by Aria Ford
I had never thought I could be so happy.
Over breakfast, we made some plans. Since I was only intending to stay a week, we had a lot to discuss and sort out. We were about to become parents!
“So,” I said as I ate a slice of toast with egg. “I guess it would make more sense for me to move to the city, right?”
She looked at me. “I guess.”
She didn’t say anything more. I started to feel a bit uncomfortable. What had I said?
“I mean,” I continued, “I don’t have any employment here in the city—not yet. But that doesn’t mean I can’t figure something out…I know a guy here, Pete Albert…he could help me sort something out, probably. And then…”
“Reese, are you serious?”
She hadn’t shouted; her voice was very calm. But I felt broadsided, like someone had clubbed me over the head.
“What do you mean?” I asked, frowning. “Sure, I’m serious.”
“You really mean that you’d give everything up? Move here? So I could stay in LA?”
I shrugged. “Yeah.” I did mean it. There was nothing in my life that mattered quite as much to me as seeing her, being part of her life.
She started laughing, then. She shook her head. “Reese, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. You dear, impossible, crazy…” She was laughing, but her eyes shone with tears. I was confused.
“What’d I say?”
“Reese. I love you,” she said simply. I stared at her as if she had just zapped me with a thousand volts. But she wasn’t through yet. “Reese, I love you and I appreciate, more than I can say, your offer to move. But you know what?”
“What?” I asked, unsure of what was coming next.
“I don’t like living in the city. I have never been happier, in fact, than when I was out in the countryside with you.”
“Really?”
I was laughing too now. It didn’t seem possible, but I could believe it. She was so much more well suited to living in the countryside. And even her grandpa thought so. What could I say, but believe that?
“Yes. Do I look like a city gal to you?”
I had to laugh at that. “City gals are boring compared to you.”
She smiled at me, a big, full, happy smile. “Thank you,” she said. “I’ll try remember that.”
“Do that,” I said.
She chuckled.
We sat there for a long while with the scent of coffee between us, the sunshine warm on the table and painting dark bars of shadow on the floor. I looked up at her and that sweet smile and knew I had never felt more content.
“Well, then,” I sighed.
“Mm?” She was sitting with her coffee, blowing on the residual steam.
“Well, I suppose we need to think about what we’re doing, huh?”
She chuckled. “Well, it’s not like we don’t make good choices without thinking at all.”
I laughed. “Well, I guess that’s true.”
“Well,” she said after a pause, head on one side, contemplatively. “I guess there are a few things we have to consider. I get good health coverage with my job, and paid maternity leave. So I think just quitting before my baby is born wouldn’t be smart, right?”
“Right.” I nodded, drinking the residue of my coffee. “Smart thought.”
“Thanks.” She gave a grin. “I get them sometimes.”
I laughed. “Well, if you stay here until after the birth, I’m staying here too.”
“Reese…” she said with a concerned look. “No. Sweetheart, what about the farm? Your plans…” she trailed off.
“Well,” I said with a grin. “I don’t need to be there every day. I still have big plans there; don’t worry. But I can at least spend the last three months here with you. If you’ll have me, that is.”
She snorted. “Of course I will.”
“Okay. Then that’s settled,” I said. In my mind, it was.
“But Reese,” she said, finishing the last of the toast. “What about keeping an eye on…” she trailed off as I grinned.
“I think we have the perfect person to keep an eye on things.”
As I said it, she realized who I meant. “You mean Grandpa.”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
She started laughing. “Reese, it’s perfect! It is just perfect. We couldn’t have planned something so perfect.”
“No,” I said. “We couldn’t.”
We both laughed. We sat at the table a while longer, making our plans and I made more coffee so that we could enjoy the peace and quiet and the ideas for the future.
“So,” I said, standing and stretching and tidying up the breakfast plates, “what do we do in LA in the afternoons?”
She grinned. “I can’t wait to show you.”
“Oh?” I chuckled. “That sounds really interesting.”
She pulled a face. “Not that, Reese. We spent the whole morning doing that already.”
I laughed. “Well, I suppose I can focus on something else that’s fun and wonderful and awesome…but I can’t think of anything that comes close.”
“Nor can I,” she said as she rinsed the dishes in the sink. “But we might as well have a look around.”
I nodded. “Let’s. I’d like that.”
So that was what we did.
Reese stayed for a week. On the last full day, which was a Friday, he came back with a big smile. He had been out when I returned from work, which was unusual. I wondered what he’d been up to.
“Kelly!” he said happily. “Can we go to the park tomorrow?”
I raised a brow. “Sure,” I said. “Why not?”
“No reason,” he said lightly. I frowned. What was he up to.
The next morning, after making love and breakfast, we sat having coffee.
“Let’s take a picnic with us,” he suggested. “When we go to the park. Sounds good?”
