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Andrea smiled, feeling blissful.
Donny took her to the restaurant Seaside Hideaway, close to the harbor on Bayshore Drive. She remembered that it had been run by a lovely couple, Dean and Willa Ross. However, upon inquiry, it was revealed that it was now run by their son and his wife.
“So, what made you change your mind to come?” Donny asked her shortly after they were seated.
Andrea took a sip of the ice-cold water before looking at Donny, whose unwavering gaze was already on her.
“My sisters,” she confessed. “They can be quite pushy.”
At this, he smiled widely. “I’ll have to thank them for pushing you then.”
Andrea laughed. “You’re only going to encourage their continued meddling in our affairs.”
“Ah, so it’s our affairs now,” he spoke, pleased.
Andrea felt her cheeks warm and was sure their color had changed to a rosy pink.
The two talked and laughed as they had their meal. It felt like it had before but even better now that they could freely express their feelings to each other.
The topic of his son did come up, and she agreed to give him time to warm up to her. She told Donny about Rory’s father and how telling her the truth was now affecting their relationship.
“Your sisters and your mother are right, Drea. You have to give her the time she needs. At least she’s still here. That must count for something,” he reasoned.
Andrea shook her head in agreement. “I guess you’re right,” she responded.
After leaving the restaurant, Donny invited her to walk along the boardwalk with him. She enjoyed the comfortable silence that had fallen between them, and she took the time to admire the beauty of the lights from the shops casting their luminescence on the tranquil surface of the water. She shivered when a soft wind began to blow around them before she felt herself being enveloped in the warmness of Donny’s jacket.
She looked up and gave him a grateful smile.
The two settled against the guard rails, listening to the soft push and pull of the waves below.
“I know you said you heard the conversation I had with my son at the cookout, but I think I need to clear some things up,” Donny said, breaking the silence.
Andrea looked over at him with caution. “It’s okay. You don’t have to explain.”
“No, I do,” he countered, turning to rest his side on the rail so that he was facing her.
Andrea dared not to do the same. She didn’t want him to see the anxiety reflected in her eyes.
“I loved my wife, Drea. She was my best friend, literally. We got married right after high school, and for the most part, we had a happy life. The boys adored her, especially Trey. But then she got diagnosed with cancer. She responded positively to treatment for the first year of the disease, but afterward, everything started going downhill. At the time, I was a firefighter. I had to shuffle between being there for her, taking care of our boys, and having a roof over our heads…I would do it again if I had to.” Donny sighed.
Andrea turned and placed an encouraging hand on his arm. Donny looked up at her, and her heart broke at the pain she saw there.
Donny gulped down something in his throat and continued. “We didn’t tell the boys because we didn’t want to burden them with this, but gradually they began to realize that something was wrong. They weren’t buying the mommy’s just a little under the weather or that her immune system just wasn’t as strong as ours, and that’s why she had to be spending so much time at the hospital.”
Donny paused again to run his hand through his hair. Andrea rubbed his arm in comfort.
“Trey began acting out in school, getting in fights, and I just didn’t know what to do anymore.” He sighed.
“Peggy decided that they needed to know, and so we finally told them by that time, she was at stage four, and she’d stopped responding to the treatment. Trey wouldn’t leave her side because we had in-home treatment. He wasn’t going to his classes, and he kept getting into fights, so we had to pull him out to be homeschooled and so that he could spend the time he wanted with her.”
Donny paused again and shook his head. He then took in a long breath. Andrea was about to tell him if it was too difficult for him to talk about, he could stop, but then he began speaking again.
“On his tenth birthday, Peggy wanted us to get a birthday cake for him. I forgot to pick it up, and I was at work on a call. She-she…she left home to get it. That’s when the accident happened. She was coming back from the bakery when the other driver slammed into her. I got the call, and although the other firefighters tried to prevent me from going to the scene, I had to go. I had to be there for her in that hour.”
Donny laughed, but the sound coming from him was mirthless, and Andrea’s heart broke a little more for him.
“It’s kind of ironic how we knew and were expecting her to die soon, but when she died, it caught us all by surprise and shook us to our core.”
