Whatever It Takes (24 page)
Authors: L Maretta
She let a few more lonely tears fall and then simply nodded, pressing her lips together. She looked at me, to Gavin, and then back at me.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered and then stepped off our front stoop, got into her car, and drove away.
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“You okay?” Gavin asked me. We were seated at the patio table out back, and I sipped my coffee slowly, trying to let the last of the adrenaline leave my body.
“I’m okay,” I stated. “How are you?”
“Pretty shaken up,” he admitted leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. He cracked his knuckles, something he sometimes did when he was nervous. “I didn’t know what the hell she was going to do or what you were going to do. I was this close to calling the cops when you stepped in and took care of it. Thank you so much for doing that. I don’t think she’ll bother us again, do you?”
“Probably not,” I agreed. “But you should still contact the police tomorrow, just in case.”
“I will,” he promised. “You have no idea how grateful I am that you didn’t let this push us back a step again, Emma.” He pulled me from my seat and I straddled his lap. “You really are the strongest, most amazing woman in the world.”
“And don’t you forget it,” I smiled.
And then he kissed me.
Epilogue
Four years later
I sat staring at the blue pool water so long my eyes were beginning to sting.
“Hey! Emma!”
I shook my head and turned towards Yvonne.
“What was that?” I asked.
She laughed. “I think it’s true what they say. You get pregnant and your brains fall out.”
I chuckled and rubbed my full, round, seven month’s pregnant belly. “Yeah well, it’s worth it,” I told her, turning my gaze towards Gavin at his grill. Our three-year-old son, Aiden Joseph the second, was atop his shoulders, pointing to different cuts of meat and telling him which ones were ready. We had named our first child after Gavin’s father and our second child, a baby girl, was due the beginning of July. We were still deciding on a name.
Yvonne’s husband Bobby came up behind her and kissed her head.
“When are you two going to start having kids?” I teased them.
“No thanks,” they said in unison. Yvonne had her fill with kids during the day with her job and while she never said she’d never have kids, both she and Bobby were content with it being just them.
“Whenever I get the itch,” she said, “I’ll just steal yours for a while.”
“Deal,” I told her.
Gavin walked over to us and deposited the tray of food on the table before reaching up to lift A.J. from his shoulders and settle him on my lap.
“Hungry, baby?” he asked me before giving me a kiss.
“Starving!”
“Let me just wash my hands and I’ll take A.J. from you so you can eat,” he told me and then leaned down to kiss my belly and the top of our son’s head.
Gavin was a wonderful father and I loved being a mother. Having A.J. almost completely cured me of my OCD, learning fairly soon after he was born that there was no such thing as total control when you had a child. If anyone was in control, it was our son. So now dishes sat in the sink overnight sometimes and laundry sat in the dryer for days on end. And I was completely fine with that.
As for Gavin and me, we were part of the small percent of couples who survived cheating and we were stronger and happier than ever. Lisa never bothered us again after the day she showed up at the house. It wasn’t always perfect or easy (the first time he had to go away for work again was particularly difficult) but I stuck to my decision to forgive him and now was able to look back at that time in our lives as just a small obstacle in our marriage that we overcame.
I’m not saying I’m happy with or that it was okay, what he did. But it had led us to place in our lives where we were content and very much in love. What else mattered?
We spent the day celebrating the beginning of summer with our friends and family, as was tradition now, for the fifth year in a row. Gavin had wondered if we should skip it this year, with me being so far along in my pregnancy, but I wouldn’t hear of it. Nothing made me happier these days than having our family around the people we loved most.
It was pretty late by the time everyone left. Gavin walked with A.J. asleep on his shoulder to put him down in his room and I moved to our bedroom and collapsed, exhausted, on our bed. I lied down on my back and smiled, bringing my hands to my belly. Baby Girl Fitz, as we now took to calling our unborn daughter, was kicking and nudging away.
Gavin came in the room and lied down next to me on his side. I took his hand and placed it so he could feel what I was feeling.
He smiled and said, “I will never get tired of that. Hey, maybe she’ll be a fourth of July baby. That would be cool.”
“It would, but I’m hoping she’ll close up shop in there early and be a late June baby,” I told him. “I don’t mind being pregnant but it’s so damned hot already. Can you imagine what it’s going to be like mid-summer?”
“I know,” Gavin agreed, and continued to rub my stomach. After just laying quietly for a few minutes he said, “Why don’t you shower and I’ll go sweep up outside.” He moved to get up but I grabbed him and cuddled into his side.
“It can wait until morning,” I insisted. “Stay here.”
He smiled down at me and laughed. “I never thought I’d see the day.”
I reached out and pinched his side causing him to first, feign injury, and then laugh again. Then I moved my lips to under his jaw and gave him open-mouthed kisses.
“Mmm,” he hummed. “You’re right, it can wait until morning.”
We made love and then lay, sated, in each other’s arms, in the dark. I smiled as I drifted off to sleep, perfectly happy and content.
“I love you, Gavin.”
“I love you, baby.”
The end.
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