Beyond 4/20 (28 page)

“When you’ve grown up in church all your life and then you go away like that, it’s easy to forget Whose you are. Just like you, I did. For whatever reason, mine turned out better. I have this wonderful family with Gail.” He smiled, “She was the one I loved, not the other girl. But you, sometimes I felt like you paid a higher price than you were ever due. I’m glad to see you’re finally getting the girl.”

Tuck leaned back. It didn’t matter if Chelsea knew. He would never mention it. Bob’s words were about the first kind words he had ever heard on the subject, kind of an absolution. From anyone else, they wouldn’t have meant as much, but from Chelsea’s dad, the man who had to pick up the pieces after he had broken her heart and publicly humiliated her the way he did, it meant everything to him.

“All these years, it’s always come back to me, just that one moment in time altered everything. I never thought I was capable of doing what I did.” Tuck thought of how Bob phrased it. “I guess I did exactly that, forgot Whose I was.”

“Just don’t do it again. You always remember that and you’ll sail right on through this life. You’ll see.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll remember that.” Such simple advice, but probably about the most profound a man can receive when getting married. Just remember Whose you are.

Chelsea waited for Tuck’s arrival feeling just as nervous and excited as she had for their very first date. He was picking her up much later than they normally had dinner. Already she had fed the girls, so this later start to their evening was only adding to her anticipation. Most of the afternoon, she walked the floor, watched the clock, and tried on outfits to wear. How funny to be nervous about a date with the father of her children, the same man who shared every ordinary day of her life, but she was nervous, all right, and had changed clothes four times before deciding on the outfit she currently wore.

The night before when he had come for dinner, the atmosphere between them was charged with what could only be described as the most shameless case of flirtation from both directions, leaving the girls a bit baffled. He picked at her and chased her around the house, and every time he caught her, he would lift her off the floor and sing, “You like me. You like me.”

Giggling, she would deny it. “No way. Boys have cooties. Right, girls?”

Then the girls would jump in and help their mama get free of him. She felt so young and free, as if she were really back in high school and they had their entire lives ahead of them. The word that continually came to mind was
new
. What was one of the oldest relationships of her life was becoming new again.

Finally, watching him pull in the driveway, she yelled, “Daddy’s here.”

Sara Beth came running to the door. Tugging at the door knob, she swung the door open just as Tuck reached the top step. Falling into his arms, she said, “Mommy says I have to go to Gwanny’s.”

Tuck smiled softly. “This time, you and Lucy do have to go to Granny’s. We are gonna have a big people dinner.”

Sliding her arms around his neck, batting her eyes up at him, she said, “But I pwomise I’ww be good. I’ww act big.”

He sighed and held her even more tightly. “You are always a good girl, but tonight, I need to show Mommy how special she is to me.”

“I’m speciaw too.”

“You are very special to me and so is Lucy. Just this one night.”

On the way to Chelsea’s parents’, Sara Beth was quiet, still hurt that she wasn’t able to go with them, but Lucy was very talkative. Tuck could tell that she knew things were changing between Chelsea and him. He felt warm inside as he watched the relieved expression on her face. She was nearly twelve and smarter than your average bear. She knew.

Grilling her dad, she asked, “So, did you make reservations somewhere nice?”

Not wanting to give away his surprise, Tuck assured, “Where we are going, reservations are not required.”

“Then it can’t be a nice place. A date means you go to a nice place.”

“I want to go on a date.” Sara Beth was again reminded that she was being slighted.

Lucy whispered to Sara Beth, “Kids can’t go on a date. You have to stay with me.”

That started the whole mess again with Sara Beth and it continued until they reached Granny’s.

Several times, Chelsea glanced over at Tuck fearing he would cave. He was such a sucker that she wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t agree to take the girls along. Once, trying to prevent him from offering to take them, she said, “Sara Beth, Daddy and I are going out alone and that’s that.”

At that point, Sara Beth began to cry. When she did, Tuck looked over at Chelsea and said, “We can…”

“We can have our date,” she interrupted.

