Twisted Paths

by L. L. Collins

  I scan the kids’ posters, watching as the rest of the kids start gathering behind them, still silent. That’s when my knees almost give out right there on the sidewalk. I follow the arrow that Madelyn is holding, and my hands fly up to my face as I see Blake, walking along the sidewalk with an entire bouquet of roses. He’s not been at work, because he’s dressed in a dark pair of jeans and a collared shirt that makes my mouth water.

  He breaks our eye contact for a moment to look at the kids, and then he turns back to me. “They did a great job on those, didn’t they?” I can’t speak; I’m still staring at the signs that the kids are holding.

  “Oh, my god,” I whisper, watching him as he saunters towards me.

  “Did you forget how to read?” he teases. I shake my head no, my eyes filling with so many tears I can barely see him. He gets on one knee right there on the sidewalk at my school. I realize that Melinda is videoing this. Blake turns and nods at Sadie, who holds her sign above her head and says, “Will.” The rest follow her, all of them holding the signs above their heads.

  “You.”

  “Marry.”

  “Him?”

  I’m sobbing so hard I can barely hear what they’re saying. I turn back to Blake, and he looks up at me, his eyes glimmering with tears. “Liane Kelly, will you do me the absolute honor of becoming my wife? I don’t ever want to live without you for one more second. I’ve loved you my entire life, and I will until the day I die.”

  I drop down on the sidewalk next to him, grateful I’m wearing pants today. I grab his face, relishing in the scent that reminds me of my safe place. “Blake, you’ve made me the happiest woman in the entire world. Yes, one thousand times yes.”

  My hands shake as he slides the beautiful ring on my finger. “For all three of us,” he whispers, and that’s when I notice the three diamonds, all set next to each other. “I love you.” He kisses me, and I hear simultaneous ‘ewwww’ and ‘awwww’ from the boys and girls.

  I can barely say it back before we’re descended on by all of mine and Melinda’s students. Blake helps me up so they can hug us both. I meet Melinda’s eye, and she beams. She helped Blake do this. There aren’t many ex-wives that would not only be your friend, but help her ex-husband propose to someone else. But as she’d explained to me many times, they should’ve always just been friends and neither of them held any animosity for the decision to divorce.

  “Thank you,” I mouth to her, and she blows me a kiss back. I hug all of my kids, realizing the pandemonium had just started. “You guys all kept this secret? I’m so impressed!”

  “It was soooo hard!” Skylar says, and I laugh. She has a very hard time not telling everyone everything. “But it was worth it. That was so sweet, Miss Kelly.”

  “She’s not going to be Miss Kelly anymore!” Sadie yells. She turns to Blake, jutting out her little hip. “What’s your name?”

  “Blake McIntyre.”

  She turns back to the group. “She’s going to be Mrs. McIntyre now. That’s pretty cool. I like that better than Kelly anyway. Plus, he’s cute.” The group laughs, and I look at Blake, whose face has turned red thanks to the little spitfire nine year old.

  Melinda steps forward, handing Blake his phone. “I got it all,” she says. “You did it, Blake. You finally got your girl.”

  He nods, grabbing my waist and hugging me tight to him. “Thank you, Melinda. And yes I did. I’m not letting her go again.”

  “On that note, both classes grab your lunch boxes. It’s time to head to lunch. You, Miss Kelly, have the rest of the day off.”

  “I do?”

  “You do. Mr. Graham was in on this, too. He got a sub for you for the rest of the day, and I’ve taken care of your sub plans. Go and celebrate. Congratulations to both of you. If I’ve ever seen two people meant for each other, it’s you two.” Melinda hugs us both and walks away, my kids blowing kisses to me as she takes them to the cafeteria.

  “Well Mrs. McIntyre-to-be, are you ready to go celebrate? I have just the place all ready.”

  “And where’s that?”

  He smirks. “Do you really think I’m going to tell you?”

