I can’t figure it out immediately, because she’s humming it slower than the actual tune.
“Wake me up,” I finally get it.
“Hmm?”
“You’re humming the tune from ‘Wake me up’. Just like took me the last ten minutes to remember the name.”
“You remember the song?” she asks, surprised.
“I remember everythin’ about you, sweetheart,” I grin. “You played it the Monday you were startin’ at the university.”
“I also told you to wake me up when it’s all over,” she says, angling her body towards me. “You can wake me up now, I’d like the dream to end like this.”
I take her hand and kiss her ring finger, because again, it’s the best I can do while driving.
“It’s not a dream, Emma. There’s no wakin’ you up. It’s only gonna get better.”
She smiles, the smile she’s been smiling since I asked her to marry me. The one that makes her eyes sparkle. There’s no more poker face Emma.
When we get to the cottage I’m like a kid. I can’t wait to get her inside. I grab the bag from the back seat with her present in, and I all but drag her to the door.
“Close your eyes for me, just for a few seconds.”
I watch her eyes flutter closed and take a second to look at her, my wife.
The present, I better get them up. Mom had them done for me while we were packing. “Aiden,” she whines from the front door when I take too long, but they have to be right.
I laugh and rush back to her.
“Okay, open them,” I say, taking her hand.
“What did you do?”
I just grin, because she stops a few steps in, and she reaches out to the first picture of us standing outside our parents’ house. She has that look of awe as she looks at the photos, our wedding photos.
“You’re part of a family now,” I whisper. A tear rolls down her cheek, and I wipe it away as I cup her face. “Hey, you. I love you.”
“Hey,” she says in a shaky voice, “I love you most.”
~*~
Emma is happy. That makes me happy.
Christmas was an experience, but then, every day is an experience with her.
We’ve had a great summer, and Emma has found her happy zone, volunteering at a home for the elderly three times a week. It keeps her busy for now.
I no longer have a top five list of memories, which is a good thing.
I go looking for Emma, and I find her outside, looking up, at the migrating Monarchs. They migrate up North every year, and sometimes they pass by. But this year there seem to be seems to be hundreds of them – a perfect, colorful cloud.
“Gran, I miss you too.” I hear her whisper, and I don’t move a muscle. “Thank you for watching over me.”
My Emma is standing in a cloud of butterflies, and she finally gets her goodbye.
“It’s never goodbye, Gran. I know you’re up there, and I’ll keep working to make you proud. I love you,” she says. As sad as her words are, I really believe her gran can hear her.
I wrap my arms around her, and she leans back into me.
“Hey, wife of mine. They sure are pretty,” I whisper so I won’t disturb the beautiful moment.
She turns in my arms. “I love you, Aiden.”
I savor the words. She doesn’t say them a lot, but when she does it means everything to me. Life with Emma is a dream and I don’t ever want to wake up.
~*~
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Michelle Horst has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
~*~
This novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
~*~
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~*~
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Chapter Twenty Four
Chapter Twenty Five
Chapter Twenty Six
Chapter Twenty Seven
Chapter Twenty Eight
Chapter Twenty Nine
Chapter Thirty
Wake Me Up (Love Knows No Boundaries) Page 26