by Vivian Ward
“Does that make you happy?” he asked. He hadn’t thought to seek Nevaeh’s approval before popping the question.
“It makes me happy and proud,” she smiled up at him as she fastened the locket around her neck.
A few hours later, Lorraine came to pick up Nevaeh as promised. She showed off her new necklace as they were walking outside; Lorraine smiled at Dale and winked at him before giving a thumbs up. When they were gone, I flopped onto the couch, exhausted from cooking.
“What are we having? It smells delicious.”
“I’m making lasagna. It’s one of my favorites.”
“I can’t wait to dig in. I’m starving,” he admitted.
“Me too!”
The two of us enjoyed a candlelit dinner in the dimly lit dining room after it was ready.
“I noticed you’re not drinking any of the wine that I brought. Don’t you like it?” He was surprised to see that I’d hardly touched it.
I dropped my fork on my plate. “Dale, we need to talk,” I announced.
Oh, shit here we go. It’s never good when a woman says that phrase. “About what honey?” he sweetly asked.
I paused and intently stared at him for a moment before beginning. “I’m pregnant,” I announced.
“You’re pregnant?” he repeated. “How is that possible? I mean, I know how it’s possible, but when? Never mind. I know that answer too. Are you okay with it? How do you feel about it?” Shock began to set in. He was going to be a father.
“I’m scared. It’s so soon in our relationship. We’ve not even been together for a year and we only just got engaged. I’ve thought about it, and I’m glad you asked me to marry you before I found out that I was pregnant.”
“Why?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t want you to think I was only marrying you because I’m pregnant. I'm going to marry you because I love you.”
“I know that, and I would never think differently.” Tears started beading up at the corner of my eyes. “Come here, sit on my lap.”
I walked over to him and sat on his lap, resting my head on his shoulder. “Tell me it’s going to be okay.”
“Kimberly? It’s going to be fine. I’m a billionaire. I can take care of us. You haven’t mentioned it yet, but I was wondering when are you going to move in with me? I can hire movers to pack your things so it’s less stress on you.”
“That’s the thing, Dale. I haven’t said anything about moving because, I sort of don’t want to.”
“What? Why?”
“I love your house, it’s spectacular, but…” I looked around the room. “It’s not my grandparent’s house, and this one is. I don’t want to let go of it. I’m not ready yet. Do you see that door over there?” I asked, pointing at the bedroom door.
Dale nodded.
“That was my grandma’s bedroom door. When she lived here, she used to put her hand on that doorknob to open the door. She touched it.”
He began to understand what she was getting at.
“And that garage right there? My dad and grandpa used to go out there to drink beer and work on their cars that he’d buy and rebuild. I have so many memories here.”
“Baby,” he whispered, “you don’t have to sell it. You can keep it, but there’s not enough room here for all of us. Soon there will be another person. You can move into my house—our house—and keep this one. No one said you have to get rid of it.”
I was elated to hear that he understood. “Are you sure? I figured you’d want me to sell it, and I’m not ready to do that.”
“I’m positive,” he reassured me.
Over the course of the next week, we hired a moving company to help me pack up her house. Nevaeh finally returned to school and was happy to be back. She was even more excited to move into Dale’s humongous house and bragged about it to all of her friends. For once, things seemed to be looking up for everyone. After we were all moved in and settled, I thought about our upcoming wedding.
“Dale, I wanted to talk to you about the wedding,” I said as he came in from work one evening.
“What about it?”
“I would really like to be married before the baby’s born, but I’m worried that I won’t have enough time to plan everything,” I confessed.
“Hm,” he thought about it, “what if we hired a wedding planner? How soon were you thinking?”
“I’m not sure, maybe before I start showing. That would give us a couple of months.”
“Yes, it would,” he agreed.
“Nevaeh’s doing so much better since the doctor started her on Humira. I think this would be the perfect opportunity to take advantage of that; I’d like to have her in the wedding.”
“That’s a fantastic idea. What would you have her do? Be the flower girl?” he suggested.
“Yes, I was even looking online and found a beautiful flower girl dress that would look amazing on her.”
