Chapter 10
ten
. . .
Sadie
A year later, and I'm still sitting at this same desk, still doing the same books, except now the whiteboard calendar has a wedding anniversary marked on it in red, and there's a crib coming together out on the shop floor that Beau's been working on for three weeks straight.
I glance up from the invoice I'm entering and watch him through the office doorway, same as I used to do that very first week, except now I don't have to pretend I'm not looking.
He's got his shirt off, same as always by mid-morning, sawdust dusted across his shoulders, and he's sanding down the last rail of the crib with the care he usually saves for the pieces he's proudest of.
Vince is out there with him, perched on an overturned bucket, handing Beau pieces of sandpaper when he asks for them, chattering on about who knows what that Beau's nodding along to like it's the most important conversation he's had all week.
I finish out the invoice I'm working on, save it, and push back from the desk, feeling the familiar ache settle low in my back the way it has for the last few months.
I press a hand flat against my stomach, round enough now that I can't button my old jeans anymore, round enough that Beau's taken to resting his hand there most nights before we fall asleep, like he's checking in on the most important person in the room.
I stand up slow, giving myself a second before I head out onto the shop floor, and the light catches the ring on my hand the way it always does this time of day, when the sun's coming in low through the windows Beau finally got around to replacing last spring.
It's simple, nothing flashy, exactly what I would've picked if he'd asked me instead of surprising me with it on a Tuesday night on his back porch, down on one knee in front of Vince, who cried harder than I did when Beau asked if it would be alright with him too.
I walk out onto the shop floor, careful over the sawdust that still drifts into the corners no matter how many times I sweep it, and Beau looks up when he hears me coming, that same grin he's had since the day I met him, the one that still makes my chest tighten every single time.
"How's it looking?" I ask, nodding toward the crib.
"Almost done. Just gotta get this last rail sanded smooth, then I can start the finish coat tomorrow.
" He runs a hand over the wood, checking it under his palm the way he does with everything he builds, like he can feel imperfections other people would miss.
"Should be ready well before this one decides to make an appearance. "
"Good, because I don't think I've got much longer in me of waddling around this shop." I come to stand next to him, and Vince hops off his bucket to lean against my side, one hand pressed flat against my stomach like he's checking for a kick.
"Baby moving?" he asks.
"Not right now, bug. She's probably sleeping." I run a hand through his hair, and he leans into it the way he always has, even now that he's got opinions on everything and thinks he's too big for most of my affection these days. "You excited to be a big brother?"
"I guess." He shrugs, but there's a grin underneath it he can't quite hide. "Can I help build her room too? Not just the crib?"
"Course you can, buddy," Beau says, setting the sandpaper down and pulling Vince in against his side for a second, ruffling his hair the same way I just did. "You're gonna be my best helper on this whole thing, same as you've been on everything else this year."
Vince beams at that, the way he always does when Beau praises him like that, and runs off toward the bucket of scrap wood pieces he's taken to collecting, building little towers out of them while we work, same as he's done almost every day since Beau started letting him hang around the shop full time.
I turn back to Beau, and he's watching me now instead of the crib, that same look on his face that I caught him wearing that very first afternoon in the trailer, right before the storm cleared and everything between us changed for good.
"You alright?" he asks, reaching out to tuck a piece of hair behind my ear.
"Better than alright." I wrap my arms around his neck, same as I did that day in the office when he asked if I wanted to be fired, same as I've done a hundred times since.
He wraps his arms around me too, careful of the belly between us, and I rest my head against his chest, listening to his heart beating strongly underneath his strong chest. "I keep thinking about that morning I was crying my eyes out because Will fired me over a mistake that wasn't even my fault.
I thought that was the worst day of my life. "
"Was it?"
"No." I tilt my head back to look at him, and I mean every single word of what comes next.
"It was the best thing that ever happened to me.
You gave me a job when I needed one more than anything, and then you gave me so much more than that.
A home for me and Vince that actually feels safe.
A man who shows up, every single time, no matter what.
This baby, growing right here, who's going to grow up knowing exactly what it looks like when somebody loves you the way you love us. "
Beau's throat works for a second before he answers, like he's not quite sure his voice is going to be strong enough.
"You built this right alongside me, Sadie.
Every bit of it. This business, this house, this family — none of it happens without you walking into that shop that first day and refusing to let me keep running things into the ground. "
"I love you," I tell him, simple, the same way I've told him every day for the last year, and it still means just as much now as it did the first time I said it.
"I love you too." He presses a kiss to my forehead, then lower, to my mouth, slow and easy, with a kiss that takes it’s time because we've got the rest of our lives to get to everything else.
"You, Vince, this one on the way, you're everything I built this whole place for, even before I knew it. Glad you finally showed up to see it."
Out on his bucket, Vince knocks his tower of scrap wood over and laughs at the sound it makes, and somewhere behind us, the sun keeps sliding lower through windows that took a year too long to fix, catching the ring on my finger and the sawdust in the air and the crib sitting half finished, waiting on a baby who's going to grow up in a shop that smells like cedar and love and every single thing I never thought I'd get to have.
I couldn't have built a better life than this one if I'd tried.