Epilogue
Chance
Five Years Later
“Nat?” I called, from the balcony. “If we don’t leave soon, we’ll be late. The dinner cruise leaves the port at seven o’clock.”
“I know,” I heard her muffled voice call back to me. “Give me five more minutes.”
I smiled and turned back to the view. It was an idyllic summer day, and Paris had never looked more tranquil or more colorful. Natalie still loved the Parisian winters, but for me, nothing compared to the warmth and brightness of summer. It was the third year in a row that we found ourselves back in the city of love.
After our first trip to Paris, back when I was still Natalie’s teacher, we hadn’t revisited the country for three years. When we finally did return, it was on our honeymoon. After that, we had made it a tradition and come back for our first and second anniversaries.
“Natalie,” I called again.
“I’m ready, I’m ready,” she said, as she emerged from the bathroom.
“Wow,” I whistled. “You look beautiful.”
She laughed and did a little twirl for my benefit. She was wearing a thin, silk dress with an open back in a fantastic navy blue that made her blue eyes look a little lighter. Her hair was shorter now, falling to just above her shoulders in a stylish bob.
“Ready to go?” she asked.
We started our walk down to the pier where our boat cruise was scheduled to leave. It was a fifteen-minute walk, but both Natalie and I loved walking the streets of Paris. On the way, Natalie kept getting distracted with all the little corner stalls and shops by the street side.
“Tommy would love that,” she said, pointing to an intricate model of an old-fashioned tricycle. “Let’s stop and get it for him.”
I glanced at my watch and smiled. “All right.” I nodded. “You have five minutes.”
Except five minutes was never five minutes with Natalie. She kept seeing more items she wanted to purchase, and soon I was following her around the cramped little shop trying to rush her along.
“What do you think about this?” she asked, dangling a pretty star-shaped necklace in front of my face.
“I think we’re going to be standing at the port, watching our dinner leave without us.”
She shot me a stare. “Don’t you think Sophie would love this necklace?”
“You’ve already bought Sophie a gift,” I reminded her. “And anyway, this is our anniversary trip. We’re not really expected to bring anyone presents.”
“I like getting everyone presents,” Natalie said, turning back to the arrangement of necklaces. “Besides, you know Tommy and Annie will expect something.”
“That’s because you spoil them,” I said.
She rolled her eyes and ignored me. “Annie’s birthday’s coming up, too… We have to get her something extra special.”
“See?” I said. “There you go again, spoiling them.”
“Tommy’s my only nephew, and Annie’s my only niece,” Natalie defended herself. “It’s my job to spoil them.”
I sighed. “Fine, how about this for her birthday?” I suggested, pointing to a large ten-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle.
Natalie looked at me as if I’d gone crazy. “She’s turning four, not forty.”
I laughed. “I’m going to turn forty by the time you’re finished here.”
She laughed. “Okay, okay, I’m done,” she said, heading towards the counter to pay.
We got to our dinner cruise just in time and were ushered in by a waiter who led us to the private cabin we had requested. The moment we sat down, I felt myself relax. I remembered the first time we had sat down to a dinner like this. It was during that trip that I realized that I had just unwittingly fallen in love for the first time in my life.
I reached out for Natalie’s hand in the same moment she reached for mine, and I realized she was experiencing the same sentimental feelings I was.
“Do you remember the first time we were here?”
“Of course.” I nodded. “It was winter.”
“That was over five years ago,” she said, shaking her head. “I was only twenty-one. I can’t believe it sometimes… It feels like life’s been going by so fast there’s barely any time for me to sit back and savor it.”
“You haven’t been able to savor it?”
“Well…not as much as I would like to,” Natalie corrected herself. “It’s just that, after, I graduated we moved in together. Then we spent that summer traveling…you remember?”
“Like it was yesterday,” I nodded. “A week in Indonesia, Thailand, and China. Then it was Belarus, Finland, and Sweden.”
“That trip was so exhilarating. It was life-defining for me,” Natalie said.
“Was it?” I asked. “What about it was defining for you?”
