Chapter 13

“Darren, really,” Sherry said, getting Gabriel’s bottle out of the microwave, “we don’t have to go anywhere. Seriously. You said you were tired, and I might be too. Gabriel was a handful today. You know he’s up more and anxious to get out of the crib. Really, we don’t have to do it tonight.”

“Yes we do, yes we do,” Darren said, nodding his head. He placed his hands on Sherry’s shoulder. “I know I had some stuff come up suddenly and all that, but when I get done with this little meeting, I still want to go out to eat then to the movies.”

Sherry smiled. She admitted to herself she had been looking forward to her first official “date” with Darren. Since finding out the DNA results a month ago, their relationship flourished even more – like flowers anxious to thrive again after a strong Spring frost. “Okay, okay,” she said, rushing back over to the high chair in the dining room. “Just let me know when you’re done. I’m about to give Gabriel this bottle then I’ll start to getting dressed.”

Darren quickly kissed Sherry on her forehead then turned around and headed for the foyer, where the head of the property management company waited. She and Darren discussed local regulations that would be changing how they handled certain disputes with tenants. Shortly after Darren saw Ms. Newman out then closed the door, his phone rang. Sherry had just gotten to the top of the steps. He stepped back into the foyer to take the call. It was his brother John – a call which coincidentally came on the same day Darren and Sherry had been talking about ways to go about telling their families. They both anticipated different reactions, and neither of them were anxious to see them. They were rather content with their secret relationship since finding out the results. Darren knew, though, that sooner or later, he would definitely have to tell his family. His mother Joan was already planning another trip down to Ft. Wayne. And this time she would be bringing his father, who still hadn’t seen Gabriel.

“Hey, wassup man?” Darren asked.

“Hey, Darren,” John said. “What you up to tonight? I was texting you yesterday, but you got busy or something.”

“Yeah,” Darren said, looking up the steps. He specifically remembered that he hadn’t been answering John’s texts was because he and Sherry had a picnic out in the backyard with Gabriel. Time slipped away; Darren enjoyed not being accessible to the outside world even if only for a few hours out of the day. “Yeah, we were out back having a picnic kind of thing, man. Sorry, but I wasn’t trying to ignore you or anything like that.”
“Oh, okay,” John said, as if he were confused. “Having a picnic out back? Who is we? You and Gabriel?”

Darren glanced back up the stairs, knowing that since sooner or later he would have to tell somebody in his family, he might as well start off by telling his brother John. Whatever his reaction was, his father’s would be twice the force; his mother ten times. “Me, Sherry, and Gabriel. Man, me and Sherry have a thing going. Well, it’s more than the thing. We found out that Gabriel is actually our child from the night be hooked up after meeting at that bar downtown.”

“What?” John said. “Dude, what the hell are you saying? It’s you all’s child? You went and adopted that child, Darren. And you hired her as a nanny. She was a bartender before this, you said.”

Darren paced around the open space in his living room as he explained the sequence of events leading up to finding out such a thing. He started with the one-night stand, which John had already been let in on, then continued on to hiring her as a nanny. He revealed the words of their mother and Aunt Carol; he talked about Sherry’s seemingly natural bond with Gabriel had his mind going crazy. “I even pulled out a picture from the photo album and Mom was right. Gabriel really does look like me...but definitely has some of Sherry in him. Dude, I can’t believe this stuff.”

Darren finished up by talking about how he and Sherry had gone to get DNA testing done. He was the father to Gabriel, and Sherry was the birth mother. By the time he finished with the story, he’d been sitting down in the foyer. Sherry called down saying that she was getting dressed. Gabriel’s baby bag was already prepared, sitting at the bottom of the steps. Darren got up to pull the bag closer to the door. Dressed in brown pants and a button-up white shirt, he made his way down the hallway and turned into the kitchen. John opened up about how he felt about the situation.

“Man, I can’t freakin’ believe this,” John said, rather sternly. “You cannot be serious, man. You banged some bartender one of the nights you were in town and got her pregnant? Didn’t ever find out about it. Then you move there, adopt a kid, then hire a nanny and it happens to be her.” He groaned. “And now, come to find out by some freaky coincidence, she happens to be the mother who gave the kid up and you’re the dad? Man, am I getting this right?”

