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As soon as we’re out the door, I take hold of Tess’s hand as if it’s the most natural thing in the world, because it feels like the most natural thing in the world. How I went seventeen years without holding her this way I’ll never understand, but I take this moment to relish in the comfort of it. We make our way down the sidewalk to my waiting pickup, and I open the door for her to get in.
After crossing to the driver’s door, I will my heart to stop beating so hard against my chest and slide inside. As soon as I get settled, I look over at my forever and smile her way. She smiles back and in a whoosh all the nervousness is gone. Only excitement remains between the two of us.
“C’mere,” I tell her. And she immediately slides over the seat and nestles in next to me. Right where she belongs.
“Ready?” I ask her. But it’s not just ready for our first date. It’s ready for the first date of the rest of our lives.
She looks up at me from under my arm that’s resting on the back of the seat behind us. “I am.” And I feel it. I know, in my soul, that she feels it too. She knows this isn’t the start of something little. This is the start of something huge.
I knock on the door, shaking my head of the memory that completely assaulted me. I’m surprised at the level of detail I can remember from that night. The night that started it all. The door swings open, and I see her dad staring back at me, a man who I’ve known for decades, have come to respect and love as if he’s my own. A man who’s held me as I cried over losing my own father. A man who handed his daughter’s hand over to me to take care of forever. A man who trusted me in that honor. I find myself fighting my knees from buckling beneath me. If I manage to be half the man that he is, I’ll be lucky.
“What the hell do you want?” George barks, making me laugh hard.
I can’t believe he remembers the first thing he said to me. Or, at least, the first thing he said to me as a boy who was desperately wanting to date his daughter.
“Uh, hi, Mr. Cole, I’m Barrett Ryan?” I say in return, causing him to grin right back at me.
“Get in here, boy. I don’t want the neighbors seeing you looking like giant jackass.”
“Hey! Don’t deny it. I’ve got game tonight.” I grin widely.
“You’ve got somethin’ alright.” He chuckles at me. He knows my plans for tonight but still can’t resist giving me grief for it. But I’m good with that. I can handle it. I know I look like a dork, but I am willing to look like a dork in the name of love.
“Where did you find those clothes?”
“Josh. Apparently he thought the 90s were going to make a big come back and kept a bunch of his old clothes.”
“Ha! I wish I could say I’m surprised.”
“I know. He always was a little more concerned with his clothes than the rest of us. Did you find the jacket?”
He nods his head. “Debbie did. She said it was in Tess’s old bedroom closet yet. She hung it in the coat closet right there,” he tells me, pointing with a smile on his face.
“Awesome.” I open the closet and pull out the hanging time capsule. All the memories I’ve been walking through over the past few weeks have my normal unemotional self feeling like a walking emotion. I’m not real hip on that.
Just as I hang the jacket back up, wanting it to remain a little bit of a surprise, I see Tess walking down the stairs. She’s not a walking time warp like I am, but she still looks hot. And yes, my wife of twenty-two years is still hot.
“Hey,” she says, completely shy, which makes me smile remembering that’s how she greeted me for our first date too.
“Hey, yourself,” I reply.
We’re staring at each other like a couple lovesick idiots when her mom and dad interrupt and start shuffling us out the door. As I hand her my old letterman’s jacket, her eyes light up and fill with tears. She dips her head and lifts up the corner of it, smelling the collar, as if time has stood still and she can still smell the old me in it. Funny thing, she can. I snuck some Drakkar Noir over to Deb, and she made sure to get the jacket ready for her sniff test that I anticipated happening.
After saying our goodbyes to her parents, I walk her to the pickup that’s parked by the curb. I wait for her reaction and am not disappointed in the least. I got lucky finding this thing. The guy who bought it off my dad when he sold it barely drove it. When I called him up and told him my plans for tonight, he didn’t hesitate in the slightest. He was a close friend of my dad’s and knew what this pickup meant to Tess and me.
I open her door and help her in, then as soon as I get seated, I tell her to slide over, just as I did the first night we went on a date together. Having her next to me, nestled up closely to my side, makes every nervous feeling I have for tonight vanish immediately. I love and adore this woman and can’t wait to show her that I remember everything about our decades’ worth of love together.
The drive-in went off without a hitch. Josh’s aunt really came through and made it just as perfect as I remember from our first time we went on a date. I hope she’s having memory flashbacks just like I am. I hope she’s falling all over again.
I pull into the park that we went for a walk in after our first date, and I feel the smile stretching across her face as we climb out and head for the bench that we sat on when I first placed my lips on hers. And suddenly I’m nervous again, wishing I had a pen to flick around like I do when I’m on an important call at the office. Not for her reaction, but because I want to make this right. She deserves this night to be perfect.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Tess
My mom called me today to see if I would come to her house to help her do some Christmas baking. She also wanted me to tell her about our trip to the cabin. Not that I plan to give her all the details, but I know she was concerned. James had them over for supper one night while we were gone, and even though I had told her we were leaving and why, James said she seemed worried. The past several weeks haven’t been the easiest — well, except for this past week — with way too many stresses than I care to ever rehash. I may be slightly nervous about tonight, so I think I’ve eaten about a half pound of peppermint taffies to try to calm my nerves. I’m also just as excited, though. I think back to the note that I received from Barrett today, along with a bouquet of purple roses, and I can’t help the smile that graces my lips of their own accord. It’s surreal to think that we’re going on a date tonight. Alone. Finally. Sure we had our week together, but tonight feels different. I don’t know if it’s because we’re back home or if it’s because of the flowers he sent reminding me of when we were dating or in the early years of marriage, but it feels bigger somehow.
I can’t wait for our date tonight, Tess, just you and me.
