Just One Reason (24 page)

Before
Josh could speak, Grady pulled me up and led me to the area of the living room reserved for dancing.  Twirling me around and pulling me close against him, Grady nuzzled my neck.  “I don’t want to talk about Ford’s issues tonight.  I want to dance with my beautiful wife and kiss her at midnight.”  I can’t argue with that.

The band played a slow song
while Grady held me close.  When the countdown to midnight began, Grady pulled me outside onto the deck and away from everyone else.  Shrugging out of his jacket, he wrapped it around my bare shoulders to keep me warm.

The stars were shining in the clear winter sky.  The air was cold, but Grady held me close.  Six months ago I was
floundering my way through my life.  Now I had career goals, wonderful new friends, a gorgeous home, and most importantly, I had Grady.  He was mine…forever.

Grady framed my face with his hands and tilted my head so our eyes were locked.  “I love you, Lindsay.  More than you can ever know.  I am the luckiest man in the world to have you as
my wife.”  He dropped one hand to my stomach.  “And I can’t wait to bring our child into this world.”

When the clock struck midnight, we kissed in the dark on the deck of the house Grady had built for me. 
For us.  The details of that night would fade in the years to come, but I would always remember exchanging vows with Grady on New Year’s Eve.  That night we officially joined our lives and hearts together and vowed to love each other forever.

Grady

June 2017

At exactly 5:00 I tossed my gloves on the work table, went into the bathroom to wash up and said goodbye to the guys.  A few years ago I could work at the shop until the sun set, but not anymore.  I had more important things to do with my free time.

My bike sat in the garage on days like these.  Instead, I drove my relatively new SUV through town to Josh and Leah’s house.  I parked in the driveway and jogged up the front walk of the two story colonial house.  Josh and Leah had bought this house last year when they found out Leah was pregnant again.  The shop’s business had continued to grow steadily over the years, and I was able to give Josh enough of a raise that they could buy a bigger house.  And Leah could stop working and stay home with the kids.  Theirs and mine.

“Hello!”  I called, letting myself in the front door and going in search of my favorite little lady.  I found her in the backyard playing
Barbies with Leah and Maddy.  Josh and Leah’s youngest, Liam, was asleep nearby in his bouncy seat.

“Daddy!”
  She squealed when she saw me and came running over to jump into my waiting arms.  This right here was my favorite part of the day.  When I picked Brie up after work, she acted like it was Christmas morning when she saw me.

“Hi, baby girl,” I said
, picking her up and hugging her hard.  “Did you have a good day?”  She always had a good day.  Her bubbly personality along with her light blonde curls and big blue eyes came from her mother.  From me came her fiery temper and attitude.  Although her mother wasn’t exactly lacking in those areas either.

“Yes!  We are playing
Barbies, Daddy.  Do you want to be Ken?”  She asked with such a serious look on her face.  Never in a million years would I have thought that playing with dolls would bring me such joy.

I reached down to ruffle her hair as we walked over to Leah.  “We have to go, Brie.  We’re having dinner with Grandpa and Aunt Lana tonight.”  She clapped her hands together and bounced up and down in excitement.  It was so easy to make her happy.  I said “hi” to
Maddy, poked Liam’s tummy and thanked Leah for watching Brie.  Then we gathered her stuff in her Dora backpack and headed out to the car.

If one of Lindsay’s three twelve hour work shifts
per week fell on a weekday, Brie stayed at Leah’s house while I worked.  On those days I would pick her up and go to Lana’s house for dinner.  Lana and dad got to spend time with her, and I didn’t have to cook.  It was a win-win for everyone.

Brie chattered while we drove the four blocks to Lana’s house, telling me everything she did
during the day in great detail.  The second I cut the engine in Lana’s driveway, Brie scrambled out of the backseat and ran up the walk.  My dad was waiting on the porch for her.

“
Grampy!”  Brie squealed and jumped on his lap.  She stuck her hand in the pocket of his shirt searching for the bubblegum sucker that was always there.  Lindsay and I were grateful my dad and Lana lived so close and Brie was able to have a close relationship with them.

We visited Lindsay’s parents in the city a couple of times a year, and they always came for Brie’s birthday and Christmas.  With the infrequency of the visits, Brie was three years old before she was able to reme
mber them from the last visit.

When we were first married, I worried that Lindsay would miss her life in the city.  But not once did she ever give me that impression.  After she finished her nursing degree she took a job at the hospital in the Labor and Delivery department.  Lindsay felt she was well suited to
help bring babies into the world.  She had experienced both heartbreak and joy with her pregnancies.

I left Brie with my dad on the porch and went to see if Lana needed any help with dinner.  Our dinners rotated between grilled cheese, spaghetti and pizza - Brie’s favorites.  Tonight was spaghett
i with salad and garlic bread.

Lana and Dad asked Brie questions about school all through dinner.  She had just turned five and would be starting kindergarten in the fall.  Lindsay
teared up every time we talked about it, and I have to admit it is bittersweet.  Seeing her grow into such a beautiful girl is priceless, but watching my baby grow up was also the hardest thing.  And knowing we would likely never have another child made Brie all the more precious.

Back at home we had enough time for a quick dip in the lake before it was bath time for Brie.  Some of my favorite times were when the three of us were together, but I also loved the nights
when it was just Brie and me.

“Okay, baby girl
.  It’s time to head inside.”  Brie jumped through the water toward the shore and held her arms up to me.  It was our routine for her to ride on my shoulders back to the house.  We went straight upstairs, and I deposited Brie in her bathroom.

“Get undressed and go potty.  I’ll be right back to get your shower started,” I told her.  After ditching my swim trunks for cargo shorts I went back to get Brie in the shower.  She loved the water and would stay in the shower for an hour if we let her.  To move it along I helped wash her hair and let h
er play for five more minutes.

