Chapter 24
Three Months Later
Jason
‘Can you help me with my dress?’ Mia asks, turning her back to me. ‘I’m not sure it’ll fit, but I’m going to try.’
I come up behind her and kiss the side of her neck as I zip up the dress. ‘You look beautiful.’
She looks in the mirror. ‘I feel fat. But at least the dress fits.’
I turn her away from the mirror. ‘You’re not fat. Stop saying that. You’re beautiful.’ I kiss her, slowly, my tongue slipping past her lips. I want her so damn bad, but the doctor wants us to wait another week. I’m counting the days.
The baby fusses and Mia pulls away from me.
‘He’s fine,’ I tell her, knowing how worried she gets every time the baby cries or fusses. She’s always calling her mom or mine to make sure he’s okay and she’s doing everything right.
She walks over to the bassinet where Milo is sleeping. We finally agreed on a name. We didn’t decide until we saw him and then it’s like we just knew. Mia looked at me, said the name Milo, and I told her yes. We didn’t even have to think about it.
I walk over to the bassinet and pick up Milo. ‘What are you fussing about?’ I gently rock him. ‘Are you telling us to hurry up and go?’ I kiss his cheek. ‘You love these family dinners, don’t you? You get nonstop attention.’
‘And everyone fighting over who gets to hold you,’ Mia says to him.
It’s Sunday, which is when we have family dinner at my parents’ house.
It’s one of my favorite traditions, especially now that my brothers are busy with their own lives and I don’t see them as much as I’d like.
Mia’s parents come over too, and after dinner, my dad and Walter go out to the barn and do whatever old guys do.
I think Walter’s making a wooden toy tractor for Milo, but he won’t confirm it.
He just tells Mia and me to stay out of the barn.
Mia’s parents moved here the first week of September. Kate and Mia helped them decorate the house and Nick and I did whatever small repairs needed to be done. It’s a cute little house and perfect for the two of them. And the best part? Walter hasn’t fallen once since living there.
Mia and I got married at the orchard on a beautiful fall day—September 15th, four months after Nick’s wedding.
I went to that wedding thinking I’d never get married, that I’d always be a bachelor.
I never in a million years thought I’d be getting married four months later.
But I didn’t see a need to wait. I knew Mia was the one.
I knew it the night we met. Nobody would believe me if I told them that, so I don’t.
I keep it to myself. But I really did feel that way, like Mia was meant for me.
I think sometimes you just know. It’s like what Walter told me on campus that day—when you know you know.
I just kept denying I felt that way because I never thought I could be with her.
‘You think your mom would watch him tomorrow?’ Mia asks. ‘That meeting with Sheryl got moved to tomorrow at nine. She just texted me.’
I chuckle. ‘You really think my mom would tell you no? She begs us to let her watch him.’
‘Yes, but she’s been really busy with the orchard. She has all that baking to do. She may not have time.’
‘Trust me, she is not going to say no. So the meeting tomorrow is about the grant?’
‘Yes, we’re going to finalize it and then submit it. I’m getting really excited. I think this might actually happen.’
Mia and Sheryl, the woman who runs the summer school program, are trying to get a teen counseling center approved.
It’d be based in Haydon Falls but would serve teens in all the surrounding towns.
For now, it’d just be a room in the high school and Mia would be the only counselor, but if there was enough of a need, it could grow.
‘It’s going to happen,’ I tell her. ‘And you’re going to be great. The kids will love you. Look how good you were with Darren and Janelle.’
Janelle, the girl Mia found crying in the bathroom, took a pregnancy test later that day and found out she wasn’t pregnant.
She called Mia and told her, then wanted to talk about other stuff.
Mia’s easy to talk to so I can see why teens open up to her.
As for Darren, Mia talked to his father and got him to agree to let Darren take an auto repair course through the community college as long as he kept working for his dad on the farm.
I helped him enroll for the class as part of a dual enrollment program for high school students.
Darren’s loving it and getting good grades.
Even his grades in his high school classes got better.
He just needed something to motivate him and he found it, thanks to Mia.
When we get to my parents’ house, I stop before going in. I look down at Milo in my arms. ‘You ready for this?’
Mia laughs. ‘He’ll be fine. He’s getting used to it.’
‘Okay, here we go.’ I open the door.
‘The baby!’ Mom squeals as we come into the house. She races up to me and takes Milo.
‘Nice to see you too, Mom.’
She laughs. ‘Sorry, honey. He’s just so adorable, he takes my attention away from everything else.’ She smiles at Mia. ‘Your parents are here. Your mom’s in the kitchen and your dad’s outside with Carl.’
Mia laughs. ‘Dad’s favorite place. It’s either that or the barn.’
Walter’s always outside with my dad or Nick, asking about the orchard. He wants to know all about how the trees are grown and the different varieties of apples. My dad and Nick could talk about that stuff all day so it works out well.
‘Milo’s here!’ Lyndsay races up to Mom and the baby.
‘I think we’re invisible,’ I say to Mia.
‘Oh. Hi!’ Lyndsay gives us a quick wave before looking back at Milo. ‘Aww, look at his tiny little hands.’
The door opens and Brody walks in with Kate.
‘Milo’s here!’ Kate squeals, running up to him.
It’s like this every time we’re here. Mom, Kate, and Lyndsay can’t stop gushing over the baby. Gina likes seeing him too, but she’s not as baby-crazy as the other girls, maybe because she grew up playing sports instead of playing with dolls.