“Call around tomorrow, see what you can come up with and hire a wedding planner.”
The next morning, I searched wedding planners in the St. Louis area and began calling around. Most of them said that it wouldn’t be viable to plan a wedding in such short time. The more I called, the more discouraged I started to become. Just when I was about to give up, I saw one wedding planner who advertised short notice weddings. With an inkling of hope, I dialed the number and hoped for the best.
“No, that wouldn’t be a problem at all. We’ll have one of our planners organize and help you plan every detail of your wedding. We offer a wide variety of services, you just tell us what you need and we’ll see to it that it gets done.”
Those words were music to my ears. I hired them on the spot. Within a few days, a woman named Ann was knocking on the front door with a clipboard in hand, ready to plan my special day. The two of us sat at the kitchen table and poured over every single detail and idea that I had in mind. By the time Ann left, I was confident that my wedding was going to be something amazing.
A couple of months later, we tied the knot as Mr. and Mrs. Dale Halloway in our backyard. Under a white arched trellis elegantly decorated with white and red roses, we read our vows and said our ‘I Do’s’ on a warm early-summer afternoon. Lorraine was the maid of honor and Charlie was the best man. Most of Dale’s family flew in from San Diego, including his proud parents, as well as his grandmother. My entire family was also there. While I knew my dad wouldn’t be attending the wedding, I could feel him in spirit. Just as I met Dale in front of the podium that the ordained minister was standing behind, I caught a whiff of my dad’s scent—I knew he was smiling down at me.
Epilogue
“Slow down, Nevaeh!” I yelled as she zipped down the highway.
“Dad, I’m going so slow. Chill out!” she yelled back over the wind whipping through the car as her hair blew in front of her face.
“The speed limit is only 70 miles per hour, and you’re doing 75!”
Nevaeh looked down at the speedometer and saw that I was right. “Oh, sorry,” she smiled at me as she slowed down.
This was only her fifth driving lesson. She couldn’t believe that I was already letting her take the car out on the highway. She may have been a good driver, but she still needed to work on her parallel parking before she could take her driver’s test to get her license.
“Okay honey, let’s get off at the next exit so we can go pick up Dale and Alyssa from summer camp.”
Our first child together was a boy, Dale Jr. A few years later, Alyssa was born. Every year they went to summer camp, but this was the first year their big sister would be picking them up. Dale was now seven and Alyssa was four. Nevaeh was approaching her sweet sixteen, which Kimberly had secretly been planning a surprise party for.
“All right, now take a left turn where that sign is; the one that says, Camp Clarkson. After that left, you’ll go straight for quite a ways until I tell you to turn again.”
She turned on her left turn signal and began traveling down the road that led to the c
amp. The warm summer air whipped through the car, threatening to tangle every strand of hair on her head as they drove down the paved country road.
“Oh, daddy! That’s my favorite song!” she said, turning the car stereo up.
Singing along to her favorite song as she followed the turns and twists of the road, I looked over at her and admired how much of a beautiful young lady she was becoming. She reminded me so much of her mom and she was the spitting image of her. She was a little on the skinny side since she had to keep so physically active due to her condition—which had been in remission for a few years now.
Nevaeh kept herself busy with sports all throughout high school, though, her favorite sport was volleyball. She also did the swim team, track, and basketball. Now that she was learning how to drive, she couldn’t wait until she was able to take herself to all of her meets and practices. Kimberly was relieved too.
Kimberly spent most of her days at home, tending to our three children. Occasionally, she would help me when it came to buying or selling properties. She’d typically go sign off on the purchase or sale of the commercial spaces if I was occupied doing something else. Life had never been sweeter since she married me.
“Turn right where this road forks up there,” I said, pointing to where it was.
“I know dad! I’ve been here before. Remember? When I was younger, you and mom would send me so I could go horseback riding and do fun stuff?” she said sarcastically.
“Yep, and just look at how you turned out,” I teased her. “But you have to admit, you’re probably the only kid in our neighborhood who could survive out in the wilderness if something ever happened or you got lost.”
“That’s for sure!” she agreed.
