Epilogue
EPILOGUE
Teddy
Despite the mid-October chill in the air, I still insist that sitting on the deck is the best way to enjoy my late morning break. We’ve been living at Betty and Joshua’s for three weeks, and it finally feels like we’ve settled into a routine. The fence was installed our first week here, and since then, I’ve been working to gradually acclimate the dogs to their new reality. Lots of social time without barriers. So far, so good. Kevin and our senior rescue, Stanley, live in the house with us due to several factors, the main one being their physical limitations. We’re afraid Kevin would seem like prey, and Stanley just doesn’t have the mobility to keep up with the others.
Nellie has attended a couple of planning meetings and works at the mobile library a couple of times a week, but otherwise she’s here with me, learning the ropes of what it takes to keep a place like this going. I’ve never seen someone look so happy to pick up dog shit. Yesterday, I caught her singing the wrong lyrics to Bon Jovi’s “Living On A Prayer.” I’ll tell her that the word “naked” does not appear in the song another time. But she was singing and dancing away, and all I could do was watch her fully enjoy her time once again picking up dog shit.
“Holy shit!” Nellie squeals from the house. The door bursts open, and a second later, her phone is in my face. “Did you know?” It takes a second for my eyes to adjust, but I’m looking at a picture of a sapphire ring on a finger. It takes another few seconds to realize that I know the blurry people in the background.
Nellie looks elated, like she could float away at any second, so I reach out and take her hand to pull her into my lap. “Did he tell you he was planning this?” she grills me.
“Bennett never had to tell anyone he was planning it,” I say, holding back my laugh. “I’m shocked he didn’t do it the day she came back.”
“But did you know when he was going to do it?”
I shake my head slowly as she goes back to looking at the picture. “Do you think I would have kept it from you if I’d known, LG?” My tone is deadly serious.
She finally looks at me, setting her phone down. “I kind of wish he’d done it while we were still there.” She pouts. “But I guess he wanted to do it on the first anniversary of when they met.”
“It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a year.” My head thunks against the chair’s back.
“When you know, you know. Time doesn’t matter.” She shrugs, taking my face gently in her hands and moving so her knees are hugging my thighs.
I pull her harder against me and watch her expression heat. “Do you know?” I ask as my hands slide under her sweater.
“I know,” she says, shivering under my touch.
As the hem of her sweater moves up with my hands, I reveal the new tattoo, a loon, its wings splayed above the water, the head stretching up along her sternum. I bend to kiss it, and she sighs out a fact. “Loons can stay underwater for up to five minutes.” A smile curls my lips as I slowly make my way up her body.
“How long?”
“Five minutes,” she pants. I love how fast she loses herself in these moments.
“Have you known?” I ask, pulling my hands from under her sweater and raising one to her jaw. I slide my thumb over her lips and down to her chin so I can tip her head, forcing her to look at me. “How long have you known, LG?”
“The day we met,” she says quietly. Her lower lip slips between her teeth, and I watch as she recalls that day. “It was the panic I felt when you were getting off the train. I’d lied to you and was afraid you wouldn’t actually text me.”
“There was no way in hell that I wasn’t texting you, Nellie,” I assure her. “But even if I hadn’t, I’m not so sure we wouldn’t have met again at some point.”
My phone lights up next to me and I grudgingly look down.
Betty
Rumi has a new home!
“Looks like a good day for everyone,” I say, smiling up at her.
She raises an eyebrow in question. “Oh? Is it a good day, EG?”
“Every day with you is a good day.” I wrap my arms around her like a vice and her lips crash into mine.
“You’re so corny,” she says between kisses.
“You love it.” I capture her lip between my teeth and drag it off slowly.
My stomach growls, and we break apart laughing. “I was actually on my way to see what you wanted for lunch when I got the text.”
“Are you on the menu?” I ask sincerely, running my hands along her sides, unable to keep from touching her when she’s this close.
“I believe I’m the special on the dessert menu today.”
I squeeze her hips, and she automatically jogs them against me, a preview of things to come. “Can I have dessert first?” I ask just as my stomach grumbles again, and I groan. “We still have greenhouse tomatoes, right?” I grit out since my body can’t seem to get on the same page.
“There are two left, and George dropped off a loaf of bread yesterday while you were out.” George picked up bread baking while we were gone and has proven to be quite good at it.
“Toasted tomato sandwiches?” I ask as Nellie slips off my lap, holding her hands out to me.
“Obviously,” she says, leading me inside.
Sitting at the little kitchen table in Betty and Joshua’s house, Nellie and I eat the last toasted tomato sandwich of the year, and I savor every bite the way I do every smile Nellie sends my way. The best things in life are worth waiting for.