  WHEN BLAKE CROSSES the bridge to Sanibel, I know right where he’s going. “I know where you’re taking me,” I tease, staring at the ring on my finger. I’d worn a ring on my finger for a long time, but it never meant as much to me as this one does. I feel like this one has been earned with years of blood, sweat, and tears.

  He lifts my hand and kisses it. “Where it all started,” he says. “I couldn’t think of a better place for us to celebrate our engagement than the place we first made our life plan. We’re doing everything we did that night, Li. But just years later. Too many years, but that’s not for us to worry about right now.

  Before I know it, he pulls into our favorite restaurant, the place where we’d gone the night we were playing adults. He pulls up right to the front and gets out, coming around to my side. I realize I’m still wearing dress pants and a silk top, which isn’t what I would’ve picked to come here.

  He reaches out for my hand and pulls me out of the seat, rewarding me with his warm lips against mine. I feel his finger tracing my ring as we kiss, and I know we both are still in shock that this is happening. When we finally force ourselves to pull away, he leads me into the restaurant. As we walk in, the entire place erupts into cheers. When I look around, there are balloons and ‘Congratulations’ signs everywhere, with copies of the same posters my kids had held up at the school. There’s no one in the restaurant but the workers. There’s a table set up with the best view in the restaurant, and it’s filled with lit candles.

  “Wow,” I say. “You went all out.”

  “There’s nothing too big to show you what you mean to me,” Blake says, leading me to the table. That’s when I see the framed pictures of us, the same ones he’d had in that box that we’d been going through over the past month. They’re the centerpieces of the table, as well as a few of the letters we’d written each other.

  “Tonight, we don’t have to worry about leaving each other the next day,” Blake says, taking me back to that night we’d been here knowing we were saying goodbye not long after. “Because we’re never going to say goodbye again, Li.”

  AFTER STUFFING OURSELVES on the four course meal Blake had set up with all of our favorites, we walk the beach, just like we had all those years before. But this time, we stop at sunset and take our own picture, the water behind us and our arms wrapped around each other. We take it three times, each time one of us making a silly face or not looking at the camera. Then he makes me pose, just like he had before. Except this time, I make him do it, too. When we sit on the sand and I rest in between his legs, the setting sun shining off of my new ring, I feel something I hadn’t felt all those years ago. I feel content.

  Blake walks me up to the room, unlocking the door. I walk in first only to stop dead in my tracks. Candles light the entire room, and rose petals go from the doorway all the way to the open bathroom door. I know right where they lead. Since the last time we’ve been here, the hotel has been remodeled. Gone are the gold accents and touches of the 90’s. But then again, we’ve changed too, so it’s only right for it to be more modern, newer.

  I turn and walk right into Blake’s arms, where I want to be for the rest of my life. “Did Carter know you were doing this?”

  He grins. “Of course. I had to get his permission.”

  I giggle. “You had to get our son’s permission? Isn’t that supposed to be the father’s?”

  “Oh, he was easy. I was definitely more nervous about Carter.”

  “Well, I guess he said yes,” I tease, looking down again at my ring.

  “We’re doing too much talking,” Blake says, lifting my shirt over my head. “We have a bathtub waiting for us.”

  I STICK MY head into Carter’s room, looking for him. It has been over a week since Blake put that shiny ring on my finger and made me the happiest woman in the world. After we’d gotte
n home from our engagement celebration, Carter had wanted to hear all about it. The fact that he’s so on board with me marrying Blake makes this dream that much better.

  “Carter?” I call, walking down the hall to the family room. I still don’t see him. I know Blake’s in the garage, tinkering on his Camaro, so I head out there. I’d just spent the last two hours holed up grading papers and I’m ready to go get some dinner. It’s our new Saturday night tradition, the three of us going to dinner and then renting a movie and watching together.

  Opening the garage door, I see Blake leaned over, most of his body under the hood of his Camaro. For a moment I appreciate the view of Blake’s backside before I realize that Carter is sitting on the other side of the car, his head stuck next to Blake’s. Neither of them sees me standing there, so I just watch.