“I suppose I realized that my life had just begun and even if I never got to travel again for as long as I lived, it wouldn’t matter. Because I’d have you.”
I smiled. “I never thought I’d love anything more than I loved traveling,” I nodded, understanding where she was coming from. “Then I met you.”
She smiled. “After that trip, we got back home and settled into domestic life.”
“You say that like it’s boring.”
“It wasn’t for me.”
“It wasn’t for me, either,” I assured her. “I had as much fun living a mundane life of repetition with you as I did hopping from one country to the next.”
“Really?” she asked, with one raised eyebrow.
“Really,” I nodded firmly.
“Even that first year when I went through three different jobs and kept having neurotic breakdowns because I thought I’d never find anything I enjoyed doing?”
“Even then,” I nodded.
“Even the second year when I went back to school for my masters?” she asked.
“Even then.”
“Even the third year when I started working at the university?”
“Are you kidding?” I said. “I was looking forward to working in the same place as you. It certainly made the commute a lot more interesting for me.”
“You’re sweet.”
“No, I’m honest.”
Natalie leaned forward and kissed my hand. “That was the year you proposed to me,” she reminded me, in a soft voice.
“I remember,” I said.
“Do you see?” she pointed out. “That’s why life went by so fast. We moved in together; we started traveling. When we got back, you started work, and I started hunting for jobs. Then I went back to school and immediately after, I started working at the university, too. You proposed to me that year and three months later we were married.”
“Do you regret not having a longer engagement?” I asked. “Or a bigger wedding?”
“Not for a second,” she assured me. “I always wanted a small wedding, and once you proposed to me, all I wanted was to be your wife. I remember feeling those three months like they were years.”
“I felt the same way,” I nodded. “If it weren’t for the fact that our families would have been devastated, I would have just suggested we elope.”
Natalie laughed. “My parents would never have forgiven us. And neither would Sophie and the kids.”
“True,” I nodded. “Still, it was a good wedding.”
“It was perfect,” she smiled, and I could tell from her eyes that she was seeing that day unfold. “I looked through our wedding album just before we left for the airport.”
“I should look through it when we get back,” I said. “To be honest, that day is a blur to me now. There’s only one thing I remember with perfect clarity.”
“The food?” Natalie teased.
“You.” I smiled.
“Me?” she said, pretending to blush. “Was I really that beautiful?”
“More than beautiful,” I said. “I can still see you, walking down that wooden aisle towards me on the beach. That dress made you look like some ethereal creature from my dreams, and I realized just how lucky I was at that moment.”
She leaned forward and kissed me gently on the lips. “I’ve never really thanked you,” she said.
“Thanked me?” I said, with a confused frown. “For what?”
“For the life you’ve given me,” Natalie said simply. “It’s more than I ever imagined it would be. It’s bigger and brighter and happier than anything I could have achieved alone. I was born to be your wife, and every year we’re together, that becomes more and more apparent.”
I took her hand and kissed it tenderly. “I should be the one thanking you,” I said. “Before you, I had adventure but there was no meaning tied to it. But now… Now, I have a purpose. My life, my work, and my travels all have a purpose because you’re standing next to me.”
She smiled. “I feel the same way.”
“Good.” I nodded. “Because there’s something I wanted to discuss with you.”
Natalie’s eyebrows rose curiously. “This sounds serious.”
“I suppose it is.”
“Should I be worried?”
I laughed nervously. “I don’t know… I don’t think you should be.”
“Okay,” she said. “Now I really am nervous.”
“Don’t be,” I said, reaching across the table and taking both her hands in mine. “I’m just trying to introduce a new adventure to our lives.”
“A new adventure?” she repeated. “You want to plan another trip?”
“Uh… not exactly.”
Natalie smiled. “Darling, am I mistaken or do you actually look a little flushed?”
“I never thought I’d want this,” I admitted. “I always thought I was too…rigid and selfish to choose that kind of life.”
“What kind of life?”
“Sorry.” I laughed. “I know I’m talking in riddles.”
She smiled encouragingly at me. “Just come out and say it,” she said. “What do you want?”
