by E. M. Sadler
Completely consumed by the family's easy conversation and good food, I was granted a window into Kelly's world that only served to strengthen my resolve to one day be a permanent part of it with her. Oddly, the only regret that came to mind while listening to the family's boisterous debates was that Kelly had her tubes tied. The idea that we would never share a biological child created an odd pain in my heart.
Thankfully Terry chose that moment to announce that the hayride would be leaving in 20 minutes and that if the children helped clear the table, there would be a reward for them to take home.
Bouncing with glee, the children proceeded to help the adults clean up the dining room sloppily, while Terry and Jared went to hook up the tractor and trailer.
Taking charge of the unorganized havoc, Kelly's mom clapped her hands together and brought everyone's attention to her.
"Okay if we are going to get this kitchen cleaned, we will need to delegate some responsibilities. David, you are in charge of Mandy. Katie and Mazie, you are in charge of scrapping the plates. John, I need your help stacking all of the plates next to Kelly so that she can load the dishwasher. Shawn and I will put away the leftovers. And Dale, you are in charge of collecting all of the glassware. Now chop, chop! Twenty minutes will go by fast."
By the time the last dirty plate was stacked next to Kelly, Terry was back to collect his charges for their promised hayride.
"Dale, why don't you go with the kids while I finish with the dishes?" Kelly offered.
"Are you sure you don't want to come?" I asked slightly disappointed at leaving her, but not wanting to miss the kids' adventure.
"I promise!" she said confidently before leaning in and whispering, "Mom said she and Shawn needed to discuss something with me anyway."
Waiting for the kids to walk out of the room, I quickly kissed her on the nose and paced myself as I walked from the room backward. After all, I didn't need her family to realize that I was probably more excited about this hayride than the kids were.
Chapter 31– Kelly
"I like Dale," my Aunt Shawn said once every one, but she and mom had exited the room.
"He's great Auntie Shawn. Everything is so easy with him. Not forced like they were with Geoff."
"Have you told Geoff that you're seeing someone?" my mother asked with concern.
"I'm choosing not to tell Geoff until Dale, and I are ready to assign a label to our relationship. Geoff has a way of getting under my skin and undermining my interactions with others. I don't want him to hurt my newfound confidence when it's still so fresh. Plus, we haven't told the children yet. Dale is letting me decide when I'm comfortable with letting them know we are involved."
"How long has he been divorced?" my aunt asked while packing the freezer with leftover chicken.
"They were legally separated for over a year, but the divorce wasn't finalized until January so that she could stay on his insurance."
"Well normally I would warn you to guard your heart and not move to fast honey, but the way he looks at you, I don't doubt that you guys have something rare," my mom admitted for the second time tonight. She used to be the most skeptical person I knew.
“Mom. I hope you're right."
Chapter 32 – Dale
By the time we hit the road it was already 8:00 pm. Luckily the kids were so worn out from their day of fun that they were already half asleep by the time we put them in their car seats.
"I really like your family," I said once we navigated our way out of the back roads.
"Thank you! They seemed to like you too. By the way, remind me to send you the pictures my cousin took of the kids ‘helping' around the farm today."
"That was the one downfall to our little mini-date. Maybe we can bring the kids up for the entire weekend sometime. That is if you don't think they'll mind?"
"Well, the kids and I were planning on going up the weekend of the Halloween Festival. Mom usually comes with us, and we stay in the lean-to, but her boyfriend Jim is flying her to London for the week. You're welcome to tag along if you'd like. Maybe we can tell the kids were together around then."
The fact that she was talking about us as a couple brought a smile to my face. "I think we would adore that."
"So, what do you have planned for fall break?" Kelly asked companionably.
"The first two days of fall break are teacher planning days, so Wednesday and Thursday the kids will be at the sitter’s. Since that still leaves us three days, I thought about maybe taking them to Easton, Pennsylvania for the Crayola Experience. I just don't want to tell the kids till I know for sure. What about you? Will you hang out with your ex or will you do your own thing?" I asked hoping that my jealousy wasn't apparent.
"I'm not quite sure what Geoff has planned. We probably won't leave Danville till at least 4:00 pm on Thursday since he could only get Friday off work. Friday Geoff will spend the day with the kids while I work from the spare room and then the rest of the weekend I'll fill in as needed. Sometimes his weekends go smoothly, but since he tends to give in to every tantrum, it can spiral into insanity quite rapidly.
Once I stop staying over for his visits, I'm hoping it will shock him into standing his ground a little more. My biggest fear is that he'll use their tantrums as an excuse not to see the girls as frequently."
Feeling a need to change the subject, I asked, "So we'll still be able to continue our 10:00 pm phone calls while you're out of town?"
"I'll be looking forward to them, Dale," she said dreamily before drifting off into sleep.
Chapter 33 – Kelly
"Kelly, honey, we're at your car," Dale said, before pressing a sweet kiss to my lips.
"I can't believe I fell asleep! I completely failed you in my navigating responsibilities," I said while stretching and mentally kicking myself in the butt for missing out on private time with Dale.
