Epilogue
When I got out of the hospital, Charlie and I went back to Luke’s house for me to recuperate.
Slowly, I felt better, then totally well, well enough to corner off a piece of Luke’s yard to start putting in a moon garden for him.
After a few months, we all moved out to Nana’s for a while, so that a crew could come in and do some renovations to the interior.
Annie helped me design a brand-new kitchen, and Luke and I made a pinkie promise that we would learn how to cook in it.
Diego gave us a few lessons, and we were weaning ourselves off nightly pasta.
The master bathroom got expanded to have a big shower with two showerheads, very high in the walls and perfect for tall people.
With a bench that was a good height for, um, helping each other wash up.
And, after looking at us strangely, the workers put a special, thick insulation in the walls and ceiling to soundproof the master bedroom.
I hardly blushed at all. Well, not so much.
And it didn’t take long after that for the two of us to go for a walk on the dunes, and then, with his hands shaking, Luke asked me to marry him.
And it took no time at all for me to say yes.
The wedding was on the beach at our house, with just our best friends and family.
George Whitaker was not invited, and didn’t even visit Michigan much from his new home in Florida where he lived with a cadre of aides.
We were all happier with a few states in between us.
Luke and I tracked down Mike, then formally adopted Charlie.
He was now Charles Garrett Finn Whitaker.
He slipped right into calling me Mommy, and when we talked about Cassie, she was Mom.
Luke would always be Luke to Charlie, and that was ok.
Luke was his dad in every way it mattered, no matter what Charlie called him.
I hadn’t returned to the MD/PhD program.
I hadn’t wanted to uproot Charlie and move us all back to Ann Arbor.
My priorities had shifted, but that was ok.
I had connected with my old professor, Mary Matson, and was working long-distance on projects for her.
I also worked part-time as a science teacher at Red Pine School, where Charlie now attended.
“Emmy? You ok?” I heard Annie ask me.
“Yep.” I took a deep breath, willing the nausea down, and opened the door.
Annie gave me a wet paper towel when I came out of the bathroom stall, and I wiped my mouth. “Thanks,” I told her.
“I threw up all the time when I was pregnant with Bjarni,” she mentioned, patting the baby kicking in the carrier hanging on her front. Little Bjarni Wolfgang Whitaker-Gassman was cursed with a mouthful of a name, but he was a really cute little guy.
“I hope I stop throwing up in my second trimester,” I said.
Charlie had already picked out a name for his new sibling: Charles II.
Luke kept mentioning Hannibal (“He crossed the Alps on elephants!”) but that was also a firm no.
If we were having a girl, we had already chosen a keeper.
She would be Laura Elizabeth, after Loretta.
Luke was waiting outside the bathroom. “You all right?” he asked anxiously, handing me a bottle of water.
“I’m ok.” I leaned into him, and he rubbed my back. “Where are we in the meet?”
“Charlie’s 200 IM is up next.”
We walked back to the pool, and maneuvered our way up to the end of Charlie’s lane. Tara reached out and we bumped fists. “He’s going to kill this,” she announced. Luke stood behind me, sliding his arms around me and holding his hands over my slightly rounded tummy.
I could see Charlie behind the blocks. He looked across the water, and saw me too. I gave him a thumbs-up, and he nodded back.
We had this.