It felt like my heart was doing cartwheels. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She wrapped her arms around my neck. “Let’s make some memories.”
***
Despite our excitement about our plans to travel the world, we had to be patient. Only after three months of follow-up visits did my doctor finally clear me for travel. Thanks to my father, who agreed to let us move the guinea pigs into his house for the months we would be away, we didn’t have to worry about them.
The wait was worth it as I found myself looking out at the Grand Canyon from our rented van, parked at the spot we’d booked on the south rim side.
We were spending a week here before flying to Australia. We figured since we’d be flying toward the West Coast anyway, why not spend some time out here? Heather considered this another good exposure exercise for her fear of heights, too. Living out of the converted van allowed us to save funds for some of the more expensive parts of our journey to come.
This week our days had started early. Heather and I woke before the sun came up, because that offered the best lighting for the photos I’d been taking. We were documenting this entire trip and had dubbed it Heather and Noah Do the World. Heather had actually started a blog for it, and she was having a blast creating the posts. She’d brought along the Merry Wanderer Hummel I’d bought her for her twenty-first birthday, and she took photos of it in all different locations. I’d never imagined how prophetic that figurine would be.
After our morning photos, we’d cook some breakfast on a small grill before deciding what we wanted to explore that day.
Right now, we watched the reddish-orange sunset over the canyon as we lay in the van after a post-hike, late-afternoon nap. This was definitely the life.
I curled into her body. “Is it wrong that all I’ve wanted to do this week is look out at this view, eat, and fuck you? And then eat you?”
She rubbed her hand across my chest. “Do you see me complaining?”
I’d always been hot for Heather, but since my health crisis, I was completely insatiable. Having that brush with death made me want to feel everything all the time. And there was nothing I enjoyed feeling more than my gorgeous girlfriend. I couldn’t get enough of her. I didn’t remember when they said men reached their sexual peak, but mine was clearly thirty-five.
As if the day couldn’t get any better, Heather slid down and pulled my cargo shorts along with her. My rock-hard dick bobbed as she took me into her mouth and did one of my favorite things. She began to rub her clit while sucking me off hands-free.
“Shit,” I hissed. “You give the best head.”
She really did, and she seemed to enjoy it as much as I did, which got me off even more.
Balls-deep down her throat, I threaded my fingers through her hair and enjoyed every second. My cock was lathered in precum as she went to town on me while continuing to massage herself. It didn’t take long for me to lose it.
I held onto the back of her head and fucked her mouth harder as I came down her throat while she orgasmed.
Several minutes passed as we lay there, sated, a dry breeze blowing into the open van.
“How did I get so lucky that my girlfriend loves to go down on me?” I asked, pulling her up for a kiss.
She smiled.
“I tried,” I told her. “I really tried. I just couldn’t live without you—your fucking weird taste in music and all. I love you so much.”
“I love you, too. And shit, you just reminded me of something.”
“What?”
She sighed. “When you weren’t fully conscious after the surgery, I promised that if you got better, I would let you listen to every song on my phone.”
That cracked me up. “Are you serious? You vowed never to do that.”
“I know. But now I feel like I have to. If I don’t honor it, it’s like an insult to the universe that granted me my wish. You don’t have to take me up on it, though.”
“Are you kidding?” I bolted up and held out my palm. “Hand that fucking thing over. Pretty sure it’s the true reason for my incredible will to live.”
I laughed. “You’re gonna make fun of me.”
“That’s the point!”
She reached into her backpack and pulled it out. She braced herself as I took the phone from her hand.
She was already embarrassed, and I hadn’t even pressed play yet. “I promise I’ll be good.”
“Give me one side of the headphones,” she said. “I need to hear what you’re listening to.”
Handing her the left earbud, I put the right one in my ear and hit shuffle.
The first song was “Barbie Girl” by Aqua.
“Barbie Girl? Really?”
“Yes. And don’t forget, you promised to be good.”
After letting it play for about thirty seconds, I moved to the next song. As expected, many of the tunes in Heather’s collection were one-hit wonders from well before her time in the late eighties and nineties.
A few songs in, I actually found one of my old favorites: “Sign Your Name” by Terence Trent D’Arby.
“Hey, I like this one. Good choice. Great song!”
The next two in a row seemed to match. “Livin’ La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin and Gerardo’s “Rico Suave.”
“You have a thing for Latin men?” I teased.
She rolled her eyes, probably just wanting this to be over, and remained quiet as I continued to plow through her library.
Next up was the theme song from Friends, “I’ll Be There For You” by The Rembrandts. That one was tolerable enough to sit through.
I got all excited when I heard the beginning of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Fuck yeah! But my hope was squelched when I realized it wasn’t Nirvana at all. It was Weird Al Yankovic: “Smells Like Nirvana.”
“Oh, hell no.” I laughed.
Heather started laughing.
“I’m crying uncle.” I handed her back the phone and tickled her. “You’re lucky I love you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
* * *
HEATHER
FIVE MONTHS LATER
Heather and Noah Do the World had been the time of my life. I doubted anything could ever top these past months. The experiences Noah had gifted me I would take to the grave.
