Page 56 of Remembering You
He laughed, the sound bitter, and his eyes fell once more to the floor, unable to look at me. “Yeah, I know. I’m sure my mom said the same thing though.”
“Jim, look at me,” I said. Slowly, those ice blue eyes lifted to mine. The sheen of tears across them heightened the blue hue even more, making them look like melting ice caps drifting in crystal clear waters. “I would never leave my family. I would talk to you. Tell you I needed help.”
He nodded, pointing at the sketch of the floorplan on his vision board. “This is a home office,” he said. “For me. If we do this, I’ll be the stay at home dad. I can work from home. Delegate my team to a site manager. And you can continue working, live your dreams.”
I blinked, utterly shocked. I had never seen a stay at home father before, though I had seen plenty of stay at home moms. “You would do that?”
“Why not?” he challenged. “Lots of women put their careers on hiatus while kids are young. Why should I be any different? And I can still work… but I’ll cut back to part-time. At least until the kids go back to school. Or until they’re old enough for some sort of daycare or preschool option.”
He took my hands in his and squeezed gently. “I was an idiot. I was so caught up in the idea that you would have to give up so much, it didn’t even occur to me until I overheard you talking that I could be the one to sacrifice, too. As long as I know you do want kids. That you do want a family and aren’t being pushed into it because you think it’s just what I want. I do want children… but I also want you, Martha Veronica Vaughn. I want you more than anything.”
I grinned, a fireball lighting in my chest. “I want children, Jim. Actually, I want a lot of children. I just don’t want to start making them right this second.”
His grin widened. “But we can practice the art of making them, right?”
I laughed and he reached around, curling his hands around my waist, tugging me flush against his body. “Absolutely,” I whispered, breathless, and pushed onto my toes to kiss him. I lowered from the kiss, looking around the cabin once more. “So… wait. You bought this land?”
Jim nodded. “I recognized it from the polaroid you showed me.” He linked his hand in mind and slowly helped me over to the fireplace filled with dusty soot. “I put an offer in on it yesterday and it was accepted. Technically, we won’t own it for another thirty days when we close on the house, but the owner let me borrow the keys today.”
“So… we’ll own this house?” I asked.
Jim nodded. “I’ve been wanting to buy a property for years, but nothing ever felt right. Until I came across this location.”
“How long will it take to build?”
Jim shrugged. “Six… maybe eight months. Depending on how many demands you have for the place, turtle.”
I scrunched my nose. “Dammit. I’m never losing that nickname now, am I?”
He kissed the tip of my nose gently. “I sure hope not.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “It’s growing on me.”
“Oh,” Jim grunted, tugging an envelope from his back pocket. “That reminds me… your final paycheck for this week.”
I sighed. “It’s a small one. With today being a snow day and with my classes and orientation, I only worked one day this week.” I tore open the envelope and there inside taped to my paycheck was a ten-dollar bill with a heart drawn onto it. But added below that heart, in Jim’s hand-writing was a question:
Will you be my forever?
I blinked, stunned and looked over at Jim. “Is this a proposal?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Not yet. Proposals involve rings… and they typically cost more than ten dollars. Plus, I figured you’d want to wait until you were done with school.”
I gulped and silently glanced down at the bill in my hands. Butterflies danced within my stomach and the happiness I felt faded as I realized it would be three years until we got engaged. I didn’t want to wait three years. “Jim,” I whispered. “Don’t propose to me now… but also, don’t wait three years.”
Shock caused his mouth to open as he stared at me agape. “You’ll marry me before you graduate?”
I nuzzled my face into his neck. “Check my vision board. As long as it’s warm enough to wear a short-sleeved dress, I’ll marry you.”
“It’ll be warm enough to wear short-sleeves in May,” Jim chuckled and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “That’s only three-months away.”
“So it is,” I said, tipping my chin to glance up at him.
Those beautiful blue eyes narrowed at me. “This feels too easy.”
I snorted a laugh and shook my head. “This was easy?”
He thought for a moment before answering. “Well… yeah. Arguments are bound to happen. As long as we can talk about them and work through it. So, yes. All things considered, this felt easy. Besides, aren’t young women supposed to be complicated and dramatic?”
