Chapter 40
CHAPTER 40
T ROY
I knock on the front door of the home Shannon and my kids live in. The home I’ve been having sleepovers at for the last couple of weeks. Dr. Linden gave us the okay to reignite the physical part of our relationship, and she also thought we could introduce me spending the night at home sometimes and see how the kids—and us—did with it. So, that’s what we’ve been doing.
Tonight, though, it’s date night. So, I’m picking Shannon up at her front door. We’ve been on dates every week. We also meet for drinks in our kitchen regularly, and those moments, sometimes hours, we spend there are some of the most healing times throughout this entire journey.
The door creaks open, and Oliver stands there, holding Chase the best he can on his hip. Oliver is trying to hold back a grin that I’m sure he wants to come across as serious since I’m picking his mom up for a date and all.
“Daddy!” Chase shifts his weight, trying to get to me, and I reach out to take him from Oliver’s arms.
“Thanks, Dad. That kid’s getting big.” Oliver holds the door open for me. I walk in past him and ruffle his hair as I go. “Flowers, nice touch.”
I hold in a laugh, wanting to match the seriousness in his voice. “Thanks, I wasn’t sure.”
“Oh, she’ll like them, Dad. Girls like flowers.” This kid.
As he leads me further into the house, Chase nuzzles his head into the crook of my neck. I squeeze him tight. It won’t be long until he won’t want to be held anymore. We step into the living room, and my girls—all three of them—are there. Chelsea immediately jumps up and hugs my side. I wrap my hand, holding the flowers around her, and bend down to kiss her head.
“Hi, baby girl.”
“Hi, Daddy.”
I lower Chase to the floor, and he only protests for a second before he’s distracted by Scrappy, who is trying to steal one of his toys. I pull my gorgeous wife into a hug since she’s now within reach.
“Hey, beautiful,” I whisper into her ear. “I missed you.”
She pulls back slightly and looks up at me, “You’ve only been gone a few hours.” Her smile is fucking gorgeous. She rises to her tiptoes and plants a kiss on my lips. “But I missed you, too.”
“Get a room.” I turn my head to see my sister-in-law, Shyley, smirking a few feet away.
“Young ears around, Shy,” Shannon reminds her. She pulls away from me.
“Oops, sorry.” Shyley grabs several pieces of popcorn from the bowl she’s holding and pops them into her mouth, crunching obnoxiously. Olivia squeezes past her, carrying bags of snacks, and gives me a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“Strong work bringing flowers.” She tries to whisper it, but Shannon hears and grins.
“Speaking of flowers, are those for me?”
I look over at Shannon and smile.
“They are. Come with me to the kitchen, and we’ll put them in water before we go?”
She takes the hint, and when we get into the kitchen, I set the flowers on the island and back her up to the wall, my hands firmly in place on her waist. I lean down so my lips are almost touching hers.
“You look stunning tonight, chiclet.” I close the distance to her mouth and kiss her like it’s been a month rather than mere hours since I’ve seen her. When I pull back, she’s lightly panting, and I like it. I like getting her worked up like that.
“You do realize I’m wearing jeans and a sweater, right?” Her voice is light and playful, not self-deprecating like it would have been if the same question had come out six months ago.
“Have you seen your ass in these jeans?”
She laughs and gently pushes me away, then goes to the sink, grabs a vase from underneath, and fills it with water. I work on removing the flowers from the packaging while she does.
“I like this side of you, Troy. The side that isn’t so guarded with your words.” She takes the flowers from me and arranges them in the vase, fixing her eyes on them. “You seem lighter. I like that I get this side of you now, too. Does...”
I give her time, then ask, “Does what?”
She lifts her eyes to mine and looks at me through her thick lashes. “Does this mean you trust I’m not leaving you again?”
I walk around the island and pull her into my arms, kissing her on top of her head. “I’m not afraid of that anymore, Shan. I won’t let things get to that again. I got a taste of living without you as mine, and I never want to feel that again.” I lean back from her some and place a thumb under her chin, guiding her to gaze at me. “Even if I was still insecure about that, I won’t hold back from you again. That was never fair to you. I didn’t give you a chance to prove my fears wrong, and, in my brokenness, I hid a part of my heart from you. I never let you love all of me. If I had let you love me through that all those years ago, maybe I would have been strong enough to help you when you were struggling. I won’t make that mistake again. I love you with every fiber of my being. I’m going to always love and take care of you and our kids. Even that sock-stealing dog of ours.”
That brings a smile to her face. Scrappy and his sock habit.
