Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
T he next day the long-anticipated storm came.
It was so cold there was no question of letting Jesse stay outside, and when he came back from practice I immediately opened the door to him.
“Where’s the dessert?” Mike asked. “You are not going to be forgiven without apology kolaczki.”
“Those are for Josie,” Jesse said. “She’s the first one who has to forgive me.”
He disappeared into the bathroom to change as Mom charged around the corner.
“The side door is open!” she cried, wringing her hands in distress. “And I can’t find Watson anywhere! I know he’s gone out in the storm!”
Oh, goddamn Watson! I thought in despair.
Mom yanked at the front door and called as loud as she could:
“Watson! Watson !”
It was a wall of howling white blizzard out there, and the angry wind tore at the door, flinging it open so hard it smashed against the entryway wall.
“Close it!” I cried as the tiny ice pellets pelted my cheeks with hard, sharp slashes.
Dad, Mike, and I struggled with the door as Mom called again for Watson, her voice fading and cracking in the howl of the blizzard.
Then Jesse was there, gently moving her aside and putting his big body against the door, forcing it shut.
I gasped, my cheeks still stinging with the wind.
“I’ve never seen it this bad,” I panted.
Mom began to cry, and Dad looked like he’d been punched in the gut.
Even Mike wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
“Dumb dog,” my brother said. “Why’d he have to go do a thing like that?”
Jesse flipped his hood up and reached for his sneakers.
“He can’t have gone far. I’ll be back in a bit.”
“Stop!” I yelped. “It’s way too dangerous to go out there, Jesse. It’s a whiteout blizzard! You won’t be able to see a foot in front of your face.”
Jesse grinned down at me. “ Ach ! I’ve seen worse.”
He took my chin in his hand and bent down to kiss me, his lips heated, his fingers spreading possessively across my skin.
And then before I could protest, he was gone into the swirling white.
We rushed to the living room to look out the window but of course there was nothing to see but angry snow and ice, the bare branches of the trees outside scraping at the window.
We stayed like that as the minutes ticked out loudly with the grandfather clock.
“Fucking dumbass,” Mike said. “What the fuck was Jesse thinking going out in this?”
“He’s cocky,” I said, “Thinks he’s the shit and he can do anything.”
“That idiot is certifiable!” Dad agreed. “He’s going to break his damn fool neck.”
I said nothing again.
I knew exactly what that meant. He’d won them back.
Mom just kept her nose glued to the window.
As the minutes ticked on, my breath seemed to grow more ragged. Did I always breath like this? Is this what normal breathing felt like? Blood rushed in my ears, and I noticed that my knuckles were white as I gripped the windowsill.
What if he was lying in a ditch somewhere with a broken neck?
What if he had couldn’t find his way back?
What if I never saw him again?
Then the door opened and there was my ex, frost in his eyelashes, his blonde hair covered in tiny icicles, and under his arm he was clutching the misbehaving reprobate Watson.
I couldn’t even hear Mom screaming in joy as the blood drained from my body, my limbs going limp in relief.
“Jesse,” I croaked, and he laughed and gathered me in his arms.
“Come near the fire, you’re freezing!”
“I don’t care,” he said, putting me gently back on my feet and getting down on one knee.
“Marry me, Josephine. You make me the happiest man on earth and I swear to all the fucking saints that I will do my best to make you happy.”
My breath caught in my throat and I glanced up and my entire family was there, all cuddling Watson.
“Some privacy, please!” I begged as they all directed loving puppy dog eyes at Jesse.
“We can never thank you enough,” Mom said as they bore Watson into the living room and the fire.
“He’s not so bad after all,” Mike advised.
“Man makes a hell of an apple pie,” Dad said, closing the door after them.
I could see Jesse’s lips twitching, but he still held my hand tightly as he stared anxiously at me.
“You don’t get to marry me just because you charged out into a blizzard,” I said sternly.
“Can I marry you because I’m fucking crazy about you, Josephine DeRosa? Because thinking I could live without you was the worst mistake of my life I’ll never repeat again.”
I looked down at him and that huge-ass diamond ring winking up at me.
And I could have started fresh. I could have found a good man and good sex elsewhere.
But I chose Jesse anyway.
Because despite his fuck-up he still had my whole heart.
“Please,” he said again, and I saw him swallow convulsively, over and over, tears gathering in the corners of his eyes. “I love you so much.”
“I love you, too,” I said. “I love you, Jesse.”
And he roared with triumph and whirled me around, pressing me up against the wall to kiss me thoroughly as Watson howled in solidarity from the other room.