Page 102 of Sweet Twins For My Brother's Best Friend

Hannah’s eyes snap open, and she reaches for my hands.

“Sorry, so basically, I started submitting offers to locations in Maine. Just leasing locations, nothing crazy, I didn’t take out a loan or anything. But. That was one of the leasing managers calling to approve you for a space in Maine.”

She watches my eyes, her chest heaving with breaths as she watches me think it over.

I grip the side of the table with my fingers and chew on the inside of my cheek.

I pictured myself looking for the location, of course, and I pictured myself finding something overlooking the water, something that would fill my nose with the smell of saltwater, where I could walk down a sandy beach and go get lobster from a nearby restaurant.

Without being able to look myself, it’s a blank space where I try to picture the gym. I crack my knuckles. “Well, tell me about it.”

“Okay!” she chirps, sitting up straighter in her booth, wiggling around to get settled.

She reaches over the table and runs two fingers over my eyes so that my eyelids automatically close.

“Close your eyes. Okay, picture this. A two-story, red cabin structure but with expansive, modern windows that go from floor to ceiling. The natural light fills the space and allows clients to work out while looking out over the rocky water as it crashes on the wooden stilts that the building sits on.”

“It sounds beautiful,” I admit, opening my eyes and spearing a particularly thick slice of parmesan cheese on my fork. I chase after a thick crouton that continues to avoid the teeth of my utensil.

“Doesn’t it? And there’s a deck, like a widow’s walk, you know? That’s what they call them when they’re on the roof.”

“Rooftop patio, huh? What am I, a DJ?”

“No, you’re a gym owner, and you’re cool and hip and all that crap.”

She waves around her fry at the same time that I’m waving around my fork. She catches my eye and offers me a sly smile that settles itself into the folds of one of her cheeks.

“You can bring some Los Angeles to Portland.”

“Portland, Maine?” I ask her, and she smiles before shoving three french fries into her mouth at once.

“I know, kind of ironic, right?”

I look at her as everythingng around me fades into the background.

I picture uprooting my life and moving it and I can’t really see anything there. This is the only life I’ve ever had. I don’t have anything else, and I don’t knowhowto have anything else, either.

It’s hard to imagine the simple things like grocery shopping or taking Lucy on a walk. I’ve pictured all of the fun parts, but the small actions that really make up your life, those are the ones that I can’t imagine.

Part of it, I know, is that my new life will have two children in it, something that I’ve never considered before.

To have two children, a new gym, and be on the other side of the country is a lot of take in. As long as my new life includes Hannah, it’s the one I want, though.

I know that. I feel in my pocket for the engagement ring.

I’ve been carrying it in my pocket ever since that day I realized that I didn’t need anything from Julie, that Hannah had healedall of my wounds. I haven’t been sure of how to propose or where, only that I have to have Hannah in my future.

I bite by bottom lip and chew on it, tapping the top of the table, the fake marble rimmed with gray.

“Are you okay?” Hannah asks me, tilting her head so that her beautiful copper hair splays out across her neck and collarbone, falling forward over her breast.

I reach out and twirl a few strands of it around my index finger. “I’m more than okay. I have a question to ask you, actually.”

“Okay, shoot,” she says, looking across the table for a napkin, finding one, and dabbling at her lips with it.

“Getting to know you this year has been the most amazing time of my life. I know you probably already know this, but a lot of what you’ve brought to me is just the courage and strength to live authentically. You’ve taught me to stand up for myself and that sharing myself with someone will result in that person sharing herself with me.”

Hannah slaps at my elbow. “Why do you sound like you’re proposing?” Her grins widens, showing her big teeth and gums, the smile that I love so much.

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