Asking For A Friend
Page 44
I’d wept quietly into my pillow, whispering back, “Same here. All we can do to thank him is to hang onto each other and never let go.”
Layton had agreed and eventually, we’d fallen asleep. Things changed between us after that. It was like we were both kicked into a higher gear by the conversation, like we felt we had to love and appreciate each other so much more as a way of honoring his dad. We knew from his video he hadn’t wanted us to take each other for granted, and so we never had. I doubted we ever would.
Layton also threw himself deeper into his commitment to our family. He started driving Annie to school sometimes or offering to pick her up. He took her fishing a few more times and taught her how to play catch.
Our lives together was everything I was ever too afraid to hope for. Watching him watch her recital now, tears burned the backs of my eyes.
His eyes still hadn’t left the stage for so much as second and I could see the pride he was feeling, I felt it too. He was so much better of a father to Annie than Brice ever could have been. And he stepped into that role gracefully and seriously.
I wondered if he would bolt when he eventually realized she was starting to look at him as her dad, but he’d done the complete opposite. On the contrary, he freaking loved being her ‘dad.’
The final notes of the recital ended, the girls all dipping into low bows as the hall exploded in applause. Parents leaped to their feet and Layton and I joined them.
“She was fantastic,” he yelled into my ear, holding his thumb down over it so I would able to hear him over the din.
I nodded enthusiastically. “She sure was. I think ballet might stick.”
Annie had been trying out different activities, but seemed to get bored of them quite fast. Ballet was the one thing we’d found so far that she adored.
Layton was holding out for softball, claiming she was going to be a champ if she kept practicing in the backyard with him. But that remained to be seen. She could only go for tryouts for the school’s team in about a year.
In the meantime, Layton seemed satisfied with ballet. “I could watch her all day. She’s so graceful.”
“That she is,” I replied, spotting her blonde head moving through the crowd to get to us. Layton saw her at the same time I did, dropping down to embrace her.
“You were amazing,” he told her excitedly, giving her a huge hug. I hadn’t noticed it before since he had gotten here just before the start of the recital and the lights had already been dimming, but he picked up a single red rose from the floor beside his chair and gave it to Annie. “Congratulations, baby. You were the star of the show.”
“I wasn’t,” she objected modestly, giggling as she hugged the rose to her chest. “But thank you. I’m so glad you came.”
“Of course I came,” he scoffed, shaking his head as he grinned at her. “You’re my girl. I wasn’t going to miss it for anything.”
Annie beamed at him. Looping her thin arms around his neck to give him another hug. “I am your girl.”
Those silly tears jumped back into my eyes. I just couldn’t get over how happy it made me to see them like this, to hear them say those kinds of things to each other so easily and so sincerely.
The waterworks often switched on in these kinds of moments. I couldn’t help it. It was like someone shoved a hose into me and the water just had to flow out from somewhere, so it leaked out of my eyes. And I wasn’t even generally a teary person. I imagined if I was, I would never have stopped crying.
“How about we celebrate with ice cream?” Layton asked. Predictably, Annie’s head bopped up and down, and excitement filled her eyes.
“Yes. We should definitely celebrate with ice cream,” she agreed, taking my hand and grabbing Layton’s with her other. She looked up at me as she asked, “Are you going to make me have dinner first before we have ice cream?”
I pretended to consider it, pursing my lips and moving them from side to side. Annie was watching me with bated breath, but Layton winked. He knew what I was doing. Finally, I shrugged and started shaking my head. “Nah, it’s a celebration isn’t it? We can have ice cream before dinner just this once.”
“Yay!” Annie cheered, giving my leg a quick hug before taking our hands again. We stopped to chat with several other parents on the way out. Layton had, by this point, even mastered the obligatory parental small talk at school events.
Annie got lots of hugs from her friends and one from her ballet teacher. The teacher smiled at her and said to me and Layton, “You have a very talented daughter.”
None of us corrected her assumption that Annie was Layton’s daughter. In every way that really mattered, she was. Or she was becoming so, anyway.
The ice cream parlor was packed with other parents who had the same idea we had. More of Annie’s friends from school were there and the girls shrieked with laughter as they talked about the recital.
Layton and I got the ice creams and slid into a booth at the back which was just being vacated by a young couple who looked like they were out on a date and were now confused by the sudden influx of excited kids everywhere.
I caught Annie’s eye and lifted up the ice cream to show her it was time to come get it before it melted. We had gotten her a strawberry ice cream with fudge sprinkles. It was her current favorite and she gazed at it adoringly when she joined us. “I’m so glad we came for ice cream.”
Layton licked a bite of chocolate off his spoon, closing his eyes as he sighed with pleasure. “Yeah, me too. You should have recitals more often so we can always be celebrating.”
Annie nodded seriously, “Good idea. I’ll talk to the teacher.”
Laughing at both of them, I still marveled about how they were with each other nowadays. I also wondered how Annie was going to react to the surprise waiting for her at home—that Layton had moved in some of his stuff.
