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She rested her head against his. “Did she? It’s easy for you to say beautiful words about your love, but did you show her? Did you listen?”
He wanted to argue that there was no possible way that was true, but something stopped him. Hehadkept all his cards close to his chest, and he hadn’t stayed when she needed him. He would show up big for this wedding. He would do anything if it meant she felt loved, adored, cherished beyond any measure.
First, though, he had to get her to speak to him, which she wasn’t currently doing.
“I feel like I failed, not figuring this out when we were twenty, like you and Dad. Like I wasted so much time we could have had together.” He only whined a little when he said this, which he was proud of.
“You did have most of that time together, baby, just in a different way,” she said seriously. “The people you were at twenty weren’t ready for each other, and you had to do what it took to get ready.”
“Are we ready now?” he wondered nervously.
“I hope you get a chance to find out.”
He was going to make a chance. He needed to take his wife on a date so incredible, so perfectly nostalgic that she remembered what they were to each other, and so impressive that she understood he’d done what he set out to do with his life. He had an idea. He kissed his mom on the forehead and went to find his wife.
Levi rapped his knuckles on Hannah’s open office door, and she raised her eyelashes at him. He had a flash of the way her eyes used to look when she saw him, the edges crinkling and the pupils dilating a little. That Hannah, the Hannah who looked at him with warmth, was overlaid for a moment over the Hannah in front of him, but it was incongruous. This Hannah, the one whose eyes narrowed when he walked in, was more beautiful than ever. There was a gray streak partly hidden in the blonde at the front of her high ponytail, and she had more laugh lines than she’d had when he left. She was doing her makeup a little differently now. All her clothes seemed more specifically bought for her personality, rather than things she thought she ought to wear as the manager of Carrigan’s.
She carried herself differently, her shoulders back more often instead of at her ears, more settled into her body. He wondered if it was the difference between thirty and thirty-five, or if she was that much more comfortable without him around. He knew he felt better in his skin now, after everything he’d done in the past years, but he wondered if they would be able to maintain that comfort in close proximity to each other.
“You wanted something?” she prompted, and he remembered he was supposed to be breathing.
“Oh! Yes. I planned our date. Please be ready at seven the day after tomorrow.”
“Where are we going?” she asked, her voice a little panicked.
“Dress nicely,” he said. “It’s a surprise.”
“Whereare we going, Levi?”
“Not quite to Lake Placid,” he assured her. “I’ll have you back before you turn into a pumpkin.”
She thinned her lips. “I’m not getting on the back of a motorcycle for you, in a dress, in the snow.”
“I’ll figure out transportation that includes heat,” he promised.
He begged his dad to use the truck, which made him feel like a teenager again. His dad grunted and rolled his eyes, but he did arrange transportation. Hannah was wearing a velvet jumpsuit that made him want to pet her, but he refrained with concerted effort.
They pulled up outside a restaurant with a Michelin star and a waitlist six months long that they had been to once, a long time ago.
She groaned. “You didn’t.”
He shrugged. “You up for a degustation menu?” he asked innocently.
When he gave the host his name for the reservation, he was rewarded with a dazzling smile. “Oh yes, Chef Matthews. Chef Harlow has a table in view of the passthrough reserved for you and asked that she be told when you arrived.”
When they were seated, the chef in question came out to greet him. The two of them had met while working as dishwashers in the city during college. He’d called when he realized she was now in charge of the kitchen at the restaurant Hannah and Miriam had brought him to as a kid, the one that had changed his life.
“Bro!” she cried. “What is your famous ass doing in my little place?”
“Oh, sorry, which one of us has a Michelin star?” he asked, hugging her. “I’m here trying to impress a girl. You think you can help?”
Chef Harlow leaned over to shake Hannah’s hand. “Hi. If this guy fails to impress you, feel free to take my number.”
“Hey!” Levi said when Hannah grinned at her.
“There’s no possible way he’s going to impress me,” Hannah said, “but I look forward to you doing so. I’ve heard nothing but great things.”
“Levi reminded me it’s still Passover, so I’ve designed a menu for you tonight with nothing leavened.”