In Australia, we’d visited the Great Barrier Reef and the Sydney Opera House. From there, we’d traveled to Hong Kong, where we walked along the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade and visited their version of Disneyland.
After Asia, we traveled to Africa and saw the Sahara dunes of Morocco and the pyramids of Egypt.
Europe was our second-to-last stop but where we spent the majority of our time. We spent several weeks living in a rented apartment in Paris. We visited the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre and ate our way through the city.
After leaving France, we took a train to Italy and toured Rome and Venice before heading to London.
No amount of college education could have possibly made up for what I’d learned about the different cultures I experienced firsthand.
And now we’d come to the final stop on our trip, a place near and dear to Noah’s heart: Havana, Cuba.
I’d fallen in love with his photos from here when I’d stalked his website. So when he’d asked me where I wanted to end our journey, this is what I chose.
Turns out Noah had been made an honorary family member the last time he’d visited this country. He called Ana “Abuelita,” which affectionately means grandma in Spanish. She’d insisted we stay in her home instead of getting a hotel. Every night she cooked us authentic Cuban food like pork, rice and beans, and fried plantains. Then she’d whip up a delicious mango milkshake for dessert.
Noah agreed that we would stay with her, provided she let him do some work around her house. That physical labor turned out to be more extensive than we’d bargained for, so our Cuba trip stretched longer than we’d planned as we worked together out in the sun, much like we had during our summer on the lake. We knew this was the la
st leg of our trip, so we weren’t really in any rush to get back.
We were having the time of our lives, yet anytime Noah got even a little tired or—God forbid—complained of a headache, it put me on edge. But I knew I couldn’t live in fear of him having another rupture, so I tried to put those scary thoughts out of my mind.
When Noah and I weren’t working together on Abuelita’s house, we took in Havana’s historic sites. We visited the Gran Teatro with its amazing architecture and toured Old Havana, which was a mix of baroque and neoclassical monuments and narrow streets lined with homes. Havana was the perfect place for people watching and taking lots of photos of urban life. My travel blog had accumulated a ton of followers, and they seemed to love the images we captured here.
On the afternoon of our second-to-last day in Cuba, Noah took me to the area where he’d done the feature on the orphanage six years ago. We were just turning toward Abuelita’s car to drive back when he froze, his eyes fixed on a kid in a wheelchair across the street.
“Come on.” He took my hand and led us toward the boy, who was with a woman.
He stopped a few feet away and said, “It’s him.”
I knew instantly what he meant. “The boy from the orphanage…”
“Daniel. I would recognize his face anywhere. My God, Heather, it’s him. He looks so grown up now.”
We approached them, and Noah began speaking in Spanish. I hadn’t realized until we got to Cuba that he was pretty fluent. He knelt down to be eye-level with Daniel.
The boy reached out and touched Noah’s face. At least on some level, he seemed to remember him. Though he didn’t speak, Daniel typed something on a device that looked like an iPad. He flipped the screen around and showed us what he’d written.
Naranja.
A huge smile engulfed Noah’s face. “That’s right! Naranja. Orange. You remember! I used to bring you little oranges, clementinas.”
My heart turned to mush as Noah embraced him.
Noah continued talking to the woman and then entered some of her information into his phone.
“Bueno. Adios. Hasta mañana,” he said.
“Tell me what you were saying,” I said as they departed.
“She said they had to leave to get him to a doctor’s appointment. Her name is Rosita Jimenez. She adopted Daniel about three years ago, so that would be a couple of years after I visited. All this time, they’ve lived right down the street from where the orphanage used to be. He was placed in foster care and ended up with her. He’s been doing great and making a lot of progress. Since he can’t speak very well, he uses that device to communicate. Even though he was in a wheelchair today, he’s able to walk some now. I got her information so we can go visit them before we leave tomorrow. I want to bring him a whole bunch of clementines.”
“Oh my God, yes. That’s a great idea. It’s so wonderful he remembered that.”
Noah looped my fingers in with his as we continued walking. “Back when I told you the story of my Cuba trip, I didn’t mention that it came very soon after the letter from Opal, during the height of my depression. Meeting Daniel really helped me to stop feeling sorry for myself—seeing how strong he was and how he persevered despite the odds against him. Everything feels more connected than it ever has right now—the way you and I met, being here with you, and running into him on the last full day of our trip. It feels like everything has come full circle.”
He stopped walking and faced me. “When we were in Paris, you were napping at the apartment and I took a walk. I passed a jewelry store. I had no intention of buying anything that day, but then I happened to see a ring in the window. I couldn’t believe how perfect it was for you. I knew I had to at least inquire about it. To be honest, I didn’t really care how much it cost—I knew I wasn’t walking out of there without it.”
My heart raced as he continued.
“I told myself I wasn’t going to give it to you for a very long time, that I was going to wait until you were done with school. But every single day since I bought it, I’ve had to stop myself from getting down on one knee. This morning I asked the universe to give me a sign that my gut was right—that I should keep the ring in my pocket and do it before this trip was over. I’m pretty sure running into Daniel was the sign I was waiting for.”
