Epilogue Michael
Irang the bell at Sarah’s parents’ house and waited. After seven months of her back in my life, I felt more at ease with myself than I had in decades. After saving the senator’s life with that emergency surgery, the board had approached me with an incredible offer—chief of surgery right here at St. Anne’s—and HR had approved my relationship with Sarah without incident. Life felt like it was falling into place, and while my strong desire to see the world hadn’t fully abated—and maybe never would—I felt content with the idea of putting down roots. And today would hopefully be the beginning of all of that. I patted the small velvet box in my pants pocket and smiled as the door swung open.
“Michael! Come in. You don’t have to knock, dear. You’re family now.” Sarah’s mom stood aside and invited me into the living room that looked like a peptic syrup factory had blown up on it. There was pink everywhere–pink balloons, pink streamers, pink cupcakes, pink presents, and most importantly, a pink dress on quite possibly the world’s most adorable child.
“Daddy!” Emily squealed, rushing to my arms. I never got over her calling me that. Each time she said the word, I was hers—unabashedly and unrestrained. I held her to my chest and lavished her cheeks in kisses as I spun her around. She had become my world, right next to her beautiful mother who walked in just as I set her down.
Sarah wore pink too—a pink silk blouse with tailored skinny jeans and long, dangling silver earrings. Her hair was braided, exposing her neck and shoulders, and I wanted to sink my teeth into her flesh. After a moment last month where we thought she was pregnant but the tests showed she wasn’t, we had decided that we wanted to try again, but she made me promise that this child wouldn’t be born out of wedlock out of respect for her upbringing—and the idea that she didn’t want to upset her father again—and I had agreed.
“You look ravishing,” I told her, kissing her cheek, though I’d much rather have planted one right on her lips. But we had also decided that acts of intimate affection would be things done behind closed doors. Emily would learn soon enough about the birds and the bees, and we both wanted her to enjoy the stage of life she was at and take things slowly.
“Dr. Lawson, you’re quite the charmer,” she mewled, taking my hand and pulling away slightly. She smelled like heaven on a spring morning, and it was hard to allow her to put space between us.
“Are we still on for dinner tonight?” I asked, and Sarah’s eyes swept across the room to Nev who was rearranging the balloons in the corner of the room.
“Yes, your personal nanny is on the job!” Nev saluted and then went back to her balloon arranging as Sarah pulled me toward the gift table.
We had picked out a special gift for Emily together which Sarah had wrapped and set on the table. It was a learning computer loaded with tons of educational games and activities for her to prepare for kindergarten when fall rolled around. We’d made it through the dark nights of winter and even the holidays without spoiling her too much, though I would have bought her anything she wanted. But Sarah wanted me to focus on what was best for her, not what she wanted. I agreed, and thus even now, Sarah and Emily still lived in her apartment out back.
It wasn’t the choice I wanted, but I agreed that the institution of marriage was sacred, and though I didn’t fully subscribe to the same religious convictions her parents had, I wanted to respect them as much as Sarah did. So today was even more momentous for me on all fronts.
“I can’t wait until she opens it.” Sarah touched the package and smiled at me. “She’s going to love it.”
“And I’m going to love watching her learn all those new things. When can she stay with me for a weekend again?” I asked, and I pulled Sarah closer to myself in a side-hug.
“Oh, well not this weekend since we have plans, but maybe next. Nev and I are going to look at apartments.” Sarah had spoken briefly about getting an apartment for herself, but her father put an end to that discussion by allowing her to pay rent on the mother-in-law suite out back. He cautioned that she should try this first before taking on a lease.
I told her it was a good idea too, because it would help her see if her finances would allow her to manage everything on her own. She didn’t know it, but I’d have paid for everything for her. And besides, my agreeing with her father bought me some time to find the perfect ring and some brownie points with “Dad”, which I’d started calling him now. It felt awkward, given he was only seven years older than me, but that’s who he’d be in a few short months if Sarah said yes to me.
I gripped her hand and said, “Can we talk out back?”
This time of year, when the lilacs were in full bloom and the hyacinths perfumed the air so richly, it made sense to spend as much time outdoors as possible. We’d have hosted the party out back, but on any given day in Savannah, it could blow up a gale, especially in spring.
“Sure,” she said, following me.
My hands started to sweat a little, my pulse picking up steam as I led her through the kitchen and out through the sliding glass doors. The sun beat down on the tiny garden and the trellis where Mrs. Bennett’s clematis vines were snaking their way upward. It wasn’t blooming yet, but when it did, it would be amazing. I stood with Sarah beneath the shade of those vines and turned to face her. Behind me, I knew my photographer—hired just for this moment—was hiding.
