32. Zach
32
ZACH
C hristmas afternoon…
When I flew home a little over a month ago, I figured I’d be driven back to the airport shortly after the holiday travel died down. I didn’t know where I’d go or what I’d do, but I no longer had the urge to leave.
Not after finding the love of my life, who’d been in my life all along.
Not after learning I had a future to look forward to in a family.
This Christmas would be the first of many here in Grandma Jenny’s house, but this year was a memorable one.
“Talk about some big presents,” Amanda said as she sat next to me on the couch while Blake and Grandma Jenny talked in the kitchen.
“Yeah!” George replied from a few feet in front of us, staring out the window, his nose pressed against the pane, fogging it up as he watched the barn further back. He’d gotten so many gifts, but he seemed to think the “big present” my sister was referring to was the retired pony that our grandma had gotten for him. He wasn’t sporty, but he was very fond of animals. When she noticed how he liked to draw horses so often, she went out on a whim and got him a pony. She got a horse for herself, too, already thinking back in the spring about how she wanted to spend her retirement. Riding again, like she did when she was a young girl. And being here for her grandkids and great-grandkids.
That was the first big present that we’d opened this morning. Blake had looked at the envelope with a puzzled expression, but as soon as she undid the seal and pulled out some documents, she cried happy tears.
“You have no idea how long I’ve been bursting at the seams to tell you,” Grandma Jenny exclaimed.
“You’re giving me West Catering?” Blake asked.
“Yes!” Grandma Jenny nodded. “I’m too old for it.”
“Yeah, right,” Amanda and I said in unison with Blake.
“Well, I think I’m too old for it. You can expand it. You can make it your own. You can do whatever you want with it, Blake. You’ve been practically running it for years. I wanted to make sure it was all ready for you to take over, and the paperwork and legal matters took some time, then I figured I’d wait until today to ‘give’ it to you.”
Blake wiped her happy tears away and beamed at Grandma Jenny before she hugged her. When she sat back down, she sobered up and cleared her throat before she dropped the second big present that would be shared today.
“Well, I’m not so sure I’m a good person to take on a new business,” she admitted.
Amanda’s jaw dropped. “What?”
I smiled, taking Blake’s hand to tug her onto my lap. “Nope. I insist that she rest during this pregnancy,” I said, placing my hand over her stomach.
I’d never forget the faces of pure shock they sported. Then they reacted with a loud exclamation of excitement. Questions followed, and of course, congratulations. No surprise, since they now knew we were a couple and had been publicly since I stood up with George for his family tree presentation.
Last night at our Christmas Eve dinner, Blake and I told them all that I was George’s dad.
Grandma Jenny gave us a firm and confident Aha! She’d wondered many times because of how similar George and I looked.
Amanda, of course, knew. She told George she was officially his aunt, and he whooped with joy.
George took the news with the most cheer, crying in happiness and excited that he’d have a daddy. Later, after dinner was cleaned up, Blake and I sat him down and I had a chance to explain why I was never there, away in the Army and sometimes in warzones. Blake was graceful and humble as she explained that she’d never wanted him to feel like he wasn’t wanted, because she hoped to love him enough for both parents.
With more hugs and tears, he swore no one could love him more than his mama. And he announced that he’d love us both forever and ever.
“I’m so happy you’re my daddy,” he told me.
I’d never forget that moment.
Much later that night, after I asked George for help with my gift for Blake, I went to bed thinking—no, knowing —I was the luckiest man alive.
Christmas Day, though, when we shared the news that another baby was on the way, George got excited all over again. He asked countless questions about having a brother or sister, but before he could get too carried away, while I had Blake on my lap, I asked him to get the present I asked for his help with.
He grinned and hurried off to find it.
“What’s this?” Blake asked of the colored-in paper that George and I had made. When I asked him for his permission to really be his daddy, to marry his mother, he granted me a wholesome and absolute yes. We colored a Christmas tree and pictures of gifts at the bottom, but he helped cut out an extra piece of paper to make one of the gift boxes into an envelope.
Inside was a ring that Sara, Cole, Amanda, and Grandma Jenny helped me pick out when Blake was off at a dental checkup for George.
“It’s hopefully the third and last big present to get tonight. Mine. Will you give me the gift of being able to call you my wife, Blake?”
She smiled, crying happy tears again as she took the ring out of the flap and held it up.
“We’ll be a real family, Mama!” George said.
“We already are,” Blake replied as she gazed at me. She leaned in to kiss me. “Yes, Zach. I would love to call you my husband.”
As I slid the ring onto her finger, the Christmas lights reflected off the dazzling diamonds.
“I love you,” I whispered, leaning in to kiss the mother of my children.
“I love you, too,” she replied as she pressed her lips to mine. “Merry Christmas, Zach.”
It was merry, indeed. Now and forever.
I was home , with the woman I loved, the son I was glad to have a chance to get to know, and a baby on the way. We’d work together on fixing up the Myer house and calling it our own with Amanda and Grandma Jenny right next door. I could even take over for Mr. Benson at the school since he announced he would retire, after all.
The peaceful and loving arrangement wasn’t what I thought I’d find after being so lost without my first calling in life, but this was far better than anything I ever could’ve dreamed of.