Page 38 of Sugarplum Dreams
“My mom is full of wisdom.” She paused, and then she said, “But she’s getting older every year too. There is no guarantee that she’ll be around if we wait to have kids.”
“Maybe it’s not supposed to be our decision.” He just let that statement hang as she thought about it.
“You mean, we should allow God to decide?”
“Isn’t it funny that we say ‘allow’ like we’re in charge. When in reality, He made the universe, He made us, how dare we think we know better than Him?”
“All right. That was a pretty powerful statement, and I think you’re right on every level. I can’t decide anyway. So why don’t I just take it out of my hands, because maybe it shouldn’t have been there to begin with.”
“Maybe,” he said as she straightened, putting her arms on his legs and leaning toward him.
“Now. It’s Christmas, and we’re done with all the festivities, and we’re home at last. What do you think we ought to do?”
He grinned, because she really didn’t need to ask him. There was only one thing he wanted to do. Be with her.
“Come here,” he said, lifting her gently and setting her in his lap. “This is a better place to think about something as difficultas that. I’m sure if we spend enough time thinking about it, we can figure something out.”
Her lips touched his temple while his fingers ran up her arm. “You think?”
“Yeah. We’re reasonably intelligent, and together we’re sure to come up with something.”
She smiled as her lips trailed down his cheek, and finally they met his, and maybe they were both reasonably intelligent, but he didn’t do much thinking after that.
Chapter Seventeen
“Do you think he’s asleep?”
The words came to Wilson from what felt like very far away.
“I don’t know. His eyes are closed. He’s making those loud noises that Dad used to make.”
“Snoring. He’s snoring.”
That was Gifford. He recognized his voice, so the other voices must’ve been maybe Banks and Lavinia?
But that was weird, because what were they doing in his house? Oh. They were going to move there. But wait, it was the day after Christmas. Wasn’t Christmas just yesterday? That meant today was the day after Christmas, and he…
Wilson opened his eyes, looking up at three sets of eyes staring back down at him.
“He’s awake!” Lavinia said, jumping up and down. “Would you play with us?” she asked, pausing to step closer and lean back over top of him.
“I don’t think he knows where he is,” Gifford said, squinting, and that’s when Wilson fully awoke.
He was on the couch, where he lay down after he had checked the doors and windows and made sure everything was turned off last night, wishing that he could have had Charity beside him for a little while, sitting on the couch, looking at the tree they put up and decorated, seeing the gifts that were scattered around, and enjoying a peaceful Christmas night together. Their first night as a married couple.
But the pastor had said he needed to give her a year, and if he sat snuggled up next to her on the couch every night, it wasn’t going to be a year.
One day down, 364 more days to go. It felt like forever.
But he couldn’t fault the pastor for his reasoning. And he wanted to build a relationship that lasted for a lifetime. Not only did Charity not deserve to have another man who didn’t stay, but she deserved to have the very best relationship a couple could have, and he was determined to give it to her. And if that meant that he would be sleeping on the couch for the next year and not snuggling there in the evening with his wife, then so be it.
“Are you awake?” Banks said, and Wilson focused his eyes on the little boy.
“I am. I guess I’m just not used to having a welcoming committee whenever I come back to consciousness in the morning.”
“What?” Lavinia said, scrunching up her nose and looking so much like her mother that it gave Wilson’s heart a pang.
“I need you guys to move back so I can sit up,” Wilson said, instead of repeating what he’d already said, when she wasn’t going to understand anyway.
