56. Our Story
The fallen leaves crunched under our feet, painting the ground brown, red, and orange as we took the long way around the river path this time.
Like the early summer that brought us back together just a few months ago, the transition to early Fall signaled lots of changes coming into our lives. We were ready for it, though.
After some convincing by his doctor, Dom restarted his medication and went to counseling every other week. Life was good, better than that, and he seemed to just radiate joy from every single pore.
His arm around me jerked, pulling me closer to him if that’s possible, and his lips squished against my cheek as he gave me a noisy kiss. “Did I tell you how good you look today?” His forehead rocked against me as he made his eyes wider. “Not that you don’t always. But today,” — his eyes fell down my body — “you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Thanks to his intuition, keeping a secret from him was impossible, so I laid my head against his shoulder to keep his eyes off me. “You’re certainly in a great mood today.”
He took a deep breath of the cool, sunny morning air through his nose, making his shoulders pitch upward. “Wonderful day to be alive is all.”
I nodded against his brownish barn coat to agree with him because, since the night of the tornado, each day had been better than the last.
When he wasn’t busy with me at home or work, he helped with the cleanup or hung out at the lake with Dad. That stunted part of him that never fully made it out of childhood figured out how to function in the grown-up world at last — and he lived each second to the fullest.
The old picnic table met its long overdue demise the night of the storm. Dom, being Dom, though, was eager to preserve the memory of our first kiss, so he donated a couple of new ones.
Seeing the opening they sat in coming up on the right, he turned around and motioned to them with a head tilt. “Check this out.”
The most whimsical person I had ever encountered in my life to balance out my being the most practical, Dom wanting to recreate his love-struck teenage promise to me was expected. But when I bent over to read the heart’s inscription, it only read, ‘Marry me?’
I traced the words with my fingertips, tears sliding down my cheek as I turned my chin to answer him. “I was wondering when you were going to get around to this.”
Coming to his knee in the dying grass, he slid his hand into the pocket right inside the chest of his coat. “I didn’t want to be too predictable. Got to keep that spark alive. Don’t we?”
Taking a step toward him, I wiped my face with the back of my sleeve. “That’s never been a problem for us. Has it?”
He took the ring out of the box, sliding the tiny blue container into his waist pocket this time as he held the ring out between us. “Since the second you stepped into the cafeteria on the first day of school until right now, I’ve understood we belonged together.” Slightly rolling his eyes at me, he sighed at how he could never quite make any of us believe in all that woo-woo stuff he tried to convince us of. “I know you guys are always busting on me for being the magic man and all, but we’re soul mates. There’s never been any doubt for me, not a single second.”
My lips wiggled too much to say anything back, so I only nodded until he smiled at me. “I never lost faith that this day would happen. Because I can’t be without you, nor would I ever want to live in a world you weren’t part of ever again.” The fingers of his other hand bent for me to come to him. “So please make me the happiest man in the world and marry me.” Taking a deep breath when our hands met, his head dropped toward me a little as he arched his brow. “Finally.”
The same ring I left on the table twenty years ago slid down my finger, and I sighed as I held out my hand to see it. “Absolutely.”
Groaning as he stood again, he dusted off his pants leg. “Now that that’s out of the way...” Folding my hands under his, he bunched them together on his chest, that naughty turn of the end of his lip curling at me as he jerked his eyebrows. “Let’s talk about that empty pregnancy test box I found hidden at the bottom of the bag when I took out the trash this morning.”
I told myself I wouldn’t keep the truth from him if he figured it out, but there were so many possibilities still.
He squeezed my hands a little tighter when I hesitated, that hitch in his breath he let out telling me everything would be okay and making me relax enough to smile when he asked, “Baby, am I going to be a daddy?”
Nodding back at him, I caught a tear on the edge of my tongue. “I got one of those three test jobbies, and all of them were positive on different days. So, yeah, I think it’s safe to say that.”
“Oh, Faith.” He tossed his arms around me, holding on so tight I had to push him back a little. “I’m so happy. But why didn’t you tell me as soon as you found out?”
All those nagging doubts leaked out in a whisper when I closed my eyes. “It’s early still, Dom. I just wanted to wait until I got the labs back before I got your hopes up.”
We’d already been to the best OB/GYN in the state who warned us of all the challenges that might be ahead. So, he put his fingers to my lips and shushed any of those fears in me. “This is definitely not something I want you to protect me from. Good or bad, I’m with you in this — every second.” Two fingers softly beat at my lips when he motioned between us. “We’re a team, so please don’t leave me out of anything from now on.”
I shook my head back at him and let him take some of those worries from me. “I won’t. I promise.”
His eyes dropped to his watch, and he kissed the tip of my nose before he backed up a step. “Okay, we should head back now.”
Leading me toward the path again, he laid his hand on my back and flapped his lips. “I promised Jase and Carolyn I wouldn’t ruin the surprise, but it’s my professional opinion that it’s not the best time to be spooking you unnecessarily.” Unable to resist the urge anymore, he stopped me so he could touch my lower belly. “So, when you find a bunch of cars in the driveway, don’t let on like I told you about the party they’re throwing us, please.”
I put my hands over his against my shirt and shook my head, making our noses brush over each other as he waited to kiss me. “Dom, I wouldn’t dare ruin this day. We have so much to celebrate.”
We stood there at the spot where we made our love official and clung to each other for a few more minutes, recording that memory into our story forever.