Page 112 of Fireworks & Forehead Kisses

“At home. I just saw her. She gave me these.” I set the divorce papers on the table in front of her. I figured there was no reason to lie anymore. She deserved to know the truth. “She only agreed to marry me so I could acquire the business.”

I waited to hear that she was disappointed or surprised.

“I assumed it was something of that nature.” She glanced down at the documents and indicated toward them with her chin. “Andthisis what you want?”

“It doesn’t matter what I want.”

“Of course it does. Don’t be an idiot.”

An idiot. Gran didn’t typically call me an idiot.

“The truth is, I thought I wanted the business, but now that I have it…I don’t know…I don’t even care. I mean, I care, but…”It doesn’t matter if I don’t have Ashley.

I didn’t voice that last thought aloud. I couldn’t even believe I’d thought it. How could something I’d worked for my entire life seem so pointless and empty?

Once again, I waited for Gran to be stunned by my admission, and once again, she appeared wholly nonplussed. “I was going to wait until you were together to give this to you both, but since that doesn’t seem like it will be happening…” Gran handed me a gift bag, stood, and walked out of the room.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to lie down for a nap. I expect you’ll have this resolved by the time I awake.”

Resolved?

I reached into the bag and pulled out a double frame. On one side was the assignment that I’d done in first grade that described my wife, and on the other side was a photo taken at our wedding. It was framed from behind me at the altar. It showed my back, shoulders, neck, and head in the foreground and then a full body of Ashley walking down the aisle towards me. She looked even more beautiful than I remembered. She truly was an angel.

Seeing her from the same perspective I had on the day I married her was like stepping into a time machine. I was transported back to that moment. It felt like yesterday and alsoa lifetime ago. So much had happened, and yet, it had gone by in the blink of an eye.

As I read my answers again on the paper, I realized that Ashley was everything I had wanted when I was six years old.

She had hair like the sun and eyes like the ocean. Her red hair and blue-eyed combination was the rarest in the world and had caught my eye immediately the first time I’d seen her.

She loved animals and talked to them, just like Dr. Dolittle. Whether it was Mr. Purrfect, Rufus, or Bonnie and Clyde, she was amazing with them.

She was kind, like Mrs. Sally, my neighbor. She brought baked goods to Dorothy and Fred after meeting them only once and cooked for my Gran when that wasn’t in her job description.

Everyone lit up when they spoke to her, just like Mr. Casper, my mailman. During the Christmas party, every person she interacted with felt special and seen.

She smelled fresh, like fruity and fresh vanilla. From the first moment I met her at the bar, I’d been intoxicated by her scent. The morning I’d woken up in the hotel room without her, I’d been tempted to take the pillowcase she’d slept with me on my travels just so I could keep a part of her.

She did feel like my treehouse on the Fourth of July. Every time I was with her, I felt safe and more myself than I ever had in my life. She was home to me. She was all that mattered.

In fact, at that moment, a clarity came over me. A certainty. I knew if I had the choice between her and the company, I would choose her.

Fuck me.If that wasn’t love, I didn’t know what was. Why hadn’t I seen it before? How could I have been so blind? So stupid?

I grabbed the divorce papers off the desk and put them and the frame into the gift bag, then rushed out of the house andinto the car. The drive across the island back to Ashley’s house should have taken me fifteen minutes; I made it in under seven.

When I pulled up to her house, I could feel my heart pounding so hard it felt like it was going to pound out of my chest. I barely put it in park before I grabbed the gift bag, jumped out, sprinted up to the porch steps, and knocked on the door. It opened, and I saw Ashley’s eyes were red-rimmed. She’d been crying. Was it because of me? Had I made her cry?

“Can I come in?” I asked, my voice raspy and gruff.

“Why?”

“Please?” I begged.

If she wanted me to do this on the porch, I would. But it was cold, and I’d rather do it indoors. She sighed as she took a step back. When I stepped inside, she closed the door, then crossed her arms and bit the inside of her lip.

“I don’t want these.” I took out the divorce papers and handed them back to her. Or I tried to; she kept her arms crossed.

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