“I love you, too. Now, let’s get out of here. We have a date to get started.”
We say goodbye to the kids, and Shyley, who I overhear whisper, “You’ve got this,” to Shannon. Not sure what that’s about, but okay.
Ten minutes later, I unlock the door to my rental and hold it open for Shannon to walk in first. Her ass really does look great in those jeans. She heads into the main room to put her bag down while I heat the oven and pull the lasagna out of the refrigerator to warm. I grab the bottle of her favorite wine from the fridge as well.
A minute later, she returns to the kitchen and smiles when she sees the bottle of wine. “Are you planning to get me drunk, Mr. Willson? You know I’m gonna sleep with you either way, right?”
The joy and teasing on her face make my breath stutter for a second. There was a time when I was worried I’d never see this kind of happiness in her again. I thank the universe every day that she’s doing so much better now. That the darkness she felt has lifted.
I clear my throat. It’s time for surprise number one. “You can never be too prepared. Would you mind grabbing the wine glasses while I pull out the salad?”
“Sure, I can do that.”
I step out of her way and get the salad, then turn to watch her. She crosses the small kitchen and opens the cupboard that houses the wine glasses. When she does, a small gasp escapes her, and her hands fly to cover her mouth. She slowly turns to face me.
Her eyes are moist with what I hope are happy tears. She lowers her hands. “You picked up our new mugs.”
“I did. I wanted us to have them as soon as possible.”
She turns back to the cupboard and takes one down, holding it carefully with two hands, walking it to the counter, and placing it in the middle, far away from the edges. My brow furrows, wondering what on earth she’s doing. When she does the same with the other, she must realize why I’m silent and turns to me.
“What? I don’t want to risk breaking them.”
I step to her and wrap her in my arms. “I don’t want any to break either, babe. But if they do, we’ll keep making more. Because we’re never letting anything break what matters—us and our family. And if, at the end of our lives, we have a cupboard full of mismatched ‘meet me for drinks’ mugs, I say they will be a testament to a life full of our love that refused to stay broken.”
Shannon pulls back and fans herself with her hand. “Damn, you are good with your words. You’ve got me swooning over here.”
“Oh yeah? Let me get the lasagna warming, and then we can have a drink on the couch. I’ve got one more surprise I want to share with you.”
I uncork the wine for her to pour and then busy myself with getting the lasagna in the oven and setting the timer. We carry our drinks into the living room, and she sits. I grab the present off the table and hand it to her. Normally I’d already have scooped her up into my arms and been holding her while we had our wine, but I want to see her face when she opens the gift.
Shannon loves presents. She loves giving them, and she loves receiving them. Not stuff, but heartfelt gifts. Thoughtful gifts. So, I’m eager to see her response to this one.
She has the wrapping paper off and lifts the top box off. Then, she carefully pulls out the tissue paper. I stop watching her hand and watch her face, and I know the second she sees it. Her eyes widen, her mouth drops open, and she stares into the box for a solid fifteen seconds before turning her head to me.
“Is this...?”
“Open it the rest of the way and see, chiclet.”
With obvious caution, she reaches into the box and pulls out the mug. She holds it like it’s made of the most fragile glass, as if it’s the most precious treasure. After several small hitches of her breath, as she turns the mug in a circle at a snail’s pace, taking it all in, she holds it to her chest and turns to me again.
“Did you do this? How? When? I thought you threw it out.”
“I did. Do it, I mean. Very carefully with gold resin epoxy, and I’ve been working on it since it happened. Clearly, I didn’t toss it. If I hadn’t been able to fix it, I would have kept the pieces anyway.”
“Troy, it’s beautiful. Even more so than before.” I follow her slim fingers as they trace the gold filling that runs through the cobalt blue surface, healing the breaks the cup sustained in the fall. “I love it so much.”
I scoot closer to her. “We can’t drink from it, but I don’t want to anyway. I like the fact that we made new mugs together. I thought we could put it somewhere at home where we’d see it every day.” Her full attention is on me now, though I notice she still cradles the mug to her with both hands protecting it. “It’s a good reminder that sometimes things that start out beautiful can become broken. Only with the right love, attention, and hard work can they become whole again.”
I watch Shannon as she very carefully places the mug in the center of the coffee table, then scoots herself over to me, climbing onto my lap and wrapping her hands around my neck.
She places a tender kiss on my lips, then pulls back and gazes into my eyes. I see it—love, hope, commitment—all reflected in her eyes.
“It’ll be our reminder that broken things can be healed, fixed, and end up so much more beautiful than anyone ever imagined.”