Epilogue
VIOLET
* Three Years Later *
I ’ve always loved planting things in the ground. Indoor gardening. Making flower arrangements.
I look out across our beautiful back garden. It’s far from perfect. Certainly not polished enough for a corporate setting. It’s more like a series of experiments that might take years to truly take hold.
I tiptoe out across the grass to the herb garden in the back, carrying a small wicker basket. The fragrant peppermint and spearmint oil gets on my fingertips when I pluck around thirty leaves.
I turn back to the patio to see Jack there, watching me and smiling. He’s almost always smiling when I’m around. So different from the slightly grumpy corporate loner he used to be.
As I approach, his smile drops. “I smell mint. I thought your morning sickness was over?”
“I’m fine. I just feel like having some peppermint tea for flavor today, not medicine.”
His sighs dramatically, clutching his heart. “Thank goodness. I really wanted to have lasagna tonight.”
A month ago, we had joked that even though I suffered with my body changing, the morning sickness and the restless nights, in fact it was Jack who had made the largest sacrifice since I couldn’t eat anything with tomato sauce for almost two months, and that messed up his dinner plans.
He’s been an angel through my pregnancy – always keeping me laughing, making sure I’m off my feet as much as possible, and constantly feeding me…even if it’s only crackers, ginger ale, and a multivitamin.
“Where are your shoes?” he asks.
“The grass feels nice between my toes. Besides, don’t all men want a woman who’s married, pregnant, and barefoot in the garden picking herbs for tea?” I laugh. “What century are we in, again?”
Jack wraps his thick arms around me for a big, squishy hug. “The one with us in it. Which is obviously the only place in the entire space-time continuum that matters.”
He takes the basket from me and heads for the kitchen. He’s already learned how to make perfect peppermint tea. I stretch out on the chaise lounge in the shade, with just my feet in the warmth of the sun.
Staring out at the garden, I love how parts of it are a bit overgrown. A bit wild.
Kind of like us. I had no idea that moving in together and then getting married would create such a different energy. Like taking an indoor potted plant and putting it out in the garden. It’s not just that its roots have more room to grow and stretch. There’s so much more daylight. The rain is purer than tap water. There’s always a fresh breeze.
With Jack at my side, I’ve become more confident. There were seventy people at our wedding, and even though my champagne flute had been quivering in my hand, I made a heartfelt toast without falling to pieces.
When Jack comes out with my tea, I’m laughing to myself. “What is it?” he asks.
“I’m just realizing that I think in plant analogies far too often.”
He pulls a chair over and begins rubbing my feet, really digging in his thumbs along the arch in a way that makes me shiver, then relax. “Thinking in plant-speak is what you’ve always done.” He chuckles. “And it’s rubbing off on me. Did I ever tell you, in a meeting last week, I mentioned something about a stock growing as fast as bamboo.”
“Speaking of growing…” My emerald engagement ring sparkles as I rub my round belly. “We really need a short list of names.”
Jack sits up straight like he does in business meetings when he’s about to make a point, switching to my other foot. “Well, we’ve got Ivy, Calla, and Lily if it’s a girl. “
“Yes. But it could easily be a boy. Any ideas?”
“I’ve been doing some research.” His eyes sparkle. “I like the name Oakley. And Forest. But I’m really leaning toward Cedar. It’s slightly unusual, but I feel he could grow into it.”
My mouth drops open. “You want to keep it plant-related if it’s a boy?
He shrugs. “Why not? It’s one of your family traditions.”
My whole family adores Jack. Our first Christmas together, he gave my mother the services of a consultant for two weeks, which turned our entire business around. He also gives her pots of her namesake dahlia at every occasion, and recommends Palmer’s Potted Plants to all of his corporate contacts. We’ve become known in particular for our green walls and have installed at least twelve of them in office spaces, thanks to him.
“Cedar…” I stare out at the row of trees at the back of the yard. “Cedar English. Kid’s going to need a tweed coat, pipe, and a Sherlock Holmes hat by the time he’s three. Let me roll that around in my mind for a few days.”
“Anything you like, darling.” Jack’s smile sends that familiar twinkle of desire through me from the top of my head to the tips of my toes, as he gently keeps massaging them.
I never imagined what love would actually look like. Never had a clue about what kind of man I would end up with, just knew that I wanted to fall head over heels in love someday.
Did I ever envision it would happen with a wealthy, high-powered CEO, who is more than slightly obsessed with Italian food and completely obsessed with me? No.
But I’m grateful every single day that I brought coffee to the busy man who needed it that morning. The man who understands everything about me.
The man I belong with forever.