by Jessa Chase
The crowd on both sides of the street was standing complete still until the very end of their dance, when they broke out in raucous applause.
“That was amazing! You all did such a good job!” The children began filing past her, back onto the float. Their smiles were infectious, and Claire felt lighter than she had in a while. The day was looking like it was going to be sunny and bright, and her kids had all done so well with their dance. The rest of the parade went off without a hitch, and as the truck pulled up to the end of the parade route, Claire was again on the lookout for Daniel.
“Okay everybody, gather around me.” Claire had her troop around her in a semi-circle. She pulled out the cloth bag she’d had in her jacket, and showed it to them. “I have a brand new patch for each and every one of you for participating in the parade today. It’s your dancing patch and I think it’s safe to say you all earned it today.”
Claire handed out the patches to each excited child, and then directed them toward their parents waiting for them in the crowd. It was then that she spotted Daniel’s shaggy brown hair.
She felt like she was in a fog, her feet barely touching the ground as she cut a straight path in his direction.
He was there. He was there for her.
DANIEL
He saw her step down from the parade float and he felt his heart skip a beat. A few beats, if he was being honest with himself. His mouth felt like dry cotton and he wasn’t sure if he was going to grab her and kiss her, or pass out right where he stood.
He waited, watching as she handed out the coveted patches he knew the children were getting. Part of him wished he’d had a chance to be there for it, help hand them out, but he told himself to be patient. Wait for her. After all, hadn’t he waited half his life already? Hadn’t she been so patient with him, waiting for him to be ready for her?
Luckily for him, her eyes lit up when she saw him standing in the crowd. It was the look he loved seeing on her face, and he could only hope he’d have a chance to see it for the rest of his life.
“Daniel!” she shouted as she made her way through the crowd to him.
He leaned on his new prosthetic and winced. It wasn’t pain, necessarily, but the sensation was different and would take some getting used to. His wince was replaced by a smile, however, when Claire wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his.
“Mmm,” he said between kisses. “I take it you found my note.”
“I did. You nearly gave me a heart attack when I couldn’t find you.” She swatted his chest playfully. When her eyes drifted down and she noticed the absence of his knee walker, she gasped.
“That’s what made me late. It’s a hell of a sexy fashion statement, but it’s a pain in the ass to get on right.”
Claire grinned and kissed him again. “It looks amazing. I love it. I love you.”
“I love you too, Claire, and I fully intend to show you that every damn day for the next seventy or so years. I’m sorry I let anyone else come between us. It won’t happen again.”
Claire nodded. “I’m not worried about it. If my parents stop helping with the studio, I’ll find a way to fund it myself. I’ll work at the diner. I’ll scrub floors at the school. I don’t care. I’ll find a way to pay for school too. Because I will be damned if I lose you again because of my parents.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Daniel said with a smile.
Epilogue
4 months later....
CLAIRE
Claire sat cross-legged on the couch, with a hefty textbook in her lap and an uncapped highlighter dangling from her lips.
She continued scanning the chapter, periodically highlighting an important passage as she went.
She was studying for her first big exam since high school and she could feel all those familiar anxieties returning full-force.
Her first week of class, Daniel had pulled out all the stops for her; he’d put together all home cooked dinners, kept up with watering the plants when she forgot, and gave her spectacular backrubs while she poured over her new and exciting class materials.
She missed him so much at that moment, as she re-read the same paragraph for the third time before realizing that her lack of focus was probably related to having skipped lunch earlier that day. The man was a born caregiver, truly, and he loved caring for Claire while she took these first new and terrifying steps in her professional life.
Daniel was also a born artist, or perhaps a born-again artist, as he’d really only rediscovered his passion after his accident and amputation.
He had a gallery show opening in Seattle for his paintings in just a few days, and he was helping arrange his pieces to best showcase them. He was due back any time, Claire thought to herself as she checked her watch.
No sooner had she done that, in fact, but the garage door rumbled to life.
She smiled. Damn, it felt good every single time he came home.
Home to her.
Home to their house.
They’d made the purchase, perhaps a little impulsively, not long after the Lavender Parade. He’d secured a good VA loan with a low interest rate, and neither of them saw any good reason to wait. They’d spent too much time apart already, they’d both argued. Why spend another minute more?
She loved their house, with its expansive backyard and blue picket-fence garden. She loved how proudly Daniel took on and completed each home improvement project, and how adept he was getting at maneuvering the uneven terrain of their sloping yard.
The door that connected the garage to the kitchen opened, then closed, and Claire listened intently for Daniel’s steps. She could identify his step-shuffle-step in her sleep.
He’d progressed in leaps and bounds with his physical and occupational therapy, and he’d finally graduated to his permanent prosthetic molding recently.
He’d discovered that he vastly preferred a stiffer ankle joint, and he’d even began the preliminary measurements for a running prosthetic.
He’d once joked that he couldn’t see the enjoyment that some people got from running 5ks and 10ks, and here he was, dropping hints about an upcoming half-marathon.