I took a deep breath. “I think… I think I want children.”
Natalie’s eyes widened for a moment. There were a few seconds of shocked silence before she burst out laughing.
“Why is that funny?” I asked, joining in her laughter.
“It’s not,” she said. “I just… I didn’t expect that. I thought you were going to suggest something scary.”
“Well… I consider having children to be scary.”
“We’ve never really talked about kids,” Natalie said, as her tone softened into seriousness.
“No, we haven’t.”
“At one point, I was content to be a two-person family, traveling the world till we were too old to board a plane, no pets, no children, nothing to keep us tied to one place.”
“I thought that, too, at one point,” I admitted.
“What made you change your mind?”
“You did,” I told her. “Almost every single change of heart I’ve had in the last five years is linked to you. You make me feel safe and brave. You make me want things I never even realized I wanted. The only reason I want children is because you are my wife. I’ll have the best partner in the world to raise those kids with.”
“We won’t be able to travel as much when they’re young,” Natalie pointed out.
“No,” I agreed. “But having kids won’t be any less of an adventure.”
She smiled. “Well then… I suppose we should get to work as soon as possible. Making babies takes time.”
“You mean, you’re in?”
“I am completely, totally, and one hundred percent in,” she said excitedly. “Apparently, I wasn’t just born to be your wife. I was born to be the mother of your children, too.”
I was so overwhelmed that I grabbed Natalie and pulled her onto my lap. We sealed the deal with a passionate kiss and the unspoken promise that no matter what, our life together would always be an adventure.
DR. DADDY’S VIRGIN
By Claire Adams
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 Claire Adams
Allie
I could tell from the look on my mother’s face that she was not impressed with my new place. Disgusted might be a better word, or maybe that was pity; with her, it was hard to tell sometimes. We were sitting at the kitchen table, and the blueberry muffins I had picked up earlier from Brown Bag Bakery were still slightly warm. The butter was organic and local, from grass-fed cows. All the sorts of things I would’ve thought she’d appreciate. The kitchen floor had black and white tiles and glass door cabinets with little panes that made me feel like the cups and plates were outside a window, looking in on me. I chose not to share this thought with her; she’d probably tell me it was clear that thinking something like that meant I was going insane because I’d been living out in the country for too long.
“It’s so...” My mother made a face. “It’s so quiet. What on earth are you going to do with yourself up here?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been managing all right so far.”
She broke a piece off from one of the muffins, the gold bangles on her wrist jangling. “You say that now, but you’ve only been up here a week. Just wait until the newness wears off—then you’ll be crying to move back to the city, where, you know, life is actually happening. Are there any restaurants? Delivery? What happens if you don’t want to cook dinner one night, but there’s no one that will deliver because you live out here in the sticks?”
I moved up to Chapin, Maine from Boston because I couldn’t deal with city life anymore. I had never lived in a rural area like this, where the trees outnumbered both the people and the buildings, but so far, I liked it. I liked the feel of all the space around me, of the clean fresh air, of the relative quiet at night.
I’d searched on Craigslist and found my own little house, too. It was a winterized cottage, a small two-bedroom with blueberry bushes and a split rail fence. There was an overgrown garden in the back that I’d been thinking about maybe doing something with. I just liked the fact that I had a yard, even if it meant a lawn that I would have to mow. I’d never mowed a lawn before, but I didn’t care; I loved that the place was mine, that it was a dwelling not attached to any others, that I wasn’t above or below anyone.
I took a sip of my coffee and chose not to tell her a large part of the reason I had fled Boston to begin with was because I couldn’t be in her vicinity anymore. Not that I didn’t want to be around my mother, but I simply couldn’t stand being around my stepfather, Bill. It had gotten worse over the years, though my mother was somehow blind to it all. How was that possible? The few times I had tried to talk to her about it, she had gotten irrationally angry and said that I was jealous and ungrateful. That Bill had provided for us over the years—more than just provided for us, allowed us to live a very well-off existence in a Beacon Hill brownstone—and that I couldn’t seem to appreciate the fact that there were probably a million other girls who would be willing to trade places with me in a heartbeat.