  “This is the carburetor,” Blake explains. “This car has one because it’s a classic car. New cars don’t have them anymore. I have to clean it out sometimes because it gets gunk inside it.” I want to laugh, because there isn’t a speck of dirt under that hood. Blake spends several hours a week on it. “These are the cylinders here. See, there’s eight of them because this is a V8.”

  “I don’t even know how to change oil,” Carter admits. Blake looks at him in horror, and I know that’s about to change.

  “When we get you a new car,” Blake says, “you and I are going to spend a few weekends in this garage. I’ll teach you all the basics you need to know.”

  Carter smiles, grease streaked across his forehead. “I want you to teach me all of it. This is really interesting. If you don’t mind.”

  The look on Blake’s face is so priceless, it brings tears to my eyes. Our son wants him to teach him about cars. “You want to learn?”

  Carter looks back at the Camaro. “Yeah. I always wanted to know how to restore cars and fix them up, but I never knew who to ask. I had a few friends in high school that were really into it, and I’d listen to them sometimes but not really understand what they were talking about. So if you don’t mind teaching me, I’d love to know.”

  Blake looks over and sees me standing there. He smiles, and I know exactly what he’s thinking. “Well, Mom, I think we know what our son’s next car is going to be.” Carter had driven a sensible, brand new Honda Accord before it had been totaled in the accident.

  Carter looks at me, then at Blake. “What?”

  Blake wipes his hands on a rag and claps Carter on the back. “We’re going to get you a car to restore. We’ll work on it together while you’re here, and I’ll teach you. Then when you go away to school, we’ll buy you something to drive back and forth until this is done. Sound good?”

  Carter looks up at him with the admiration of a little boy. Every time he and Blake find something in common, a piece of my heart mends back together. They really are so alike. “Thank you,” he whispers, and I can’t help but think that he’s fighting tears. “That would be awesome.”

  “Maybe we can even get your mom to help,” Blake teases. “She looks good with some grease on her.” I laugh, and Blake winks at me, a knowing look passing between the two of us. Little does Carter know, we’ve broken in this garage and car several times already. Blake has quite a fantasy having to do with me and his car, and let’s just say I enjoy helping him with that fantasy.

  “WHY DO I have to be blindfolded?” I ask. Blake’s hand is covering mine, and his thumb is caressing my knuckles. There isn’t anything better than this right here, right now. No one is going to keep us from having our happily-ever-after, even if it’s many years too late. It has been three months since he proposed, and every day our life gets better. We want to get married as soon as possible, but haven’t set a date yet. We aren’t looking for it to be a huge event, just something to get our families together and celebrate that we’re finally getting our life together.

  Carter is at school locally and while he lives on campus, we see him weekly. He’s really taking to Blake, and they’ve even done many things together without me, including finding him an old Camaro much like Blake’s and starting to restore it. Every time Carter learns something new, he tells me all about it. There’s nothing I love more than watching my two men, grease covering them, together in the garage. I sit out there with a chair and a book, my eyes watching their movements and soaking in their laughter. Once Carter went back to school, Blake had worked on it some himself, but not much. He wants Carter to be part of the entire process.

  Blake had asked me to get dressed up tonight because he was taking me somewhere special. I’d gone shopping with Melinda and Mia and picked out a sexy but classy knee length halter dress and Mia had done my hair in curls. I have no idea where we’re going, but I know it’s going to be special. Blake is even dressed up too; I saw that much before he blindfolded me. He’s sexy in a dress shirt rolled up to the elbows and tan dress pants, his spiky hair gelled perfectly. Then again, I think everything he wears is delicious.