“Honey, I’m home,” Daniel shouted in his very cheesiest Ricardo imitation. As he rounded the kitchen nook, she saw his face light up with a grin.
“There’s my study bug. Nose in a book. And damned if that isn’t just incredibly stimulating.”
Claire laughed.
“You’re an easy sell. Everything is ‘stimulating’ to you.”
Daniel came to sit on the couch next to her and she marveled at what a smooth motion he’d made of it.
“Correction. Everything about you is stimulating to me. Really, it’s the glasses.” He pushed the bridge of her reading glasses higher up her nose. “They get me every time. Make me feel like I’m back in study hall again with the sexiest girl in school.”
Claire moved her textbook to the coffee table and leaned over for her ‘hello, I’ve been missing you’ kiss.
Daniel deftly turned the tables on her, however, and used her forward momentum to pull her onto his lap.
“Well hello,” he said between slow, delicious kisses. “I missed you.”
Claire groaned as his lips took leave of hers and trailed down her neck.
“How was the gallery?” she asked after she managed to catch her breath.
It was Daniel’s turn to groan then, though his sounded less than pleasurable.
“I just keep reminding myself that they have four days left and that it’s a lifetime in the art world.” He nipped at her collarbone, eliciting a gasp from Claire.
“I hope you gave them a piece of your mind,” she said teasingly.
“Oh, I did,” he replied with a mock growl. “I’d rather give you a piece of something though.”
Claire’s laugh was cut short by the trill of Daniel’s cell phone. He kept one hand on the small of her back while he fumbled in his pocket. Claire took the opportunity to do some neck nibbling
of her own.
“Hey,” he said by way of greeting. “What’s going on?”
He paused for the caller on the other line, and Claire could hear just enough to know it was Logan, and that he sounded upset.
She lifted her head up and looked at Daniel, whose own expression had gone dark with concern.
“Okay, hold on. Slow down and just tell me what happened.”
Before Claire could hear anything Logan said in response, her own phone rang.
As she snatched it up from the coffee table, she saw Kate’s name on the digital display.
She scooted off of Daniel’s lap and answered.
“Kate?”
“Oh thank God,” Kate responded. “I’m glad I caught you.”
“What’s going on? Logan’s on the other end with Daniel.”
Kate’s laughter coming down the phone line seemed so out of sorts with the current situation that it caught Claire by surprise.
“Logan is having some sort of pre-daddy panic. My contractions started up a little while ago and he just lost his damn mind.”
“Well, Kate! This is serious, we need to get you to the hospital!”
“It’s really not,” Kate responded sternly, fully slipping into doctor-mode. “I’m perfectly healthy, having a perfectly healthy pregnancy. My contractions are still a good 10 minutes apart. Waters haven’t even broken yet. We have plenty of time.”
“Okay...then what would you like us to do?”
“Honestly? If you could drive me and bring Daniel along to knock some sense into his big brother, that would be incredibly helpful.”
Clair laughed. “Absolutely. Do you need us to bring anything?”
“Nope, go bag is all ready and by the door. I’m 3 days past my due date so it’s not like any of this caught me by surprise. I’d drive myself but I’m fairly certain Logan would pop an aneurysm if I tried.”
Claire pictured her old friend doing her best to keep her husband calm. Logan McAllister was possibly the strongest, most levelheaded man she knew aside from Daniel, but then again impending fatherhood did all kinds of strange things to the mind.
Claire and Kate disconnected the same time that Daniel managed to get Logan off the line.
She turned to him and smiled. “Sounds like we’re driving them to the hospital.”
“Sounds like you got more out of Kate than I managed with Logan. He kept saying something about repainting the crib and having the choose between pink and blue.”
“Well, it’s pink, obviously.”
Daniel snorted. “Blue, and you know it.”
“I’ll grab the presents and meet you out in the garage. Are you ready to be an uncle?”
*
They made it safely to the hospital with plenty of time to spare, and Claire found herself learning a lot about childbirth from Kate along the way. From what she'd always seen on television and movies, it seemed like kids came quickly, but according to Kate it was more likely that she'd be in labor for some time.
After an hour of sitting on his hands, Daniel was getting restless.
“I'm going to clear out the snack machine," Daniel said as he moved to stand. "Any requests?"
"Chocolate. Caffeine. Any combination of the two."
Daniel raised an eyebrow at her. "Anything I should know?" He made a show of indicating the maternity ward they were seated in.
It took Claire a moment but when she understood, she laughed out loud. "Oh God, no. I mean, it wouldn't be a bad thing. If it happens it happens." She paused and looked up at Daniel. "It would be a great thing. But maybe a great thing that could wait until after I graduate, please."
Daniel bent down and pressed his lips to Claire's. "Absolutely. I'll be back with chocolatey goodness. Miss me."
"I always do."
Claire absentmindedly browsed on her phone while she waited for Daniel to return, but she found her anxiety at just high enough of a level to require her to get up and get moving. She walked down the hospital corridor, stopped to inspect a bland painting on the wall, and then walked back the same way she'd come.