Darren stood just inside of the kitchen and stared off into the distance, blankly. Gabriel, who’d been making laughing noises while smearing some kind of sauce around on his high-chair table, faded into the background. The positivity Darren had been riding on since he and Sherry came back from getting the results suddenly dimmed. He picked up on his brother’s discontent. “John, man… What are you saying? What are you trying to say?”

“I’m not trying to say anything,” John said. “I’m only saying that it sounds like you’ve gone off and done some dumb stuff….like you always have. It would always be you. You know after a while, that chick is going to start thinking and probably take you for everything you got.”

Darren’s heart thumped in his chest as he took in his brother’s words. In some ways, it was hard to believe and to hear coming from him. After all, his very own brother had been the main person saying that considering marriage wasn’t a bad thing. Instantly, Darren recalled sitting across from his brother in the winery and how much of their conversation centered around the idea of getting married. And now he was talking like this? Sure, his relationship with Sherry hadn’t exactly started off in the most conventional way, but he certainly didn’t have any regrets about it. Darren approached the high chair and forced a smile at Gabriel, sticking his finger into the baby’s tiny fist.

“Man, you know that’s how I was thinking,” Darren said. “But this...this...man, this is something different.”

“You don’t even know her like that,” John scolded. “So now what? You think you’re going to go and have a nice little family with this woman. Is that what you’re thinking, Darren? Really, man, I hope you’re not that stupid. Look at why she’s there...how she even came across her son to begin with.”

“Huh? What do you mean, John?” Darren asked. “Man, why don’t you just come out and say what you have to say.”

“What I’m saying is,” John started, “that I think you’re crazy if you think this is the woman you’re going to marry. Did she even try to reach out to you when she found out she was pregnant? You said that she admitted to getting pregnant shortly after you guys hooked up.”

Darren resented John’s insinuations toward Sherry, who he didn’t even know himself. “Man, well, no. I know I gave her my card and stuff, but maybe she lost it. She went through some hard times and has been trying to get back on her feet.”

“Hmm, hmm,” John said. “Well, now she’s definitely found her meal ticket. Look man, I don’t think you should be trying to go any further with this chick and build anything with her. I mean, look at the situation. She gave up her child for adoption, to wind up only God knows where, and didn’t even bother to try to get in touch with any of the possible fathers, it sounds like. Then, she applies for a job as a nanny and just so happens to find her child. Before this job, was she even looking for him?”

“Man, Sherry’s really been through a lot,” Darren said to his brother. “I know she’s made some mistakes, but man, when I look at her everyday with Gabriel, I know how she feels. You should see the way she looks into his eyes. You should’ve seen the way she came to me and confessed that for days she’d been thinking Gabriel could be the baby boy she’d given up for adoption. It eats her heart up, trust me.”

“Darren, see here you go,” John said. “Making excuses again about somebody who clearly isn’t in your best interest.”

“In my best interest?” Darren asked. His nostrils flared. “Man, I’m an adult and just because you’re finally happily married after two failed attempts,” he coughed, “doesn’t suddenly make you some kind of relationship guru, man. Seriously, I was just thinking that I should let my big brother know.”
“Man, you need to be careful,” John warned. “Sometimes, you do things like you’re not a man of means. You know women target us more. And now that she knows she is the mother, she might start playing certain games. Darren, it’s not like this chick has anything to lose.”

Darren balled his fist and paced around the kitchen. He’d done practically three laps around the island. At times, he looked up toward the ceiling while presenting his defense; other times he leaned over the island, struggling to believe the level of anxiety and suspicion his brother John threw over Sherry’s name. Darren had just been about to open his mouth when he heard Sherry step off of the last step in the foyer. Tonight would be their first official date night...and Darren wasn’t going to let his judgmental brother ruin it. The bond between he and Sherry was something probably nobody else in the world would ever understand. After all, the circumstances under which the two met one another were unlike any to probably ever happen anywhere in the world.

“So, have you told Mom and Dad, Darren?” John asked after finishing part of his rant. “You know Mom is going to flip. You have a...a baby-mama.”

Darren slammed his palm onto the kitchen counter, grinding his teeth. Soon enough, he realized he had nothing more to say to John. He held the phone away from his face, looked at the screen, then pressed END CALL. The screen went dark as he pressed the phone down into his pocket.

Sherry approached the kitchen doorway. “Everything okay?” She noticed Darren looked a bit flustered.