Dressed in a
pink nightgown, Brie stood on a stool in front of the mirror and brushed her teeth.  She had yet to lose one, but every night she checked for any loose teeth.  I was just struggling to brush through her wet blonde tangles when we heard the back door close downstairs.

“
Mommy’s home!”  Bried cried through a mouthful of toothpaste.  Perfect timing.  I tried to be a hands-on dad, but fixing little girl hair was one area where I was seriously lacking talent.  Lindsay appeared in the bathroom and simultaneously gave me a quick kiss and took the brush from my hands.

I stepped back to admire my girls.  Lindsay was wearing pink scrubs and had her hair pulled back in some kind of twisted bun thing.  There was no mistaking they were mother and daughter.  Lindsay expertly brushed out the tangles and twisted Brie’s hair into two pigtail braids.  In the summer she liked to go to bed with her wet hair in braids.  Apparently this produced “mermaid hair” in the morning when she took out the braids.  I didn’t know what constituted mermaid hair - it just looked like wavy hair to me.

As was our routine, Lindsay went to take a shower while I read a couple of books to Brie and tucked her in.  It was hard in the summer, because her 8:00 bedtime occurred before the sun went down.  Sometimes she stalled with a request for a drink of water or an extra story, but tonight she settled right in.  The swimming before bath probably helped to tire her out.

Brie’s bedroom faced the opposite direction from our room, and was decorated in pale pink and bright turquoise.  We had moved her to this room when she stopped sleeping in the crib.  The room next to hers was the nursery, and we had left it as such - just in case we ever needed it again.  Decorated in cream and pale green, it was gender neutral.  Lindsay and I had decided not to find out the sex when she was pregnant with Brie.  Sometimes people would ask if I wished I
had a boy.  I didn’t care either way, but honestly I was glad to have a girl.  She was like a mini Lindsay.

As I left Brie’s room and quietly closed her door behind me, I stopped to look at the framed photos lining the upstairs hallway. 
Lindsay did a great job decorating our house, but this was my favorite of all her projects.  It was almost like a timeline of our life together.

The first picture was one we stole from Lana - the picture of Lindsay and I on the beach together when we were teenagers.  After that there were several pictures of me with my dad
, Leah, Josh and Ford and Lindsay with Taryn and her family.  These represented our time apart.  It was still hard to think about that time when Lindsay was gone from my life, but each day we spent together since was made all the more special because of it.

Next there was a group of pictures of Lindsay and
me after we first got back together - Halloween, holding Maddy, hanging out at the pub, Thanksgiving in the city, Brie’s first ultrasound picture, our first Christmas together in our home.  The largest picture of the whole group was an 8x10 of Lindsay and me on our wedding day.  The photographer had captured the moment at the end of the ceremony just before we kissed, when we were holding hands and looking into each other’s eyes.  The love we shared radiated from both of us.

The last grouping of photos on the wall w
as of our life over these last few years - our honeymoon in the Florida Keys, Lindsay with her pregnant belly, the three of us in the hospital right after Brie was born, the night Lindsay’s uncle was elected President, Brie’s first birthday and every birthday since.

There was still a small empty section at the end of the wall that I was sure would be filled with more memories before we knew it.  We might have to extend this
photo collage down the stairs.

I could still hear the shower running in our bathroom, so I headed downstairs and cracked open two Coronas.  This was also part of our routine on the days Lindsay worked.  I always brought home leftovers from Lana’s and she ate on the deck while we watched the waves.

Lindsay strolled out barefoot in shorts and a tank top with wet hair.  “Do you want me to heat up your plate?”  I asked her.

“No, I’ll get it later.  I just want to relax first,” she said, sitting on my lap and throwing her arms around my shoulders.  I set my beer down to wrap my arms around her waist.

Sitting on the deck of my house watching the sunset with my happy healthy child sleeping upstairs and my beautiful wife in my arms, I thought my life couldn’t possibly get any better.

Lindsay pointed to her beer on the table beside us.  “You’re going to have to drink that for me…because I’m pregnant.”

And then it did.

The End

All Summer Long
- Kid Rock

Daylight -
Maroon 5

See You Again -
Carrie Underwood

Hey There Delilah -
Plain White T’s

Here Without You -
3 Doors Down

Sex and Candy -
Marcy Playground

Lost in the Sun -
Hinder

Broken -
Seether & Amy Lee

The Little Things Give You Away -
Linkin Park

Wine After Whiskey -
Carrie Underwood

FMLYHM -
Seether

Fire and Fury -
Skillet

Salvation -
Skillet

Just Give Me a Reason -
Pink & Nate Ruess

The Reason -
Hoobastank

Make You Feel My Love -
Adele

With Arms Wide Open -
Creed

Love Will Take You -
Angus & Julia Stone

Marry Me -
Train

Hey Pretty Girl -
Kip Moore

About the Author

Hello!  I am an author of new adult and contemporary romance novels.  My husband and I live in Columbus, Ohio with our two young daughters and happy golden retrievers.  When I’m not spending time with my family, I can be found doing one of my other favorite activities - writing, reading and napping.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed
Just One Reason. 
If you haven’t read Taryn’s story,
Safe With You,
be sure to check it out.  My next project is writing Ford’s story, which I hope to release in November 2013.

My Books

Safe With You

Just One Reason

Contact Me

E-Mail:  [email protected]

Facebook: 
www.facebook.com/authorkirstendemuzio

Blog: 
http://authorkirstendemuzio.com

GoodReads: 
www.goodreads.com/author/show/7067558.kirsten_demuzio