Chapter 20 Douglas
DOUGLAS
December is over. It’s the first day of a new year. A new life for me. And I can’t remember ever looking forward to anything more.
Mona and I have gotten to spend five days together on our own since my family left. It felt almost like a honeymoon.
It can’t last. Of course it can’t. But I don’t even begrudge the return of real life because I get to spend the rest of my life with her.
Are we silly to be so sure after only a month?
Perhaps. But we are sure, and nothing in my life has ever been so certain, so inevitable, as this knowledge that we’ll be together to the end.
She has a new job that begins tomorrow, so she’ll be leaving then. I’m not looking forward to her absence, but I have work to do too. I’m looking forward to getting back into my book on joy now that I’m actually experiencing it.
And she said her responsibilities in this month’s job will be done by five every day, so she can come back here in the evenings. It’s only a forty-minute drive. And if she gets tired of commuting, I can get a room near the house where she’s working so we can still spend nights together.
She’s going to start taking shorter jobs and trying to prioritize jobs in Green Valley so she can continue to grow her business but we won’t be separated for months at a time.
I’m sure we can make it work. I don’t want to be away from her for long stretches of time, but my schedule and circumstances are flexible enough that it shouldn’t be difficult to manage.
I can’t believe she wants a life with me so much that she’s willing to alter hers.
She didn’t want a proposal on Christmas. I can hardly blame her. We have plenty of time. I’m already on the hunt for the ring, but she doesn’t have to know that.
She’s not sure about children. Neither am I. So we’ve agreed to go on without that as a goal unless both of us change our mind.
And everything else… a miracle. A gift. Grace unlooked for and undeserved.
Maybe one day I’ll get used to it, but I haven’t yet.
It’s joy.
December is over, and Mona is still mine.