"Well we did have an active afternoon," he said with a chuckle. "Go ahead and give me your keys and I'll start transferring the girls over while you collect the leftovers Shawn sent."
Once we'd gotten everything transferred over successfully, Dale enveloped me in his arms before kissing me goodbye.
Luckily the girls didn't wake up when we arrived home, and I was able to put them straight to bed, shower and cuddle into bed by 9:45 pm.
Just as I was drifting off, my phone began to buzz.
"Who on earth is calling me?" I said groggily before answering the call. "Hello?"
"Kelly, I don't know your middle name, Jenkins. Did you forget our standing date?" Dale said in his deepest voice.
Suddenly jolted into consciousness, I said with my sassiest tone, "Dale Wilson, now why would I assume that you would be calling me when you just saw me forty-five minutes ago."
Sounding slightly wounded Dale retorted, "Well I'm sorry for wanting to say goodnight to the woman I love."
"I didn't mean to imply that I am unhappy with your call. Your calls are always welcome," I said, hoping to convey my sincerity.
"I know,” he said with a sigh. “I think I was feeling a little insecure about not getting to see you till next Thursday. A lot happened today, and this is all so new to me."
"Dale, trust me, I'm just as insecure as you are. After my divorce, I figured it would be at least a decade before I found someone to date, let alone fall in love with. Everything with us comes so easy that I keep waiting for the plot to twist."
"What do you think our next step should be?" Dale asked.
"What do you think our next step should be, Dale?" I ask, wanting to avoid saying the wrong thing.
"Kelly, I already know that eventually, we are going to end up married, but I know that we also need to take our time getting there. So, you tell me, what label will make you feel the most at ease with our relationship?"
"I'd like to tell everyone that you're my boyfriend, but I think we should wait to tell anyone other than adult family members."
"Why is that?" he asked, sounding disappointed.
"I hear
d a lot of the moms talking about you back at the open house, Dale. Announcing our relationship publicly before I have a chance to make friends would make me a pariah. Selfishly, I want to make some friends locally since most of my old friends live over an hour away," I explained.
Sighing into the receiver, Dale said, "I guess I can understand where you're coming from, but I want us to acknowledge here that we are a couple, a completely exclusive couple. And..." he paused as if contemplating his next comment. "I want to tell the kids when you get back from fall break. When I greet you after a long day, I need to be able to kiss you. Deal?"
"Deal!" I said as a giant smile crosses my face.
"Awesome. Now before we end this conversation, it's time to talk about the elephant in the room. What on earth is your middle name?"
"Ugh! I'm not sure I can divulge that without losing cool points." My middle name was genuinely horrible, even my namesake said so.
"You don't know my middle name, or you wouldn't say that about yourself."
"Okay, how about this, we'll text each other our middle names and institute a minute-long talk ban after we read them," I said to add some humor to the situation.
"Agreed!"
Dale –
Fernando
Kelly –
Imogen
That was not too terrible. Maybe Dale's family had Latin roots? I thought as I patiently waited for our minute of silence to end.
"That is NOT a name to be ashamed of, Kelly! I think it quite suits you. Is it a family name?"
"Sort of. My Mom's best friend from the military is named Imogen. The story goes that Mom was ready to quit basic only days away from graduation after my dad threatened to divorce her if she continued. Imogen convinced my mom that if Dad truly loved her, he'd wait an extra four days for her to graduate.
"It turned out to be the best advice, because a week later Dad was injured at the construction site he managed and was disabled for the rest of his life. If Mom hadn't stayed, they would have ended up destitute. Thus, I was named in Imogene's honor, and they ended up following each other from base to base for the rest of their military careers. It's why my Aunt Imogen's daughter Joanie and I were raised as if we were sisters."
"I'm guessing that Joanie was named for your mother?"
"You are correct! My mom and Auntie Imogene were great together. It was like having two moms growing up. Do you know, that to this day they still go on vacation together around the anniversary of their basic training graduation."
"Do they get up to any shenanigans?" Dale asked cheekily.
Laughing because they did, I said, "If only you knew! Now, tell me how you ended up with the middle name Fernando. Are you secretly Latin?"
"Haha! Not at all! I am the definition of Weird Al's White and Nerdy to the extreme. It's way more embarrassing than that," he said. "Ever heard of the musical group ABBA?"
"Have I HEARD of them?!? I'm like their biggest fan! Wait! Are you named after the song Fernando? Please make my dreams come true and say yes!" I squealed while bouncing up and down on my bed.
"I was," he said in defeat. "Now they didn't tell me the story till years later, but apparently on their wedding night, my parents stayed at an old bed in breakfast with VERY thin walls. My mom was horrified when she heard the neighboring couple having sex. Seeing as it was her first time, she asked Dad to turn on the radio so that the sounds of their lovemaking would be muffled to the neighbors on either side of their room.
"The song playing on the radio during their first time was Fernando by ABBA. Which is also the night I was conceived."
"Oh, I wish had been present when your mom told you that story. You must have been mortified."
"I was. But in my parents' defense, they thought they were drinking from the non-alcoholic punch bowl that night and had consumed the equivalent of six shots each before realizing they had been drinking from the wrong punch bowl."
