by Hamel, B. B.
She bites her lip and looks away. “Nathan.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
We hug. I hold her tight for a long, long time. I don’t know how long, and it doesn’t matter.
The past is still there. What happened won’t go away. We’ll always have that, always have it hanging between us, lingering in the air. But we can move on, move past, get over it. We can finally decide to just be two people together, in love, happy.
She has no clue how much of a gift she’s given to me, and I hope that I can really earn it one day.
26
Grace
Two Years Later
I hurry down the street, barely under control of myself, as Bruiser pulls ahead.
“Slow down!” I say, but he just keeps going, head bowed, body yanking as hard as he can on the leash.
The black dog is going nuts. I shout after him again but he doesn’t care. He smells his daddy and he’s too excited to stop.
“There’s my boy,” Nathan says, laughing as Bruiser jumps up to greet him. The silly black lab can’t get enough of Nathan, and I love watching the way he gets so excited.
“How’s it going?” I ask him.
“Great,” he says. “You?”
“Fantastic. Except your dog nearly pulled my arm off.”
“Aw, he didn’t mean it. Did you boy? Did you?” Nathan ruffles Bruiser’s fur and laughs. “How are you feeling?”
He kisses me on the cheek and I sigh, putting a hand on my stomach. “Like crap. Can you see it yet?”
“Just starting to show.”
I frown at myself. “I feel like I’m an enormous she-beast.”
“You’re definitely not a she-beast.” He kisses me. “You look amazing. I promise.”
“Liar.” I grin at him and kiss him again.
He grabs my hand and we start walking. Bruiser goes out ahead, scouting for us, sniffing every little thing we pass. He’s a good dog, a rescue from the clinic, but he’s a little overexcited. I think he was probably a suburban dog once, so I have no clue how he ended up in the city.
But he’s ours and he makes both of us happy. Nathan’s smiling, the wind blowing through his full hair, his beard looking a little scrappy, but still handsome. I squeeze his hand and he squeezes back.
We head into a large office building about two blocks down. We ride the elevator up to the twentieth floor, Bruiser sitting at my feet and panting happily. Once the door opens, we step out and walk into the offices of Palmer Associates.
“Afternoon,” Nathan says to Sally, the receptionist.
“Oooooooh, is that Bruiser?” She gets up, an older woman with a big smile, and greets him. He loves her, goes a little nuts, and she loves him right back. “What a good boy.”
We lead him through the office. Nathan greets everyone until we finally reach his office. He sits down with a sigh and Bruiser curls up at his feet.
“Well?” I ask him.
“Well, what?”
“Well, you know.”
He grins. “No, I don’t.”
“Nathan.”
“What?” He plays innocent.
“I swear.”
“Okay, okay.” He beckons me over. “Here.”
He takes a ring out of his pocket and hands it to me. I take a deep breath and slide it onto my finger. It fits perfectly, of course it does.
It’s just a simple gold band. But it has the date we got married inscribed on the inside. I wanted something simple to go along with his grandmother’s ring.
“Perfect,” I say, kissing him gently.
“Are your parents coming tonight?”
“After they visit Patrick.”
“All righty.” He pulls me into his lap. I don’t resist since I’ve been eyeing his lap this whole time. He kisses me softly. “I can send everyone home, you know.”
“Ugh, stop. You’re too much.”
“Really. They wouldn’t mind. I could—”
“Nathan,” I warn. “I’m too pregnant.”
“You’re nowhere near too pregnant yet.”
I blush a little. He’s right. Every night, without fail, he wants me. And every night, without fail, I give in to him. And I love every second of it.
The sex is different. There’s less anger. It’s still just as intense, but the anger just isn’t there anymore. We’ve moved past everything that happened, way past it. Sure, he had to make up for it, and he was groveling and cooking for a good few months. He still does cook, actually, so I guess he’s not done making up for it.
But we moved on and quickly realized that this fake marriage was actually pretty real. We got Bruiser, settled into the house, made some changes, and now we’re bringing a baby into the world.
It’s amazing, it’s scary, but it’s great. I still work at the clinic part-time and I help out around his office whenever I’m not there.
Business is going amazing. He poached more clients from his father, who is still currently in jail for punching a guard in the face, until that business went under. But even without that business, Nathan’s been growing at a rapid pace. He’s going to be the biggest accounting firm in the whole city sooner or later.
It’s amazing. Our life has changed so much. We could do anything, go anywhere, but we want to be here, in that house. It’s the perfect little life. I get up smiling every day.
There was a time I never thought I’d smile again, let alone feel like this.
“Well, at least hang around here,” he says.
“I can do that.”
“Distract me.”
“Like you need my help.”
He laughs, kisses me again, and I get up. He sighs as I walk over and sit in a different chair. Bruiser comes over and joins me.
“You know,” he says slowly. “I could just leave. Want to get lunch?”
“I thought we were eating here.”
“Come on. Screw this place. It’s Friday and I’m the boss.”
I sigh and grin at him. “Okay, boss. Screw this place. You know all your employees are gonna go home too, right?”
“Good. I hope they do.” He gets up. “Let’s go. Ready?”
“I’m ready,” I say softly.
I’ll go anywhere with him. But I don’t need to say that out loud.
He’s my rock, my star. He makes me feel good and makes me better than I ever thought I could be. The tragedy of the past is still there, but only there. It’s far from us now, and we’ve grown, gotten stronger, gotten better together.
He takes my hand. I kiss him. We walk out together, my love, my husband, my life.
* * *
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