by A. K. Evans
He leaned over to the bedside table, lifted a plate, and declared, “Your favorite. I made French toast.”
Yep. I loved Zev.
A man who not only knew what my favorite foods were but also went through the trouble to get up early and make them was a keeper in my book.
I sat up in bed, took the plate from him, and watched as he picked up a second plate from the nightstand after he settled himself next to me.
Once I’d taken the first bite, I moaned and claimed, “I’m the luckiest girl in the world.”
Zev let out a laugh. “All it took was some breakfast?” he asked.
I dipped my chin and added, “It was breakfast and all that stuff last night, too.”
He grinned and replied, “Good to know.”
“As if you didn’t already know,” I said, rolling my eyes at him.
Zev and I sat there next to one another in bed, eating French toast, and enjoying just being in each other’s company. We didn’t need words. That’s just who we were.
When we finished breakfast, I set my plate off to the side and remarked, “I’m so excited to see your parents today. I haven’t seen them in so long, and I’ve really missed them.”
“This will be the best surprise of their life,” he responded.
“What?”
“I didn’t exactly tell them we were coming,” he started. “I’ve been going over there nearly every Saturday without calling ahead of time. I figured they’d already be expecting me. But when I show up with you, they’re sure to lose their minds.”
My eyes widened. This was going to be so much fun. Not wanting to waste another minute, I tossed the covers back and started to move myself out of the bed. Zev curled his fingers around my arm before I could exit the bed.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
After I looked down at myself, my eyes met his. “I need to get ready if we’re going to get out of here at a reasonable time so we can make it back before Meli has to close the store on her own.”
“And you were going to do that without giving me a kiss first?” he questioned me.
My shoulders fell. “Sorry,” I murmured as I leaned toward him and gave him a kiss. When I pulled back, I continued, “I’m not trying to make excuses, but this is new for me. And I’m really excited about seeing your parents again for the first time in months.”
“It’s okay, Tillie. I was mostly just teasing you,” he assured me.
I shrugged. “I know but still. I love you. I want you to know that.”
This time, Zev kissed me. It was hot and intense. At least, that’s what I thought given the early hour.
When Zev tore his mouth from mine, he insisted, “I know you do. And I love you, too.”
I didn’t respond. I was still too caught up in everything I felt from his kiss. Not receiving a reply from me, Zev instructed, “You should probably get ready now, Tillie.”
After a moment of hesitation, I agreed, “Yeah.”
Then, I got myself out of bed and got ready.
“Where are you going?”
Zev and I had just left his house and were supposed to be going to his parents’ place, but he’d missed the turn that would have taken us in the right direction.
He glanced over at me for a quick second before turning his eyes back to the road. “I want to make a quick stop somewhere before we go to see my mom and dad,” he answered.
Even though he wasn’t looking at me, I gave him a nod and replied, “Okay.”
Five minutes later, I couldn’t say that I had suspected Zev would bring me where he did. Knowing what I knew now, I didn’t even know what his plan was or why he had brought me here. I didn’t necessarily mind; I was simply worried about how this was going to affect him.
Looking over at him, I shot him a questioning look.
Zev saw it and immediately shared, “I think I need to do this with you.”
I held his gaze.
That’s when he asked, “Are you okay with it?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “Of course. Anything you need.”
With that, Zev exited his vehicle and met me on my side as I got out. Then he took my hand in his and walked with me through the cemetery toward Liam’s grave.
Through the walk and for the first five minutes or so that we had been standing there, I remained silent. Zev did, too. There were a million questions running through my mind, but something was pulling at me to keep quiet.
So, I did.
And after a bit more time had passed, Zev finally spoke.
“I hope you can see us here, Liam,” he started as I squeezed his hand just a little tighter. “I brought Tillie with me. I’m sorry I haven’t been by to see you. It’s probably going to be a little while before I can come see you again because I’m moving. I’m moving to Sedona to be with Tillie. We’re happy. I’m happy. For the first time since you died, I’m happy again. And she makes me feel that way.”
Oh, God. I didn’t think I could handle this. It was taking everything I had inside me to hold back not just the tears but the sobs threatening to take over.
“It sucks that you’re gone, and I’m the happiest I’ve ever been,” he went on. “Every time I came to see you before now, I carried guilt with me. But everyone made me see that you wouldn’t want that for me. So, I let it go. And I hope that if you can see us, you are smiling down at us knowing we’re getting through this and the rest of our lives together instead of apart.”
I leaned my weight into Zev’s arm. He let go of my hand, wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and curled me into his body. I tipped my head back to look up at him. His eyes were shining down at me. I smiled at him through the tears in my eyes before turning my attention to Liam’s headstone.
“We love you, Liam. And we miss you so much,” I rasped. Zev’s arms tightened around me.
Another minute of silence passed before Zev ended, “Rest easy, Liam. We’ll be back soon.”
With that, Zev led us out of the cemetery and back to his car. Once we were inside, I looked over at him and found him staring at me.
“What?” I asked.
“Thank you for doing that with me,” he replied.
