Book Boyfriends Cafe Summer Lovin' Anthology 2015

by Melinda Curtis

  When the ceremony kicked off with local musician Katie Rose singing Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back, the tears poured. She’d heard the song at Relay last year and even bought the CD. It had an uplifting melody that Hannah knew all the words to, but she was never able to sing along, the words hitting too close to home. She’d always think of Steven when she heard the beautiful melody, especially when Katie Rose sang that life isn’t fair and about never moving on. But the song held a different meaning for Hannah now. Life hadn’t been fair, but here she was wrapped up in the arms of the most amazing man she’d ever known, remembering the husband she’d loved with all her heart.

  When the song ended, she turned to Aaron and smiled through the tears.

  “Are you ok?” he asked, wiping the tears from her cheek. It was a futile effort. They were pouring faster than even a ShamWow could soak up.

  She’d never been better. Each new day with Aaron was only going to bring more happiness. “I love you,” she said and nodded.

  He leaned closer to kiss the spot where her tears still fell before whispering in her ear, “I love you, too.”

  As the ceremony continued, and the words echoing across the field spoke of hope and a cure, Hannah looked around at the silent Relayers who were each reliving their own memory of what cancer had taken from them. As the luminaria bags that spelled HOPE on the bleachers were rearranged to spell CURE, Hannah squeezed Aaron’s hand. He was a miracle, one of many who could say that their cancer had been cured. She shed a tear for those like Steven who would never know a cure, and for the hope, and the fight, that still remained for the many cancers where research hadn’t yet defeated the disease. That’s why we fight back, she thought. Then Aaron whispered in her ear.

  “This is why we fight back,” he said, as if he’d heard her thoughts and was repeating their mission back to her.

  Representatives from each of the teams came forward to read the names of those honored and remembered with the luminaria bags illuminating the track. Malinda read the twenty or so names that the Lucky Riders team honored with luminaria bags and Hannah smiled when she read Steven’s name, pausing briefly to give Hannah a glance and a nod.

  When the ceremony concluded, Hannah got to her feet quickly. She wanted to walk a few laps before she and Aaron partook in their own ceremony. The crowd that surrounded them moved slowly back to the track, so she took the opportunity to wipe the tears as Aaron and Tabitha stood with her. Once the crowd quietly dispersed, the three of them walked the track in silence, looking at the luminaria bags and honoring those whose names adorned them.

  Several laps later, she stopped at the end of the track near their campsite. “I want to marry you now,” she said to Aaron.

  He pulled her into a tight embrace. His breath on her neck warmed her whole body and electricity flowed from every point where his body pressed into hers. God, he made it easy to forget about loss and pain, and so easy to love. She could have stayed there forever, and she would have, but finally pulled away and said “Let’s go!”

  Hannah and Tabitha disappeared into the RV that served as their team’s hub during the Relay event. Malinda helped Hannah get the antique wedding dress and it fit perfectly.

  “It’s a shame it’s so dark out. You really should be seen in this dress,” Malinda said as the uncharacteristic tears streamed down her face. “You look beautiful. I’m so happy for you, Palindrome. I hoped this would happen for you someday. It’s why I invited Hawk to cover the ride. I was hoping you two would hit it off. I had no idea what kind of a spark it would be, though. For both of you. It’s like the two of you are meant for each other.”

  “I think we are,” Hannah said as she wiped the tears from her friend’s face. “Thank you for scheming. A month ago I would have killed you after that confession, but I’m so happy, L. I just love him so much.”

  “I know you do. Thanks for finally owning up to it.”

  “Ok, well, don’t let your mom see you crying. Then she’ll start and get everyone going,” Hannah said with a big smile. “Besides, I’m getting married. This is a happy occasion.”

  They came out from the back bedroom of the RV and found Tabitha in a beautiful purple satin gown with a silver tiara holding her pretty hair back from her face. Hannah was struck by the family resemblance that was so apparent in Tabitha’s face.

  Tabs had the genetic honor of wearing Hannah’s tawny hair, but the rest of her was all Steven. It wasn’t so obvious when she wore her long hair down, but when pulled back like it was now, her bright blue eyes, narrow nose, and thin lips were just a miniature and feminine version of her father.