Bill, for his part, always gave me this wounded look whenever my mother was around, but when we were alone (which I tried to make sure never happened), that wounded look would change to something more predatory, though he hadn’t tried to make any moves on me since that night when I was 15.
“You just wait,” my mother said. “Once the novelty of this place wears off, you’ll be—” She stopped and straightened, looking out the window. “Now who is that?” she said.
My next door neighbor had just stepped outside. The houses in this part of town weren’t right on top of each other, but they were close enough that friendly neighborhood interaction was a requirement.
“I assume that’s one of my neighbors,” I said.
My mother craned her neck, squinting. “He’s very handsome. You haven’t met him yet?”
“No.”
“I’m surprised he hasn’t come over to introduce himself.”
“I think he’s pretty busy. He’s a doctor.”
“A doctor?” She sounded surprised, like it was unheard of for a doctor to live anywhere but a bustling metropolis. “He looks young to be a doctor. How do you know he’s a doctor if you’ve never met him?”
“My other neighbor, Diane, told me. I have met her.”
“Well.” My mother picked up the paper napkin and dabbed at the corners of her mouth. She stood up. “No time like the present.”
“Mom—” I started, but it was too late, she was already pushing out the side door, striding across the yard, her blue Jimmy Choos stabbing the lawn as she went.
“Shit,” I muttered as I stood up to follow. It would be easy to hide in here, but I wanted to make sure she didn’t say something ridiculous.
By the time I caught up to her, my mother was already shaking his hand, laughing.
“Allie,” she said. “This is Cole.”
“Hey,” he said, extending a hand to me. Up close, he was extremely good-looking—almost uncomfortably so—but I just pasted a smile on my face and shook his hand. My stepfather was good-looking too, and the majority of my childhood I’d watched the way women had fallen over themselves around him. I imagined that people did the same for Cole, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to be one of them.
“Nice to meet you,” I said.
My mother beamed. “Allie just moved in.”
“Yeah, we noticed that the For Rent sign had been taken down,” Cole said. “Sorry that we haven’t been over to introduce ourselves yet, but things have been kind of crazy this past week.” He smiled, exposing a row of perfectly white, perfectly straight teeth.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I’ve been pretty busy, too.” Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my mother’s smile faltering—he had said we—but before she could inquire about a wife or a girlfriend, a little boy was suddenly there, weaving around us like an overexcited puppy.
“Oh!” my mother said, stepping back. “What—I mean, who is this?”
“This is Declan.” Cole squatted down so he was at Declan’s level. “Declan, these are our new neighbors. This is Allie and...” He looked at my mom. “I’m sorry, what did you say your name was again?”
“Jen.”
“And her mom, Jen.”
Declan, with big blue eyes and shaggy, light brown hair, grinned up at us. “Hi,” he said.
“I’m not a new neighbor,” my mother said. They both looked at her in confusion. “Just Allie is. I’m only visiting. I’ll be returning to the city later today.”
“I go to preschool,” Declan said.
“You do?” I asked. “How old are you?”
“Four.”
“What preschool do you go to?” I was going to be starting my new job on Monday at the Learning Center, which was a preschool the next town over.
“The Learning Center,” Declan said proudly.
“Well, isn’t that something!” my mother said. “That’s where Allie is going to be working. That’s the whole reason she moved to this town to begin with—because they offered her a job! Not that there aren’t plenty of teaching opportunities in Boston, either.”
“They’re not really interested in hearing about that, Mom,” I said. “Anyway, it was nice to meet you both, and it sounds like I’ll be seeing you soon, Declan.”
“Yeah, great meeting you,” Cole said. “Sorry to rush off like this, but I’ve got to get Declan to school, and I’ve got a full day of patients.”
“So, you are a doctor,” my mother said.
Cole smiled. “Have you been inquiring about me?”
I winced inwardly. This whole first meeting was really going great.
“Diane had mentioned it,” I said quickly.
“My dad’s the best doctor,” Declan said. “I want to be a firefighter when I grow up, though.”