He smiled and reached for her hand. “We will have this date.”

The girls were just inside the doorway at Chelsea’s parents, Lucy beaming over what was happening between her parents and Sara Beth tuning up to cry again. Tuck, brokenhearted over his little girl’s sad face, knelt before her and kissed her cheek. Moving to whisper in her ear, he admitted, “I’m trying to win Mommy’s heart so we can all live together like a real family.”

As Tuck knelt before their daughter, a verse came to Chelsea’s mind. Though she couldn’t remember where it was exactly, she thought it was in Hosea. It said something about God bending down to feed them, meaning His people. Tuck’s tender example as a daddy rang true as God was currently showing Chelsea how tenderly He offered to walk with her and care for her. Even in the smallest moments of life the Lord was expressing His love for her, caring for her.

Chelsea watched as her little girl’s face brightened.

With her daddy’s words, Sara Beth grinned broadly and slid her arms around his neck. “Okay.” Turning to her mama, she said, “I’ll stay here with Gwanny and Buckshot.”

When Tuck held the truck door open for Chelsea, she asked, “What in the world did you say?”

“I can’t tell you.”

Once she slid into her seat, he said, “But I can sure tell you this, you are the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Chelsea looked down, blushing from his compliment, or more likely from the way he was looking at her. He was staring at her as if she were really something new, not the same woman he saw over the breakfast table every morning with bed-head and cartoon pajamas.

She was wearing a white skirt and blouse with a denim jacket over it. Looking at her, sitting there waiting for him to shut the door, he could hardly believe more than fifteen years had passed since they had first fallen in love. She was just as pretty – no – even prettier than back then. What was once a youthful and innocent beauty of her teens had become this mature and captivating loveliness that truly took his breath away. With all Sara Beth’s begging and pleading from the moment he arrived to pick them up, he had hardly had time to allow the moment to sink in. They were actually going on a date, an official date.

Chelsea knew Sara Beth would never tell the secret. If anyone could keep a secret, she could. Everyone knew not to tell her or Lucy a secret, but Tuck and Sara Beth were pros at keeping them, especially between each other. When Tuck slid in beside her, she asked, “Will you ever tell?”

“Sure. When the time is right.”

Taking her hand, he raised it to his lips. “Ready for this?”

“I am. Are you?”

He chuckled as he started the truck. “Have been for years.”

When Tuck turned left instead of right, he said, “I have to go by the house first.”

Thinking little of it, soon enough, Chelsea found that they were passing the driveway and heading out toward a pasture gate.

As they passed, Tuck said, “See, we’re going by the house.”

They drove on until they reached the end of the road. Chelsea waited while Tuck got out to unchain the gate leading to the place where they used to go and park and dream of a future together. When they started out again, she noticed the path was much more worn than back then. Clearly it had been traveled often as the grass had died out and a worn trail was established. It was just getting dark when they reached the crest of the small hill where they had once planned to build a home together, but the flickering lights were plenty to allow her to see the location of their date.

When they got out and walked closer, Chelsea found tiki torches dotted the perimeter of the area and a small camp fire was crackling in the middle. Off to one side was a picnic table topped with a red and white checked tablecloth, and nearby was a grill and several coolers in a variety of sizes. In the far corner toward the back and left was what appeared to be a makeshift dance floor made from shipping pallets with plywood across them. Draped above, tacked to two by fours, were icicle Christmas lights dangling above where they would likely dance sometime during the evening. He had thought of everything, and at the realization of how much effort he had put into their date, her heart swelled, feeling as if it grew twice its normal size.

“A poor man’s version of a big splash.”

Looping her arm through his, she leaned her head on his shoulder. “This is the biggest splash I’ve ever seen. And this place.” She looked up at him. “This is our place.”

“It is our place.”

Tuck swallowed hard, trying to dislodge the lump that had formed in his throat. The way she looked up him, she wasn’t disappointed after all. He had feared she might be. With as little as he had to offer her, he felt rather ridiculous that day as he prepared it all.

