Fade to Black

by Unknown

  The door to her room opened with a commotion; the bouncing of rubber against wood and soft groans and grunts. When the blue and white balloons floated to the end of their strings, Rich stood there smiling with balloons in one hand, a vase full of roses in the other. Under his arm was the biggest stuffed dinosaur Kate had ever seen. And somehow, in the midst of everything else, he was holding a Sconecutter sack.

  “Hi,” he said quietly as he placed the roses on the table next to the phone. “I thought you might be hungry.” A turkey sandwich and fries were pulled from the bag and laid out in front of her on the tray that he pushed over the bed.

  She didn’t know which emotion to give in to; the elation that he’d come back—with some of the best food Utah had to offer—or the anger that he’d walked out without a word. “Where did you go?” she asked quietly, unwilling to give into the emotions bubbling just under the surface.

  He plopped down on the corner of the bed and gently ran a hand over the out of control hair of the baby. “I’m sorry I left the way I did. I just really needed to get some things.”

  “You don’t have to do this. If you don’t…”

  “Kate.” His voice was stern. “Don’t. There is nothing I want more than to be with you and our son. I love you—both of you. I didn’t run out on you.”

  “Then, what…”

  The door opened again, another interruption. “Kate, I just wanted to give you the paperwork for the birth certificate.” The nurse’s eyes scanned the feast and she smiled. “Do you still want me to track down something for you to eat?”

  “No, it looks like I’m taken care of in that department.”

  “Very good.” She held up the stack of paperwork. “As I was saying, this is the stuff to fill out for his birth certificate. The sooner you can get to it the better.” The stack was placed on the table by the roses and she turned to leave. “I’ll let you get back to your meal.”

  Kate wanted to continue the conversation exactly where it’d been left off, but the moment was gone. She picked up a fry and popped it in her mouth. Rich rounded the bed and picked up the paperwork and a pen. “You eat. I’ll fill out this form.” He waited until she pulled a one-handed manhandle on the sandwich and took a big bite. “Name? Well, I didn’t get far before I don’t know the answer.” He looked at her expectantly.

  She pointed to her mouth and chewed even slower as she tried to decide if the name she’d chosen would make him happy or send him running for the door again. When she didn’t have any hope of pretending to be chewing, she opened her mouth to speak. “I was thinking of naming him Richard Jesse Callahan.”

  Rich’s nose wrinkled and he tapped the pen on his lip. “Huh uh, I don’t like it.”

  Her gut twisted and she nearly threw up the food she’d just swallowed. “Okay, well…I guess, you should put Jesse Antonio Callahan then.”

  He frowned and shook his head. “That’s not the part I didn’t approve of.” He clucked his tongue. “What do you think of Richard Jesse…Spencer?”

  Richard Jesse Spencer. Kate didn’t miss the significance of Rich giving her son his last name. “Are you sure?”

  He was already scribbling on the paperwork. “Yep, I’m already listed as his birth father.”

  “But…”

  “As far as anyone will be concerned, Kate, he is mine. There will be no legal discrepancy. I called Claudia and had her look into it for me weeks ago.” He stopped writing, looked up at her and smiled. “If you don’t want to be listed as the mother, well, then I’m not really sure what I should put.”

  “Richard Jesse Spencer,” she asked the little boy in her arms, “do you like that name, little one?”

  He yawned and Rich laughed. “Good enough for me. Richard Jesse Spencer it is.” A few moments passed, and Rich placed the completed form on the table in front of her. “All done. I just have one more thing to take care of.” He again sat on the corner of her bed. “Kate Callahan, I love you so much it hurts sometimes. The days I spent without you in my life were miserable. I walked around as nothing more than an echo of myself. Let’s build a life together; just me and you—and our son.”

  He stood and reached into his pocket and pulled out one of those big, bubble case things from a bubblegum machine at a grocery store. “It’s not nearly as nice as the one back home in my underwear drawer, but I didn’t want to leave you for that long. It’s the only thing I could find between Smith’s and the gift shop downstairs.” A goofy smile lifted his lips as he popped the bubble and revealed a fuchsia plastic ring with a giant purple butterfly attached to it. “It took nearly ten bucks to get one this pretty.” He held it up and took her left hand. “Kate Callahan, will you forever be the light of my life, the love of my life. Will you complete my family?” He tossed a glance at the baby. “’Cause Jesse needs a mommy, and his daddy needs a wife.”

  Tears flooded her eyes and her voice. The only answer she could offer was a passionate nod, which he accepted with an even more passionate kiss. The ring slid onto her pinky and Rich kissed the ring finger. “As soon as I can get home and back, I’ll have the right one in place.”

  Kate held out her hand and admired her engagement ring. “This one’s perfect. Absolutely perfect. Just like you. I love you, Rich.”

  His large hands cupped her face, and she sighed into his mouth as a kiss that branded her as his was placed on her lips. Life was perfect. For the first time in a long time, life was perfect.

