Page 110 of The Calendar of New Beginnings
She made an aggrieved sound. “Is that a scrunchie?”
He had sisters. He knew what a scrunchie was. Peering closer, he said, “Yep, hot pink.”
“I was making a statement.”
“Sure you were,” he added, feeling the rhythm of their friendship returning.
When she turned the page to May, she said,“I don’t remember seeing this.”
“My mom did,” he said, feeling his earsburn. “She hid it from me. I found it when I was going through the albums.”
“But why? So, we danced at prom. All I remember is you stepping on my toes to ‘Candle in the Wind’ by Elton John.”
He still hated that song. “You don’t see it, do you? Look closer. There’s a reason my mother took the photo and didn’t show it to us.”
She lifted the calendar until it was a foot away from her face.“Oh!”
“Yeah,” he said, clearing his throat. “I might have had a moment. All I remember is dancing with you, and then suddenly all I could think about was how good you smelled, which turned into thinking about how pretty you looked. I lost the beat and stepped on your feet.”
“It wasn’t a fast song,” she said in a dry tone. “Youlikedme.”
“Yeah, in that moment,” he admitted. “I liked how soft you felt in my arms, and I had some pretty lusty thoughts for my age. It scared me. We were friends. I was sure you’d kill me if you realized what I was thinking.”
“I didn’t realize it at the moment. My toe was throbbing. Those were open-toed shoes!”
His frustration was rising, for both himself and the boy he’d been. “Would you forget about the shoes? I showed you this because I wanted you to see there was always the promise of something more between us. Now turn the page.”
When she looked at him, she blinked a few times. “You’re upset.”
He strove for patience—like he did when Danny asked for a drink of water for the fourth time at bedtime. “A touch. I’ll get over it.”
She turned the next page. June showed them together with their respective families and Kim. They were all gathered together at Lucy’s parents’ house amidst an abundance of Christmas lights. She was sitting between him and Kim, and they were all laughing at one another’s holiday sweaters.
“I never fully told you how happy it made me that you and Kim got along so well,” he said, his throat thickening as he stared at the woman who had been his wife next to the woman he now hoped to spend the rest of his life with. Choosing this picture had been the most difficult for him, but after changing his mind more than a few times, he’d decided to go with his gut.
“How could I not like the woman you’d fallen in love with?” she asked, and he wondered if it was his imagination, but she seemed to cuddle closer to his side. “Besides, she made you so happy.”
Tears popped into his eyes. “Yeah, she did, and I’ll always look on our time together with love and joy. But she’s not here now. You are.”
When she met his gaze, there were tears in her eyes too.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Lucy wanted to bundle Andy up in a giant hug. How hard must it have been for him to include a photo of the three of them together?
“You make me so happy, Lucy,” he said, wiping at his eyes with his jacket.
Her heart continued to expand in her chest, smarting with every millimeter it gained. “You make me happy too. You always did.”
His smile flashed across his serious face. “Okay. Now turn the page.”
She was going to say,yes, sir,to lighten the mood, but when she saw the photo he’d chosen for June, she pretty much dissolved.
“Where did you get this?” she asked, tracing a photo of herself on assignment in Uganda. “I was working with a local photographer on an AIDS calendar. He took this photo of me at the orphanage where we were taking photos of children whose parents had died from AIDS. Part of my contract with the NGO was to train a leading localphotojournalist. Anthony was great. He works forThe London Timesnow.”
“Moira found this picture by doing a simple Google Images search of your name. Then she copied it and worked her magic to include it in the calendar.”
A sense of wonder furled around her still-expanding heart. He’d valued this part of her enough to include it in the calendar.