Sarah looked confused when I took both of her hands into my own and kissed them. She looked around the yard and then let a nervous laugh escape.
“Sarah Rosemary Bennett, I am so in love with you.” I couldn’t stop pressing kisses to her knuckles. My hands were shaking and it was a good distraction.
“I love you too?” She snickered and shook her head. ”You had to bring me out here to say that?”
“I brought you out here to say I’ve had a sit down with your father.” I feigned frustration, letting a mock-grimace on my face confuse her even more. “It was like talking to a bear after hibernation. He’s demanding and bossy, and he has way too many expectations for you and your sister and?—”
“Michael,” she said in a tone I fully expected after the accusations I let spill out of my mouth in jest.
I dropped to one knee, and as I did, I pulled the ring box out of my pocket. “And he is fair, and he cares about you…”
Sarah gasped as I opened the ring box and held it up with one hand, cradling her hand in my other. “And he said as long as I take really good care of you and don”t break your heart, and make sure Emily has the best of everything, and of course, that we make seven more babies together, that I can marry you. If you agree.”
She started crying, covering her mouth with her fingers. The tears were huge crocodile tears, welling up and sluicing down her cheeks. She started nodding before I even finished my proposal.
“Sarah Bennett, would you do me the greatest honor of being my wife and the mother of my children? Would you marry me and make me the happiest man alive?”
The sobs came hard and fast, and she bent at the waist as if she may double over and fall, and I rose to embrace her and held her against my chest. She cried and clung to me saying, “Yes, yes, yes… I’ll marry you. Oh, God… oh, my God.”
My heart was bursting with happiness and joy even as the photographer and videographer both appeared, having hidden behind the row of pine trees that divided Sarah’s parents’ yard from their neighbors’ yards. I heard the shutter clicking and pulled away long enough to put the ring on her finger, and moments later, the back yard was flooded by her family and a few friends. I had planned it all to happen like this for one very special reason.
Sarah swiped at her eyes and admired her ring as I asked, “I have one more question to ask, and I need your permission, please.”
“What? Anything… Yes, ask,” she said, but she had no clue what was coming next.
I reached back into the same small box and pulled out a second ring. This one was tiny, decked in amethyst stones for Emily’s birthday. When Sarah saw it, she knew what it was immediately. I saw the recognition in her eyes before she started crying again, and I spotted Emily in the group of folks who’d filtered out to join us in this special moment.
“Emmy, can you come here?” I dropped to my knee again, and she rushed over to me.
“What Daddy?” She sniffled, the chilly air having made her nose run a little. February in Georgia wasn’t exactly summer yet.
“Emily Michaela Bennett-Lawson, I want to ask you a very important question and I need you to give me your honest answer.”
“Yes, okay.” She looked impatient the way a five-year-old would on their birthday, but I held the ring up anyway. Sarah was almost hysterical with emotion now, and Nev stood by her with tears in her eyes too, a hand drawing small circles on Sarah’s back.
“Emily, I just asked your mommy to marry me. And I know I’m your daddy already, but I want to ask you… Will you marry me too? I will be your daddy and take good care of you. You’ll come to live with me in my big house, and you’ll have brothers and sisters, and?—”
“Yeah, I guess. Can I have cake, though?” The eruption of laughter around me made my heart explode with love, and I pulled her toward me and set her on my knee.
“You can eat as much cake as you want, baby girl.” I slid the ring on her finger with a mental note to retrieve it later on so it didn’t get lost. Sarah joined me in crouching next to our little girl.
“This is the happiest day of my life, Michael.” Sarah pushed the hair out of Emily’s eyes and then wiped her tears away.
“Don’t waste that title on proposal day. We have a wedding ahead of us, the births of several more babies, and who knows, maybe even something more fantastic in the works.” I winked at her then kissed her cheek, then kissed Emily’s cheek as she looked at her own special ring.
“Well, you’re the best thing to happen to me.” Sarah blinked in a slow, contented manner and stood. “Now, let’s go have a party.”
One by one, everyone who had gathered for Emily’s party came to congratulate us, and we accepted that affection from each person. My heart was full. My life was full, and I couldn’t be happier to be joining my life to that of this beautiful, amazing woman. After years of self-doubt and self-deprecation, I knew the best was yet to come, and every second of that would be spent with the woman I loved more than anything else in the world.
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