‘I’m going to the kitchen,’ Brody tells Kate. She doesn’t hear him. She’s too busy looking at Milo and listening to Mia tell her whatever cute thing Milo did this morning.
‘I’ll go with you,’ I tell Brody.
We pass Harriott on our way to the kitchen.
‘He’s in the living room,’ I tell her, knowing she was about to ask where Milo was.
‘It’s like I don’t exist anymore,’ I say to Brody as he goes to the fridge.
‘And you’re surprised by this?’ He laughs.
‘You saw how Mom was with Nash’s kid. Now she’s got her own grandkid, and it’s her first.’ He closes the fridge and takes a brownie from the plate of them that Mom left out.
‘At least with the baby distracting her she’s not in here yelling at me not to eat before dinner. ’
‘Even if she was in here, she wouldn’t notice what you were doing if Milo was around.’
‘I still can’t believe you’re married with a kid. A few months ago, you didn’t think it would ever happen.’
‘Yeah, I know. Sometimes I can’t believe it either.’
‘You going to stay in the Carson house or find something else?’
‘We’d like to stay there for now, if Mom and Dad are okay with it.’
‘Why wouldn’t they be? No one else wants it.’ He takes another brownie. ‘Does it ever bother you being that close to Mom and Dad?’
‘No. It’s been great. Mia likes having Mom close by in case she has questions about Milo. And of course Mom loves helping her out.’
Sawyer walks in with Gina.
‘You guys want to try my new stout?’ Sawyer sets the bottles on the counter.
‘I’ll try one,’ Brody says.
‘Sawyer thinks he’s going to win the hard cider competition next weekend,’ Gina says with a laugh. ‘In his dreams.’
‘Say whatever you want,’ Sawyer says. ‘But I’ve had a year to work on it and I guarantee I’m going to win.’
‘Don’t you two ever get tired of competing?’ I ask.
They look at each other. ‘No,’ they say at the same time.
Brody turns to Gina. ‘Why aren’t you in there with Milo? I lost Kate the moment she saw him.’
‘He’s too tiny. I feel like I’m going to break him. I’ll be more comfortable around him when he’s older.’
‘She doesn’t like holding him,’ Sawyer says. ‘She always thinks she’s going to drop him.’
As he says it, Nick walks in. ‘I dropped Sawyer all the time when he was a baby and he turned out okay.’
‘I don’t know about that,’ Gina says, smiling at Sawyer. ‘Okay, I’ll go see the baby, but I’m keeping my distance.’
When she’s gone, I say to Sawyer, ‘What’s she going to do when you guys have kids?’
‘Probably wrap them in bubble wrap. Or make me hold them until they can walk.’
‘I can see it now.’ Brody laughs. ‘Sawyer holding the baby with one hand and serving beer with the other.’
‘Did you guys pick a wedding date yet?’ Nick asks Sawyer. He proposed to Gina back in August.
‘We can’t decide. Maybe next spring. She really wants her dad there. She keeps asking him when he could be here but he won’t give her a date. Even if he did, I doubt he’d show up.’
‘Tell her Dad will walk her down the aisle,’ I say.
‘Yeah, I might. He already told me he’d do it.’
‘When are you going to propose to Kate?’ I ask Brody.
‘Maybe at Christmas. She loves the holidays.’
‘The family’s getting so big we’re going to have to get another table for these dinners,’ Nick says.
‘Any news with you and Lyndsay?’ I ask, referring to their babymaking efforts.
He cracks a smile but doesn’t answer.
‘She’s pregnant,’ Brody says. ‘Look at his face.’
‘Is she?’ Sawyer asks.
A full-on smile takes over Nick’s face. ‘Yes. We’re going to announce it at dinner so act surprised.’
We all congratulate him. We must be too loud because Dad comes in and scolds us.
‘What’s all the ruckus in here? I could hear you boys from down the hall.’
‘Nothing, Dad,’ Nick says, giving us a look not to tell him. ‘We were just talking.’
Walter comes in behind Dad. He walks slow and uses a cane, but he seems to be moving better now than last summer.
He gets more exercise here and goes out more than he did back in Boston.
Mia said when he lived there, he spent all day in a chair, watching TV.
Here he’s made some friends and actually does stuff with them.
And he loves coming here and hanging out at the orchard and the barn.
‘What are you boys doing drinking?’ Dad asks. ‘It’s not even noon.’
‘Sawyer wanted us to try his new stout.’ Brody offers Dad one. ‘Try it. It’s not bad.’
‘I’ll have one later.’
‘I’ll take one,’ Walter says. ‘I don’t have any rules about drinking before noon.’
Sawyer laughs and hands him a bottle. ‘Drink up. Let me know if you like it.’
We remain in the kitchen, talking, drinking, and joking around.
If Mia and I had moved to Boston, we would’ve had a completely different life, in a place I didn’t want to be.
But I’ve realized it’s not about the place.
It’s about the people you’re with, and as long as I was with Mia and our baby, I’d be happy.
I really didn’t think we’d end up here, but I’m thrilled that we did. And so is Mia. She loves it here, and loves that her parents are with us. Little Milo will love it too when he’s older and can run around the orchard.
I’ll tell him how I met his mom here one beautiful fall day and how I asked her out and we started dating. He doesn’t need to know the real story. Walter doesn’t either.
It doesn’t really matter how I met Mia. What matters is where we are now. Happy and together, surrounded by the people we love.