Epilogue

One Year Later...

“He has your eyes,” I say. “Dark. Soulful. Deep.”

Calee looks at me and smiles. “Think so?”

I nod. “Definitely.”

We're standing next to the crib in the room we'd converted into a nursery looking down at her son – our son – Caleb. He's a beautiful baby. Happy, always smiling, doesn't cry very often – I like to think it's because he feels secure. Because he knows he's loved.

He's a few months old now and is growing like the proverbial weed. And I have to say that motherhood suits Calee. She has a glow about her and a new energy. She's excited and hopeful. Optimistic.

It's still sometimes hard for me to believe that a little more than a year ago, when I met her, she was lost. Looked empty. Looked like she had nothing to live for. Hell, it looked like she might not really want to live at all.

But that was then and this is now. She has the love of two men – myself and Caleb – to help keep her going.

“How did I get so lucky?” she asks. “To not only have such a perfect baby, but to have such a perfect husband?”

“I don't know,” I say. “I ask myself that same question all the time – how did you get so lucky?”

She giggles and slaps my arm playfully. I understand the sentiment though. I often wonder how I got so lucky to have stumbled onto somebody like Calee. My life was forever altered the night I met her – it just took me a little while to realize it.

Calee definitely helped fill whatever dark void existed in me. She completes me in ways I never knew I need to be completed. She makes me want to be a better man. A better doctor. A better husband. Because of her, I feel genuinely happy and content in my life. Maybe for the first time ever, I'm at peace.

“Good morning.”

We turn as Alma steps into the room and stands next to us at the crib.

“Good morning,” Calee and I say in unison.

“How did you sleep?” I ask.

“Like a baby,” Alma says and then giggles as if she just realized what she'd said.

Alma is living on the third floor of the house now. We hired her just a couple of days ago to help with Caleb. It was a decision that genuinely pained Calee – she doesn't like being away from our little boy. She wants to mother him around the clock – but she's got other things going on. Other priorities.

She looks at me and I recognize the uncertainty in her eyes. I recognize it because I've seen it a million times and we've had the discussion we're about to have the same number of times before.

“Yes, this is a good idea,” I say. “No, you're not a bad mother.”

Alma smiles. “You're not a bad mother at all, Calee,” she says. “You're one of the most attentive, caring mothers I've ever seen.”

“See? Listen to Alma,” I say. “She's wise beyond her years.”

“Then why do I feel like I'm abandoning him?” she asks.

“Because you're used to being around him twenty-four/seven,” I say. “And because you are a very good mother.”

Shortly after we got back from Wyoming, Calee took the test and earned her GED. She was bursting with pride the day she got the results. But given that she was becoming very pregnant, she knew she needed to wait until after the baby was born to do anything with it. To fill her time, she poured every ounce of energy she had into the baby.

But now, Caleb had been born and is a part of our world. She'd nursed him and cared for him exclusively for a while, and now it's time for her to do what she always dreamed of doing – getting her college education. I've been encouraging her to take the plunge for a little while, so I'm beyond ecstatic to see that she's finally doing it.

And I'm not going to let her back out of it because she's getting cold feet about it.

“Honey,” I say. “Caleb is in excellent hands. And it's not like you're going to be gone for weeks at a time. You'll be gone a few hours a day. At most. And after that, you are free to come back home and smother our child to your heart's content.”

She laughs. “I do not smother him.”

I shrug. “Yeah, you kinda smother.”

“I do not!”

“Alma?” I say. “Back me up here. Does Calee smother our baby?”

With Caleb in her arms – and her studiously not looking at us – Alma carries him over to the doorway and then turns back to us, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

“I'm not going to touch that one with a ten-foot pole,” she says and laughs. “That question is a no-win situation for me.”

“I'll take your abstention from answering as a positive response,” I call after her.

Calee steps to me, taking my hand in hers. “Maybe I should wait,” she says. “Maybe the time isn't right and –”

“Sweetheart, the time is never going to be absolutely perfect,” I say. “There's always going to be something that comes up. You need to just take the bull by the horns and do it. I believe in you, Calee. You can do this.”

“But it's such a –”

I hold up my hand to cut her off. “The time is as perfect as it's going to get,” I say. “We have excellent care for Caleb when you're not here. And you have some goals and dreams you want to pursue. It's time you start thinking about what you want to do.”

She says nothing but I can see the conflict on her face – she's torn between wanting to be a good mother and chasing down her dreams.

“One thing you need to understand,” I say. “Is that you can be both – mother of the year and a college student. Especially since we have Alma here to back you up.”

“You're right,” she says, nodding. “In my head, I know you're right. I'm just scared.”

I take her by the shoulders gently and look deeply into her eyes. “It's understandable. Starting off on a new venture – especially one you dreamed about for so long can be scary. Intimidating,” I say. “But you also need to know that you are one of the most courageous people I've ever met. To have lived through all you lived through – to have endured what you did – that takes a steel spine that ninety-nine percent of people don't have. There is more strength and courage in you than in most people I meet, Calee. This? School? It's nothing. You got this. You got this easy.”

“What if I fail?” she asks softly, looking up at me with fear in her dark eyes.

“You're not going to fail,” I say. “You're going to excel. I know you are. You're way smarter than you give yourself credit for, you know. But also, you can't fail unless you quit or you don't try to begin with. Those are the only two ways you can fail. Anything else is just a setback.”

Her smile is wide and her eyes are shimmering with tears as she steps forward and embraces me tightly.

“Thank you,” she says softly. “For everything. Especially the pep talk.”

“You're going to be amazing.”

We stand, holding one another, for a few more moments, relishing the feel of one another. Finally, she steps back and looks me in the eye, giving me a nod. Picking her backpack up off the floor by the crib, she slings it over her shoulder.

“I'm off then,” she says.

“You're going to kill it.”

Her smile melts my heart. “Again, how did I get so lucky?”

“I really don't know,” I say. “But you most certainly did.”

She slaps me on the arm again, laughing. She gives me a quick, chaste kiss and turns to go. Pausing at the door, she turns back to me.

“I love you, Eric Galloway.”

“And I love you, Calee,” I say. “More than you can possibly ever understand.”

THE END