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“Bye Mr. Palmer,” Sue says, giving me a wave. Then she turns to Emily. “And Mrs. Palmer. Have a great summer.”
“See you next week, Sue. It’s not summer yet.”
“Don’t be a Debbie Downer, Colton,” she teases, then focuses her attention back on whatever work she’s completing at her computer.
“I always forget you have to work the week after finals,” Emily says, laughter in her voice. “Sucks to be you.”
“It’s better to just deal with a few days of paperwork than having to teach summer session,” I remind her.
“True. And baseball being a spring sport means I don’t have to worry about baseball camps or anything like Becky Carver.” The football coach’s wife. “Did you know they run camps for almost a month of summer?”
I nod, chuckling at how incredulous she sounds.
“You act like you don’t remember what it was like to love a sport,” I say as we climb into her car and crank the A/C. “But you were a high school athlete, too. You remember what it was like to want to give all your time to something amazing.”
She huffs, though I know she’s just being dramatic.
“Yeah, okay, maybe I remember. But I was a kid then, focused on me. It made sense to sacrifice my free time for a sport.”
“But not for me, huh?” I joke.
She sighs, reaching across the seat and rubbing the back of my head, just how she knows I like after a long day at work.
“You know I support you coaching. I’m just being selfish today.”
I glance over as I pull out on the highway and find her staring out the window, a bit of sadness in her eyes.
Reaching over, I place my hand on her growing belly. Her emotions have been up and down and all over the place for the past few months as she’s been growing our baby girl. Today just must be one of those days when things feel bigger than normal.
She looks over at me with a soft smile and rests her hands on top of the one I have on her stomach, the ring on her left hand glittering in the sunlight.
Emily and I got married last year, after three years together. I know the timing was right for her, but on my end, it felt like forever. I’m crazy about this woman, and if the decision had been entirely mine, we would have been official much sooner.
But I knew there were a few things that were particularly important to Emily to accomplish on her own, like starting her business and establishing herself professionally. While I might have wanted to be the person who helped her solve her problems, I also respected her enough to let her do things how she thought was best.
Back during that summer that changed both of our lives forever, we knew we were in love and wanted to be together, but there were still a few big-picture things to sort out.
I accepted the permanent position working at Sandalwood Secondary School just before the school year started. Teddy also started pre-K at the same time, our schedules mostly matching up in a way that no longer required a full-time nanny.
After the two of us discussed our options and what we thought would be best, Emily found a family who wanted a full-time nanny but not live-in. Instead, she moved in with me. It was a big bend on her part, to let housing be something I covered for us while she was working and saving her money, but it all worked out in the end.
Ultimately, everything worked out in the end.
My parents still live in Charleston, though they’ve been talking about moving out west to be closer to us. Apparently my mom really, really likes Emily. Even more than she did back in the day.
Teddy is thriving, his relationship with Emily continuing to grow. He’s in the second grade now and has been calling Emily ‘mom’ since the second we got married. Our little girl, Leah, is due in September, and Teddy can’t wait to be an older brother.
Emily opened her daycare center and now manages a staff of eight people. The business is thriving, and I can tell how happy she is every day that she achieved her dream.
I might not have gone back to teaching college, but there was something so pure and good about the idea of teaching high school, something I just couldn’t pass up on. Plus, it came with the added benefit of assistant coaching the baseball team. Hopefully, someday, I get to take over, but for now, I’m patiently enjoying being in a position to learn and have fun.
I’ve also been enjoying things outside of being a dad, which has been an interesting shift and very different than what my life was like before. I play in the school’s staff softball league and workout with August and get together regularly with a group of dads that Soren hosts at The Lighthouse. I’m truly amazed at how building a network of friends and finding enjoyment outside of fatherhood has helped me feel so much more fulfilled.
Not all my problems could be fixed with a laugh and a beer, though. I’m still in therapy, and the amazing psychologist I’ve been seeing was instrumental in helping me manage some of the larger anger issues I dealt with in the months after Melody first passed away. It took a lot of hard work, but I’ve forgiven her and moved on, eager to live my own life, free from the chains of her actions.
Ultimately, I live every day now looking out at that magnolia tree and feeling grateful. Grateful to Melody for giving me my son and being the catalyst for us moving out to California. If not for those two things, I might never have found Emily. I might never have found the woman who completes me, who makes me stand tall and proud.
The woman who makes me sure life is going to lead us in some very beautiful directions.
“Did you know I’m crazy about you?” she asks me after we’ve picked Teddy up from school, the three of us driving down the road, heading for the house.
“I know you’re crazy,” I tease.
She grins and slaps my arm then slips her hand into mine, our fingers intertwining.
I love this woman so much I can’t even express it in words. So I make sure I do my very best to show her every single day how grateful I am to have her in my life.
“Crazy in love,” she whispers, her hand squeezing mine.
And I squeeze it right back.