“I’m happy we did it,” I told him. When he took my hand in his and gave it a squeeze, I added, “And I’m glad you let go of the guilt.”
“Me too,” he admitted. “It took me a while, but I finally started to see things the way I should have from the beginning. Liam loved you. I have no doubt about that. But you and I were meant to be together, Tillie.”
“I love you.”
Zev leaned over the center console, touched his lips to mine, and whispered, “I love you, too.”
I smiled against his lips before kissing him. Then he pulled back and asked, “Should we go surprise my parents?”
Excitement filled me. “Yeah!”
Just over ten minutes later, Zev and I walked up to the front door. I pressed the button to ring the bell. Zev had a key, but we figured it would be a better surprise this way.
A moment later, the door opened. Ron’s eyes went from our faces to our connected hands and back to our faces. He grinned and called out, “Janet! Come here.”
Before she even made it to the front door, Janet shouted back, “I’m coming. I was just finishing up preparing lu—”
Janet stopped dead in her tracks as she took us in. She was visibly stunned for several long seconds.
And then she wasn’t.
She rushed forward and threw her arms around me.
“Oh, Tillie, dear. I’m so happy to see you here,” she cried.
I let go of Zev’s hand so I could return her embrace. “I missed you, too,” I returned.
Janet held on for a bit before she stepped back and urged, “Come in, come in, come in.”
As we stepped inside and closed the door, she looked up at her son and sighed, “I’m so glad you took our advice.”
Zev gave his mom a hug and agreed, “Me too.”
Ron greeted m
e with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “It’s good to see you, Tillie.”
“You too. It’s been far too long.”
Ron’s eyes left mine and went to Zev’s. “What did I tell you?” he asked.
Zev’s brows pulled together. “What?”
“Last week. Don’t you remember? I told you Tillie would forgive you for being a fool,” he reminded him.
At Ron’s words, I bit my bottom lip to stifle my laughter. Apparently, Zev hadn’t told me everything his parents said to him when he was here last weekend. It didn’t matter, though.
Ron was right.
There were very few things I could ever imagine that Zev could have done that would have prevented me from forgiving him or talking to him. None of us were perfect. Zev realized his mistake, apologized, and asked for my forgiveness. There was no way I wasn’t going to give it to him. Not after all these years. Not after everything we’d been through.
“I’m a lucky man,” Zev noted. “In fact, I’m so lucky that I’m afraid to admit that this is going to be my last lunch with you guys for a little while.”
Confusion and worry washed over their faces.
Thankfully, Zev didn’t let them sit with that too long. He quickly explained, “My mistake was so bad that I ended up pushing Tillie to the point where she moved away from Saguaro.”
Ron’s head jerked back. Janet audibly gasped as her lips parted.
“Tillie’s in Sedona now,” Zev continued. “She has her own storefront and is doing really well there. So, I’m moving out to Sedona to be with her.”
“Oh, Zev, that’s wonderful news,” Janet stressed. “You know we love seeing you here, but I’ll be happier knowing you’re moving on with your life in the way I always hoped for you.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
Janet looked back and forth between the two of us. She had stars in her eyes. Ron’s voice broke in and declared, “Lunch is ready. Let’s move out of the foyer and go eat.”
At his declaration, we all moved toward the dining room.
For the next two hours, Zev and I ate lunch and caught up with his parents. I told them all about my new store and the success I’d been having. They listened intently and were overjoyed to hear how well I’d been doing.
The best part of our time with Zev’s parents for me was that I was able to see for myself that they were okay. When I last saw them, they’d both been messes. Even though Zev had told me they were doing much better, I still needed to see it with my own eyes. Any lingering doubts I had were gone. Just as I knew a part of me and Zev would always grieve for Liam, I didn’t think Ron and Janet would ever truly recover from the loss of their son. But it was now clear to me that they were in a much better place. I only hoped that would continue for them.
Two hours after we arrived, Zev announced that we needed to go. Following a round of hugs, goodbyes, and promises on both sides to visit often, Zev and I left.
Once we were in the car, he started it but made no move to go.
“Zev?” I called.
“Yeah?”
“Is everything okay?” I questioned him.
His eyes searched my face before he nodded and replied, “Yeah. I was just thinking that this is it.”
Confused, I asked, “What?”
“The start of our life together,” he answered. “As soon as we leave Saguaro, our new life begins.”
Tears filled my eyes as the realization hit me. Ignoring the lump in my throat, I whispered, “It’s what I’ve dreamt of my whole life.”
“Then you’ve waited long enough, Tillie. Are you ready to go home?” he asked.
“Yeah, Zev, I am. Take us home.”
A moment later, Zev did just that.
Zev
Two Years Later
I leaned up against the doorjamb and watched as my wife’s hands ran over the clay, molding and shaping it.
My wife.
I didn’t wait long. Three months after I moved in with Tillie, I proposed. While it might have seemed quick, it didn’t feel like it to us. Considering we both spent nearly our entire lives in love with one another, marriage felt like a long time coming.