“That’s a very good job to pick,” I said. “Firefighters are very brave.”
“I am brave! Look, I can pick up this spider.” And he leaned down and plucked a rather scary-looking spider from the edge of the driveway. I almost jumped out of my skin just seeing the spindly legs and the black, bulbous body, but I forced a grin. “You are very brave,” I said. Instead of squashing it, like many little boys his age would have, Declan carefully walked the spider over to the front lawn and put it down. “It’s not bad if spiders get into the house,” he said. “Because then they’ll spin webs and catch other bugs, like mosquitos.”
“All right, bud, let’s say bye and get in the car,” Cole said. “It was very nice to meet you two.”
“You too,” I said, and I waved at Declan as he went over and climbed into the back seat of the car.
“He wasn’t wearing a wedding ring,” my mother said once we were back in the kitchen.
I tried not to roll my eyes. “Of course you would notice that. And just because someone isn’t wearing a wedding ring, it doesn’t mean that they’re not married.”
“I got the distinct feeling that he wasn’t, though.” She sighed. “Not that you want to get involved with a man who has a child. That’s a whole Pandora’s box that’s probably better left untouched.”
“Kind of ironic coming from someone who did exactly that,” I said, though of course she had a point. If she had never gotten involved with Bill, he never would have tried to come into my bedroom when I was a teenager.
“Allie, I don’t want you to think I’m not supportive of your decisions,” Mom said. “It’s just that I can’t help but worry about you alone up here. I mean, you’re living in a house all by yourself! What if you need help with something?”
“Like what? Opening a jar of pickles? I lived alone when I was in Boston, too, Mom, and I somehow managed just fine.” It was when I was living with her and Bill that things weren’t so great, but I didn’t bring that up.
“So what have you got planned, other than work?” my mother asked. “Not that there’s much to do around here.”
“Well, work is a pretty big one,” I said. “I definitely want to get settled into my job, and I’ll probably do a little exploring. I need to set up some appointments once my insurance goes through. I haven’t been to the dentist in like a year.”
“You’ve got good teeth. Do you floss?”
“Yes.”
“That’s more important than brushing, you know.”
“It is?”
“Absolutely. Especially as you get older. Just ask your dentist. He’ll tell you I’m right.”
“I need to make an appointment for a physical, too.”
“That’s a good idea. You definitely want to take care of your health. When was the last time you had an annual? That’s probably even more important than the dentist, you know.”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “They both seem pretty important.”
“Well. It’s more important once you’ve become sexually active...” My mother let the sentence die off, waiting to see if I would confirm or deny anything.
“Still not,” I said. “And still don’t feel like having this conversation with you, either.”
Ever since I’d turned 18 (I guess the age that my mother had decided a girl should have lost her virginity by), my mom had been pestering me about the fact that I still had not had sex. At first it had been something like a joke, something she gave me a good-natured hard time over, but now it seemed more as though she was actually concerned.
She squinted at me. “You’re getting a little old, aren’t you, Allie? There aren’t many 24-year-old virgins left in the world, you know.”
“I haven’t met the right guy, I guess.” I decided not to mention that the past couple days it had been burning when I peed. Dr. Google was telling me that it was probably a urinary tract infection, but if that was the case, I would likely need a prescription for an antibiotic.
My mother gave me a grim look. “Well, other than your neighbor over there, I wouldn’t say you’re going to have that many prospects around here.”
I was a little nervous about my first day at the Learning Center, though not as nervous as I’d been at some of my other jobs. I’d had a phone interview with Becca, the executive director, and then I’d driven up for two days to meet with the Kris, the lead teacher, and Amy, the other teacher, a short girl with thick brown hair and pretty blue eyes. They were regular, down-to-earth people who really enjoyed their work, and that made me feel at ease. The kids were all great, too, and I was looking forward to getting to know them.
The center had big windows, wide hallways, and white walls covered with student artwork. That was one of my favorite parts of working with kids this age—their imaginations were so great.