I couldn’t wait to see how ecstatic and excited she was going to be. He wasn’t moving in officially yet, but this was our way of easing Annie into it. Very soon, we would be making it official. But we wanted her to get used to the idea first.
As I looked at the two of them debating who made the better flavor choice with their ice cream, I sat back. This was my family. For so long, I had been avoiding any semblance of it. But now that I had it, I was never letting it go.
Epilogue
Layton
In the past two months since Annie’s first ballet recital, there had been three more. Which were four more recitals than I ever thought I would attend. Or actually enjoy.
But I did enjoy them. I enjoyed them so much I was even starting to consider myself something of an expert in ballet. I knew was arabesque meant, what pas de deux was, and that attitude referred to a position in classical ballet, and not a little girl shaking her finger in your face.
I watched Annie practicing every night, since I had now officially moved in with them. So officially that there was a tenant renting my place and everything. Marissa didn’t know it yet, but I had been looking at houses for us online for the last couple of weeks.
Most of my furniture was now in storage since our house wasn’t big enough for all my furniture and all of Marissa’s. I didn’t love the thought of my stuff gathering dust in a storage unit and I wanted us to have a place that was truly ours, not mine or hers.
I had to wait until I’d recovered a bit from the museum project before I bought us a house though. Even though it was finished on time and on budget, the final bill still ran well into the billions. Like, more than one billion.
The museum was finally done today. Craig and his teams were planning on finishing the clean-up this morning and then it was time for the grand opening next month. The interest in the museum was already astronomical.
Collectors had pledged their pieces of modern art for the displays, according to the city who was going to be renting the building from me. Their managers had been in and out all the time lately, planning exhibits and getting themselves ready for move in day on Monday.
Even Annie knew about the building. She and Marissa had been my pillars of support throughout. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them.
It turned out my dad had been right. A true partner was something everyone needed in their lives. Not because you couldn’t do it all by yourself, but because sharing the load and having someone for a soundboard was invaluable.
I had actually learned that Dad had been right about a lot of things. Flicking my eyes to the ceiling, I smiled and hoped he was looking down and knowing how thankful I was to him.
“Can we go see the museum soon?” Annie asked sweetly. “I really want to see it. You promised.”
“I did promise.” I ruffled her hair and she ducked out from under my hand, laughing as she ran to the other side of the kitchen island. I turned to face her, smiling at her laughter. “We’ll go soon, okay? Maybe next weekend?”
“Okay,” she agreed, climbing back onto her stool and resuming the face she was building on top of Marissa’s pancake. “Why are we making breakfast for Mommy again?”
“We talked about it, remember?” I reminded her of the talk we had about a week ago. She nodded, excitement lighting her eyes before she screwed them in concentration as she tried to get the face perfect. “Plus, we’re celebrating. The whole day is going to be one big celebration.”
“What else are we going to do?” She asked, moving the pancake she was done with up on the plate to make space for another. She also added a few strips of bacon to the plate.
“It’s a surprise for you, too,” I told her, winking. “You don’t want to ruin your surprise, do you?”
“No,” she replied immediately, frowning as though the mere thought offended her. I flipped the last pancake over in the pan and shut down the burner when I slid it onto the waiting stack beside the stove.
If everything went well this morning, I planned on taking the girls house shopping this afternoon. I would have liked to have chosen one and surprised them both with the house instead of the shopping, but I knew that wouldn’t work.
Annie had to be prepared for a change that big and frankly, I didn’t really know what was essential to look for in a house that was going to have a child living and growing up in it. Craig mentioned that if the place had a swimming pool, it would have to be covered or fenced off for safety purposes but that was about the extent of my knowledge.
I knew kids could live in any house, but I wanted a place we could make our home in and to be able to do that, I wanted it to be perfect. If Marissa or Annie had a wish list for their ideal houses, I wanted to give them everything on it. If I could, that is.
While I would have to wait until I recovered a little from the building before I could buy the place free and clear, I had more than enough for a decent deposit. I’d also already talked to the bank about financing and they were more than happy to help.
Business was picking up with word of the museum spreading. The bank manager took one look at my statements and told me they would have no problem giving me a loan.
If Marissa agreed with my plan, I therefore had it all in place. I had to wait to buy free and clear, but at least I knew I had a back-up if we found a place we liked today.
I’d made several appointments for us this afternoon. One place had a spare dining room with hardwood floors I thought we could turn into a practice space for Annie’s ballet. All it needed was a barre and a mirror. I figured it was easy enough to convert.
And if she lost interest in ballet, we could turn it into whatever came next. I was psyched about showing them that option. Personally, it was my favorite of all the places I had seen. From the pictures anyway.
But first, I had to get through the morning. Nervous excitement made my hands tremble as I picked up Marissa’s plate. Annie carried her juice on a tray with a fresh flower in a small vase on it. It was seriously corny, but Annie had suggested it when we talked last week and she was so excited I agreed to it.
