Epilogue
It’s been more than a year since I drove across Texas with that old Asleep at the Wheel song in my head—miles and miles of Texas roads, stars stretching forever. I told myself I was coming home for good, but I didn’t know if that was certain then.
Now I do.
It feels so long ago now—everything we went through to get here. Every hard choice. Every heartbreak.
I think the first time our eyes met—again—deep inside, we both knew we’d walk through hell to get back what we’d lost.
He did. Literally.
I’m in my second year of teaching Junior and Senior English at Ladera High.
Bowie’s in pre-school on the same property. I love this small school. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. I walk across campus to pick Bowie up after school, swinging by the hardware store on the way home.
Bowie’s glued to Calder half the time. He thinks he’s part-owner of the hardware store—sometimes toddling up to a customer, craning his head back, asking, “Whatcha lookin’ for? I can help.”
He greets people by name as they walk in the door. “Hi, Mr. Anderson! Hi, Waddy! Hey, Uncle Tanner!”
Everyone loves him.
This is what life should have been all along.
We’ve been careful. Responsible. As far as Calder and I were concerned, we were one that night. I ambushed him in his house. When we both said, “Forever.”
There’s been no rush. No reason to give people more to whisper about.
But it’s time now. We both feel it.
We got my parents’ blessing.
Now we need one more.
“Are you ready to tell him?” Calder asks quietly, watching Bowie line up his plastic horses in a parade in front of the fireplace, the house warm with the first hints of the holidays— my autumn wreath on the front door, fall flowers in a vase on the mantle, a whisper of cinnamon from the diffuser threading through the room.
Bowie and I still live with Mom and Dad, but we’re here so much, bit by bit, I’ve given this once-bachelor pad a woman’s touch. Calder loves it.
“Yes, I’m ready.” I whisper, leaning into him on the couch, his arm stretched across the back, playing with my hair. “You or me?”
“You’re his mother.” Calder presses a tender kiss to my temple. “It’s your place.”
I slide off the couch and sit beside Bowie on the rug, brushing a curl off his forehead. “Hey, Baby. Can we talk to you for a second?”
He doesn’t look up. “’Bout what? Nee-eeigh!” He gallops a horse across my knee.
Calder squats beside us, resting his forearms on his knees—steady, grounded, the man Bowie has gravitated toward since their first meeting in the hospital. “We have a surprise for you.”
The little horse freezes mid-prance as Bowie looks up at Calder. “A good surprise? ‘Cause I don’t like bad.”
“Good, I hope,” Calder chuckles, ruffling his hair.
I take a breath. “Calder and I are getting married.”
Bowie’s brows pull tight as he stands, still clutching his horse. “Married? What’s that?”
Calder smiles. “It means your mommy and I are together forever.”
Bowie’s lower lip trembles. “You already are.”
Calder almost craters. “Oh, Bud. Yes. You’re right. We already are.”
I take his hand. “But what that means is, when we get married, Calder will be your stepfather. Officially.”
Bowie frowns harder, his fists on his hips. “O…fish?”
Calder lifts him gently and settles him in his lap on the couch, meeting him eye to eye. “It means we’ll live together. All the time. Here. I get to help take care of you. Love you every day.”
“Oh, boy!”
“Hold on. Listen, you need to know. We only get one father in life.” He holds up his finger. “Grant’s your father forever. That won’t change. It just means I’ll be your second dad. Your stepdad. Forever.”
I watch Bowie absorb it—not with logic, but with trust. His little shoulders relax. He nestles into Calder’s chest. “Forever?” he whispers. “Like, when I’m big?”
A smile hijacks Calder’s face. “Yeah. Forever.”
Bowie tilts his head back, looking up at Calder with that open, earnest heart of his. “So, you’ll always be my Calder.”
Calder’s breath catches. I see it. I feel it. He pulls Bowie close. “Yes. It’s a promise.” He taps Bowie’s chest with his forefinger. “I’m your Calder. Always. But when your Mom and I marry, you’ll live here with me, not with Grammy and Pop-Pop. We will be a family.”
Bowie looks at me with a proud little smirk. “I knew it.”
“You did?” I ask, smiling. “How?”
“’Cause Calder told me he wubs me. And Calder never fibs. I knew forever.” He wiggles off Calder’s lap, heading back to his horses, like he didn’t just move the universe with what he said.
“Guess that’s settled,” Calder winks and stands, pulling me with him.
I rest my hands on his hard-rock chest, my eyes stinging, my heart full to the brim. “When do you want to do it?”
He pulls back just enough to see my whole face, gripping my shoulders, his dimple deep. “Hell, Laurel, I’d have done it sixteen years ago. Yesterday. Tomorrow. Tonight. You pick. You want a big wedding?”
“No,” I answer softly. “Let’s just do it. I want to be Mrs. Calder Bowie Boone.”
“Do you want to be Laurel Prescott-Boone, to keep Bowie’s last name with yours?”
“That’s been nagging me—Bowie and I not having the same last name in a little town like this. But I don’t know. I kind of want to ditch Prescott altogether forever, but…”
Calder nods at Bowie. “I don’t mind if you want to. For him.”
“Let me think about it.”
“Ok. Either way, you set the date and I’ll be there. You, me, and Bowie. We'll tie the knot.”
“Mom, Dad, Tanner and Mercy too. I’ll get the church for a small ceremony. If not next Saturday, the next. Or the next. As soon as we can pull it together.”
Calder winces. “Not sure we can get Tanner and Mercy in the same room. They were so close, I still can’t believe what’s happened between them.” He shakes his head. “Hard to swallow. But with or without them, we make it official as soon as we can.”
I stroke his cheek softly with my palm, my thumb brushing his cheekbone as his blue eyes eat me alive—the way mine must be devouring him. “Have I told you lately that I love you?”
“Yes, thank you. But you can never say it too much.” He cups my chin and kisses me soft and slow, then pulls away, his eyes roaming mine. “And just for the record, Laurel Elizabeth—I’ll be loving you when the stars forget to shine.”