I was across the room, reading a story to a small group of girls when I saw Cole dropping off Declan. He was talking with Kris, but he looked right at me and gave a little nod. I looked back down at the book without acknowledging him, though Declan came bounding over and wriggled his way onto my lap. When I looked back over to the entrance, Cole was gone.
The first day passed quickly, as first days often do. I’d been hired as a teacher, though for today, I played more the role of assistant and observed the routines, tried to learn all the kids’ names, helped with setting up activities, and then cleaned up after them. Summer would be starting soon, but most, if not all, of the kids would be returning for the summer program.
“So how do you think your first day went?” Amy asked that afternoon, once all the kids had been picked up. We were going around the classroom, making sure there were no blocks, LEGOs, or MagnaTiles that hadn’t been put away.
“It went pretty smoothly,” I said. “Everyone here is great.”
“You did awesome,” she said. “I’m so psyched that you’re working here. Don’t get me wrong—I think the world of Becca and Kris—but it’s nice to have someone closer to my age. How old are you?”
“I’m 24.”
She grinned. “Me too! You didn’t grow up around here, though, did you?”
“No, I grew up in Boston.”
She widened her eyes. “Oh, the city! I knew it. I could just tell that you weren’t from one of these small towns. And I totally mean that as a compliment.”
I could just see my mother smirking if she had been there to overhear that comment.
“Well, thank you,” I said. “Though I moved here because I really needed to get away from the city. And you know what? I like it a lot so far.”
“It gets kind of boring. I should know—I’ve lived here my whole life. But...” She paused, grinning. “I heard you live near one of our students. Declan told me the other day. He’s very chatty and couldn’t wait to tell us that he and his dad lived next to the newest teacher here.”
“He’s adorable,” I said. “I met him the other day. He’s my next door neighbor.”
The grin widened. “So you’ve seen Cole, then.” I could tell by the sparkle in those blue eyes of hers that she had a thing for him.
“Yeah,” I said. “He seems nice, too.”
“I wouldn’t talk about this if Becca or Kris were around, and I know it’s wicked unprofessional, but I think Cole is just gorgeous. And if you think it’s wrong of me for thinking so, just tell me, and I won’t keep talking about it.”
“There’s nothing wrong with thinking someone’s hot,” I said. “I’m certainly not going to tell you otherwise.”
“So... What’s it like being his neighbor? Is he, like, out there mowing his lawn without his shirt on?”
“I’ve only talked to him that one time, actually,” I said. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
“I bet you’ll have plenty more opportunities to talk to him! I’ve bumped into him in town and stuff before.”
“So…there’s no girlfriend or anything? Declan’s mom?”
Amy shook her head. “No. And you know, I’ve heard a couple different things about what happened there; I’ve never asked him about it, obviously. That would be so weird, like, Hi, you’re here to pick up Declan, but before I let you sign him out, why don’t you tell me what the story is with his mother?” She giggled. “Talk about awkward!”
“What are some of the things you heard?” I asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
“Hmm, let’s see. I heard that Declan’s mother cheated on Cole a bunch, but she was the love of his life, so he kept taking her back, and then she finally ran off with this guy, another doctor, but older. I’ve heard different variations of that one from a couple people. I also heard that his parents, who are super well-off, didn’t like the mom because she was from a working-class family, so after she had the baby, they basically paid her off.”
I frowned. “That’s terrible. And hopefully not true.”
“Yeah, I don’t know if I believe that one. It sounds like such a soap opera or something! But it is a little weird, don’t you think? That it’s just him?”
“I don’t know,” I said, shrugging. “It’s not that weird. The single parent thing is pretty common.”
“I just mean that a guy that good-looking, you’d think he’d be with someone.”
“Just because you’re good-looking doesn’t mean you’re not a complete asshole,” I said. Amy had a slightly horrified look on her face. “I’m not saying that he’s an asshole,” I added quickly. “From what I know, he seems pretty nice. I’m just saying that being good-looking doesn’t mean you’re always going to be with someone. That’s all.”
“Right,” she said, though she gave me a funny look like she thought maybe I didn’t know what I was talking about after all.