He took her hand and led her over to the picnic table. “Are you too warm?” It was late May and unseasonably warm, especially for an evening. “I can take that.” He pointed to her jacket.

She removed it and watched as he went over and hung it on the handle of a shovel sticking out of the ground. How could she not grin? Clearly, he had worked all day to make their night special.

“Sorry about the white skirt. I didn’t think about that.” Taking a towel, he wiped a spot for her sit. “I cleaned it pretty well already, but I’m not making any promises. Your daughter played with Play-Doh there recently, remember?”

“I do remember.”

After church the past Sunday they had gone to his house for lunch, and afterward, the girls played outside while they sat on the front porch together. Chelsea welcomed the memory of those moments with him on the porch. It was before her conversation with her dad, but even then, she knew she was ready to take the next step with Tuck. Recently, he had begun to cause an even bigger stir within her stomach when they were together, and that day was no exception. Once when he reached over to remove an eyelash from her cheek, she had thought he was moving in for a kiss. She was all ready to go for it, so when he smiled and reached for the eyelash, she blushed in embarrassment. Here it was, less than a week later, and everything was really becoming new. Soon enough, they would share a first kiss.

Tuck stoked the coals on the grill. Bobby had agreed to get the fire on the grill ready while he went for Chelsea and the girls. Actually, Tuck was a bit surprised by a few touches he and Macy added while he was gone. The flowers on the table, as well as the table cloth, must have been Macy’s doing. Since finding out about their impending date, Macy had called him several times to find out what he had planned. They were nearly as excited as he was.

“Hope you’re in the mood for steak. It’s all that’s on the menu.”

“Steak sounds great.”

Chelsea watched as Tuck moved with such purpose. He was the grill master and insisted on being called such. They often grilled at her house, and the girls had found an apron for him that said
Grill Master
. She loved seeing him in that apron. This night, watching him, the image of him in her kitchen in L.A. popped into her mind, how he had cooked breakfast with no shirt on and how even then he affected. Though covered by his shirt tonight, she knew that beneath it was that long and jagged scar, reminding her of their earliest beginning. Long before that day in the ER, at least for her, she had loved Tuck and knew they would marry someday. Chelsea smiled at how full-circle their lives had come, knowing there was more ahead of them than this simple first date. Once again, they could count on a future, and that brought her comfort and complete happiness.

“Can I do anything to help?” she offered

Nodding toward a basket sitting on the far end of the table, he said, “You can get the dishes out. I was afraid to leave them sitting here.”

Chelsea got busy setting the table, still a bit lost in the past. Noticing he had brought out his mama’s china, that really touched her heart. For one, he was so close to his mom that Chelsea knew it was a symbolic gesture. He wanted her to know that things had worked out after all. Evelyn had always rooted for them, from the very moment she caught them cooing at one another in the hospital. Not so long after their actual first date, Evelyn invited her over for dinner, and they had eaten on these exact dishes. Chelsea had no doubt that Tuck remembered the same thing. Even then, they both knew they would end up together, but neither could have ever anticipated the twisting and turning and often sad journey their story would take them on.

“A bit of pink?” He knew the answer before asking. He had been grilling her steaks for the past year. He knew how she liked most everything she ate.

“Yep.”

Chelsea finished up with the dishes. Moving over to the coolers, she began to peek inside. In one, she found salad and a pie. In the other, the smallest of the coolers, she found two extremely large baked potatoes wrapped in foil. She smiled. “These are the biggest potatoes I’ve ever seen.”

As if the conversation were yesterday, she remembered Tuck’s comparison of him being a large steak house potato. Many times after that night she pondered his words. He said he was what would last. How right he was.

Without turning to see her expression, he could tell she remembered his words the night he stopped waiting. “Makes you wonder…”

“Yeah, where did you get potatoes that size?”

Chelsea brought two plates over to him. When she did, she stood very close, close enough that her shoulder was touching his arm.

With his tongs, he placed one steak on a plate then the other. Grinning down at her, he said, “Macy found them for me. I hope you’re hungry.”