Darren nodded then smiled. He looked into Sherry’s eyes – into the eyes of the first woman in a long time to really steal his heart and hold it delicately in her hands. “Yeah, everything is just fine.” He walked over to her and kissed her softly on her lips. “Really, just fine.”

Together, they pulled Gabriel out of his seat. Darren carried the bag and called the daycare to make sure the staff would be ready for Gabriel when they arrived as they headed out the door. Within twenty minutes, they had dropped Gabriel off. Fifteen minutes after that, Darren pulled his MKZ up in front of Valentina’s, an Italian restaurant in a hip, cultural neighborhood. Little did his brother John know, much less Sherry, Darren had been giving some serious thought to his relationship with Sherry since finding out the results. Whatever it was about her laid his anxieties about marriage to rest. Taking the risks that come with marriage? Sherry sure seemed like a good bet.
Sherry glanced over at Darren when he pulled into the parking spot. Life seemed so different now...in ways she just couldn’t come to grips with and understand. The way Darren looked at her made her heart melt. Even though they came from two different worlds, their souls seemed to beat to the same music. There were moments Sherry would have to sit in the small sitting room attached to the master bedroom and think about what kind of dream she’d been living in. Now, she had the chance to be with the baby she gave up for adoption and look into his eyes everyday. Darren, his father and her boss, strangely, turned out to be everything she ever wanted in a man.

As they walked down the block to the restaurant, Sherry’s glanced at her reflection in closed-up, dark storefront windows. She couldn’t help but to smile. Who would’ve thought this would ever be me? Walking down the street, going to some Italian restaurant, arm in arm with a man like Darren with Gabriel being presented with a life that would’ve been out of reach for herself. Pushing through emotions only a woman wasn’t easy, but she was moving passed it. Sherry held her head high as she stepped into the restaurant, Darren holding the door. I just gotta focus on looking forward...not behind.

***

“Oh God, you cannot be serious,” Darren said, shaking his head as he and Sherry stepped back out into the night air. “Sherry, I don’t know about that.”

“No, seriously, Darren,” Sherry said, wishing Darren would take her seriously. “That’s something I really wanna do. Seriously. Ever since I was like a teenager, I wanted to drive all the way to Alaska.”

Darren rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Yeah, well, not me. I didn’t even like driving from Chicago to here. It was so flat and boring. So many corn fields. It’s amazing corn isn’t free in Indiana. There’s so much of it.”

Sherry playfully shoved Darren toward the curb and laughed.

“Hold up, are you trying to kill me?” Darren asked, smiling. “Look at how women treat men. I take you out to a nice dinner then we get outside and you’re trying to push me out into the street.”

“Oh calm down,” Sherry said, wrapping her arm around Darren’s arm. “And don’t go trying to change the subject. Seriously, you asked me what is one thing I’ve always wanted to do...and that one this is drive to Alaska.” She took a deep breath and smiled, tilting her eyes up toward the starry night sky. “Just imagine what you would see. The different cities you would pass through...the mountains, the lakes. Maybe even stop by Yellow Stone or Mount Rushmore or something like that.”

“You’re crazy,” Darren said. “When I think about a drive like that, I think about all the dead zones where you won’t be able to use your cell phone. Going through all those areas of nothing...just nothing and nothing and nothing and more nothing, mile after mile after mile.”

“Don’t think about it like that,” Sherry insisted. “It’s not nothing you’re passing through. It’s nature. It’s beautiful.”

Darren scoffed. “Oh God… You’re one of those people. I don’t mind nature, Sherry. I really don’t. But to go driving through it for several days, ‘cause once you get that far up north and out west, those cities start getting further and further apart.”

“Exactly,” Sherry said, leaning the side of her head into Darren’s shoulder. “And you get to see the virtually untouched parts of nature. Wow, so you really don’t wanna go to Alaska?”

“Hell yeah, I would go to Alaska,” Darren said. “I have no problem with that part...But I’m just not driving that far. You have to be crazy.”

Darren and Sherry walked arm and arm down the block. Sherry had started to pull away from Darren when they came up on his car. Much to her surprise, Darren continued on walking straight, as if his car wasn’t parked right there. “What are you doing?” Sherry asked. “Darren, the car is right here.”

“I know where the car is,” Darren said, “but who said I was ready to run home so quick. You wanna go on a walk?”
Sherry shrugged her shoulders. “Sure, why not,” she said, looking into Darren’s eyes. “I guess so.”