“Yeah!” I nodded. “I’d like that.”
When he said a picnic, I had assumed he meant sandwiches and maybe a bottle of lemonade. But I found to my surprise a sumptuous picnic basket, complete with pink champagne.
“Reese…” I frowned as he rummaged in the cupboard under the sink, finding things to add to the basket. Things I guessed he must have bought the previous afternoon and concealed about the kitchen. My kitchen.
“There we go,” he said, giving me a big smile. “All ready.”
“Wow,” I said, eying the hamper sideways. “You’re fancy.”
“Well,” he said with a blush. “I do try.”
“Yes, you do.” I kissed him and an hour later we were heading out the door to the park.
We found a nice place under the trees in the shade. It was a blazing, warm July day and I was wearing a sundress, a big pair of sunglasses and open-back shoes. He was wearing a plain white short-sleeved shirt that looked smoldering on him, and casual black pants. He spread the rug out under the tree and I sat.
While we ate, we laughed and talked about when we had met. It seemed at once so recent and also like it had happened ages ago, part of another life. I was warm and pleasantly full and cheerfully sleepy from the champagne.
“You have a grass-blade in your hair,” he said, reaching to pick it out. I giggled.
“Thank you,” I said and his hand brushed my face, making my tummy tingle. I chuckled and he chuckled too as I squeezed his fingers. We both laughed.
He reached into his pocket. “Kelly,” he said quietly.
“Yes?”
When I saw what he was holding, I started crying. It was a jeweler’s casket. I knew what he was going to say and I sobbed and sobbed.
“Will you marry me?”
“Yes!” I was laughing, then, and crying and I embraced him and, still laughing and crying, said it again. “Yes. Reese…Yes!”
He hugged me and we kissed and we were both tearing up. I don’t know what the people passing by thought, but they looked shyly away as if intruding on a special moment. They were, I guess.
It was
the most special moment of my life so far.
I was in love with Reese. And we were getting married.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Kelly
I hadn’t realized how easy it would be to spread the news. It was the one thing I was worried about. In the end, I only told two people: Mom and Miller. The rest of the news spreading they did all by themselves.
I invited Miller to my place for supper the week after Reese had gone home. I cooked a new recipe for salmon and then we sat on the couch with after-dinner coffee. I told her I was pregnant.
“Kelly!” she yelled. She jumped out of her seat and embraced me. I felt her squash me against her chest and laughed in protest.
“Don’t squash me!”
She let me go and put her hand on mine. “Kelly Gowan, that is the most amazing news ever!” she shook her head, seeming unable to take it in. “May I ask something?”
“Sure,” I said.
“Who’s the dad?”
I laughed. “His name is Reese. He’s amazing. Can’t wait ‘till you meet him.”
“Neither can I!” she enthused. “When’s the baby coming?”
“In March next year,” I said.
“That’s so soon!” she said. “Only…what…seven months away?”
“Seven and a half,” I grinned.
“Wow!” she clapped her hands. “Well! We’ll have to have a big party and get lots of things…do you have a registry?”
I laughed. “Miller! Slow down!”
She pulled a face at me. “Sorry. But it’s so exciting!” she paused. “It’s okay if I tell your news, is it?”
I nodded. “Sure. It would help me if you did, actually. Save me spreading it myself.”
She laughed. “Perfect. Oh! Everyone will be so excited too…”
I couldn’t have hoped for a nicer result.
The harder bit—or at least I thought it would be hard—was going to be telling my mom. Not so much because I thought she wouldn’t approve of my choices—she was good and letting me live my own life—but because it was hard to get her to sit still so one could talk to her.
In the end, I decided to visit her on a long weekend. When I was there, the first night at dinner, I cleared my throat.
“Mom,” I said carefully. “I have something I want to tell you.”
“You’re pregnant.”
I gaped at her. “Mom! How in hell…”
She laughed. “You look beautiful, Kells. You have this light on inside you that I’ve never seen before. Radiant, that’s the word. I knew it had to be something like that. Just a crazy hunch.”
I laughed and, still laughing, hugged her. When we moved back, both our cheeks were wet.
“Kelly!” she said, shaking her head. She cleared her throat. “I am so excited!”
I smiled. “I’m so glad.”
“Oh! I can’t wait to tell everyone the good news…” she was already getting her phone out of her bag, and I laughed as she frowned. “Um…who must I say is the father?”
I giggled. “Well, I hope you can meet him. His name’s Reese. Lieutenant Reese Bradford.”
“Oh!” Her brow shot up. “A military man.”
“Not anymore,” I said. “He had his term of service already. He’s a farmer.”
“Oh!” She shook her head, a big happy smile twisting her mouth. “I wouldn’t have imagined you’d end up with a soldier. Ex-soldier, whatever.”
