Epilogue
Emma
One Year Later
With Kasey in Austin full time working and going to school, Daddy and I spent a lot more quiet time in the house together or out back in the yard. We were in the living room today, talking about the last week.
He’d been passing more time with Big Tom and Tex during the day and, with their help, he’d started working his land again, making enough to quit his job in town. He hadn’t been unhappy before, but I could see this was what he’d really wanted to do. After the new barn was complete, he was going to take on a few more horses, stabling them for a few folks in town for some extra money. Pete had been helping him quite a bit, too. I loved seeing that — the two men I loved most in the world working together.
Daddy shook his newspaper, straightening it a little, though he’d been talking more than reading. “What did you say Pete was doing today?”
“We have a few more horses coming to the farm,” I replied. “He’s getting the new barn ready.”
Daddy wasn’t the only one who’d been doing some building. Pete had added onto the barn he already had, giving us enough stall space for ten additional horses on top of the ten we already had. We were going to be busier than we knew what to do with when we finally got all the horses in there. But we were excited about it.
“Y’all are gonna be pretty busy to hear him tell it,” Daddy said.
I nodded. “Yeah, all three of us are probably going to be living in the barn for the first couple weeks.” I laughed, remembering Lacey joking about bringing a sleeping bag and just going to bed in the middle of alleyway instead of driving home at the end of each night. Even I’d taken to spending most nights at Pete’s. I still went home to my little house one or two nights a week, but I was starting to see the point in that less and less. Most of my clothes and other things were on the ranch already, anyway. I didn’t know why I was resisting just moving in all the way.
The phone rang and Daddy damned near launched out of his chair to go get it. He usually couldn’t be bothered, but I figured maybe he was waiting on somebody today. He may have gotten more talkative around Pete and the old timers, but he still wasn’t much for chatting on the phone more than he had to. He went into the kitchen, speaking low for a few seconds before hanging up. He walked back out to the living room.
“Who was on the phone?” I asked. “Big Tom?”
He shook his head once. “It was Pete. He asked us to run out to the ranch to give him a hand with something.”
I furrowed my eyebrows. “He said he’d be busy all afternoon, but was planning to join us over here later for dinner.”
“I guess he changed his mind.” He walked off without another word of explanation.
I sat for a second on the couch, still looking after him, confused, before I got up myself and followed him out to his truck. I climbed into the passenger seat.
“Did he say what he needed?”
“Something to do with the barn,” Daddy replied as he got the truck started.
I rolled down the window as soon as we got going, closing my eyes, just enjoying that cool breeze blowing my hair back from my forehead and cheeks.
We pulled up to the barn a few minutes later. Pete’s truck was in the driveway, and the barn door was open just a crack. Besides that, no one was around.
“What the hell is he doing?” I muttered.
“Let’s go on up to the barn,” Daddy said.
We climbed out of the truck and walked over to the barn. He slid open the alleyway door, and I stepped inside. I froze just inside the doorway, my mouth dropping open and eyes trying to look everywhere at once to take in everything.
The other alleyway door at the rear of the barn was closed, sealing out the sunshine. Behind me, Daddy slid the door I’d just come through shut, not coming in himself. There were twinkling electric lights strung from banister to banister and all along the alleyway. Red rose petals were strewn all over the roughened concrete floors. Someone had put wreaths of colorful wildflowers around the horses’ necks and decorated their shining manes with more flowers. They were so beautiful. At the other end of the barn, Pete was standing with a big smile on his face, his hands folded in front of him, clearly waiting for me. He was dressed in a brand new dark blue suit, tie, and shiny brown dress shoes, his dark hair cut and swept back off his forehead.
“Pete?” I said, but I couldn’t think of a damned thing to say besides his name.
He walked towards me, his grin getting a little wider with every step. He stopped a foot short of me, and I could smell the sweet aroma of his cologne. I was too stunned to speak. I could only look at him. He never dressed like this, never wore cologne, not even when we went out at night.
“Emma,” he started. “My life hasn’t been the same since you started on the ranch. I never knew how happy I could be before you entered my life.” He paused, swallowing hard and shifting his hands, which were still folded together in front of him.
“I remember my daddy telling me about the moment he knew he loved my mama. They hadn’t been dating long, but he made her smile and something inside him just melted, and he knew. That’s how I’ve felt around you since the morning we went to the Texan the first time.”
I smiled, blinking to hold back tears at how steadily he was looking at me with his gorgeous blue eyes.
“I’m sure you know how much I love you,” he continued, swallowing again. “And, I can’t imagine my life or the farm without you. I don’t ever want to be without you again.”
He moved his hands now, and I could see he was holding a small silver whistle. He brought it to his mouth and blew into it. I didn’t hear anything at all, but Riley came running around the corner from the direction of the tack and feed room. I’d never seen that dog run before. I smiled as Pete dropped to one knee on the alleyway floor and Riley ran right to him.
“What have you got there, boy?” Pete asked.
Riley had a big red ribbon tied around his neck, the full bow just below the back of his head.
“Did you do all this?” I said, smiling just a little.
Pete turned the ribbon on Riley’s neck until I could see a black velvet ring box hanging from it. He untied the ribbon and gave the dog a good scratch behind the ear.
“Good boy, Riley,” he said. The dog laid down right where he was, his job well done, and curled up, nose to tail.
Pete looked up at me, opening the ring box and turning it so I could see the tiny ring inside of it — a yellow gold band with a sparkling diamond right in the middle that flashed in the twinkling lights.
I brought my hands to my mouth, drawing in a breath that I couldn’t let out again right away.
“Emma Flowers, will you do me the great honor of marrying me? I can’t think of another person on this Earth that I’d rather spend my life with.” He gazed up at me, so much love brimming in his wide blue eyes that I could only stare at him for a few moments, my heart ready to burst from my chest with how much I cared for him.
I nodded, tears spilling from my eyes as I dragged in a stuttering breath. “Yes,” I whispered, but behind my hands. I dropped them and, still nodding, answered a second time. “Yes!”
He grinned and rose to take me into his arms. I kissed him deeply, the excitement spinning between us stealing our breath away too quickly. We broke apart, gasping and giggling. He put the ring on my finger, and I couldn’t take my eyes away from how lovely it was and how perfectly if fit.
“I love you so much, Emma,” he whispered.
“I love you, too,” I whispered back.
He took me in his arms again, and this time we kissed for a long time, not pulling away until Daddy knocked on the door behind us to find out how it went. Smiling, we opened the door to Daddy – and to the rest of our lives.
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.