Sherry continued walking down the block with her arm wrapped around Darren’s. When they came to the corner, Darren led them to the right. They were now heading north, only four or five blocks from the river. Sherry looked up at Darren and giggled. He held his head so high and confident as he guided her down the sidewalk.

“What are you laughing at?” Darren asked. “What? What happened?”

“Oh nothing,” Sherry said. Again, she leaned her head against Darren’s shoulder. “I’m just noticing how mighty good you’re getting at getting your way around. You’ve been here a while, but not that long. You’re walking around here like you’re from here.”

Darren laughed. “Okay… Well, I guess I’ll take that as a compliment. I guess...”

“It is,” Sherry said. She felt safe in Darren’s company...safer than she’d felt in a very long time.

“Yeah, I guess I am learning my way around here kind quickly,” Darren said. “Then again, this place isn’t that big like that.”
“I bet it’s not to you,” Sherry said. “I could only imagine having to learn my way around Chicago and how long that’s gotta take. I couldn’t imagine having to do somewhere like that. Fort Wayne was enough me…. It’s the big city around here, especially compared to my town.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Darren said.

“So,” Sherry said, looking forward as the street dipped under a viaduct. A train chugged along, the track passing between office buildings, “where are we headed?”

“Up this street right here,” Darren said, nodding forward.

Sherry turned and looked ahead. The street dead ended after the next stoplight at a parking lot for a government building. The park was beyond that. If he’s going to the park, why don’t he just say we’re going to the park?

Darren did just what Sherry thought he was doing. Within a few minutes, they walked into Headwaters Park. The trail curved away from the street and deeper into the park. The tranquility of it all, mixed with the perfect night air, was so relaxing. Rushing sounds of the nearby river soothes their minds and mixed well with the few glasses of wine they had at Valentina’s. Crickets and other bugs chirped and buzzed in the background.

“So, do you think you’re going to stay here permanently?” Sherry asked.

Darren bit his bottom lip in thought. “Depends,” he said, glancing back at the high rises sticking out above the trees and shorter buildings.

“On what?” Sherry asked. “What does it depend on? How business goes here or what?”

Darren shrugged. “Well, I don’t know, really. I’ve always been so conscious of how I answer questions like that. There’s a big difference now of course… We have Gabriel to worry about.”

We? Sherry thought. He said we even though, technically, I’m still just the nanny. Sherry recalled signing over her rights at the adoption agency. “Yeah, that’s definitely something to think about,” she admitted. “Once he gets to a certain age, you definitely don’t want to keep uprooting him and having him learn somewhere new. I had a cousin growing up whose parents were in the military. We were kinda close...or at least as close as we could be for someone who always moved around. When she would come to town, we would hang out and talk and all that. And she would talk about how she felt like she never had a home. I couldn’t really relate, but now I can kinda see why.”

“Yeah, absolutely,” Darren said. “I like Fort Wayne, I do. But there are some other questions that would have to be answered before I would actually decide to live here permanently.”
“Yeah, you have property and that kind of thing here,” Sherry said. “I imagine you would have to live close by a place if you’re trying to do the landlord thing.”
“Well...actually,” Darren said. “Not necessarily. My dad has properties he’d probably only seen once, if that. I remember when we would go on road trips growing up and stuff, we would stop in these odd little towns in the middle of nowhere and not necessarily close to the highway or whatever major road we were on. We would always be asking Dad why in the hell we were going out of the way to those places. Next thing you know, we were sitting outside of properties in tiny towns we’d never even thought of while Dad was inside or walking around the outside. So, not really. It’s ideal to be nearby, but you don’t really have to be. Plus, if I were to move, it would probably be in the Midwest. A lot of my family’s business is in Chicago and I really don’t wanna be too far away from that.”

“Okay, I get it, I get it,” Sherry said, nodding. “So, then, what question would have to have answered?” The trail slopped down a bit, lights winding at its sides. When Sherry glanced back, traffic on the street disappeared beyond the trees and bushes. Ahead, the trail came close to the river. Two benches, on either side of the trail, popped into view “So, then what questions would have to be answered for you to decide if you want to stay here or not? Come on, spill. Don’t hold back.”

Darren chuckled, glancing down at Sherry suggestively. Sherry couldn’t help but to wonder what was going through this man’s mind. “Well,” he said, “actually one is one that you would have to answer.”

