“For now, but in about eight months we’re going to have another.” She looks down at her belly with a scowl. “There better be only one in there,” she grumbles to her belly.
“Really? We’re having a baby?” I ask, worried that she’ll tell me it’s a joke.
“You said there was a lightness to me. I found out yesterday. It didn’t make everything going on with Liam disappear, but I understand a little better why I’ve been so upset. I just needed a reason, and now I have one. Well, part of one.”
“I guess it’s congratulations to you, too,” Jackson says. “Is there a secret to a lasting marriage?”
“Never forget that your reason for being is the woman next to you, and worship her enough to make sure she knows it,” I tell them.
“I can do that,” he says, then gazes adoringly at his wife. The other couple has started making out, so I’d say he also agrees.
When we’re farther away from them, I look down at Wren. “Something tells me those kids will make it.”
“Are you happy?” she asks me.
“In general, or about the baby?” I ask.
“Either, both,” she replies.
“I’m over the moon on both accounts. I feel like our family is complete, and I promise that from now on, you will always be my first priority. I’m so sorry I ever made you feel like you came second to Liam. I fucked up, and I know that now.”
“We need space from him. I think the only way to keep our family together is to pull it apart a little,” she says.
“I have a feeling that is already in the works. I overheard him talking to Claudia, and I think he may be moving to Harriston soon. I can’t promise, but if he doesn’t, we can move if you want,” I offer.
“It’s your dream house,” she protests.
I frame her face with my hands. “You are my dream. Everything else is just details.”
“I love you,” she says emphatically.
“And I treasure your love. I am beyond in love with you. Obsessed is probably a better description.”
Wren is my light, my reason. Never again will I let her doubt that. Life doesn’t always package together perfectly, but the imperfect is far more interesting.
Epilogue
Griffin - Present
The weeksafter our honeymoon bring a lot of changes. Wren is a lot more settled. Part of that is knowing she wasn’t going crazy, just pregnant. The other reason is the moving trucks parked next door.
I watch as Wren and Claudia talk in the yard between our houses. I don’t know what they’re saying, but the talk ends with a hug. Now that the pretenses have dropped, they are forging a new and more authentic connection. Gone is the forced togetherness. I see now that Claudia was always held a little bit apart from everyone else.
“Mind giving me a hand, Dad?” Liam shouts from the front of the house.
I run around to see him trying to move a mattress alone. I grab the end of it and walk backwards down the porch.
When we get it on the truck, I grab my back.
“If moving some furniture gets you, how are you going to chase around another kid at your age?” Liam asks.
“I’m doing just fine, thanks,” I grumble. “You should mind your own business and worry about your own family.”
“Isn’t that why we’re packing all my furniture?” he asks.
“Good point.”
Liam has been renting my old house out all these years. He’d bought it from me when Wren and I moved here, and when he and Claudia followed, he couldn’t bring himself to sell it. Turns out to be very lucky.