  “Do I look beautiful, Mommy?” she asked.

  “You look absolutely beautiful, sweetheart!”

  Tabs giggled as she swayed back and forth, watching the skirt of the purple gown twist around her.

  The dress was amazing. Purple, just like Tabitha had wanted. Hannah turned to Malinda. “Where did you ever find that on a Saturday evening in the North Country?”

  “I gave Kerry Mason a call,” Malinda explained, referring to their friend from high school. “She had this at her consignment shop, so she brought it down. It was five bucks.”

  “I’m going to have to visit her shop more often, that’s a steal,” Hannah said.

  “So, Mommy, can I start calling Hawk Daddy after you’re married? Since we’re going to be a family and everything.”

  Hannah normally would have rolled her eyes at the way Tabs started most of her sentences with the word so. But she was too overwhelmed by the rest of the question to be even remotely annoyed. She pulled her daughter close and held her tight. Before Steven died she didn’t know how she was going to raise their daughter on her own, but she had. Tabitha was such a beautiful girl, inside and out. Now her daughter was getting what she apparently had been missing in her life for so long: a father she loved and who loved her right back.

  “God, I love you,” she said as she kissed Tabs on the cheek. “And it’s ok with me if you call him Daddy, but you have to ask him.” Though she doubted Aaron would have any objections.

  “Oh, I already asked him. He said it was ok, but that I had to ask you.”

  Of course he did, she thought as she smiled and fought back tears of utter joy.

  She grabbed Tabitha’s hand. “So, you ready to go get married, kiddo?”

  “Let’s go,” Tabitha said, tugging Hannah’s arm as though a magic carriage waited to take them to the ball to meet the handsome prince.

  Hannah reeled Tabs back in. “Ok, but not before you give me a great big smoocheroo.”

  When they stepped outside, Hannah was surprised to see Barbi, who was the event chair this year, standing next to the fire with her dad.

  “So we’ve got the ceremony set up at the other end of the track. Rev B and Aaron are down there waiting. The DJ will play the wedding march as soon as you’re ready.” Barbi explained.

  “Wait, I thought we were just going to have a quiet ceremony at the campsite.”

  “You really didn’t think we were going to let that happen, did you? It’s not every Relay that we get to have a wedding! At least not outside the Ms. Relay/Studley Sue contest.”

  Hannah knew that you didn’t argue with Barbi. Plus the logistics of getting things arranged for the quiet ceremony would take longer than just going through with what Barbi had set up. And Hannah wanted to marry Aaron now. She did have one request. “I don’t want to walk to the wedding march,” she told Barbi.

  Hannah thought about the way Aaron held his head when he was being pensive and about the song that played on the radio the night Aaron saved her. That was the night when everything changed. When she changed. But Hannah couldn’t think of any one song. “Can you ask the DJ to play something by Kenny Chesney. It doesn’t really matter what.”

  “Of, course, hon, I’ll ask him,” Barbi said, grabbing Malinda’s arm and dragging her toward the track.

  A few minutes later the DJ started playing Me and You and Hannah knew i
t was the perfect song. She took her dad’s arm, who in his usual way didn’t say anything, but she could see a smile of approval on his face and that made her happy.

  She also held Tabitha’s hand as they followed the bags illuminating their path to the makeshift Relay altar. Walkers stopped to let them pass, whispering words of congratulations and best wishes. As they approached where Aaron waited, Hannah was surprised to find him wearing a black tuxedo. When did he have time to rent a tux? Must be his connections – someone else probably owed him a favor.

  “Wow, Mommy, Hawk looks so handsome,” Tabitha said.

  “He sure does,” she replied.

  Her Dad handed her off, then placed his hand on Aaron’s shoulder. “Thank you, son,” he said to Aaron, “we’ve never seen her more happy. Or more beautiful.”

  Hannah’s cheeks fired up as her father stepped away. Aaron smiled when he looked back at her. “I’ve never seen you more beautiful, either,” he said quietly near her ear. “And I love it when you blush like that.”