  “Because,” he says simply. I feel the truck stop and him shift in his seat. “Have I told you lately that you’re the most beautiful woman on the entire earth? Because you are. I’ll never in my life take for granted that I can hold your hand or lean over and kiss you any time I want. There were so many years I would’ve given anything to just see you again, much less to be able to be here like this.” His lips brush against mine, and I don’t know if it’s because I can’t see or because of his sweet words, but feeling his slight stubble against my face as he presses his soft lips to mine makes my stomach flutter. He makes me feel like the teenager I was when I fell in love with him. I’ve spent the last few months pinching myself to make sure this is really happening to me; to us. I’m a different person now, and that’s all because of Blake McIntyre.

  He smooths my hair back, and I reach out my hands to try to find him. He grasps my hands and kisses them. His finger shifts the ring on my finger, and then he kisses that, too. “I love you,” he whispers against my lips. “It’s only ever been you, Li.”

  Tears fill my eyes behind the blindfold. I’ll never tire of hearing those words from him. I’d taken them for granted for so long, but never again. Loving him is unlike loving anyone else. He’s my definition of love. “I love you, Blake McIntyre.” I find his lips with my fingers and then follow with my lips, trying to show him everything I can’t put into words.

  “Stay here,” he murmurs against my lips. “I’m coming around to get you.” I try to figure out where we are when he opens the door, but it could be anywhere. I’m guessing he’s taken me out to a nice dinner or maybe has a dinner set up on the beach, but really I have no idea.

  “Let’s go,” he says, helping me out of the truck. I step down onto soft ground, but don’t think it’s sand. “Stop trying to guess. You’ll see soon enough.” I laugh because he knows what I’m thinking. He links his fingers with mine and I follow, trusting him implicitly. I don’t need to worry because I know he’ll never let anything happen to me.

  Lost in my own thoughts, I don’t notice for a moment that we’ve stopped. I hear soft music playing, and I wonder again where we are. I hear birds above us, and I feel the breeze ruffling my hair and dress. So maybe we’re near the beach. Though that’s pretty easy to guess, seeing as we live almost surrounded by water.

  “Ready?” I nod and feel his hand leave mine. He hovers his fingers on either side of my blindfold. “Surprise, Li.” I blink as he lifts the blindfold off gently, my eyes trying to look everywhere at once. When I register what I’m seeing, I can’t even process it. My heart is pounding against my ribcage and my mind is racing a million miles an hour. What has he done?

  “Liane Kelly,” he says, and my eyes shift back to him. “Will you marry me tonight?”

  The small crowd that’s standing around begins clapping. Our families are all here. So is Kinsley. Mia and Melinda stand to the side, both clapping with glee. We’re standing right outside the part of beach that was so important to us as a couple; where we’d become a couple all those years ago an
d again this past summer. Chairs are set up facing the water. They’d all done this. Blake had set this up. He wants to marry me… right now?

  I feel someone step up on my other side, and I turn my head. Gasping, I bring my hand to my face as I see my son—our son— standing there with his arm out. “Can I walk you down the aisle?” he asks, looking over at Blake and winking. Looking over at his dad. There’s something about that I still can’t even believe. Our lives have really come full circle.

  Blake lets go of my arm and grabs Carter in a hug. He whispers something to him that I can’t hear. “So what do you say? Marry me?”

  “Blake,” I whisper, fighting a losing battle not to cry. “I can’t believe you did all of this. It’s beautiful.”

  “Well I had help,” he admits. “Everyone’s here, Li. This is our chance. We start over right here, right now. The rest of our lives await us. Be mine. Forever.”

  “This is the best thing anyone has ever done for me,” I say. “There’s nothing in the world that I want more than to marry you right this second. Yes, Blake. Yes.”

  He steps closer to me, brushing his lips over mine one more time. “In just a few moments, you’re going to be mine forever.” With that he turns and walks to the front of the makeshift altar, turning to face me. I stare at him, the fading sunlight glinting in his hair, and I can’t believe this is finally going to happen. I’m going to marry Blake McIntyre.

  Mia, Kinsley, and Melinda approach, all three of them adjusting my dress and hair. Kinsley dabs lipstick on my lips, yet all I can do is stare at them. “Is this really happening?”