Epilogue
“You made it,” said Simon, as Sarah stepped into the pottery studio after he had finished teaching his last class.
“Yes, my plane got in at two,” she said walking over and reaching up to give him a hug.
He stopped her. “You’ll get clay on your clothes.” He bent down to kiss her instead. “Happy birthday.”
“Mmm, thank you.”
“Was it a good flight?” he asked. “If you’re too tired, I can arrange to get the studio another time.”
“Are you kidding? This is my birthday present. I’ve been looking forward to making a pot for a week.”
He searched her face a moment and then, satisfied, walked over to the wall and pulled a smock from one of the hooks.
“Well, step one: cover up your clothes.” He handed her the smock, and she slipped it over her head and tied it at the back.
“Okay, now what?” she asked.
“Well, today, step two is this.” He pulled her close and gave her the hug she’d been craving since she had last seen him five days earlier.
“I like this step,” she murmured into his chest.
“I think this might be my favorite step,” he said.
They stood together a moment, glad to be holding each other.
“Ready for step three?” he asked gruffly. “Or should we put this lesson on hold and do something else?”
She stepped back. “Since you’ve gone to all the trouble to book the studio, I feel like I should at least learn step three.”
“Before we can start at the wheel, we need to prepare the clay. Over here.” She followed him to a large table at the other end of the room and stood on one side while he stood on the other.
“Take a lump of clay; we’ll start with enough to make a mug.” He handed her a wire with handles on each end, pointed to a block of clay beside her that was covered in plastic, and demonstrated how to cut a piece from the large lump.
She followed along and watched as he began the next step. “This is called wedging,” he said, pressing the clay onto a board in front of him. “And this is a wedging board. We do this to get rid of all the air bubbles in the clay.”
She watched him a moment and then followed along with his technique, enjoying the feel of the clay against her hands.
“How was the visit with your sister?” he asked.
“Noisy. The twins don’t have the same schedules at all. It’s good that Mom is there to help. My sister and her husband are completely overwhelmed, and his leave from work ends in a week.”
“And your mother? Is it going to be okay for her there?”
“She’s getting more sleep than they are. The room where she’s staying is at the other side of the house, so she’s not getting up in the middle of the night. But she’s been looking after them most of the morning to let Lynette sleep.”
“Your sister must be grateful your mother is there.”
“Oh, she is, but unfortunately for me we only have one mother.”
“Does that mean your mom plans to stay out there past August?”
“Yes. She sat me down yesterday to explain that she probably won’t be back until Christmas. Even then, it may only be for a visit. Lynette had a hard delivery and still isn’t recovered. And with her husband going back to his job, they need the support.”
“And how do you feel about that?”
“I guess I’ll have to find an afterschool program for Riley tomorrow. I don’t want her home alone quite yet, but it should be okay. We’ve survived a month without her.” She looked up at him. “Though I have you to thank for that. Do you have a program you can recommend?”
“Sally goes to one at the school. I can ask if they have room for another one. And if all else fails, Mrs. Waverly might help you out if you’re in a pinch. She really enjoyed Riley when she watched them last time.”
“That sounds like it would work. It would take a huge load off to have a backup plan.”
He stopped kneading the clay. “Okay, that’s probably enough wedging. Want to throw a pot now?”
He led her over to a pottery wheel, explained how it worked, gave her some tools she could use, and then sat at the wheel opposite to demonstrate how to get started and how to cup her hands to center the clay on the wheel.
“We’re aiming for an equal distance from the center so that the pot you build is even and balanced.”
She watched him, then tried it herself. “This is harder than it looks,” she said, realizing that her clay was lopsided.
“Here, hold your hands like this.” He came behind her and put his hands around hers, making it nearly impossible to focus on the task at hand.
As he guided her hand around the clay, showing her how to apply the proper pressure, she was acutely aware of his body.
His hands on her hands. His arms brushing hers.
The scent of soap, the heat from his body.
“How’s that?” he murmured into her ear. “See how it feels different?”
“Yes,” she whispered, licking her lips.
“Okay, let’s move on to the next step.” He stood and returned to his wheel, leaving her wishing they could have stayed on that step much longer. But she was here to learn about pottery, so she pulled her focus back to his hands on the wheel.
His hands. They were beautiful hands. Capable hands…
Focus, Sarah.
He made a dent in the top of the clay then began pulling it up with his fingers, forming a perfect cylinder.
“Now you try,” he said.
She followed his instructions, adding a little water when needed, and soon had formed sides on the vessel she was creating. “Hey, I did it,” she said, stopping the wheel to view her work.
He looked up from his own wheel and grinned. “That’s a great first try,” he said. “It takes some people a lot longer to be able to do that. Getting it centered at the beginning helps, right?”
“I can see that,” she said, admiring her cylinder of sorts.
“Now you want to work at it a little longer to get the thickness of the walls uniform and to make it as tall as you want it to be. Is this a mug or a vase, or…?”
“Can I make it into a mug?”
“Yes. Once we get this part done, we let it dry to a leather hard state, after you trim the cup. I’ll show you how to make a handle and attach it.”
