AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Don't think about my mom. What do you want?"
"What do you want?" I said, since I was fine with the smallest of small weddings—elopement.
"What do I want? You. You're all I want. I don't care how I get you, if we're in front of a bunch of people or not." He kissed me on the lips as if that sealed some sort of deal. As far as I was concerned, the deal was sealed.
"Just figure out the paperwork, and we can go get you a ring, and you won't have to worry about renting a house when you're here."
The car came to a stop and I realized that we were at Owen's house. He put his hand on the door handle, but he looked at me before he opened it.
"Is this happening? Are we getting married?"
"Yes," I said, since there was no way I would ever say anything else to answer that question.
Epilogue
Five years later
Naomi was only two-and-a-half years old, but she already loved to perform. She had curly hair like me, and a lot of people compared her to Shirley Temple. She was born on my mother's birthday, which caused me to reach out to my mom not long after Naomi was born.
We had been in touch by email since then. I could have called her on the phone. We could have easily exchanged numbers, but we never did. There had been forgiveness and reconciliation, and that was the important part.
Stanley had died a year after I left Montana, and my mother had realized a lot of things since then. John got married to Becca from the post office, and I was happy that they found each other. My mom had kept me posted on things like that since we had been back in touch.
I told her it was likely that I would never go to Montana again. I forgave her, though, and we worked out the fact that she was innocent in her heart. I had awareness and assurance that she had just been wanting to protect me, and I had long since forgiven her and moved on. I had invited my mom to come to Memphis and offered to meet her somewhere neutral, but she knew I wasn't going back to Montana.
My birth name was Antonia Martinez.
I thought it was a pretty name, and I was happy to learn about my roots, but Corey Atkinson was my name, now and forever.
I had a busy, fulfilling life with Owen and now with Naomi. I gave everything I had to motherhood, and I took up jewelry again in my spare time. It was something I already knew how to do, and something I could make money at from home. We built a workspace for me in our home. I stayed busy with commissions, but I worked at my own pace. We had a lot of friends and acquaintances in Memphis who would pay me to design one-of-a-kind pieces for them and then destroy the mold so that they could be the only ones wearing it.
I was currently working on a piece for Shep and Natalie. Their anniversary was coming up and Shep had me design a custom piece for her. It was a paintbrush bent into a cuff bracelet. He and Natalie had two kids, and I had hidden their names on the brush. Their oldest was the same age as August and Gina's little boy, and both of them were into t-ball together.
But Shep and Natalie's youngest, Mack, was three, and he was already into theater. He was in the same class as Naomi, and both of them had a recital coming up. Technically, the class was for three to six-year-olds, but Brandon and Tori had let Naomi start early since she was into it and already practicing with Mack. They were adorable in this class and both of them were good at it, even at such a young age.
I was thinking about them because I was working on Naomi's costume.
"What are you making?" Owen asked, coming into the house and walking over to the table where I was working.
I smiled at him because I had been missing him. "I’m sewing these things on Naomi's costume. Natalie asked if I could do Mack's too, but I'm already done with his."
"It looks so good."
I was still in my chair, and he leaned down to kiss me. I stretched upward.
"Mm, you smell good," I said.
"Thank you. I don't know how. I was sweating."
"Was lunch stressful?" I asked.
He had a meeting with a few men—one of whom was the headmaster of his old high school.
"No, it went fine," Owen said. "But it was at this restaurant where we have to wear a jacket, and anyway, I haven't been to that place in a few years, and it was a lot—too formal for me when I can get the same ribs at Payne's. I saw about twenty people I knew."
"What did the headmaster want?"
"They asked me to speak at the school."
