Epilogue Two BRADY
Six months later
“What can I get you, Caleb?” I ask the man sitting on the stool in front of me. He was the contractor who had just moved to town. He came in for one job and then got hired to renovate the diner. After that, word spread pretty quickly that there was someone new in town who did good work.
“I’ll try the new blend that you were talking about,” he says, tapping the top of the bar with his finger as I pour a shot in the tumbler and add one big round ice cube to it. “I’ll be back,” I say, tossing the coaster onto the bar top before placing his drink down.
“You can take off if you want,” the new bartender, Jamie, tells me. “I have this covered. It’s a slow night. All the tour tourists are gone anyway.” I look around, seeing that there are only about six or seven tables. He can definitely handle this by himself.
“Okay,” I tell him, “Caleb just got a drink.” I motion with my chin toward the bar before heading to the back where I grab my keys. I see that it’s just a little after seven, so I’ll be home in time to tuck Wyatt in. I rush out to the truck, get in, and make my way home.
Pulling up in the driveway right next to Harmony’s car, I shut off the truck and get out, slamming the door behind me as I make my way up the steps to the front door. “I’m home!” I shout, looking around to see that there is no noise anywhere. Walking to the living room, I see no one is on the couch where they usually sit when I get home after dinnertime. My eyes go to the kitchen, and I see a covered plate sitting on the stovetop. “Baby.” I lean my head to the side to see if she’s outside with Wyatt practicing more baseball tosses, but I see the backyard empty as well. “Harmony.” I walk out of the kitchen toward the stairs, listening to see if maybe Wyatt is in the shower and so is Harmony. Since they’ve moved in, this house has been brought to life. There is either baseball stuff by the door or even soccer stuff. Although Charlie’s grandfather is getting in his ear about hockey.
I walk into our bedroom and find her. My feet stop in the doorway as soon as I take her in. She’s sitting on the end of the bed. Her head is down, and when she looks up, my whole body goes on alert. My heart literally stops in my chest when she looks up at me, and I see that her eyes are puffy from crying with tears streaked down her face. “Baby?” I whisper. “What is going on?” I look around the room. Our bed is fixed like it is every single day even though I told her not to put on all those throw pillows. Three frames on her side of the bed, one with Wyatt on his horse that he has at Charlie’s. Another one of Harmony and me at the bar with her between my legs as I sit on the stool, and then the last one of Wyatt, my father, and me at his last baseball tournament. There is only one frame on my side of the bed, and that’s the one with Wyatt and Harmony sitting on the front steps. “Where is Wyatt?”
“He’s at your sister's house,” she says, sniffling. “Charlie just got some new horses, and he was helping him.”
“Okay.” I take a step into the room. “What’s with the tears?”
“I have to tell you something,” she says, and I see her hands shaking. “I don’t know how to say it.” She puts her hand to her mouth.
I stop in front of her as she looks up at me, and I see a white envelope right next to her. Her shaky hand reaches for the envelope, and I can’t even swallow because my mouth has suddenly gone dry. “Say what?”
“Remember two months ago when Wyatt got sick,” she starts, and I see her bottom lip quiver, “and then I got it, and then you got it because you, well, you’re you and refused not to kiss me.”
I can see her rambling, and she does this all the time when she’s nervous. “And I said we should use extra protection since I was on antibiotics.” My head goes to the right side. “And you scoffed at me and said we’ll be fine.” Her voice goes even higher. “Well, we are not fine.”
My knees finally give out, and I fall between her legs. “I’m so, so sorry, Brady,” she says. “I was feeling a little sick the past couple of days, and then this morning when you left I literally threw up in the sink in the kitchen. So I rushed out to get a test and then called the doctor.” Her hands are waving all over the place. “Well, I know that we never talked about it. I know that this isn’t something that we prepared for but…” She holds out her hand and the envelope.
I don’t even bother grabbing it before I finally say, “You’re pregnant?”
“I am,” she says, and I watch two tears roll down her cheeks.
“You aren’t happy about this?” The pressure in my chest makes it hard to breathe. I find it coming in pants.
“It’s not me I’m worried about,” she says. “It’s you.”
“Me?” I pant out. “Me?”
“Yes, you,” she says. “This.” She shakes her hand with the white envelope in it. “This is a big deal.”
“I want you to go into the closet,” I say. “Inside my blue suit jacket is something I’ve been saving for a special occasion.” I move out of the way to give her space to get up. “Go,” I tell her, and she hesitantly gets up and heads for the closet. I get up and follow her there but stop at the entrance to the closet. I see her go to the blue suit and reach inside for the brown box that has been burning a hole in the pocket. The second she gasps out, I say, “Every time I thought it was the right time, something came up. But then right here.” I get down on one knee. “There isn’t a better time than now.” I smile up at her. This woman who has made my heart so full there are some days I think it’s going to explode. “Harmony,” I say her name as she smiles through the tears. “I can’t say that I fell in love with you the first time I saw you, but I can say that I have never loved someone the way I love you. I have never wanted to make someone smile the way I want to make you and Wyatt smile. I have never wanted anything more in my life than to be connected to you.” I put my hands on her hips and kiss her still flat stomach that soon will be growing with our child in there. “Will you do me the honor of being by my side for the rest of our lives?”
“So you aren’t mad about the baby?” she asks, and I shake my head.
“That ring in there was the ring my father gave to my mother,” I tell her, and she drops the box, putting both hands to her mouth. “He gave it to her and promised to love her forever, and to this day, he is keeping that promise.” I open the box, and she sees the ring my mother wore until her last breath. “What do you say?”
“I say that I was convinced that love was a myth. It was what people wrote about in fairy tales. It was something that didn’t exist, especially for me. Until you.” She grabs my face. “You’ve shown me what it was to love someone so unconditionally that all you could do is sit back and bask in it. You love my son as if he’s yours.”
“He’s ours,” I say.
“Yes,” she whispers. “Yes, I’ll marry you.” She kisses me on the lips, and I get up off my knee, wrapping one arm around her while carrying her to our bed. “Wait,” she snaps, and I stop walking. “You have to put the ring on my finger.”
“Fine.” I put her down. “But then I want you naked with just this ring on.” She blushes as she looks down at her hand.
“Anything,” she says, holding her hand up closer to her face, “it’s perfect.”
“No.” I shake my head. “You are perfect.” I push the hair away from her face. “This life we have is perfect. It’s what dreams are made of,” I say before I kiss her and make love to her.