They worked a little longer.
“How’s Riley’s visit with Graham going? Does she like the baby?”
Sarah pulled a face. “She says he cries a lot and ‘doesn’t do much.’ You know what she said? ‘Why can’t he be more like Dash?’”
“Sounds like Riley. She likes to be active.”
“Fortunately, Graham is doing things with her every couple of days. He’s been keeping me up to date after I insisted that he try harder.”
“So, your heart-to-heart worked?”
“Yes. I don’t think he understood how much she missed him, because she was always telling him about what she was doing here. And I think he was, on some level, jealous of you, because Riley always talked about what Simon was saying.”
“I can see that. I might be jealous in that situation too.”
“He’d like to meet you when he brings her home next week. Do you think you’d be okay with that?”
Simon spent a few minutes focusing on his clay before he answered her.
“How do you feel about that? Do you usually introduce men you are dating to your ex?”
“No. But I never even introduced Riley to any man I dated before. Not that there have been many dates. But because you spend so much time with us, it would be nice if he at least met you.”
“I think we should talk about this relationship.” He stopped his wheel and met her eyes.
She stopped her wheel as well. “Okay…” she prompted, not sure she wanted to hear what he had to say.
“You know how careful I am because of Sally. It’s been years since I let a woman get close. And I never introduced the women I dated to Sally. I didn’t want her to get attached to someone who wasn’t going to stay in our life.”
“Our situation is backward,” said Sarah. “The kids knew us before we started dating.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“I guess the question is, would you have introduced me to Sally if you met me in another way?”
“Yes,” he answered without hesitation. “You?”
“Yes.”
His shoulders relaxed a little, and she felt relief.
“So,” he said, “your answer tells me that you’re interested in taking this relationship further. More long-term. Exclusive?”
“Yes,” she said softly. “I would like to be exclusive with you.”
“And…” He paused, searching for words. “I want to clarify something else with you. When you were gone this past week, I realized that what they say about absence is true.”
She cocked her head.
“That the heart grows fonder,” he added. “Just in case you thought I meant ‘out of sight, out of mind.’”
“I missed you too,” she said.
He walked toward her, and she stood to meet him.
“When you were away, you left a huge hole in my day.” He was standing right in front of her now, looking down at her, his eyes searching hers. “And it made me realize how much you have come to mean to me.”
“This summer has been one of the most wonderful in my life,” she said. “Being with you and Sally is so easy. I like who I am with you. I like having fun, Simon.”
He smiled. “I’m falling for you,” he said. “No. I have fallen for you. You’ve become… family.”
“I’m in love with you too,” said Sarah.
“I know from experience that sometimes love isn’t enough to keep people together. Sally’s mother and I… Well, things didn’t work out,” he said. “But I’ve also learned from that relationship. I made mistakes. I learned that we didn’t talk about things enough.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’d like to see if we can make a go of this in the long term. But I guess I need to understand where you’re at. Do you see a future?”
“Yes. I’d like to try. I really want this to work between us. But slow and steady. Not too many changes too quickly.”
“Agreed,” he said, bending to kiss her.
She returned his kiss then stepped back, feeling more grounded than she had in a very long time. “We should finish up in here,” she said. “Maybe continue our conversation without clay all over us?”
He chuckled. “Deal. But first I’ll show you how to take your pot off the wheel. And clean up.”
“And a handle?” She pointed to the cup she was making.
“Yes. I’ll show you how to make one. Then when it’s dry in a day or two you can make another to attach to the cup.”
They worked steadily, and soon the wheels were clean, Sarah knew the basics of making a handle, and the equipment was put away.
“Now what happens?” Sarah asked.
“We let it dry to leather hard state, and in a couple days we’ll trim off any of the excess, add your handle, then put it into the kiln to fire. Once it’s fired, we can glaze it.”
“It’s a lot of steps to make a cup,” she said. “I’ll be taking better care of mine in the future.”
“Did you enjoy this? Making pottery?”
“I can see how it could become addictive. It’s so… earthy. Like I reconnected to a part of me I’d forgotten. I like working with my hands instead of just my brain.”
“Glad you liked it.”
“Best birthday present I’ve had in a long time,” said Sarah.
“Before we go, I have something else for you,” he said.
“What?”
“Just a second.”
He disappeared into the other room and returned carrying a vase.
“I happen to know you need a new one,” he said, setting it down on the table in front of her so she could look at it more closely.
“Oh, Simon. I don’t know what to say. It’s beautiful.”
“I call it Summer with the Girls.”
She picked it up to look more closely at the wraparound scene. On one side, it depicted two cats, and two girls that looked like Riley and Sally. On the other, there was a dragon boat, an ice cream store, and a couple dancing on the shore.
Tears filled her eyes. “No one has ever made anything like this for me. I’ll cherish it forever.”
“Just promise me you’ll keep it somewhere safe. Away from Dot and Dash,” he said, laughing as he drew her close.
“That’s a promise,” she whispered, lifting her face to his for another kiss.
***