Page 3 of Trusting Trey
Sugar stood and gave me a tight hug then went to the doorway and patted my husband on the shoulder. “Take her home and spend your anniversary together. I’ll make excuses for you here.”
Trey nodded and walked toward where I stood. He put his arms around me and swayed me back and forth, his lips kissing my neck. “I’ll do anything for you, Allie. All I want is for you to be happy. If you aren’t then we need to talk about why.”
I clung to him tightly. “I just want to go home and spend the night with you,” I said. “My mind is swirling with everything that happened thirteen years ago.” I sucked up a breath, hating that the tears had started to fall. “I’m too emotional to be here,” I whispered.
He turned me and wiped my tears. “Let’s go home and you can take a nice hot shower then we’ll rest on the couch by the tree.”
I nodded and he tucked me under his arm while we walked toward the front door. Sugar had laid our coats on the couch and he held mine while I slipped my arms in the sleeves. He threw his over his shoulder and helped me into the car. I was never more relieved when he pointed it in the direction of home and grabbed my hand.
“I love you, Allie,” he whispered softy into the dark of the night, “to the moon and back.”
My husband handed me a glass of warm milk and sat next to me on the couch with a glass of his own. It was nearly midnight, but the tree was up and the lights were on, twinkling the same way I envisioned the stars twinkled at the wise men as they made their way to that manger all those years ago. Having been raised Greek Orthodox, we celebrate Jesus’ birth on January seventh, because the church uses the Julian calendar, which was created by Julius Caesar, rather than adopting the more traditional Gregorian calendar. When I met Trey, he celebrated on December twenty-fifth, but was willing to convert. I asked him not to because I liked the idea of celebrating together twice, once just the two of us and once with my family. We’d been doing it now for thirteen years and I loved our time together on this special day.
He dug in his pocket and pulled out two slips of paper, both of them taped closed, one marked with A.H. and the other, T.H. “I brought these with me since we didn’t stay for the wish opening.”
I sipped my milk and refused to take the one he held out to me. “I don’t need to read it to know what it says.”
“I think you do,” he insisted, but I shook my head.
“It says that you wish to become a father,” I said without reading the paper.
He carefully sliced through the tape with his knife and handed the paper to me. “That’s not what it says at all.”
I took the paper and read it to myself, my chin starting to quiver. I laid my head back on the back of the couch. “I’ve dreaded tonight because of this wish,” I explained holding it up. “I was sure you were going to wish for a child.”
He took the paper from me and then wiped my eyes. “I wished for what would make you happy because that’s all I care about,” he said.
I motioned at the other wish and told him to open it. The truth is, I lied to Sugar earlier. I remembered exactly what my wish said. He sliced it open and read from the paper, “I wish for us to be happy and to think about starting a family.” He lowered the paper to his lap and smiled at me.
“It looks like we both want the same thing, to be happy and share a life together. Whether that life includes children or not isn’t important right now. I want you to feel better and have that smile back on your face before we talk about a child again, okay?”
I sighed and set the milk down, taking his hand. “Have you ever wanted something deep in your soul, but you convince yourself you will never have it because that’s easier than dealing with the disappointment of not getting it?” He nodded and I looked away from his eyes when I spoke again. “That’s how I feel about having your baby. It’s something I desperately want and I don’t know how I will ever deal with not being able to give you a child. Tonight, with all the babies in the room giggling and playing, I could picture our little guy or girl fitting right into the circle. I could picture you tickling their belly the way you did with Faith and you dancing with your little girl on your feet like you were with Grace. I felt overwhelmed with sadness, and I couldn’t stay there a moment longer. I know we haven’t been trying that long, and I need to give it more time before I even start to think there’s a problem, but I want you to know how I feel. My wish this year was going to be for a child, because it felt to me like that might be the only way we would get one, by wishing.”
He pulled me into his arms and held me tight. “Allie, we have all the time in the world. You’re only thirty-five, and I’m a patient man. I think I demonstrated that when I gave you all the time in the world to marry me, didn’t I?”
I chuckled and leaned back against the couch. “You sure did. Sugar asked me about that tonight. I didn’t realize you never told anyone why we waited as long as we did.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t think it was anyone else’s business why we waited. We loved each other, that was easy to see, so the official piece of paper didn’t matter that much. We both knew why and we were the only ones who needed to know why.”
“I love you, Mr. Helton, you know that?” I whispered, kissing his cheek.
He leaned over and picked up a box from inside the Christmas tree. He must have stashed it there when I wasn’t looking. “I love you, too, and this is your anniversary gift. I hope it will be a constant reminder of this day when you look at it. I want you to remember our wish to be happy, and nothing else. No pressure. No guilt. Just honesty and happiness.”
He handed me the box and I took the paper off, handing it to him so I could open the small ring box. Inside was a band of amethyst and diamonds glittering at me from the lights on the Christmas tree. I put my hand to my mouth and it shook. “Trey, this is gorgeous.” My voice quivered and he took my left hand.
“While today is the anniversary of the day we signed a piece of paper making us husband and wife, I don’t consider today to be our sixth anniversary. We’ve been together thirteen years now, and I wanted to get you a special band to remind you just how much I love you. I would say ‘I do’ all over again.” He slipped the ring over my knuckle and nestled it to the top of my wedding ring. “Look it fits perfectly.”
“It’s beautiful,” I said again, completely taken aback by its beauty. “Did you know that in ancient Greece the amethyst was the gemstone of favor?”
He kissed my knuckles and then lowered my hand. “Babamentioned that one day and it gave me the idea for the band. Amethyst is also your birthstone, which made it the perfect choice. I love you my sweet, Allie. Tell me I can make love to you now before the clock strikes twelve, and our fourteenth year together begins.”
I swatted at him playfully when he picked me up from the couch and carried me into the bedroom. “You’re just angling for another reason to make love to me.”
“You’re absolutely right,” he said, his lips lowering to mine. “And then, when the clock strikes twelve we’ll welcome in the start of a new year for us.”
He laid me on the bed and lay over me, holding himself up on his forearms. “Happy anniversary sweetheart,” he said before he kissed me and I forgot about the date, the clock or anything other than this man who has loved me unconditionally for over a dozen years.
A low moan escaped my lips as the cramp woke me from a deep sleep. I grabbed at my calf and kneaded it, holding my breath to keep from waking my sleeping husband. The cramp tightened and a moan escaped again before I could stop it. I squinched my eyes closed, holding my breath, and kept massaging, only to feel my hands pushed aside. My eyes flew open and my husband was sitting at my feet, his hands moving to a rhythm only he understood. His hair stuck up in every direction and his face was wrinkled from the pillowcase under him, but at that moment, Trey Helton was my angel in plaid boxers.