  Emotion poured through her. Love and happiness. Excitement and anticipation. Steven passed through her mind in a fleeting thought, but there was no room for sadness. She was happy and he would be happy for her. Looking at Aaron, the man who filled her heart with love, she couldn’t find any words to thank him for saying she was beautiful. Or for loving her. She was also afraid if she said anything, she was going to start crying. The only other thing she could do was kiss him. So she did.

  Rev B cleared her throat as the small crowd of onlookers laughed. “We haven’t gotten to that part yet.”

  Hannah reluctantly pulled herself away from Aaron’s lips and smiled at the minister.

  “Are you three ready to get started?” Rev B asked.

  Hannah, Aaron, and Tabitha all nodded.

  Rev B didn’t do the traditional ceremony. Instead she talked about love and hope, of strength and surviving, and of finding love by fighting back. To Hannah it was like she knew the whole history of their quick romance. Maybe she did. Aaron did attend her church. And so did Malinda and Donna and Frank and her parents and sometimes even Tabs. It seemed that Hannah was the only one who didn’t have a direct line to Rev B’s sermons. Of course, that was her own choice. No offense to Rev B, but she couldn’t handle going inside that white church. With all the changes that had been happening, all the new memories, maybe she could change her feelings about that building, too.

  Hannah mostly didn’t hear what the minister said. She kind of sounded like the teacher from Charlie Brown. Hannah was, however, very attuned to the words coming out of Aaron’s mouth as he repeated the words Rev B read to him. She noticed he was shaking as he said his vows, but his voice was steady and his smile was filled with love. It wasn’t nerves, she thought. He was just as excited as she was that they were getting married. Right here at Relay. Right now. “For as long as we both shall live.”

  She squeezed Aaron’s hands tightly as she repeated her vows to him. Her hands were steady, but she was anxious as hell with all these people, both family and strangers, watching her profess her love. All she wanted to do was slip the ring on his finger and kiss him. Why hadn’t they picked shorter vows? “For as long as we both shall live.”

  The exchange of rings took place next. Aaron slipped the ring on as he repeated Rev B’s instructions. Something about his love never ending, just like the ring. Hannah almost dropped the ring when Rev B handed it to her, but she steadied her hand and slid it on without a full-blown calamity taking place.

  Good, now it was time for the I Do’s. Hannah was ready to say I Do and get to the kissing part. Rev B turned to Tabitha and instructed her to place her hand on top of Aaron’s and her mom’s. Then the minister included a vow for Tabs, asking her if she promised to love and respect her mom’s new husband and accept the responsibility of being their child and to support them in their new life together.

  Tabitha almost jumped up and down with excitement. “I do, I do!” she said cheerfully. Then Aaron took a locket from Rev B and placed it around Tabitha’s neck. The locket was in the shape of three rings, each ring bearing one of their initials: T, H, A.

  Wow! Double wow! She had no idea he was going to do something so thoughtful, so special for her daughter. That was Aaron, always thoughtful, and he’d just added rainbow sprinkles to the wow-factor cake that Hannah was dying to gobble up.

  “Do you have any idea how much I love you right now,” she said to him after he finished putting the necklace on Tabitha.

  “You told me you were a package deal,” he said across a smile. “I couldn’t give you a ring and not give something to the other lady I love.”

  Rev B cleared her throat again. “We’re at the end here. So if you’ll just let me finish, we can get to the kissing part.”

  Hannah and Aaron both smiled at her, giving her permission to continue.

  “Aaron, do you take Hannah to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

  Aaron seemed to cut the minister off when he said “I do”. Hannah was sure there was more that followed after that, but apparently he didn’t care, and neither did she. And Rev B went with it.

  “Hannah, do you take Aaron,”

  “I do,” she interjected.

  “… to be your lawfully wedded husband,” Rev B finished to the laughter of the onlookers. Then she spoke more quickly, obviously knowing how eager they were to be joined in marriage. “Then by the power vested in me by God and the State of NH, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride.”

