25. Epilogue
Chapter twenty-five
Twenty-five years later…
“ D o you have any idea what he wants to talk to us about?” Valerie, our youngest daughter, peers over her water glass while we all wait for her brother to arrive for dinner. He’s already fifteen minutes late, which only spikes her mother’s nerves. Whits has been beside herself trying to decode our son’s recent behavior—something sketchy and full of secrets. Whatever he has to say is important enough for him to request a family dinner.
“I have no idea,” I admit while four sets of eyeballs stare back at me. My wife and three of our kids resign themselves to guessing once again.
Finally, the front door opens and Reid stumbles in. “Sorry I’m late! Sorry, sorry.” He drops his coat on the back of the sofa and jogs to the dining room.
“Took you long enough. What was so important that I had to leave campus and drive an hour home for?” Ian, his younger brother asks. Ainsley frowns but refrains from scolding him for being impatient.
Reid falls into the seat beside his mother and kisses her cheek. His cheeks are ruddy and his hair is a windswept mess, but he can’t hide his excitement. Suddenly, I have a good feeling I know what this is about. I brace for impact because I’m not sure how his mother is going to take the news.
“Okay, so you know how I applied to the NYFD, right?”
Whits tenses. “Yes?”
“Well, I didn’t get the job offer, but I got a call from a guy in North Carolina. His name is Nick Lowry, and he’s the chief at a firehouse in a little town called Coldstone Creek. He offered me a job.”
“Wait, you were hoping for a job in New York, and you’re excited about an offer in a dinky town in North Carolina instead?” Ian asks.
Reid blinks a few times. “Well, yeah. The guy sought me out specifically, said he saw that I wasn’t offered the job in New York but thinks I have all the qualifications he’s looking for in future chief material. It’s not just a job offer, but a career offer.”
As usual, Ian isn’t as excited for his older brother as he should be, but the girls make up the difference.
Ainsley squeals and wraps her arms around her elder brother. “Reid, that is amazing! I’m so happy for you, but I’m going to miss you all the way in North Carolina!”
“It’s not that far,” Ian mumbles.
Valerie sighs. “Can’t you be happy just this once?” With an eye roll, she turns her focus to Reid. “I’m excited to explore the area with you. Will you have much free time for visitors?”
Our kids continue talking about Reid’s new opportunity, but I can’t help noticing that Whits has tuned out. She stares down into her water with a frown tugging at her lips. If almost twenty-five years of marriage has taught me anything about my wife, it’s that this took her by surprise. It isn’t as if she didn’t suspect our kids might move around, even far away, but it’s real now.
“Uh, excuse me,” she says and pushes her chair out. Reid makes eye contact with me, his mood suddenly sullen. I wink at him and drop my napkin beside my plate before excusing myself.
I find Whits in our bedroom, running her finger over the sets of baby books and family photo albums that line the top shelf. Before she pulls one out and starts sobbing about how fast our kids grew up, I encircle her waist with my arms and spin her around to kiss her. She still makes my heart swell with pride and my stomach dance with the same anticipation she did when we were teenagers.
She pulls free to wipe her tears. “I’m not sad. I’m not. I’m so proud of him, but reality hits kind of hard, you know?”
“I do. If you remember, you had to convince me it was okay for Valerie to go to college. You had to talk me out of driving her to and from class every day just to keep her home.”
Whits chuckles and leans back into my embrace. “How did they grow up so fast? How did we grow up so fast?”
I kiss the top of her head and sigh. “Time flies when you’re having fun, and I’ve had a blast with you, Tallulah Gray. You and that annoying one you call a brother.”
She bursts into laughter at the mere thought of her brother and sister-in-law and that brood of kids they have. They’re going through the same thing, watching theirs grow up and leave the house even though they are nowhere close to ready to let them go.
A soft knock on our bedroom door forces Whits to tense. I squeeze her tight and whisper, “You can do this. He needs to know his mother sees him as a man, and not just a little boy.” She nods and releases me so I can open the door.
Reid wears a sheepish grin and fidgets with the hem of his shirt. “Can I come in? I wanted to talk to Mom.”
I open the door wider and allow our son into our private space. The second his gaze lands on my wife, it forces a sob from her that I know they hear down the hallway. Reid opens his arms to his mother and she accepts his hug.
“I’m proud of you, son, I promise.”
