She began rearranging them to where one note next to the right one might for an “o” or part of what appeared to be a question mark. It didn’t take long before they were all laid out in front of her as they weren’t meant to be seen. She read the message silently to herself:
Marnie, will you come live with me?
Blinking a few times, she then looked up at Nathan, and then back down at the hidden message once more.
Her lips finally rose into a soft smile as she asked him, “Do you really want me to come stay with you, Nathan?”
“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t,” he said sweetly. “I can’t describe it but it’s like every time I’ve had to leave you and go back home, my house feels more and more hollow every day. I want to fill it up with all of you, and everything that comes with you.”
She wasn’t sure what to say, then she sat up on her knees and leaned over to throw her arms around his neck.
Nathan’s surprise soon melted to relief when he heard her say in his ear she’d love to come live with him, not just in Ocho Rios but anywhere he wanted her to go.
They sat there on the park lawn for what seemed like forever with their arms wrapped around one another. Marnie’s hug was also out of relief that the note wasn’t asking her to marry him. They did love each other, but she remembered their original intention to take baby steps down this road of emotions, and she was so happy he hadn’t forgotten how that first night ended.
*****
The drive back to Marnie’s home was like no other. The sun was setting. The car radio was tuned to a station that played nothing but Jamaican R&B that was soothing and grooving. Nathan had let the windows down to let sweet breezes blow through the car as they rode. Marnie knew when they made their way back to her home they were definitely going to celebrate.
Nathan had stopped at a wine and spirit place not too far from the park and grabbed a decent bottle of champagne. When they pulled up in her driveway, they sat there for a moment just holding hands. Nathan leaned back in his seat a bit and looked over at her. She was looking at him too, and couldn’t think of a time she ever felt so in love just to look at another person’s face.
“You know,” Nathan said. “We can get things rolling whenever you like. We can start first thing in the morning or next week. Or if you even want more time to think it or over or just square things away here we start next month. I don’t care.”
As simple as his words were, they touched her. There he was again with all that consideration and appreciation of her. A few months ago, any man treating her that way would have frightened her into running. Since then, she had to admit she may very well have been her own self-saboteur in her past relationships. No, the men weren’t the best men to fall for, but she now wondered had she chose them all the time secretly hoping it’d fall apart.
“Let’s start next week,” she said after weighing his words in her mind a while. “I think it’ll give me a chance to tie up some loose ends here and to get things a bit better organized and packed away, or sell some things if I need to,” she explained.
They interlocked fingers, then with a quick kiss on the lips, they exited the car and made their way into the house.
The sudden numerous shouts of “woo hoo” and clapping nearly made Marnie jump ten feet in the air. She realized the living room overhead light had been turned on and there in her house stood Dominique, her niece, and her family, and a few other family faces. It wasn’t many of them but then unexpected people in your house, when you return home, would startle anyone, no matter how few.
“Oh my God,” Marnie exclaimed. “What are you all doing here?” She looked over to a cake on the counter and the cheap noisemakers the few of them were holding. The whole thing looked so silly, she had to put her hands up to her face and just shake her head.
She felt Dominique come over and wrap her arms around her.
“We’re celebrating the text message we got that you're moving to Ocho Rios,” Dominique replied cheerfully.
That made Marnie snap her head around and give an accusing glance to Nathan. “When did you tell them? How?”
Nathan let his eyes roll back and forth across the ceiling guiltily then back to Marnie. “Remember right before we left the park and I told you I had to run to the restroom?”
She looked at him in shock, then her face warmed to a resolute tight-lipped smirk. After the other surprise, this one shouldn’t have shocked her either. But as she had noted before, it really was one of his most endearing qualities she would never change about him.
“And you don’t have to worry about a thing,” Dominique chimed in. “I found another doula I’m friends with who lives in the area and says that she can pick up where you leave off, respectfully. She considered it an honor to have anyone who you’ve cared for come to her in your absence.”
Marnie hadn’t had a chance to talk to Nathan about her concerns for leaving her community behind. She had invested so much emotionally into the residence there she was concerned as to who would be there for them if they needed her spiritual know-how or help with a birth in their family.
“Oh Dominique,” she sighed. “You…you are just too much,” said Marnie. She now hugged her childhood friend tight and wished she could truly find the words to show how thankful she was.
“I don’t want you to miss out on your chance to be happy for real, even if just means baby steps,” Dominique said. “Baby steps are still steps and at least you have Nathan walking them with you. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if you didn’t go.”
The small group of friends in the living space let out a choir of “awws” and “oohs” at this sentimental moment between friends.
Dominique’s niece also came over and gave Marnie a tight hug. She thanked her for helping bring her firstborn into the world safe and sound and although she would miss her she knew her and her husband wanted to come visit with the little one if it was okay with Nathan.
“I don’t see why not,” Nathan offered. “There’s more than enough room whenever you and your family want to come and stay a few days.”
Marnie was honestly speechless. She hadn’t expected anything that had taken place the past few months, let alone the past twenty-four hours. It dawned on her standing in her home with all these smiling faces and Nathan that when she finally stepped out of her own way the Universe had finally given her what she wasn’t ready to receive before. Now, she was more than ready. She was ecstatic.
The night ended with a small celebration where everyone got enough cake, champagne, and wine (with juice for the two kids in attendance), and well wishes to Nathan and Marnie in this next transition in their relationship.
When everyone had left, Marnie began straightening up the kitchen, tossing away the paper plates covered in cake icing and clear plastic cups with splashes of alcohol left in them. She wet a sponge to wipe down the kitchen counter when she heard music come the little stereo sitting on the counter under the kitchen cabinets behind her.
She turned to see Nathan behind her with a mischevious expression on his face. He began swaying to the song that rang from the speakers: Bob Marley’s “Stir it Up.” All she could do was hang her head in giggles. Her hands were still wet as she began shimmying and shaking her way over to him. She wiped her damp hands on her pants and slowly began two-stepping in time with him to the rhythm.
They raised their hands up and locked their fingers together as they came closer. Spreading their arms out, chest to chest, Nathan released her hands so he could land his hands softly on her hips. They were dancing again, even sweeter and freer than the first time they met.
“I’m starting to think the only reason you didn’t like to dance wasn’t because you couldn’t,” she said, “but because you just didn’t have the confidence to”.
“Maybe,” was his only response as they two-stepped in time together.
Marnie’s arms were now around his neck, and they settled into their own groove to the melody at a little slower tempo.<
br />
“So what finally helped you find your own swagger as they call it?” she asked teasingly.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Nathan said sarcastically. “It might have been a certain sultry, sexy Jamaican-American woman whose favorite lipstick color is red.”
“Mmmhmm,” Marnie replied, raising an eyebrow.
Nathan then spun her around into a dip and sat her back up. “And she wears it well, too.”
Marnie then two-stepped her way in a circle until her back was to Nathan and she guided his arms to hold her as they rocked left and right.
“Is she beautiful?” Marnie asked softly.
He rested his lips on her neck and said, “Always”.
“More beautiful than me?” she shouted.
This made Nathan and Marnie both burst into laughter, then he gave her little kisses on her neck. “Never,” he insisted.
Marnie realized she could see herself wrapped in his arms like this every night, swaying and rolling to the music, watching the sunset on the ocean’s horizon. Or curled up in his arms beneath covers after a night of making love.
She could and would spend every day and night safe in knowing both of them had found what they had kept from themselves for so long, finally. Bob Marley & the Wailers sang on. Marnie and Nathan danced some more. Life became richer and fuller in their hearts and finding paradise was never more rewarding.
The end.
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