36. Jesse
36
Jesse
Three months later
It’s October, my favorite month of the year. I’ve always loved the season of fall and all of the things that come with it, especially football season.
This will be my first time celebrating Halloween and going trick-or-treating with Harrison and Michael.
Camp Willowbrooke usually has a big Halloween festival for the town and campers. The people who are camping during the festival decorate their campers and campsites.
It’s highly competitive and some of our campers go all out and create little scary booths and tents for people to walk through.
Last year, Henry and Mira Jacobs brought supplies with them. They built and disassembled an entire pirate ship and deck just for the week of the festival.
During the trick-or-treat time, they both dressed up like pirate zombies and were “in character” until it was over. They were last year's winners and won an entire year's worth of free camping.
With everything that happened with my mom and Nash, I've actually been debating on not having the event this year. The only reason I decided to continue on with it was because the kids are so excited about it.
We’re not going to be actively camping on site because my house is so close. We will however, still take a bike ride everyday throughout the campground to watch the campsites transform.
“Boys, do you want to help me set the table and get the drinks ready before your mom gets here?” I ask as I place a Spice of Life candle in the middle of the dinner table.
I pick up my handy dandy torch lighter, because what other kind of lighter would a man keep in his house, and light the candle.
Every time I smell the sweet, fall aroma it takes me back to being sixteen and madly in love with Cora. The only thing that’s different now is our age.
“Sure thing, Dad!” Harrison yells from the kitchen.
Cora had me keep both kids today, at my house, while she worked at the clinic. What she doesn’t know is that we have a surprise waiting for her. Both of the kids helped me plan everything. I even let them pick out the dinner entree and dessert.
Harrison has on a blue chef's hat and apron. Michael has on a matching set—but in the color green.
They both requested that we make their favorite food—dinosaur chicken nuggets with barbecue sauce, french fries, and brownies with icing. The meal of champions.
We made the brownies earlier around lunch time so we would have time to ice them before Cora made it here.
She should be getting here any minute and I'm starting to get a little anxious. She thinks that she's picking up the kids and going back home—at this point I think she knows me better than that.
Ever since she came back into town we’ve had a hard time staying apart and an even harder time saying goodbye.
I grab a large bowl from the cabinet and fill it up with ice from my ice machine. I only like to keep the “good ice” in my kitchen. Cora keeps telling me that I might be anemic because of how much I love to eat the ice, I disagree.
I hand the bowl to Harrison and we walk into the dining room.
Michael takes his blue dinosaur cup and scoops out the ice. He attempts to put the ice in our cups and ends up dumping most of it on the table and in the floor.
“I’m so glad you don’t get mad at me like my other daddy used to,” Micheal says as he looks up at me and smiles.
I bend down so that my face is level with his. “Bud, I want you to know that I will never do anything to hurt you, your brother, or your mama. I love all three of you and I never want you to be afraid of me.”
“I love you too,” he replies and gives me a high five.
Since the three of them came into my life, everything has changed for the better. I can’t imagine living another day that didn’t involve Cora and our boys. I don’t ever want to go back to how things were before they moved back to Scottsdale.
Tonight is going to be perfect. I’ve been praying about the best time to propose to Cora. She gave her heart to the Lord and then he gave her back to me. I couldn’t be more blessed.
I want to wake up every day beside her beautiful face. I want to experience all that life has to offer me from here on out with her and the kids by my side.We’ve waited this long to come back together, so what are we waiting on now?
The oven alarm interrupts my thoughts and I get up to check the food.
I’m halfway to the kitchen when I hear the front door open.
“Boys?” Cora says in a sing-song voice.
“In here, Mom,” they both say at the same time.
I hear her light footsteps as she walks into the dining room. I turn around so I can go greet her.
Before she can see me, I tap my pocket to make sure the ring is still in place. This has been one of the hardest secrets to keep.
I spot her embracing both kids, one in each arm. Her strawberry blonde hair is pulled up into a loose ponytail and she's wearing the pink pair of scrubs that she knows are my favorite pair on her.
Her honey colored eyes collide with mine she blushes. I love it when she does that.
“Hey sweetheart,” I say while giving her a knowing look. “Did you have a good day at work?”
“Yeah, it wasn’t bad,” she says as she smiles up at me. “What are you all up to? Something smells… interesting.”
“We made you dinner!” Michael says enthusiastically.
“Awe, that’s so sweet,” she says as she kisses Michael and Harrison each on the cheek. She walks over to me and gives me a soft kiss on the lips. Both boys make pretend gagging noises.
Suddenly, the smoke detector starts to alarm.
As soon as I hear it, I remember that I never pulled the chicken nuggets out of the oven.
Lucy runs inside of the house from her doggy door and starts howling like a wolf from the kitchen.
I run into the room after her, while smoke fills the area. I scramble around to get the oven mitts on my hands.
I frantically pull the baking sheet out of the oven and throw it into the sink.
The food was not actively on fire, but it was smoking pretty heavily and is completely charred. I scrunch up my face in disgust as the foul odor penetrates my nose and my mood.
So much for a perfect dinner.
Cora runs into the kitchen behind me and starts opening up windows. She grabs a towel and fans the smoke away from the detector and towards the windows to try to help the room air out.
I turn and look at Cora and she's got her hands over her mouth. She's hysterically laughing.
I can’t help but join in on the laughter. We were brought back into each other's life over a broken oven from burnt cookies and…here we are again. Only this time there’s nothing wrong with the oven, just poor time management.
The smoke detector finally stops alarming and we try to catch our breath from laughing. She has actual tears in her eyes.
I walk over to her to wipe them away. I feel God's presence in that moment urging me to do what I had been praying about.
“Well, I’ve been putting this off for the perfect moment but I’m quickly realizing that there never will be a perfect time. I can't wait any longer.” I get down on one knee and take her hands in mine.
“Coraline Jennings, I had a much more romantic gesture planned that didn’t include burnt chicken nuggets and smoke alarms, but there’s something I want to say. I have loved you ever since I was a teenager. When I fell for you, I fell hard and with my entire heart. When you left me, I didn’t know how to move on with my life.”
I wipe a tear out of my eye.
“I never stopped loving you. I want to love you until I take my last breath, if you’ll allow me to.”
I turn to the boys and give them the signal. Harrison and Michael come and kneel on both sides of me. I pull the little black velvet box out of my pocket.
I take a deep, shaky breath and open the box.
“Coraline Jennings, will you marry me?”
“Pretty please, with a cherry on top?” Michael adds.
I can see the big, fat tears forming in Cora’s eyes. She nods her head up and down.
“Yes!” Harrison yells. “My mom and dad are getting married!”