I wasn’t alone in my desire to get married as soon as possible because no sooner did I propose when Tillie declared, “Let’s do it right away.”
“What?” I asked.
“Get married,” she answered. “I don’t want to wait.”
“How soon are you thinking?” I wondered.
She shrugged. “I don’t know… maybe a month?”
My eyes widened as I asked, “Can you plan a wedding that quickly? That seems too fast. How will you get a venue, send out invites, and do all of the other planning?”
Tillie moved toward me, slid her palms up my chest and around my neck. With her body pressed tight to mine, she shared, “I don’t want a big wedding, Zev. Just us and our parents. I don’t need anyone else.”
That surprised me. I always thought I knew Tillie better than she knew herself, so it caught me off guard to hear her say she didn’t want the big wedding.
“Are you sure?” I questioned her.
The minute the words were out of my mouth, I watched Tillie’s entire expression change. Sadness washed over her.
Even still, she slowly nodded.
“What is it?” I asked.
Following a beat of silence, she explained, “It’s just… I don’t know, Zev. It feels wrong to me to celebrate with a huge wedding when the one person I know we’d both want to be there with us the most won’t be there.”
“Tillie?” I called.
“Yeah?”
“Liam would not want you to give up the wedding of your dreams,” I asserted.
She offered a small smile and insisted, “I know that. But the wedding of my dreams really only includes marrying the man of my dreams. The other stuff is just a bonus. And truthfully, I’m just not interested in having the big wedding. I want to be married to you, Zev. That’s what’s important to me.”
I held her gaze, trying to figure out if she was serious about this or if she was doing it because she thought it was the right thing. Unfortunately, I wasn’t having much luck.
Thankfully, Tillie helped me out when she added, “Besides, if we have a big wedding, it’s going to be months until we can get married. Aside from the fact that my business has been so busy and I won’t have time to dedicate to planning a wedding, I just really don’t want to wait. Do you?”
I grinned and assured her, “I want to spend the rest of my life giving you everything I should have been giving you for years now. So, I’d marry you right now if I could.”
“Don’t tempt me,” she warned.
As enticing as that was, I didn’t. Needless to say, we got married a month later surrounded by our parents. It was the best day of my life.
Of course, I never thought life could have gotten any better for us than it had been that day, but I was wrong. Because now I was standing here watching my wife concentrate on her work with a swollen belly, heavy with the weight of our first baby.
Tillie was pregnant.
And she was four days away from her due date.
We still didn’t know whether we were having a boy or girl. I had wanted to find out the sex of the baby, but Tillie wanted it to be a surprise. I’d give her anything, so we were waiting until our baby arrived.
Tillie finished the piece she was working on and turned off her wheel. At that moment, she looked up and saw me standing in the doorway.
“Hey, honey. How long have you been standing there?” she asked.
“Not long.”
“Everything okay?”
“I just wanted to see how much longer you were going to be,” I replied. “We only have a few more days alone together before the baby arrives. I was hoping you could take a break from the ceramics so we could enjoy each other for a bit.”
Tillie smiled at me. “This is the last one I was planning to do tonight, and I’ve just finished it.”
�
�How many more are you hoping to do before our little one gets here?”
“As many as I can. I’m pretty far ahead, but since I’m not going to be working for a while, I want to make sure Meli and the girls will have enough to hold them over.”
Tillie was always on top of staying ahead of her work, making sure her stock was never low. The moment she learned she was pregnant, she put a plan in place. And for nearly forty weeks now, she’d been working her ass off to increase her inventory. On top of that, she hired two part-time workers to help out at the store. Meli was going to step up and fill some big shoes. Her children were now both in school full-time, so she had a bit more free time to dedicate to working. The other two employees were there to offset Meli’s hours and give her a break from time-to-time.
“I assume you’ll want to shower now that you’re a complete mess,” I guessed.
Nodding, she confirmed, “Yeah. Just give me a few minutes to clean up in here first. I’ll take a quick shower and meet you out on the deck.”
“How about I clean up in here for you while you go hop in the shower?” I suggested.
“You don’t mind?”
“Babe.”
That was all I said in response because her question was ridiculous. On more than one occasion, I’d helped Tillie out with her ceramics. She’d shown me what to do a long time ago. Why she thought now that she was pregnant that I wouldn’t step up to help her was beyond me. Thankfully, Tillie didn’t put up a fight. She walked toward me, gave me a kiss, and said, “Thanks, honey. I’ll be quick.”
Fifteen minutes later, Tillie joined me out on the deck. She walked over to the lounger I was sitting in and sat down in between my legs, her back to my front. Instantly, I brought my hands to her shoulders and began massaging.
“That feels so good,” she moaned.
“Long day for you,” I noted.
“Yeah, but I got more done than I thought I would, so it was worth it.”
I didn’t reply. I simply continued to work along the muscles in her back. When I made it to her lower back, Tillie groaned. “I’ve been sitting in that same position all day today. My lower back is toast.”
“Is this helping?” I asked as I kneaded my fingers into her skin.