Page 50 of Beyond our Forever

To my surprise, he covered my eyes with his hands and took me very carefully to the back of the property, an area I hadn’t seen yet.

“Ta-dah!” he announced with a rather theatrical gesture, raising his hands.

And I was blown away.

The spell had been cast.

We had found the place where we would grow old together.

I was stunned by what lay before us. The back of the house faced a small dock on the banks of the Eagle Creek Preserve, and the view was stunningly beautiful.

“Plus, if we do decide to live here, the children will be able to go to school in one of the best districts,” he added, topping off his closing sales pitch.

“Hush, Hulk,” I ordered, making him stare at me wide-eyed.

“Well, gorgeous girl, I guess we can always continue the search, there are other options…”

“Listen, Boss,” I interrupted, calling him one of his nicknames. “You don’t need to convince me. This is our house.”

I threw myself into his arms and by some miracle we didn’t end up in the water. Bruce kissed and hugged me as we celebrated that day, excited that another of our dreams was on the way to coming true.

Guess who turned out to be the real estate agent in charge of closing the deal? Bingo! That’s how I met Emilia, who would later become my best friend. When we were in the midst of construction and renovations, she and her then-husband took ownership of a property less than a mile from ours and also set about renovating it.

One day, when we had repaired enough of the house to move in, Bruce took me there. It was still empty, except for one thing.

A pot with a small tree that had only a couple of bare branches.

“What is this?” I asked without understanding. “Oh, I know. A memory of how scary the house was when we bought it?”

He laughed out loud before answering.

“It’s a magnolia tree, love,” he said, taking me by the waist, caressing my face with those hands that made me so happy. “Don’t you remember?”

“As if I could forget, but will it survive here?”

“It is like our love,” he replied. “Everything will depend on us.”

Of course I believed him and when the spring came and the little tree blossomed with flowers, we planted it in the middle of the garden looking toward the lake, so that as it grew, it would enhance the beautiful view through the glass wall.

My brother couldn’t be more excited. Warren had accepted a new position at the bank where he worked, forcing him to move to Nashville. We still didn’t live in the same state, but at least the trip was much shorter, only a five hour road trip separated us.

Unfortunately, Bruce’s parents and siblings were another story, they were still in Arizona, which made it difficult to visit them, but thanks to the wonders of technology we kept in touch as much as possible.

Our life was good, more than that, it was wonderful. Having two young children, I had very little free time, because I insisted on doing everything myself, even though my husband kept insisting that I get some help, which I stubbornly refused to even consider.

“Don’t you think the house feels kind of empty? Like we need to add to our family?” he asked me one Sunday afternoon, while the four of us enjoyed the sun sitting on the terrace overlooking the lake.

That comment made me laugh. “Bruce, you’re crazy! Have you forgotten that we have two young boys who love getting into mischief more than anything?”

He approached me like a feline on the prowl and I could smell the danger. Yes, danger. With red flags and all. My husband had gotten an idea in his head. May God have mercy on my soul.

Eleven months later, Ava Linda Leighton made her triumphant entry into the world and our family. The boys were horrified that a girl was going to be part of the trio.

“Are we going to have to play dolls with her?” Noah scowled. “Are we going to have to paint the whole house pink? I don’t like pink, that’s a girls’ color!”

“I’m going to join the police, so I can protect her and make sure no one gets near her,” Aaron interjected, earning his father’s immediate approval, and even though I was certain he was the one who put that idea in my son’s head.

“She’s very small, is she going to break?” Noah asked.

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