“I wouldn’t have either,” I said. I felt a flame of pride in my chest. I loved Reese. I loved him so much. I was looking forward to showing him off, actually…I thought he was so wonderful that I just had to show everyone.
“Well,” Mom said, heading into the kitchen. “This calls for a celebration! I would take out the Champagne, but I guess that wouldn’t be fair since you probably don’t want to drink any. I have grape juice?”
I laughed as my frenetic, funny mom rummaged in the cupboard and drew out a bottle of sparkling juice. She grimaced and pulled out the cork.
“Eek!”
It was foaming everywhere and I laughed at her stricken expression and ran to her help, fetching champagne flutes out of the cupboard and pouring two glasses while she dabbed the front of her cream gauze shirt.
“Here we are,” I said, passing her one.
“Cheers! To the new baby. And happiness.”
“Cheers to that”
When we had drunk to the new baby’s health—our toast sealed in sparkling grape juice—I headed back to the table and we finished dinner. Mom had made her wonderful Thai-inspired concoction, and I leaned back, savoring the familiarity of her, the house, and her cooking. I was so happy.
“So,” she said, pausing from devouring the rice with chopsticks—a skill I rather envied—”
“You are having the baby when, exactly?”
“In March next year,” I said.
She made a mental count and nodded. “So you’re two months now?”
“Almost,” I nodded.
“Good,” she said briskly. “Are you going to have a party?”
I laughed. “Mom! You crazy woman. I do love you. I think I’m having one at work.”
She chuckled. “Good. I love you too.”
We finished the meal and as we did so we discussed plans about my delivery and my move and when Reese would stay. She took my idea of moving back to Wyoming without any surprise.
“You know, that would be perfect,” she said, swallowing the vestiges of her supper briskly. “Your grandpa always said you were happy out there. I guess I should have listened. But you know me,” she sighed. “I’m always too busy chasing something to stop and listen.”
She looked into the distance, and she seemed sad.
“Mom,” I said gently. “If you stopped being like that, you wouldn’t be you. And that would be awful. Now, maybe you can help me. Should I tell Grandpa now?”
She frowned.
“What do you think?” she asked at length. Like me, she was worried about his heart.
“Well, he seems pretty stable to me. Reese mentioned he’d seen him and he also thought he looked great.”
“Well, then,” my mother said. “I think that would be a great idea. You have no idea how excited he will be. You are special to him.”
“Thanks,” I said softly. “He’s special to me too.”
The next morning, while I was still there as Mom went through to water the extensive crop of palm trees in her garden, I called him.
“Grandpa?” I said. “It’s Kelly.”
“Kelly! Sweetheart! How are you doing?”
“I’m well, Grandpa. Yourself?”
“I’m well. Much better. It’s good to hear you. You know what?”
“What?” I asked.
“I had a visitor a couple weeks back…just after you left.”
“Oh?” I frowned.
“I remember because I think he knew you,” Grandpa said. I could almost hear the smile in his next words. “My neighbor. Reese. Nice sort of guy.”
“Oh?” I couldn’t stop smiling. “Well, I’m glad you chatted.”
“Me too,” he said thoughtfully. “Why?”
“Well…” I couldn’t keep the giggle from my voice. “Because…because I’m expecting his baby!”
“What?” Grandpa sounded surprised. I heard him cough and I glanced around for Mom, suddenly terrified that it had been a bad idea to tell him after all.
“It’s okay, Grandpa. Can you maybe sit down? Can you breathe?”
“I…” he wheezed, then I recognized the sound. He was laughing. “Kelly! You never told me!”
I blushed. “Well, it all kind of…happened, Grandpa. We would have told you, but it was all a bit busy back then.”
He laughed. “Well, bless me! I never thought I’d make being a great-grandpa! Well, well…” he sniffed. “I wish Jess could have seen it.”
I blinked, feeling my throat tight with tears. “She will, Grandpa,” I said softly. “I believe in my heart that she
will.”
He sniffed. “I believe it.”
We chatted a bit longer and I told him Reese would be staying with me, and then that I would be moving to the farm. Permanently.
He was silent. I waited for a reply. When none was forthcoming, I panicked.
“Grandpa!” I yelled. “Are you okay there?”
No answer.
“Grandpa?” I really was worried now. What had happened? Was he okay?
At length I heard his voice. “It’s okay,” he said. His voice was wobbly, and I held my breath, hearing it. “It’s just that…I’m so happy.”
I was crying too. We both cried for a bit, him sniffing surreptitiously, and me outright crying. Then I cleared my throat.
“I’ll see you soon, Grandpa,” I promised.
“See you soon.”
We hung up. I stood with the phone in my hand in my mom’s elegant, minimal sitting room and felt as if a light had turned on in my heart. I was so, so happy.
