His eyes are focused on my godson when he says, “They’re doing well. We’re celebrating Thanksgiving at my house this year. I was wondering if you and Caleb would like to come.”
I smile as he plays with Bentley’s tiny hand. “I’ll have to see what we’ve got planned because we might be doing something with our parents, but I’ll let you know.”
Our families have been talking about doing a group holiday together at Caleb’s mom’s house since our apartment is too small to have everyone over at once. It’ll be our first get-together with both our parents, so I want everything to go smoothly.
Leon smiles when Bentley’s fingers wrap around part of his thumb. “Well, they’re all more than welcome too. The more the merrier. Annemarie would invite half the town for the holidays and make enough food for the county.”
He still tells me stories about his late wife all the time, especially since Jenna and I formally started the Annemarie Project, which has gone viral in the local news after a 5K walk we planned back in March for endometriosis awareness month.
Our goal is to start small, raising funds to give to other organizations that we can partner with in the future for educational purposes. We’d love to host events for other national awareness months and to find educators to speak to health classes in high schools, so we’ve been mapping out the best nonprofits to work with while building a name for ours.
I know Leon is proud to have his wife’s legacy full of so much love, and it’s only going to spread farther and wider the more we share our stories.
Even though I’m focusing on finishing my clinical hours, we still get together so he can teach me new things. For my twenty-fourth birthday, he gave me roses from her rose bushes and told me he’d help me with a garden out front if I wanted. “It could be our next lesson. Annemarie taught me everything I know,” he said, studying the front yard of our apartment building. It’s bland at best, barely any lawn for Sigmund to go on, but it’ll do until we figure out something else.
“Can I ask you something?” I ask, watching the two of them together as he makes little baby noises.
His lips twitch higher at the common question he gets a lot from me. “It’s never stopped you before.”
I huff out a laugh. “Have you ever thought about life after Annemarie? Seeing somebody new? Having a companion again?”
“I got a dog, didn’t I?”
He knows I’m not referring to the golden retriever he adopted earlier this year. “But what about a human companion who isn’t a baby or related to you?”
There’s no hesitation. “No.”
“Why not?”
He continues to rock my godson. “For the same reason you went back to the Anders boy,” he answers easily. His eyes lift to mine. “Because no amount of time or distance could ever make us forget how much we love them. You can never lose that feeling when it’s the person you’re meant to be with.”
His loyalty to his wife is adorable. There’s still a light in his eyes whenever he talks about her. She’s one of the few people outside of Bentley and his own grandchildren who could soften his features.
Leon’s eyes go back down to the little boy in his arms. “Do you want to know the wisest thing Annemarie ever said that still sticks with me to this day?”
Interest has me standing a little straighter.
“She said,” he tells me, playing with Bentley’s chubby cheeks with his finger, “that you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory. I’m sure she got it from one of those books she loved reading, but it’s true. Looking back, there’s not one thing I would change because that was how our story was supposed to go. Hard times and all.”
Before I can say anything, I hear Caleb call out as he walks through the front door. Within seconds, he’s in the guest room where we keep Bentley during his visits, with a huge smile on his face as soon as he sees his godson.
He presses a kiss against my temple. “I’m sorry I’m late. Ronny brought his little girl by the store, and we got to exchanging war stories.”
My eyes roll at his reference to the diaper fiasco we experienced one time when DJ and Skylar had a date night. It was messy and the foulest thing Caleb and I have ever smelled, but it was practice for the future we’re determined to build for ourselves someday. Once I finish my certification and get a stable job in an office and Anders Hardware finally quiets from the big business he got from the website remodel.
“We’ll have to have them over for dinner sometime. Speaking of”—I turn to Leon, who’s in the process of standing up to pass Bentley over to Caleb—“we’d love to have you for dinner tonight if you can stay. I finally put that turkey casserole recipe you gave me to good use.”
Leon simply says, “I’ve got nowhere else to be tonight.”
I turn from him to the man holding our godson and feel a warmth in my chest that hasn’t gone away since Bentley first looked up at me with those gorgeous blue eyes. Leaning my cheek against Caleb’s shoulder, I let out a content breath and soak in what we’ve made for ourselves despite the obstacles.
And I realize in that moment that I wouldn’t change a single thing about my story with Caleb either.
Because we learned from all the pain.
“One day,” he whispers, kissing my temple and staring down at the baby, “this will be us. You ready for that?”
And I reply with the same word I hope to tell him when he asks to marry me again. “Yes.”
