drawn to him. No matter what I did to distract myself, it didn’t matter, because I had to see him every day.
Of course, there was the little matter of him telling me this was even more socially important than wearing a ring from him, but who was keeping track?
“What about this one?” Anna asked, holding up a gown in a green-to-black ombre with beautiful beaded details in the shape of vines.
We’d come to town to shop for a dress, since I didn’t have any that were appropriate for an event like a benefit. The blue dress I’d worn at the last party I’d gone to was the only one I had that came close, and Anna told me there was no way it was enough. I needed agown.