“Me?” Sherry asked, surprised. “What do I have to do with you and your business and whether or not you’re gonna move and all that? You’re not gonna have to ask me what I think you should move to. I’m just a small-town girl myself… My biggest move is coming here when I was ready to break free or whatever from my family.”
Darren chuckled. He then startled Sherry by stepped in front of her then turning to face her. They stood only a few feet away from an illuminating lamp light. A breeze whipped by; the canopy of trees spreading over the park’s trails raddled. The sound was easily comparable to a light applause. In the distance, beyond the dark shadowed areas of the park, rollerbladers and runners made their way around.

Darren pressed the side of his finger into the side of Sherry’s face. “You are so beautiful,” he said. “I really do mean that.” He looked into her eyes as if he were looking into her soul.

Sherry smiled. “Thank you,” she said. The way this man looked at her nearly paralyzed her. If she even wanted to run off, her legs wouldn’t allow it to happen. Her feet would drag like heavy anchors caught in rocks and scraping against the bottom of the sea.

“I love you, Sherry,” Darren said, grabbing her left hand. “I really do.”

Sherry let out a deep breath then responded. “I love you too, Darren.” She giggled. “This really has been a crazy thing to happen.”

Darren chuckled. “Yeah, I think about that sometimes. But you know what they say…. Everything happens for a reason.”

“Yeah,” Sherry said. She knew with time and love, some of the feelings she’d been dealing with would become easier to manage and morph into motivation. “I guess everything does happen for a reason.”
“So, you asked me what is the one question I need answered before I could ever decided if it was going to stay in Fort Wayne permanently?” Darren smiled then his eyebrows raised.

“Yeah?” Sherry said, squinting a bit.

Sherry lifted her hands to cover her mouth as she watched something she certainly hadn’t been expecting anytime soon in her life. She nearly fell back as Darren got down on one knee and pulled a velvet-looking black ring box out of his pocket. Sherry’s eyes swelled with tears of joy. Never in a million years did she think her life would take the kinds of turns it’d been taking lately. This was a like a long dream – an entrancing fairy tale – that kept getting better.

“What are you doing, Darren?” Sherry asked, not believing her eyes. “Darren? Darren?” She didn’t know what else to say; she felt like she had to say something. “Darren, really?”

Darren got comfortable on his knee then tilted his head up and looked into Sherry’s eyes, all while holding her left hand firmly. She wiped tears from her eyes and sniffled. “Well, this is the question I need an answer to before I decide if I’m gonna stay here or not, Sherry.”
“Okay,” Sherry said, struggling to breathe. “Okay...okay. Yes, what is the question?”
Darren took a deep breathe. The wind rustled his hair a bit; the lamp light caused his eyes to glisten. “Sherry, I know we didn’t exactly meet in the most conventional way. Honestly, this has been one hell of a ride for me too. And if I had to do it all over again, I would because of where we got to.” He looked at Sherry nodding. “Ever since meeting you at the bar, I saw something in you that I hadn’t seen in any woman in a long time. I love you Sherry, I really do. And, yes, I had to deal with other kinds of anxieties. I admit I did, but I didn’t get this far in life without taking any risks. So, I wanted to know… Would you do the honor of being my wife?”

Sherry’s heart thumped. Her disbelief had gone to another level. She sobbed with tears watching Darren open the ring box. When he held the ring up and out, toward Sherry, the diamond sparkled in the light. Sherry held her hand out even further as Darren lifted the ring out of the box. She spread her fingers, expectantly.

“Oh my God,” Sherry said, nodding her head. “Oh my God, oh my God.”

Darren still looked into Sherry’s eyes. He chuckled. “So, are you gonna answer my question or not?”

Sherry’s giggled, realizing that she’d been frozen not only in time, but also in thought. “Yes, Darren,” she said, jumping up and down. “Yes, I’ll be your wife. I’ll marry you. Yes.”
Darren chuckled then slid the 22-carat ringer onto her ring finger. He leaned forward and kissed Sherry’s hand as he lifted up off of his knee. Before he could stand completely upright, Sherry fell forward. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she kissed him like a waiting woman kissed her husband upon returning from being deployed. There they stood, in a passionate embrace, in the park and next to a glowing light. A strong wind whipped through the park. The tree branches and leaves applauded emphatically while the river cheered on their love, rushing downstream with noisy waves crashing the rocky banks.