Lost and Found (52 page)

"And I love you back, Mr. Kingston, and you better not ever
forget it!"

********************

Cash blindfolded me after we said our goodbyes to
everyone, as we got onto the elevator to go to the top floor
that everyone is now calling the Honeymoon Suite. The
kids begged us to let them spend the night with us, but
Caleb and Claudia were quick enough to distract them into
more bowling with them.

Before he put the blindfold on me, I hugged our parents’
goodbye and both of our moms started crying again,
because they were so happy for us. I can tell that my
parents moving out here is going to be a good thing for
everyone involved, because they have become instant
friends with Amelia and Gideon Sr.

Claudia was just as happy as I was about them moving here,
because they have adopted her into their hearts as one of
their own children. My parents are already on her about
giving them more grandkids, which had Cash and I cracking
up. If they only knew the predicament that she has put
herself into.

We finally arrive at the top floor and I've noticed that Cash
is no longer standing by me, but I can feel how excited he is
because he can't seem to stand still.

"Okay. Don't you dare peak, alright?" I absolutely hate
surprises, but he thoroughly enjoys them and loves to see
my reaction every time he surprises me.

"Okay. I'm not peaking, but would you please hurry up!
You're going to cause me have a panic attack!"
He grabs my hand and leads me off of the elevator and
guides me into the room.

"Okay. Here we go. I'm taking the blindfold off now, but
don't open your eyes until I tell you to okay?"

"Okay. I promise, I won't."
He takes the blindfold off and gives me a sweet soft kiss on
the lips and then I hear him walk a few steps away and then
stop.

"Okay. You can open your eyes now, Sweetheart."

I open my eyes and the room looks like it has been turned
into a fairyland. There are dozens of artificial trees with lights on them, along with tons of flower bouquets of
lavender and roses of every color. The floor is covered in rose petals that lead to the bed. I
look towards the bathtub and there are thousands of rose
petals of every color floating in the water.

I walk further into the room along the path that he's made
and there are more on top of the bed and he has arranged
them into our initials with a heart surrounding them in more
petals.

"Oh, Cash. It's so beautiful! How did you have the time to
do all of this?"

"Oh, I had some help from our moms and Caleb and
Claudia, but what I really want you to see is over here along
this wall. I really hope you like it and I didn't make a mistake with my idea. If you don't like it, I'll take it all
down and we will deal with it when you're ready."

"Okay. Now you're making me nervous. Why wouldn't I
like anything that you've done for me?"
He reaches his hand out to me to follow him and I take it.

"Just trust me, okay? Come. I'll show you what I'm talking
about."
I grab his hand and he leads me towards the living area part
where the big screen TV is. He turns on the light and my
breath catches at the sight before me. I cannot believe that
he's done this! He managed to do something for me that I
haven't had the strength to do myself and I'm completely in
shock.

"Well? Was it to presumptuous of me to believe that you
were ready for this?"

Somehow he and Claudia had gone through my storage
building and every one of my favorite pictures of Derek
and the kids and family pictures that we had taken through the years are on this wall. School photos, sports pictures, candid photos that I took on my own that have been blown up and some that Claudia had taken of the kids.

I look around the room and there is another wall that has
pictures of Cash and Vanessa and some of her and Gideon.
They're both memory walls and they are absolutely
beautiful. I didn't realize that I was crying, until he said
something.

"Oh, Liv. I'm sorry. I didn't want you to cry. I'll take it all
down. I didn't mean to upset you. I just wanted a place for
you in this house to come look at them anytime you wanted
to in private. It was Claudia's idea to make the memory
wall for Vanessa and I can take that down too."

"No. It's perfect! I'm not crying because it's made me
sad. I'm crying because it's such an honor to them and lets
me know that they're not forgotten. Thank you so much!
You and Claudia did something that I just never had the
strength to do and I appreciate it so much! It's beautiful,
Cash. Really beautiful!"

He walks up to me and pulls me into his arms and holds me
and we both stand like that for a few minutes just wrapped
in each other’s love and enjoying the moment.

"I'm so glad you like it. Your mom made a comment
yesterday when we got back that the house needed a more
feminine touch in the living room and that we needed
pictures of the kids in there. When she mentioned how your
house had pictures everywhere of your kids, I just knew that I had to do this as part of your wedding gift. I want you to
take some of them downstairs and put some in our bedroom
and living room. You can put all of them in there if you
want."

"My wedding gift? Oh, Cash! It's been so crazy I hadn't
even thought about getting you a wedding gift! I'm so
sorry"

"Oh, sweetheart. There's nothing you could have given me
that I need more than you. Don't you realize that? You're
my gift. But I do have a couple more gifts for you, if you
will sit down on the couch with me. They're on the coffee
table."

