32. Tuesday, October 30, 2012
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2012
W hen William woke Julia with a mimosa mocktail, she felt like she had slept better than in decades. She soon understood why when she saw sunlight pouring through the curtains and glanced at the clock on the bedside table.
She sat bolt upright. “Oh my God! Why did you let me sleep so late?”
“It’s only nine,” he laughed softly.
“But this is our last day! I want to savor every last second of daylight.”
“Resting is savoring,” he pointed out, brushing the mussed-up hair from her forehead and kissing her there. “You deserve rest, sweetheart.”
“ You didn’t sleep in.”
“I’m used to waking up at four in the morning, remember? Getting up at seven-thirty felt indulgent. Besides,” he added with a teasing smirk and a light smack on her bare butt, “ someone around here has got to feed us.”
She lunged to smack him right back, but he dodged her every attempt. In the end, she lay sprawled out in bed, flushed with laughter, naked for his viewing pleasure. But there was no time for other forms of pleasure, because he had cooked a frittata from eggs the hens laid. He served it on th e little white wrought iron table on the back patio.
After that, they spent the day much as they had the previous one – taking long, aimless walks. Harvesting fruit from the orchard and vegetables from the garden. Scattering feed for the chickens, and gathering their eggs. Canoodling in the porch swing and watching the bees and butterflies pollinate the garden out front. Napping in the hammock to the serenades of songbirds. Cooking and eating lunch together.
And of course – sex. Lots and lots and lots of sex.
Sex bent over the front porch railing and under the olive tree. Sex on the kitchen counter and in the bathtub. By the end of the day, the sheer volume of sex had reduced Julia to an achey, trembling, waddling wreck. And she was by no means out of shape.
Throughout the day, William snapped so many photos of her that she began to wonder what he could possibly do with them all. Photos of her on the porch swing, crocheting Christmas gifts for Ximé and Zuri. In the hammock with a book, her leg dangling over the side. In the front garden, cutting flowers for their table. In the vineyard, sunhat in hand, her hair blowing loose from her braid, her face without a speck of makeup.
She had to admit – they were great photos.
“Are you going to take pictures of anything besides me?” she teased.
“You’re my muse,” he replied simply, snapping another photo of her at the white wrought iron table on the back porch. She was sipping a glass of lemonade made from Meyer lemons plucked right from the tree. “The camera worships you, you know.”
“Correction – you worship me. And it shows in how pretty you make me look in photos.”
“No, sweetheart,” he said, coming in for a kiss, “that’s all you. You’re just that beautiful.”
“You’re smooth with your words,” she murmured, kissing him back, “but I’d also love to have some photos to remember this place by after we go home.”
So he reluctantly turned his lens on the house, the grounds, and the colorful autumn vineyards. As afternoon waned into evening, Julia spied him in the sitting room, scrawling in the guest book on the coffee table. She peeked over h is shoulder and smiled poignantly. He had written, May I suggest you rename this place Eden?
“Can you believe Aaron’s daughter Rina actually lives here?” Julia came to sit on the arm of the upholstered chair he occupied. “If I lived here, I would never rent it out.”
Julia finished signing her own name and set the guest book back on the coffee table. Then William pulled her into his lap, but when his eyes met hers, his smile faded quickly.
“You're sad,” he observed.
To Julia's dismay, a lump rose in her throat, and her field of vision swam. To hide it, she forced a laugh. “I’m just not ready to return to the real world. This has been such an amazing little love nest.”
He squeezed her. “I’m not ready to leave, either. But we can come back.”
Despite her best efforts, the tears spilled over. Forcing another shaky laugh, as if to say How silly am I , she swiped at them impatiently. “How? It was so much hassle just to make this happen. I mean, it was supposed to be my weekend with the kids, and for some reason, Kevin is never available anymore to take the kids when it’s not his week. Besides, I can’t imagine this place comes cheap.”
“Cheap, no; but it’s maybe not as expensive as you think.” He tenderly wiped her tears with his thumb, his eyes flitting back and forth between hers. “It wasn’t that much of a hassle. Your sister and Paige have fun together. I bet Alison wouldn’t mind hosting more sleepovers with her. And my mom and Kelly were thrilled at the chance to get to know Robert some more. I’m sure he’s having a blast at Kelly’s with Xavier and Zach.”
“I know; but that's all kind of irrelevant, anyway.”
A furrow of confusion notched between his brows. “What do you mean?”
She played with his shirt collar. “I mean, we’re both small business owners, and our schedules rarely sync. Weekends are your biggest days, so it’s not like you can afford to take them off on anything like a regular basis. And I work during the week. I’m not complaining, mind you,” she added quickly, stroking a fingertip along his jaw. “I’m just saying, that’s the reality of our situation.”
“Julie, sweetheart, I’m not as poor as you must think,” he chuckled softly, threading the fingers of one hand through hers while circling her waist with his other arm. “I can afford to block off a few weekends per year. Sure, in general, we'll have to plan those at least six months in advance, but I can swing that.”
She lifted an eyebrow at him. “Really?”
“I can even afford to block off an entire week,” he added. “Maybe not more than once a year, but I can do it.”
She considered this for a few moments, staring blindly into a corner of the room, chewing her lip as he traced slow circles over her back with his palm. Finally, she turned to look him in the eye. “You know what? You’re right. We shift things around and make compromises. We do whatever it takes to make things work.”
“Exactly. And that means from now on, I’ll be much more transparent with my finances.”