As we pulled up to the camp, all of the kids were lined up, waiting for parents to pick them up.
“I see Dale and Alyssa!” she said, pulling over to that side of the parking lot.
“I’ll let their counselors know that we’re here and I’ll be right back,” I said unbuckling my seatbelt as I got out of the car.
§
I was at home, enjoying one last quiet day by the in-ground swimming pool before the munchkins came back. I knew once they were home, my afternoon would be filled with making finger sandwiches as I tore the crust off of them. And chasing the wet kids around the patio with towels, trying to catch them before they got inside. Although things would be hectic once they returned home, I couldn’t wait. They’d been at summer camp for three weeks and I missed them. In less than an hour, the entire family would be reunited.
Suddenly, I heard a loud splash before I was drenched with water. Little Dale had cannonballed into the swimming pool and soaked me with a tidal wave.
“I didn’t even hear you guys come in!” I said wiping off my face. “Are any of you hungry?”
“I’m starving!” Nevaeh said.
“Me too,” Alyssa concurred.
“I have some hotdogs and hamburgers. I’ll fire up the grill to make us an early dinner.”
§
Just a few weeks later, Nevaeh’s hands were sweating as she waited in line at the DMV for her driving test.
“You’re going to do fine,” I whispered to her.
“I know dad, but I’m so nervous. What if a car pulls out in front of me? Or what if the light changes and it’s too late for me to stop?”
He chuckled, “I suppose any of those things could happen, but they won’t. I have confidence in you. And so what if a car does pull out in front of you. Show off your defensive driving skills to the instructor!”
“Nevaeh Halloway,” the woman called her for the test.
After Kimberly and I gotten married, she hunted down Nevaeh’s dad, Troy, to ask him to sign over his parental rights. It wasn’t an easy task tracking him down; it took her months, but when she did, he initially didn’t want to sign over his rights. He wanted to weasel his way back into their life, but when Kimberly promised to forgive all of his child support arrears, he eagerly signed the adoption papers for us. His child support warrant would soon be a thing of the past.
“Good luck, babe,” I said to her as she headed out the door with her keys in hand.
Twenty minutes later, Nevaeh was bouncing through the door as the instructor followed shortly behind her.
“I passed daddy! I passed!”
“See, I told you that you’d do fine!”
“I’ll be right back, I have to go have my picture taken for my driver’s license.”
I looked on as my beautiful daughter flashed her pearly whites for the camera, beaming with pride. She’d become quite a little lady and I couldn’t have been prouder. That little girl who turned into a lovely young woman had captured my heart, just as her mother had.
“Ready to go celebrate with some ice cream?” I asked as we walked out of the building.
“Definitely!”
“Okay, swing by the house to pick up your mom, brother, and sister and we’ll go where ever you want.”
Kimberly was anxiously waiting at home with the kids, hoping Nevaeh had passed her driving test. When she saw her driving the SUV as we pulled up in front of the house, she instantly knew she passed.
“Who wants ice cream?” I called out to the family as Nevaeh and I exited the SUV.
“I do! I do!” the kids started screaming with excitement.
“Did you pass?” Kimberly asked, even though she already knew the answer.
“I got a 94 on my exam!” she bragged.
“Yep, she did great. She was so nervous before we got there, but I told her there was nothing to worry about,” I smiled as I wrapped my arm around her and squeezed her shoulders.
Our family of five headed out for ice cream that evening and later went to a drive-in movie. Nevaeh was so happy and proud to have her license. She joked with her mom as they made their way back to the SUV with popcorn and soda for the whole family.
“Just think mom, you’ll never have to drive anywhere again,” she said as she tossed a few pieces of popcorn into her mouth.
“That would be nice, but I’m sure I’ll still have to do some driving.”
After the movie had ended, Nevaeh drove us back home. It was almost midnight and Alyssa was conked out in the backseat.
“I’ll carry her upstairs,” I said to Kimberly as I scooped her out of her booster seat.
“Remember when you used to do that with Nevaeh?” she reminisced.
“I do,” I said as I watched Nevaeh help her brother inside. “I do.”