“I know, Mom. And it’s not like I won’t visit. I think you’ll love the town, too. It’s small and has this quaint little bed and breakfast you and Dad can stay at when you visit me.” He rubs her arms and smiles down at her.
She sniffles and wipes her tears. “I know you’ll be amazing. You’ll focus and learn so much, and before you know it, you’ll be running that firehouse.”
“You know I learned everything I know about stubbornness from you, right?” Reid teases.
Whits scrunches her nose before putting both hands on her hips. “I’ll have you know, that stubbornness earned me a top position as a surgeon and then as a marketing executive.” Our son laughs. “Oh, stop. You and your father both always know how to get me going. Go spend time with your brother and sisters. I’ll be out in a minute.”
“You sure you’re okay? You’re not mad at me?”
Whits palms his cheek and smiles. “I’m not mad at you. Not at all. Now go, I’ll be right out.”
Reid kisses her cheek and passes me. I clap him on the shoulder on his way out, but I’m downright confused by Whits and her demeanor. The crying I expected, but she’s keeping something from Reid. Once he’s out of earshot, and I hear him chatting with our other kids, I shut the door again.
“Okay, out with it. What is going on with you? You’re hiding something.”
Whits bites her lip and tries not to grin.
“Tallulah, out with it.”
“Okay, be quiet before you ruin it.” She motions for me to sit on the bed with her. “I might have already known about the job.”
“What?” I ask, probably too loudly.
“I overheard him telling Jackson about it and asking for advice on how to break it to us.”
I frown and ask, “All right, but that’s not really a big deal. He’s always gone to his uncle for—”
“Cai, it’s not about the job. He turned down the position in New York.”
I’m stupefied. One does not simply turn down a chance to work for the New York Fire Department, and to discover that our son not only turned down a job offer, but lied about it, concerns me. “Wait, he turned down a phenomenal job opportunity to work in a small-town firehouse? What am I missing here?”
“Cai, you cannot be serious right now. Think about it for a second. North Carolina, does it ring any bells?”
I might not be as young as I used to be, and I sure haven’t put out any fires for years now, but I cannot fathom any reason why my son, a man who is crazy about the action of being a firefighter, would turn down such an opportunity and choose to move to a slower, smaller station. “I’m stumped. Help me out here, Whits.”
“Winter Morgan.”
Two words, and suddenly I understand everything. “No, you’re kidding.”
“She graduates from college in six months, and she took a job in the very same town. She’s not coming back to Denver, Cai.”
“And so he’s…”
“Chasing after his best friend and the love of his life. He’s a man in love, and he’s not going to let her go so easily.”
I sit on our bed and contemplate this turn of events. At the beginning of the night, I had anticipated the news impacting my wife more than me, but the more I think about my son’s reason for choosing North Carolina over New York, the harder it hits me. I glance up at my wife.
“I should have chased you down. I should have crossed continents for you, Whits.”
She wraps her arms around my neck and sits on my lap. “No, our story worked out the way God intended. I love you, Cai, and I’ve been so happy with you these past years. Our story is pretty perfect, and it’s time for me to let Reid go off into the world and carve out his own story.”
“How do you think it’s going to work out for him?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Winter is a smart girl, and I think she’ll see how completely wonderful our son is.”
I run my hands up her arms and kiss her again. “I love you, Whits. And you’re right. Our story is exactly how it needed to be.”
“Hey, are you two coming out or can we eat the cake ourselves?” Ian shouts from the dining room.
Whits groans. “You think that one will ever find a girlfriend?” she teases.
“If he can control that sour attitude, maybe. Let’s go celebrate our son’s new job, and later, we’ll go for a ride.”
“You and that bike. Is that your answer for everything?”
“Yep. Pack a book. We’ll ride up to the cabin for the weekend, snuggle, take naps. You know, all the fun things we used to do before we had kids.”
Whits closes her eyes and releases a long, slow sigh. “Ah, sounds wonderful.”
“Mom! Ian got into the cake!” Valerie shouts.
With one last laugh, Whits shakes her head and heads to the door. I grasp her hand and a million memories flood my mind. We’ve shared so much in our lives, and God saw fit for us to have four amazing children. With a little faith and prayer, I’m positive whatever comes next will be just as incredible. And who knows, maybe Reid and Winter’s friendship will blossom into something much more.