“Me too,” Julia vowed. “We definitely should have done that before we moved in together, but at least we’re doing it now. I mean, we’re partners now, in every way but the piece of paper.”
For a moment, he gave her an odd sort of look, and she cringed when she registered what she had just alluded to. But he only cupped the nape of her neck in the palm of his hand and drew her in for a tender kiss.
An hour or so later, as the sun began setting over the vineyards, William appeared on the front porch, where Julia had installed herself in the swing with a book.
“Julie, will you come with me for just a minute?”
She looked up at him in surprise, but then she saw the sly smile on his face. Her heart thumping, she set her book aside and hopped up to accept his offered hand, anticipating that he would lead her to the bed.
But instead, he led her down the front porch steps and through the garden. She followed him out the gate in the picket fence and around the side of the house. He stopped right underneath the ancient olive tree where they had picnicked and made love, and took both of her hands in his.
She looked around for a blanket, but saw none. At a loss, she peered up at him quizzically, waiting .
His forehead creased, and he seemed to be grasping for the right words. “I didn’t understand why at the time, but for some reason, I just felt compelled to bring this with me. And now I know why.”
“Bring what?” she said, searching again and still spying nothing out of the ordinary.
Then he dropped down onto one knee and pulled a velvet ring box out of his jacket pocket. “Let’s try this one more time.”
Gasping, she put her hand to her mouth, and touched his shoulder with her other hand to steady herself.
He smiled and said, “I can tell I don’t even have to ask, but I will anyway.” He opened the box and showed her the ring. “Julia, will you marry me? Will you, finally, be my wife?”
“Yes!” she squealed, and found herself the trope, crying at the same time. “Yes, yes, yes!”
Beaming, he took the ring out of the box. It was a rose gold claddagh ring, filigreed with a Celtic knot pattern. Two hands clasped a crown-topped, heart-shaped diamond in the center.
“I did a little reading beforehand,” he explained a bit shyly, slipping it onto her left hand with the crown pointing inward and the tip of the heart pointing outward. “You wear it facing this way when we’re engaged. And you wear it with the crown pointing out when we’re married.”
She spent a while looking at it, swiping at the tears that streamed down her cheeks. “It’s so gorgeous.”
“Yeah,” he admitted, smiling up at her proudly. “But not as gorgeous as you.”
She tugged on him then, beckoning him to his feet, and he gathered her up and kissed her.
“Are you really sure?” she whispered.
“Julie, you’ve given me new life, in every sense. I’ve never been so sure about anything in my entire life.”
“Me neither,” she admitted. “My God, I just can’t believe this is real. I love you so much.”
He nuzzled the hair on the back of her head and kissed her, again and again. After a while, she touched the side of his face and murmured, “When do you want to do it? ”
Cautiously, he said, “When do you want to do it?”
“As soon as possible,” she replied without a moment’s hesitation.
He smiled and squeezed her hands. “I’d like our families there.”
She beamed up at him, and at the sight of it, his entire being glowed with joy.
“Where?” she asked.
“The Fisherman’s Chapel, of course.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
“Small and intimate. Just our immediate families, and maybe my friend Niall, if that’s okay.”
“I’d like to invite Aaron and my cousin Holly, too.”
Smiling warmly, he kissed her again. “We should be able to pull that off pretty soon, without too much hassle.”
“Oh no, if it’s a wedding you want, it’s going to be plenty of hassle, no matter what,” she laughed. But she kissed him again, then spent some more time looking at the ring on her finger. He still held her hands in his own, his thumbs caressing her fingers.
Then it occurred to her to wonder, “How are we going to break this to the kids? When we get home, they’ll eventually notice the ring on my finger.”
“I have a confession to make. While you were out front reading, I went into the backyard and called the kids.”
“What?!”
Laughing, he explained, “I called my mother to speak to Robert. And then I called Alison, for Paige. I told them I was thinking about asking their mother to marry me, and I asked for their permission.”
“You did not!” But she was smiling.
“I did,” he laughed.
“What did they say?”
“They said yes.”
“So now I guess your mom and Alison know, too?”
“And Kelly. And your parents.”
Her jaw dropped, but she was still smiling. “My parents ?”
“Of course. I called your dad to ask for your hand.”
“Oh, he would have been a complete sucker for that,” she snickered .
“I think so, because he also gave his blessing. Actually, to be precise, he said, ‘It’s about fucking time.’”
Laughing heartily, she reached for him. They spent a while kissing each other, smiling giddily into each other’s faces.
It was astonishing how she could never get enough of him, and not just sexually. She never grew bored of his company, even when all they did was sit on a porch swing for an hour like a couple of geezers. She never failed to delight in the thoughtful things he did for her, both great and small, that always hit the mark. And she never tired of finding sweet things to do for him in return.
And yeah – she would never get sick of looking at him, either. His smile was a hard-won prize, but once she coaxed it from him, it was the visual equivalent of a choir of angels singing. And she seemed to have a special talent for coaxing it from him.
And his eyes – oh dear God, those beautiful, intelligent eyes. So intensely blue and full of light that they almost didn’t seem real. They gazed down at her with a tenderness he reserved exclusively for her. They had always been her window into his heart, and they still overthrew her.
She thought about all of this as she pulled him even closer, deepened their kiss, and placed her hand on his backside. As she detected the evidence of his arousal, pressing into her belly.
But after a minute, he pulled away. With an exquisitely pained look, he said, “I should probably start making dinner. Don’t you think?”
Julia hung her head in mock wretchedness. Laughing, he took her hand and led her back into the house.