And then Billie was standing next to me. I grabbed her and squeezed. Burying my face in her neck, I whispered, “Thank you for your help…for everything.”
She held me tighter. “The judge made the right decision. Spring loves you.” She pulled back slightly and took my face in both of her hands. “And I love you.”
As I stared into her eyes, I found that I couldn’t say anything.
“I wasn’t ready for this,” she continued. “I really thought I wasn’t ready. But the last couple of days without you, without Spring, without what we have together I felt completely lost.”
“It’s been you for a long time,” I said to her.
“I know. I feel the same way.”
“Guess we’ve both done a pretty good job of hiding it.”
She smiled. “Not anymore. I’m not exactly sure how this works, but I think we’re in this for good.”
I held her and kissed her neck and wanted more desperately than anything to get started on our new life as a family. When I looked over Billie’s shoulder, I saw Amanda hugging Jim and I laughed out loud.
And then I saw Spring out of the corner of my eye. I reached for her and she jumped into my arms. We hugged for a long time and I’m not sure I ever would have let go if she hadn’t leaned toward Billie so she could hug her.
As Amanda continued to flirt with Jimbo, I saw Stephanie Eckleburg and walked over to her. Spring was once again latched around my neck.
“Mrs. Eckleburg, I want to thank you and let you know I appreciate your concern for Spring. If it wasn’t for you,” I searched for the words, “accelerating the process and watching over Spring, we wouldn’t have gotten to this point.”
She nodded and smiled. “I’m glad it turned out the way it did. There are some responsibilities I’m not too crazy about.” She turned to Spring. “You’re a lucky girl to have such a persistent friend. He loves you more than you’ll ever know. She looked back up to me. “Will I be seeing the two of you tomorrow?”
“I think we’re going to take tomorrow off, Mrs. Eckleburg. Maybe go to the park. Would you like that, Spring?”
“Duh.”
Stephanie laughed and then turned to leave.
Spring tugged at my hair. “D, we’re gonna stay together, right?”
“From now on. You, and Billie, and me.”
She hugged me. I loved those hugs.
When we turned around, my friends were waiting for us. Jim was carrying Amanda’s briefcase.
“Hey, D-Man,” Jim said, setting the case on the table, “pretty good day, huh.” He leaned in and winked. “Maybe for both of us,” he said in a whisper.
Amanda waved over her shoulder as she and Jim left.
“Congratulations, Dylan,” Mr. Mason said, putting his hand on my back. “Hell, I never thought we’d find that goddamned bank. Sorry for the language, Spring. Hank, Laurel, and I must have called 200 of them this morning. However…” Mason’s face grew serious. “I’m very disappointed in you both. I received a call this morning from John Waverly. He told me he talked to you both about a VP position here in New York. Is this true?”
Hank’s ears perked up.
Mason didn’t allow either Billie or me to answer.
“Do you know how embarrassed I was to learn you both turned him down after I pushed so hard for you? Boy, was he pissed. Sorry again, Spring. I told you both I couldn’t afford you, and now you’ve put me in a bad position. So, I’m going to have to fire Hank. Tough break, Hank.”
Hank’s eyes grew large.
“Just kidding.” Mason laughed and slapped Hank on the back. “And you two,” he leaned in close, still laughing, “we’ll work out the details of this later, all right?” Mason winked at us and turned to leave, with his arm around Hank.
I set Spring down to close my briefcase when Billie whispered in my ear. “I turned Waverly down first.”
“Nope, I did.”
I closed my briefcase. “We’re really gonna do this, right?”
“We’re already doing it.”
“I really love you.”
“Which makes you an incredibly lucky man.”
“Don’t I know it.”
“Hey D,” Spring said, jumping up between us, “know what I really want to do?”
I looked up at Billie and then to Spring. “Anything you want.”
“I wanna go home.”
“That we can definitely do.”
We all held hands while Spring led us out of the courtroom.
Spring was the cute one.
Billie was the gorgeous, brilliant one.
And I was the one who could keep the last few plates spinning for the rest of our lives.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.
The Story Plant
The Aronica-Miller Publishing Project, LLC
P.O. Box 4331
Stamford, CT 06907
Copyright © 2011 by The Fiction Studio
eISBN : 978-1-611-88017-5
Visit our website at www.thestoryplant.com
All rights reserved, which includes the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever except as provided by US Copyright Law.
For information, address The Story Plant.
First Story Plant Printing: April 2011
Table of Contents
Title Page
Also by Michael Baron:
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 - Nice Ring to It
Chapter 2 - Waddle
Chapter 3 - Delighting in Making Me Feel Uncomfortable
Chapter 4 - Some Weird Consistency
Chapter 5 - Not At All the Way I Pictured It
Chapter 6 - Quite a Piece of Real Estate
Chapter 7 - Down Came the Rain
Chapter 8 - The Same for You
Chapter 9 - Right Where I Was
Chapter 10 - Along with Everything Else
Chapter 11 - I’m Always Lucky
Chapter 12 - How’s the Turkey?
Chapter 13 - Outlined Images
Chapter 14 - Happy Dinosaur
Chapter 15 - Are We Ready for This?
Chapter 16 - More Like an Imaginary Friend
Chapter 17 - Keep the Last Few Plates Spinning
Copyright Page
Spinning Page 24