Page 107 of Unbearable
He stands and makes his way over to Lenny. “She’smygirl.”
Laughing, she wraps her arms around him only to have him reach around and gather her hands in his.
“I’m not good at this.” Red shrugs as the attention in the backyard shifts to him standing in front of Lenny holding something in his hand. I thought it was a beer cap at first but it’s clearly no beer cap. “There’s a lot of things I could say to you right now. Most of which would be fitting and probably everything you would expect to hear me say. But then I remember we’re far from ordinary, and you deserve more than ordinary. You deserve perfection which is everything you are to Nova and me.”
Lenny’s bewildered stare finds his as I gasp, realizing Red’s about to propose to her and his eyes lower to the ring as he places it in the palm of her hand. “Please?”
When she doesn’t reply right away, Red looks incredibly nervous, a mannerism I didn’t know he possessed, ever.
He laughs, running his hand through his hair. “I fucked that up, didn’t I?”
“No!” she gasps, her hand covering her mouth.
Silence envelopes the crowd, as he sighs. “That was a lame proposal, wasn’t it?”
“No, it wasn’t but are you sure, Red?”
He nods, giving her an almost child-like look. “It’s what I want.” And when she still doesn’t reply, he huffs out a breath. “Lenny... you’re supposed to say something.” His nervousness was taking over. “I’m sure it’s a three-letter word and starts with a ‘Y.’”
Her stare drops to Nova at his feet and she winks at Lenny, a gesture she learned from her dad. “Say yes, Lenny. Then you can be my earth mommy.”
Red’s feet shift. “Still waiting....”
Lenny blinks several times before saying, “It’s just that… I’m pregnant.”
His gaze lingers on Lenny’s stomach and then his brows knit. “You’re pregnant?”
Tyler tenses beside me and I squeeze his hand, attempting to offer him something in that moment. I do this because I know it has to affect him in some way that I might never say those words to him. At least not in the context in which he would want to hear them.
“I could have told you that, Daddy,” Nova chirps using a nearby chair to jump on his back.
Lenny smiles tenderly at Nova. “I just found out a couple nights ago. Wasn’t sure how to tell you yet.”
He grabs her shoulders and makes her face him head on and dips his head to catch her eyesight. “Are you serious?”
She starts nodding, holding back tears. “Yes.” She then stares at the ground. “Oh shit, I dropped the ring.”
Tyler’s broad shoulders shake as a laugh rolls out and he whispers to me, “Saw that coming.”
“Her dropping the ring, or you knew they’d get married eventually?”
“No,” Tyler shakes his head, handing me another beer I didn’t know he got for me. “I mean the baby. I walked in on them fucking on his toolbox about a month ago.”
“Oh,” I giggle and cover my mouth. “Yeah, I’ve walked in on them in the parts room. They’re not very careful at work. It’s like they can’t wait to get home.”
“Nova’s there so I imagine they don’t have a lot of alone time.”
“True.”
I can’t even describe the moment Red finds the ring in the grass, him on his knees at her feet as he places the ring on her finger and then kisses her stomach.
Squealing, Lenny spins around and faces Tyler and me, flashing the ring. “I’m engaged!”
“And pregnant!” Hugging her tightly, my throat tightens and I whisper, “We’re gonna be sisters.”
Tyler bumps his fist to Red’s. “Congrats, man.”
Red’s smile is bright, one I haven’t seen in years. He’s truly happy right now. “Thanks.”