She told me she’d seen it in a movie once and it was the best thing a boy could do for a girl. I didn’t think breakfast in bed with a flower was all that, but I knew Annie’s involvement would be more important to Marissa than a fancy venue or a candlelight dinner.
It was still early, the sun wasn’t even fully risen yet. Annie and I had both snuck out of bed early this morning to make this breakfast. Marissa was fast asleep, lying on her side on the bed.
Annie set down the tray and the glass and shook Marissa’s shoulders. “Mommy! Wake up Mommy! We have a surprise for you.”
Marissa’s eyes blinked open slowly, confusion clouding them until she rubbed it away as she sat up and took in the scene in front of her. “What’s all this?”
“We’re celebrating,” I told her. “I spoke to Craig earlier. They’re on their way to the site for the final clean up. The building’s finally done.”
Her lips curled into a sleepy smile. “I can’t believe that it’s over. It’s really all done?”
“It’s really all done,” I confirmed, picking up the tray and placing her plate on it on her lap. “Eat up, we’ve got a lot of celebrating ahead of us today.”
“Shouldn’t I be the one feeding you breakfast in bed for this?” She asked, frowning slightly. Lifting up the duvet, she patted the spot beside her. “Come on in, both of you. I’ll share.”
“Okay,” Annie replied immediately and climbed in next to her mom. The two of them munched on pancakes and bacon while I pulled up a chair.
I could see Marissa trying to figure out why I wasn’t just joining them on the bed, but this worked better for my plans in a couple of minutes. While they ate, I said, “No, you shouldn’t have been the one cooking breakfast for me today. This is all because of you. If I hadn’t listened to you, I probably would have ended up signing my work on the building away and my heart would have been broken today that I was distancing myself from this building.”
“Give yourself some credit,” she smiled, then winked. “You were the one who listened.”
Annie laughed. “Mom always says I should listen to her.”
I nodded. “And you should. She’s always right, you know?”
Marissa’s eyes widened in mock surprise and she looked around frantically. “Where’s my phone? I need to record him saying that.”
Laughing, I rolled my eyes. “Don’t worry, I’ll say it whenever you want me to.”
Marissa winked before the humor drained from her eyes. “But seriously, if it’s finally over, does that mean you’re okay?”
“Yeah, we’re okay,” I told her, emphasizing that it wasn’t just me who was financially stable after everything, but both of us. “Dad’s money covered it. It helped that we didn’t run into any trouble. We should be all right.”
The relief coming off her was palpable. “Thank God. You have no idea how worried I’ve been. If this had gone sideways—I would never have forgiven myself.”
Reaching for her hand, I picked it up and brought it to my mouth to kiss it. My stomach knotted, a lump forming in my throat. This was my shot. The opening I was waiting for in order to do what I came in here to do.
“It didn’t go sideways,” I started. “In fact, I even had a few dollars left over.”
She smiled, shaking her head. “Of course you did, you’re loaded.”
“We’re loaded,” I corrected her, giving her a pointed look. “If you’ll have me, that is.”
“What are you talking about?” She narrowed her eyes and looked around the room like she was waiting for someone to jump out at her.
I caught Annie’s eye and nodded to her. She smiled the biggest smile I’d ever seen on her face and pulled out the small, black velvet box I’d handed to her right before we walked into the room. While she slid it onto Marissa’s tray, I got off the chair and lowered onto one knee
.
“I’m talking about you marrying me,” I told her, looking up into those big blue eyes that had always been able to see right into my very soul. Just as they were doing right now, shocked as they might be. “I love you, Marissa. I love Annie. I love us all together. I want to make it official. I want to share your life with you for the rest of mine, in every way possible. I want to struggle with you, I want to go through all the good times with you. I want your crazy, your happy and your sad. I want to sit next to you at a hundred more recitals and wake up next to you every morning.”
Marissa’s eyes filled with tears. My voice was getting thick with emotion, but I pushed on. Annie, for her part, was still smiling that megawatt smile. “If I have to fight with anyone for the rest of my life, I want it to be you. If I’m about to make a stupid decision, I want you to be the one to point it out to me. I want everything with you, love. Forever. So what do you say? Will you do me the honor
of becoming my wife?”
She looked shell-shocked, but finally she started nodding and launched herself at me. She hugged me so tightly she almost cut off my air supply, but I would have died a happy man. When she finally released me, I picked up the box and slid the ring onto her finger.
The diamond caught in the light starting to stream into the room from outside, throwing rainbows onto the wall. Annie had been clapping and crying and laughing, but now she seemed fascinated with the rainbows. Which reminded me—
“One more thing,” I added, pulling another box out of my pocket. This time, I opened it and held it out to Annie. “Will you do me the honor of becoming my daughter?”
Marissa’s breath caught and held, a look of absolute wonder in her eyes. Annie’s chin dropped and she looked at me like she thought I was joking, but then she saw the little rose gold pendant nestled in the box and shrieked. “Yes! Yes, of course I will.”