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“I’ve been waiting to hear you say that since I was six,” I whisper, laughing and crying at once. “Maybe not the twins part.”
He pulls me closer. “I’m so glad you waited. I promise I’m going to make it worth your while.”
His lips press to mine, and then we walk out the side-stage door and reenter the auditorium from the back, sliding into seats just as the lights are lowering.
When the curtain rises, Henry steps up first and his robotic arm works without a hitch.
Sophie jumps to her feet before he’s even done. “That’s my brother,” she announces to the kids around her, loud enough that we can hear her all the way in the back, “so you all need to stand up and clap.”
And they do.
WE WALK OUTSIDE ONCEthe show concludes to meet Jeremy, who theoretically got held up at work and is only arriving now. Caleb has remained in the school lobby at my request—Jeremy’s mom will do most of the parenting this weekend, but I want this tentative peace with him to last at least until the twins are home safely.
“Great job, buddy!” Jeremy says, thumping Henry on the back as if he was there. “Did you crush the other kids?”
“It’s not a competition, Daddy,” Sophie scolds. And while his father mutters something along the lines ofthat’s what losers say, Henry looks at me and gives me that secret smile of his—theone that rests entirely in his eyes and makes me think he might already be wiser than his father and I put together.
I hand Jeremy their weekend bags.
“So what are you doing while we’re gone?” he asks. “You could come with us, you know.”
I stare at him, incredulous. “I’m not sure your girlfriend would appreciate that.”
“I think that’s over. She wasn’t coming until tomorrow and I can tell her to stay home.”
Oh my God. The fact that Jeremy never seems to realize he doesn’t still have a chance should no longer shock me, but it does. I shake my head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Well, think about it. I can send a car for you if you change your mind.”
I drop to my knees and pull Henry and Sophie into my arms, praying the conversation hasn’t given them some renewed hope about me and their father.
“Remember,” Henry whispers. “You promised to be brave.”
I laugh and kiss his cheek. He doesn’t want me and Jeremy together. He wants Caleb in his life, and that’s what I want too.
I return to the lobby, where Caleb is typing on his phone. My stomach tightens, waiting for him to tell me some new emergency is calling him away.
But when I reach him, he puts the phone in his pocket and rests his hands on my hips. The parents milling around do double takes—let them. I’ve moved on and I want the whole world to know. Especially the Toms of the world, who are likely to get punched in the face if they manhandle me henceforth.
“It occurs to me,” he says, “that we both have the weekend free. What if we went away?”
“You don’t need to talk to Kate?”
He frowns. “I said everything I needed to say. She knows I’m with you and that it’s serious. The divorce will need to berefiled, but that can wait a few days. Let’s just go. We can buy whatever we need on the way.”
He’s so certain about this, about me, that he doesn’t understand why I’m asking the question.
“Yeah, okay,” I say with a grin. “Let’s go away. If we can even find a place...It’s a holiday weekend, so—”
“I might have already booked something,” he says with a grin.
He wasn’t on his phone dealing with work. He was booking us a place. After more than twenty years of waiting for him, we’re finally on the same page.
IT TAKEStwo hours to reach our mystery destination. After running into one store for bathing suits, t-shirts and shorts, and another for toothbrushes, he pulls up in front of a massive wrought-iron fence and consults his phone for the gate code.
“I thought you said it was acottage?” I ask as he punches the numbers in.
“It’s only three bedrooms, therefore a cottage.” He grins at me. “But I wanted to make sure we had some privacy.”