  “I’ve got some calls to make,” Rich announced when he broke the kiss. “Our parents are going to kill us that I’ve waited so long already.” He took out his cell phone and flipped it open. “Are you okay if I tell people we’re engaged or do you want…”

  “I want you to shout it from the rooftops.” Her heart was so full of emotion she was sure it might just burst. She was so loved and loved so much in return.

  And while Rich made call after call, Kate was given time to reflect on just how much her life had changed over the last two years. She didn’t regret what she’d had with Jesse. It’d given her a son and she would forever honor his memory by teaching little Jesse about the man who’d died before he was born.

  But Kate couldn’t deny the feelings she’d felt for Rich the moment they touched on that first day—and now she didn’t have to.

  She didn’t think. She just felt.

  And everything felt wonderfully perfect.

  As a peaceful sleep overtook her, everything faded to black.

  Epilogue

  Five-year-old Jesse Spencer couldn’t believe his dad was actually making him clean his room—by himself. Mommy always helped him because he was her little man. But Daddy had said she couldn’t help today and that he was a big boy now.

  If it meant he’d have to clean his room all by himself, Jesse would rather be little. His hand wrapped around the baseball that had been lying in the middle of the floor and he chucked it across the room. It bounced off one wall, knocked into another, before slamming into the picture of his Heaven Daddy, which landed on the floor with a crash.

  Jesse’s heart stopped, and he raced over to where the picture laid upside down, barely peeking out from behind the dresser. “Please don’t be broken,” he muttered as his hand tugged the frame from where it was hiding. “Phew.” Breath blew through his missing tooth, and he sat the picture back in its place.

  “Hey, little man,” Dad’s voice said from the doorway. “You ready?”

  Jesse tried to wipe the guilty look off his face before he turned to look at his dad. “Yeah, almost.”

  “Would you like me to help you finish?” Dad asked as he picked up the jeans and shirt Jesse’d been wearing a few minutes ago and stuffed them in the hamper. “We need to hurry if we’re going to make Mommy’s appointment.”

  Jesse was excited to go with Mommy and Daddy to the doctor’s appointment. He was sure he was getting a sister and needed the doctor to tell everybody else. He’d decided they were going to name her JoJo like the clown on TV. She was go
ing to be the best sister ever, not anything like Gracie, Nate and Roxy’s little girl. Gracie liked to hit and bite and blame everything on Jesse.

  No, JoJo was going to love him and be nice to him and let him do whatever he wanted.

  Jesse couldn’t believe how fast the room cleaned itself when Daddy helped. That always happened when Mommy helped too. When he had to do it by himself, it took forever for the toys to jump back in the toy box.

  “All done,” Jesse yelled as he ran to hug his dad. He loved the way his daddy’s big arms wrapped around him. He always felt so safe.

  “I love you, sport.” Dad patted him on the bum and then took his hand to lead him down the hall to where Mommy was waiting in the kitchen.

  “Are my men ready?” she asked with a smile.

  “Yep, all ready and I cleaned my room all by myself ‘cause I’m a big boy.” He looked up with hopes that Dad would go along with the story.

  Dad winked at Mom, which he did a lot, and said, “Jesse is definitely a big boy. His room looks great.” He left Jesse standing by the door and walked to Mom where he kissed her.

  Jesse cringed and voiced his opposition, “Ew! Dad, that’s just gross!”

  Dad—and Mom—laughed. “Someday, sport, you won’t think so.”

  “Someday…in a really long time,” Mom added, kissing Dad on the cheek.

  “My hope for you, son, is that you’ll find someone you love as much as I love your mom, and that she will love you back.” Dad’s hand rubbed on Mommy’s tummy. “And that she will give you two great kids to love.”

  “I want seventeen kids,” Jesse announced. Seventeen sounded so much better than just two.

  Daddy laughed as Mommy’s face looked funny. “Seventeen?” he said, a smile on his face. “Well, I hope you get a good wife who will give you seventeen kids to love.”

  Jesse watched as his dad helped his mom put the last of the dishes into the sink so that they could leave. He knew what he wanted when he grew up. “I want to love my kids, just like you love me, Dad. That’s what I want.”

  He didn’t understand why his mom started to cry and knew better than to ask because she couldn’t ever tell him. And as Dad handed her a tissue, Jesse was really glad he had the dad he did. A kid couldn’t ask for a better one.

  Morgan Kearns survived the intense and ever-changing insanity of television news for nearly 10 years before retiring to enter the jungle of raising four children. She writes novels that are ‘a real page turner’ and ‘couldn’t put the book down’ reads. She does an ‘amazing job bringing her characters to life’.

  Morgan loves to meet new characters as they step out of her imagination, introduce themselves and keep her up all night telling their stories. Morgan lives in Northern Arizona with her wonderfully supportive husband and her four great kids—and her bulldog, Gus.

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