She increased her speed when she saw Logan exiting Kate's room.
"Hey," she said as she neared him. "What's the word?"
Logan looked tired. He looked exhausted, actually, but Claire didn't feel it was very polite to say so. He ran his hands through his shaggy brown hair and blinked a few times before answering her.
"It's a hell of a thing," he said after a moment. "Kate..She's the strongest woman I know. But it's a hell of a thing."
Claire rested her hand on his arm and smiled. "I'm pretty sure that Kate is the strongest woman any of us know."
Daniel approached from the hallway to their left, carrying several crinkly bags of snacks and two cans of pop in his arms. Claire smiled when she thought of how dang far he'd come, how even a few months before he was too afraid to carry anything in his arms while he walked with his prosthetic.
“She’s just getting ready to push. Won’t be long now.”
"Well then you should get back in there and get ready to be a daddy," she said as Daniel caught up with them.
"Thank you for being here, both of you." Before heading back into the room, he turned to his little brother.
"I'll make it up to you, when it's the two of you in there."
Daniel patted his brother on the shoulder and saw him off.
"Snacks acquired," he said to Claire. "Can we sit back down?"
"Absolutely."
They sat together for a few moments, Claire holding a packet of chips in her hands and passing it back and forth between her palms. The crinkling appealed to her, made the hush and sterility of the hospital just a little bit more tolerable.
The rush of blood that had permeated her cheeks when Logan had mentioned a future with her in the maternity ward had stuck around and was giving her a ruddy glow. She hated blushing, hated how pink her cheeks got at the barest hint of embarrassment or worry.
She glanced over at Daniel and saw the same shade of worry on his face. He looked...anxious. It occurred to her suddenly that he might be reliving his last experience at the hospital, when his lower leg was removed.
Claire reached for his hand and cradled it in hers.
"Are you okay?"
He looked up, lost in thought at first but slowly coming back into the moment. He looked over at Claire and smiled.
"I'm fine. This all has me thinking, I guess."
"About your amputation?"
Daniel shook his head. "No. Well, I mean yes, but not the way you are thinking. But sometimes looking at the future, you have to look back at the past too."
Claire nodded. She was confused but felt certain he was going somewhere with his thought and wanted to give him a chance to finish it.
Daniel reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small black ring box. He held it in his hand and took a deep breath before speaking.
"You've been with me, my whole life it seems like. I loved you before I really even know what love was, when it was all just teenage hormones seems like. And damned if I don't love you ten times as much now."
He pulled open the lid of the ring box and showed it to Claire. She gasped when she saw the beautiful engagement ring within.
"I've been carrying this thing around for a while now. I wasn't sure if now was a good time, with school for you and all. But if I don't ask I won't know. Will you marry me, Claire Weaver?"
Claire nodded enthusiastically and offered her finger to Daniel. He grinned and slipped the ring onto her finger, gathering her up in his arms and holding her tightly.
*
In Kate’s case, labor hadn’t been as long as she’d anticipated it to be. Claire was still admiring the glitter of her new ring in the hospital lighting when Logan stepped out of the delivery room with a delightfully tiny bundle of pink blankets.
“Wanna meet your new little niece?”
Claire grinned and socked Daniel in the shoulder. “Told you,” she said with a laugh
.
“Oh,” she cooed quietly as she tiptoed over to Logan. “Oh she’s so tiny. What’s her name?”
“Ella,” Logan said, with a slight nod to Daniel as he approached. “Short for Eleanor.”
“It suits her,” Daniel replied. He nudged her little balled up hand, which prompted her to wrap her impossibly small fingers around his fingertip. “She’s beautiful, big brother.”
Logan looked exhausted and overwhelmed, but also at peace and serene. Claire wrapped her arms around her two favorite men then, and smiled.
“Congrats Logan. Fatherhood looks good on you.”
The story continues....
Keep reading for a sneak peak of book three!
Waiting on Love, available for pre-order today!
Prologue
DAISY
Daisy Hewett checked her cell phone, reading the text message with a sigh. Cheryl had bailed on her last minute, with nothing more than a so sorry, bf came home early so we’re staying in tonight. She hadn’t had a chance to catch up with her old friend in what seemed like months, so to be stood up after all their careful planning felt like a slap in the face.
Daisy had long ago accepted that most of her friends from high school were not in the same place in life that she was. After all, she’d gone and had a baby when most of them were getting their drivers licenses and stealing kisses in the back of their parent’s Buicks.
Even now, years after high school, while she was working double shifts at the diner to keep clothes on the back of an ever-growing kindergartner, her friends were hitting their prime partying years and living their lives to the fullest extent that alcohol would allow.
It wasn’t easy for her schedule and theirs to sync up, so nights like tonight were few and far between. But even after being stood up, Daisy was determined to stick around the bar and enjoy herself. After all, she’d finagled babysitting for the evening out of Kate and Logan McAllister, who’d been more than happy to add Mason to their little brood for the night. Their daughter Callie wasn’t quite a year old yet, but she’d fallen madly in love with Mason pretty much at first sight.