“Oh my God.”
“Traveling the world with you showed me even more clearly what I already knew, that you and I make the best team, that you’re my partner. There’s no one else I would rather continue the journey of life with. It doesn’t matter where we are as long as I have you by my side. I believe everything that has happened to me thus far—the good and the bad— happened to get me to this moment. Heather and Noah Do the World might be ending when we get back to Pennsylvania, but I’m wondering if you’d start another kind of adventure with me—one that’s forever. I know this isn’t my first rodeo. I may not be perfect, and I may fuck up at times, but I have to put aside those fears and take the risk. I love you too much not to, and I just can’t wait any longer to ask.”
My big man got down on one knee and looked up at me with his beautiful brown eyes, the color of Cuban coffee. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a velvet pouch. When he opened it, I knew instantly why he’d had to buy this ring.
“Heather Louise Chadwick, will you do me the honor of being my wife? Will you marry me?”
The sparkling round diamond was adorned on each side by a beautiful opal—my sister, the fallen angel who’d brought us together. I normally shunned thoughts of her, but in this moment, I let myself feel her presence. It warmed me as the sunlight illuminated the stones. My sister was here with me now, shining through their brightness. I knew she was looking down and blessing this.
With my hand on my chest, I did my best to form words. “From the moment you walked into my life, nothing else seemed to matter. That feeling has only grown. I’ve wanted to marry you for a very long time, longer than I should probably admit. Heck, I would have said yes if you’d asked me in New Hampshire. I am crazy about you. So, yes—the answer is yes! I will take this adventure with you today, tomorrow, and forever.”
EPILOGUE
* * *
NOAH
THREE-AND-A-HALF YEARS LATER
Today we were ringing in Heather’s twenty-fifth birthday. I won’t mention the fact that I was now pushing thirty-nine and flirting with forty. It seemed like just yesterday we’d celebrated her twenty-first. We still had the Poltergeist cake top in our freezer, right next to the ice trays. It had traveled from New Hampshire to Pennsylvania in a cooler. Pretty sure that thing would outlast all of us.
Heather was a little over halfway finished with her nursing degree. She’d enrolled at West Chester University near our house shortly after we returned from our travels. When she wasn’t studying, she was either bartending at a restaurant down the road or helping me with admin stuff at my studio.
The biggest recent change was that Heather’s mother had come to live with us in Pennsylvania. After a few years of watching over Alice, Katy had had enough of living with her sister. She’d said she really missed Boston and wanted to move back to the city. Just before Katy left, Heather and her mother sold the New Hampshire house. While Alice had been doing better mentally than in years past, Heather still worried about her living alone. I knew she didn’t want to ask me if Alice could move in with us. So I saved her the trouble and suggested it first, making it seem like it was my idea.
That meant Fathead now lived with us, too. Between the dog, the almost-mother-in-law, and the guinea pigs, it was a full house. But I knew Heather felt more complete with her mom here. She no longer had to worry about her from afar. So that made Alice’s occasional meddling worth it. The long-term plan was to buy a bigger house with an in-law apartment.
I should probably get on that soon.
Still engaged, Heather and I hadn’t yet tied the knot. We wanted to plan a wedding after she finished her undergraduate degree. Right now she worked hard to balance scho
ol and work.
I wanted to make her twenty-fifth a special birthday, so I’d surprised her with a trip up to Burlington, Vermont, to visit her best friend, Ming. Heather hadn’t had many chances to spend quality time with her over the past few years. Ming lived with a boyfriend now, and the four of us had a blast just chilling at their house and barbecuing. It made me happy to watch Heather and Ming reminisce about the short time they’d lived together. Ming was a forever friend. Don’t think I didn’t arrive at her place without a case of baby powder, either. Luckily, she has a great sense of humor.
After leaving Ming’s, we hit the road pretty early on Sunday morning. Heather assumed we were heading back to Pennsylvania, but we had a stop to make on the way home.
“We’re going to the lake?” she asked when we turned toward New Hampshire.
I winked. “Maybe.”
When we pulled onto Heather’s old property, she got a bit emotional. It looked exactly the same as I remembered it.
I parked over by the boathouse, and we got out.
She looked around. “I didn’t realize how much I missed this place, but being here again brings everything back. It feels like just yesterday.”
“Let’s take a walk down by the lake.”
We held hands as we enjoyed the tranquility of the water.
When we returned to the truck, I asked, “Wanna take a peek inside the boathouse for old time’s sake?”
“Can we do that? Wouldn’t that be trespassing?”
“Nah. It’ll be fine.”
I reached into my pocket for the key, then opened the door.
“What’s going on? Why do you have a key?” Heather froze as she entered the room. Nearly everything was the same as it had been when I’d stayed here.
“Welcome home,” I said, opening my arms wide.
Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. “Home?”
“Well, not our permanent home, but our summer home—or our place to escape to whenever we damn well please.”
When August Ends Page 23