Chapter 43
Mary’s flight landed late afternoon on a Sunday. As the plane taxied to the gate, she opened her phone and sent a message to Dot and Harper.
“You won’t believe what I saw on the flight.”
“Tell me.” Dot was the first to write back.
“This good-looking guy, tall, Dallas Cowboys hat, jeans, and a gray T-shirt, is in the row ahead of me. I checked him out before takeoff, natch. But then you wouldn’t believe the movie he watched on the flight.”
“What was it? Braveheart?” Dot took a wild guess. Ryan and his friends had loved that flick. They always quoted from it.
“No. Worse. Frozen. A cartoon!”
“Oh, ick!”
“Exactly! Add it to the ick list.”
“Added! See you at dinner?” Dot asked. They planned to get Ubers and meet up after she landed and was on her way to Cedar Falls.
“Yes. Where should I tell the driver to drop me?”
“New spot,” Harper wrote. “Buddha Bootie. Asian fusion. On Washington Street. I’ll send a link.”
“What’s on the menu?” Dot asked.
“Wonton tacos and burrito pho—phorittos. Sound good?” Harper had checked it all out.
“Pho sure,” Mary responded and added a chopsticks emoji. “See you soon!” She tucked her phone into her white belt bag and got off the plane.
The terminal was quiet as she wheeled her duffel bag on top of her carry-on to the exit.
She wore a long cream-colored linen halter dress, a blue jean jacket, and wedge sandals that tied around her slim ankles. Her hair was thrown up in a high bun and she wore large gold hoops.
When she took a left into the baggage claim area to exit the building, there was only one other person there.
Jake.
He had caught the sun, and his blue eyes looked even bluer against his suntan. He wore sneakers, khaki shorts, a white T-shirt, and a light blue long sleeve cotton button-down with the sleeves rolled up.
He held a posterboard sign that said, in big block letters, NEW YORK.
She shook her head at him and walked to where he was standing. She pushed up onto her toes to find his lips. And he put his arms around her and she snuggled into his chest. They stood there for several moments.
“I can’t believe you’re doing the airport pickup,” she said.
“I couldn’t leave you to fend for yourself in Milwaukee. Besides, I missed you.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, crime is way down in Cedar Falls. I kept wondering what sort of trouble you were getting up to back home.”
“So, you were fantasizing about me?” She cocked her head and winked at him.
“Troublemaker.”
He took her suitcase and duffel bag and started toward the exit.
“So, what do you want to do?” he asked.
She was quiet for a moment. She’d been thinking about the answer to this question on the entire flight from New York as she looked out over the small towns, rivers, lakes, and fields on her way to Wisconsin. She had rested her forehead on the window and daydreamed about the future.
On the one hand, she pictured herself in a corner office at the firm, having made partner by the age of thirty.
She’d have a gorgeous apartment in a high-rise with a great view, beautifully decorated by a hotshot designer, and a closet full of modish clothes.
She’d throw dinner parties, donate to the Met, and still make it to Sunday supper at her parents’ house.
In this scenario, she wouldn’t have any financial worries and she’d be the best aunt to all her nieces and nephews.
And on the other hand, since she’d watched her brothers and their wives and children doing all the family things these past two weeks—going to Little League games, throwing birthday parties, chastising the kids for not finishing their homework and leaving their bikes scattered on her parents’ lawn—she realized she wanted that in her life, too.
What she couldn’t do was merge the two pictures. She just didn’t see how she could have both the career she wanted and the family she dreamed about. The two paths seemed incompatible to her.
And she wasn’t sure what she was going to do about Jake. She knew herself well enough to recognize that she was falling for him. It had gone from harmless flirtation to something approaching serious.
But it was never far from her thoughts that he lived in Wisconsin. She couldn’t see staying in there—her life was in New York. But her heart . . . was her heart with Jake?
It was impossible to sort it out in her head. Not to mention that a committed relationship with Jake was not in the cards. Nowhere in her life’s plan was there a vision of not going back to New York. If there was one thing that she was sure about, it was that.
“I’m not sure I’m ready for a relationship,” she blurted quickly.
“Okay. . . . I’m not sure where that came from.” He turned toward her and said, “Let me try again. What do you want to do right now. I could take you home. To dinner. To confession?”
“Oh. Ha,” she said, a little embarrassed at her presumption. Having no good idea, she said, “Um, how about you just drive? Take me somewhere you love.”
“I can do that.”
They walked to where his car was parked, and he put her suitcase in the trunk while she texted Dot and Harper.
“Hey—sorry. Change of plans. Go without me. Jake picked me up. I’ll be home later. Xoxo.”
“An airport pickup. Unheard of,” Harper said to Dot. “Even my parents make me get a cab.”
“This is getting interesting!” Dot said to Harper while she texted back to Mary, “No problem. We’ll leave a light on for you.”
She snapped a selfie with Harper and Pippi, her face sticking out of her tote bag, and sent it to Mary.
MARY KICKED OFF her sandals as they drove back past Cedar Falls. When Jake turned into the Taylor farm, she said, “So, this is a place you love. I could have guessed.”
“More than anywhere else. I want to show you the best place on earth to watch the sun set.”
He pulled up next to a pond, way out of sight of his folks’ farmhouse. There were a few big oaks that grew along the edges of the pond. Several giant weeping willows lined the shore, their branches laden with leaves that stretched down to the water.
An old wooden picnic table was placed in the shade of the largest oak. They got out of the car and Mary didn’t bother putting her shoes back on. Jake pulled a picnic basket and a blanket out of the trunk.
“Do you always have that ready to go . . . just in case you pick someone up at the airport?” she asked.
“Well, you never know who you’re going to find wandering around baggage claim.” He kissed her and then said, “Come on. Let’s set this up. We have twenty minutes before we get one of the best shows on earth.”
She followed him to the benches and helped him unpack a loaf of homemade sourdough, a hunk of cheese, slices of prosciutto, and a bottle of red wine from the basket.
“I’m starving,” Mary said, pulling a piece of bread from the loaf and popping it into her mouth.
“I’ve learned that’s a constant with you. I never want to see you hangry.”
“It’s not a pretty sight.”
“Oh, I’m sure it’s pretty. Pretty dangerous.”
They snacked for a while as the sky turned a deeper shade of pink. The sun was making its way down.
“Come over here. This is the best view.” He took her hand and walked to a double tree swing. “My grandfather put this up for my grandmother when they got married. They used to bring us out here and we’d fish, skip rocks, and eat the cookies Grandma made for us. They loved to watch the sunset.”
He sat down on the seat and patted the spot next to him. There was enough room, but Mary decided to sit on his lap instead.
“I’ll sit here.” She reached up to grab the ropes in each hand.
“Oh, okay. I’ll allow it.” He put one arm around her waist. “Hold on tight.” He got the swing started and together they kept it moving, pumping their legs in and out.
The sky turned light pink, then orange, then a deep red, and finally, an unreal shade of violet.
After a while, they stopped the swing. Then Mary turned her torso around, reached her hands around Jake’s neck, and he pulled her in for a kiss.
He held her with one arm, and with his other hand he reached for her hair and undid her updo.
By the time they came up for air, the stars were out.
Mary texted The Crew. “Don’t wait up. Catch up tomorrow? Dinner at the Sin Bin. On me.”
She added a kiss emoji and two hearts and pressed send. Then she silenced her phone. She wouldn’t be needing it for the rest of the night.