  Aaron was already moving in before Rev B could finish. He pulled Hannah close and gently pressed his lips to hers. She welcomed them, the lips of her new husband. In the course of a day he had gone from being her boyfriend, to her fiancé, to her husband. She couldn’t be happier.

  Rev B’s stage voice bellowed next to the newlyweds, “North Country Relayers, I present Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Hawkins.” Hannah held on to her new husband and kissed him like the world had stopped.

  Because it had. Even though this wasn’t the life, or the love she had planned, it was the one that had been waiting for her. She wasn’t fighting against it anymore, but celebrating the miracle who held her in his arms and in his heart.

  Epilogue

  Hannah rocked in the old wooden chair on the front porch of the Ammonoosuc Inn. Twilight had long since departed and the crescent moon sat low in the starless sky, smiling at her through the thin stratum of clouds. She had one hand in her pocket, fiddling with the note she planned to deliver tomorrow.

  Aaron came up behind her and rubbed her shoulders. “There’s a wicked chill in the air. Are you sure you want to sit out here?”

  She grabbed his hand and held it gently in hers. The dark winter sky was relaxing, the cold winter air rejuvenating. Since she was completely exhausted from the festivities of Christmas day, Hannah needed both to ignite the passion for the man who stood in front of her.

  Christmas day was always chaotic, but especially with a daughter who was the quintessence of the Christmas spirit. This year was even more so with the new man in their life. Tabitha had the perfect vision of Christmas, with her mom, her new dad, her Mimi and Papa, her Nana and Gramp, and her Auntie L. Which for Hannah meant a whole lot of cleaning, decorating, and cooking while her seven year old daughter supervised with an abundance of Christmas spirit. Fortunately, Santa had surprised the newlyweds with a Christmas night getaway to the Ammonoosuc Inn.

  Hannah could hardly believe six months had passed. Every day with Aaron was fresh and exciting. She almost laughed thinking about how life had been before Aaron snapped that first picture of her. She hadn’t been looking for love, was still heartbroken over Steven. Meeting Aaron had changed everything for her. He was exactly what she hadn’t wanted, a cancer survivor. But he was exactly what she needed, and much like the charm of the old inn, she couldn’t resist the lure of Aaron’s humor, wit, intelligence and passion.

  As Hannah held his hand and gazed at the smiling moon, she realized he had
showed her living just for today wasn’t the way to get to tomorrow. Even though no one knows what tomorrow holds, it was worth risking your heart to get there with someone you love.

  “I’ll go get our drinks,” he said as he leaned down and kissed her softly behind the ear. She always loved the feel of his breath on her skin, but tonight the sensuous warmth was a welcome contrast to the night’s bitter cold. Although the fire that burned deep inside her helped to keep her warm, too.

  She sat there and smiled back at the flirtatious moon as it reappeared from behind the clouds. Hannah wondered if it was Steven smiling down at them from the heavens, offering his blessing and approval. She thought about all of the yesterdays she had lived through after Steven had died and before Aaron had come into her life. Tabitha had told her she was always sad, despite the fact she went to great efforts to be happy in the life she had forged with her daughter. Now Hannah knew deep in her heart she had been sad all that time. She missed Steven and her heart had been alone and lonely. She had tried to convince herself her daughter’s love and the memory of her husband were enough to fill her heart, but now as she fiddled with the note in her pocket and thought back on those yesterdays, she knew it wasn’t.

  Aaron came back with their drinks. “Here you go, babe,” he said as he handed her the decaf coffee she’d asked for. She suspected his was laced with something from the bar.

  She caressed his hand as she slid her palms around the warm mug. He leaned down and kissed her, his lips warm on hers. Then he sat beside her in a matching wooden rocker and held out his mug in toast. “Here’s to tomorrow,” he said.

  Hannah smiled and clanked her mug to his. Then she turned back to the smiling moon. They sat there in a comfortable silence, holding hands, sipping their coffees. Time seemed to stand still. The biting cold of the winter night faded as the heat of the coffee warmed her senses. After their mugs were emptied, a bitter breeze kicked up from the east, as if Jack Frost himself were paying a visit across the Ammonoosuc.