"More gifts? Cash, you're spoiling me way too much!
Now I really feel bad." He chuckled and led me over to the
couch and picked up an envelope and a wrapped box. He handed me the little box and held on to the envelope.

"Here. I want you to open this one first."
I sit down and realize that I'm still wearing my wedding
dress, so I kick off my shoes and pull my legs up underneath me and scoot over as close as I can get to him and open the
box. I start crying again when
I realize what it is. It's a mother's ring with 5 stones on it.

"Oh my God! It's beautiful! I don't even know what to
say!"
"I don't know what I'm going to do with you! This is our wedding night and you've got me bawling like crazy.”

"I designed it myself and I had them put the stones in
according to age. Jordan, Jeremiah, Gideon, Jenna and
Eden and I made sure to make room for the twins’ stones. Do you really like it? I put all of their initials on the inside
of the band."
I don't have any words, because it's the most beautiful piece of jewelry that I've ever seen.

“Of
course I love it, and I'll never take it off. How did I get so
lucky to find you? You amaze me more and more every
day."

"Oh, I beg to differ, because I'm definitely the lucky one. I
love spoiling you, because you never ask for anything and
you're so easy to please."

"Are you saying I'm easy? Haha. I'm just kidding. Thank
you so much. For loving me... For giving me two beautiful
children plus the two we've created. For your faith and
trust that everything will be okay. For everything! I love
you so much and today is one of the happiest days of my
life!"

"Aw, Liv! You make me so happy that sometimes I think
my chest could burst open, because there's not enough room
to hold my heart that keeps continuing to grow from all of
this love I have for you. I do have one more present for you
and I know you're going to cry, because you're right, we
should be happy right now and not crying. I hate to see you
cry."

"But happy cries are better than sad cries, so give it to me!
Come on, what's in the envelope?" He put the envelope
on the coffee table and puts his arms around me and pulls
me into an embrace.

"I'm just going to tell you what it is instead of have you
open it and try to figure it out, okay? This is something that
I've been working on since Eden's birthday and I finally got it finalized."

"Um. Okay. But this is something that's going to make
me happy, but cry?"

"Yes. I believe it will, but I know that you're going to love
what I've done."

"Okay, I trust you. So, what did you do?"

"Well, do you remember when you got your hair cut on
the day of Eden's birthday party? You said something that
day that made me come up with this."

I think back to that day and I can't for the life of me
remember what I could have said that might cause him to
give me a wedding present.

"Okay. And?"

"Well, you made the comment that you were cutting the
last link that you had to Derek and the kids and it really
broke my heart for you, because even though I lost Vanessa,
I still have Gideon and Eden as my last two links to her.
Are you following me so far?"
Oh my god! What has he done? I know it can't be a bad
thing whatever it is, but I feel tears coming already.

"Yes. What did you do? You're killing me here. Just spit it
out. Please."

"Okay, I called Gideon's school asking if they had a
scholarship fund for kids that want to go to their school, but
can't afford it and they said that they have a ton of kids that
beg to go. Occasionally, they get an anonymous donor
every once in a while that will pay for a year or two for
someone to go there, but they usually don't follow through
with it. I don't know if you realize it or not, but I pay
$25,000 a year for Gideon to go to that private school of his and when he hits middle school, it will go up and will go up
again when he hits high school."

"So, you're going to start a scholarship fund? That's great,
honey! What a great idea."

"Well, yes... I am, but it's going to be a memorial scholarship
fund. I've named it the Triple J Porter Memorial
Scholarship Fund, in honor of Jordan, Jeremiah and Jenna.
I'm giving you the option of what three kids you want the
scholarships to go to every year. It will pay for everything
they need for whoever you pick for as long as they go to
that school. It will pay for their tuition, uniforms, and
school supplies, sporting equipment if they want to play
sports or band instruments if they want to join the band or
whatever else they need to go to that school."

"Cash. I don't know what to say. Just knowing that
you've just given my babies a way for their names to carry
on means the world to me. To be able to help other kids
that deserve to go there when they can't afford it? Oh, honey! Thank you so much! You're right! It does
make me happy and these are definitely happy tears on my
face."

"Oh, Liv. I can handle happy tears and I'm so glad that you
love what I did. I thought about putting Derek's name in
there somewhere, but Claudia thought that honoring the kids
since it is a school would be the best way to handle it. I
have also started a memorial fund in honor of Vanessa at
Oregon State and I could do the same for Derek at the
college he went to, if you want me to."

"No, you don't have to do that. Claudia's right. I like the
way you set it up, so leave it the way that it is."

"Okay, but if you change your mind, all you have to do is let
me know. I'm sorry to say this, but that's it. I don't have
anything else for you. No more surprises." He pulls me
onto his lap and starts nuzzling my neck. "Lavender. God,
Liv. You always smell so amazing."