After several minutes of companionable laughter, a sobering silence took ahold of our conversation.
"It's almost 11:30 pm. We should probably go to sleep," I said reluctantly.
"I didn't realize how late it was. Sweet dreams, Imogene," he said in a caressing voice.
"Till tomorrow night, Fernando."
Chapter 34– Dale
When the alarm went off on Monday morning, I immediately felt Kelly's absence from my bed. After our conversation Sunday evening, I had to fall asleep holding a pillow to ease the emptiness of my bed. Once asleep, my dreams were haunted with blips of what my life might have looked like had it been Kelly instead of Maggie at speed dating that night in 2002. Allowing myself ten more minutes to snooze to the memory of my dreams, I made sure to shake the thoughts of what-ifs before waking up my children.
In the end, 15 years of being in a loveless marriage was worth bringing my twins into this world. All I could do is make sure that the next 15 years held Kelly in them.
Once I had the kids in the car, and before I put my van into reverse, I sent Kelly a quick text to let her know I was thinking of her. Surprisingly, despite the morning's sluggish beginnings, we arrived at school early enough for breakfast and were able to snag some pancakes from the lunchroom.
At least a few times a week I attempted to get to school early enough to have a sit-down breakfast with my kids without the hassle of cooking. Granted, I could always stop by the Waffle House on the way into work, but there was just something about knowing that you only have to walk a short distance down the hall that stops you from feeling rushed.
Plus, our cafeteria staff rocked and could rival even the best breakfast café.
When the kids were settled into Mrs. Dalton's class for the morning, the rest of my day flew by in typical fashion.
A TYPICAL WORKDAY FOR me consisted of the following:
9:00 AM TO 11:00 AM – Meetings with various teachers and administrative staff.
11:00 am to 12:00 pm – Lunchroom duty
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm – Recess duty
1:00 pm to 1:30 pm – Personal Lunchtime
1:30 pm – 3:00 pm – Office hours for parent meetings.
3:00 pm – Pick up the kids from Mrs. Dalton
3:30 pm-5:00 pm – Day end paperwork for me, homework for the kids
AFTER MY PAPERWORK had been completed for the day, the twins and I made it home by 5:30 pm. Since both John and Katie were busy in their respective rooms, I suddenly found myself with an abnormal amount of childfree time that felt oddly lacking.
Usually, this would be when I would start dinner, or catch up on the local news. But since tonight's dinner consisted of leftovers from our day at Sadler's Ridge and cable was flitting in and out, I ended up sitting in my recliner, wishing that Kelly were here to help fill my free time.
Realizing that 10:00 pm was still over four hours away, I found myself staring at my cell phone debating whether or not to send her a text or not.
I was trying to play things smoothly and organically without seeming desperate, but the more I fixated on the blinking cursor that kept teasing me from my waiting cell phone, I finally gave in.
Dale –
Good Evening, Beautiful. Missing you.
Kelly –
Good Evening, Handsome. Love you.
Was it pathetic that those five words should bring my heart such joy?
Chapter 35 – Kelly
After reviewing Dale's text at least 20 times, I finally hit send and hoped that I wasn't coming across as too clingy.
Dale –
I was wondering when you'd remember that.
Kelly –
That you're handsome?
Dale –
No, that you love me.
Not knowing how to respond, I decided to play it cool and wait till our scheduled 10:00 pm date to continue our conversation. Luckily, my mom's arrival back from Uncle Terry's farm brought about a much-needed distraction, especially since she brought my Aunt Shawn along with her.
"What a surprise Auntie Shawn! I didn't think
we'd get to see you till the Halloween festival," I declared embracing my favorite aunt.
"Normally, I'd be busy filling the freezer with my pie fixings, but then your momma heard that they finally decided to hold a public auction at that old fabric mill that closed ten years ago."
"Word around town was that the owner recently passed and that his children were more inclined to liquidate," my mother added finishing my Aunt Shawn's sentence.
One of my colleagues used to handle their insurance account and had informed me that the former owner was forced to close the factory after he was diagnosed with dementia. Because, the mill hadn't been turning a profit for years, and neither of his children had an interest in the business, they refused to let him keep it open even after he insisted that it just needed new blood to boost their sales.
Sadly, 100 employees lost their jobs with little to no warning, and the building had been sitting frozen in time ever since.
"Since I spend most of my winters teaching sewing classes and holding sisters quilting retreats, I figured it would be nice to get my hands on some bulk materials."
"Baby, it's going to be the event of the year for anyone who sews," my mom said almost bouncing. "I've even told my assistant that I'm taking the next two days off work so that I can attend."
It was so refreshing to see my mom getting excited about sewing again. When I was little, I remembered her always having a project lying around. She'd spend hours fiddling around with this craft or that while we drank cocoa and re-watched our favorite movies on the weekend. Since my dad didn't like military life and chose to live here in Maryland most of the year, it was something we could enjoy together without distraction. She would sew and tell me about her childhood on the farm, and I'd watch her every motion excited about the new creations she made.