AFTER GETTING BACK from Dad’s yesterday, we spent the whole day sleeping and making love. Lia was becoming quite insatiable. Today, it was business as usual. She was at work and I was driving around, checking on my houses. Most of them were coming along just fine since we hadn’t really had any bad weather to stall the process.
I finally made it to my own house, which I was building out by the lake, not far from Lia’s. Stepping out of the truck, I admired the structure. The house was full brick with a large front porch that stretched the width of the home. When I’d designed it, I’d wanted something unique and grand but not necessarily huge. Knowing that I wanted a family one day, though, I made sure there were several bedrooms.
Now that I had Lia, the thought of having a family one day seemed a lot more real.
I stepped inside to check the progress. Yesterday, they had finished the drywall and texture, prepping for paint later this week. It wouldn’t be long before I could move out of the duplex and into my dream home.
Checking my watch, I realized that I needed to leave soon to pick Lia up for work. My plan was to swing by the party store and pick myself up a costume for the party Friday. I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to be. Lia wouldn’t tell me what she and Anj had bought. They had bought their costumes weeks ago. I was guessing that Anj and Deion had a pretty kick-ass Halloween party every year from the sound of it.
When I arrived at the bank, she came bouncing out with a huge smile on her face. After jumping in the truck, she scooted over to me and gave me a kiss.
“What are you so happy about?” I laughed at her mood.
“I talked to my mom. She and Rich finally made it to a place with service. They’ve been unreachable for a few days. I’ve missed talking to her. She was very interested in hearing about you, Mr. Reeves,” she chattered happily.
I smiled as she retold her conversation with her mother. Hand in hand, I drove and she excitedly told me all about her mom’s trip to Spain.
“Where are we going?” she finally asked once she realized we had passed the street that led to my house.
“It’s a surprise,” I told her mysteriously.
Deep in thought, she sat quietly until we pulled up to the pumpkin patch. A huge grin stretched across her face. “We’re going to get pumpkins?”
“Yep,” I winked as I got out of the truck.
This time, I handed her the pink camo boots I’d bought her. Without so much as a peep about fashion faux pas, she slipped out of her heels and laced up the boots over her work slacks. We laughed at how ridiculous she looked.
With our hands conjoined, we strolled through the pumpkin patch, trying to decide which pumpkin was the best. Letting go of my hand, she ran over to one that was damn near perfect with a tall stem attached.
“I want this one,” she told me decisively, picking it up.
“You got it, babe.” I reached down to pick up the abused pumpkin that was right next to where hers was.
A confused expression passed over her face. “You aren’t going to look around for the perfect pumpkin? That one is kind of terrible-looking.”
“Don’t you see? This is the perfect pumpkin. They each grew probably in separate fields and went through different hardships: bugs, weather, animals, etc. Once they reached maturity, fate placed them in the same place. These pumpkins stayed here, side by side, waiting for their happy ending. They were partners for the season. We can’t take one without the other. Don’t you think they deserve their happy ending together?” I asked her.
She smiled shyly at me, not missing the hidden meaning, and nodded her head. “I think you’re right, Mr. Reeves,” she agreed and proceeded to carry her pumpkin to the checkout area.
“Would you like your picture taken?” the woman asked us at the register.
Lia nodded excitedly, leading me to the bale of hay. We posed for the picture, but just before they snapped the picture, I leaned in and kissed her cheek. The picture they handed us showed a very smitten man kissing a very happy woman. Lia smiled before tucking it away in her purse.
When we arrived at my house, we got out and carried our pumpkins towards the door. Lia set hers down on the porch, prompting me to put mine right next to hers just like we found them at the pumpkin patch. She beamed at me as we walked inside. Lia found the photo album on the coffee table that Dad had given me the other day and plopped down on the couch to flip through it. I sat next to her and looked with her as she thumbed through the pages.
“Oh my goodness, Cale! You were so cute!” The picture she was pointing at was one when I was about two. It was one of the happier family pictures we had. Dad had is arm around Mom while I was curled in her lap. We all were smiling happily for the picture. It always made me wonder how we’d gone from that to the way it had all turned out.
She giggled at the pictures of me in my football uniforms throughout the years, cracking jokes here and there. When she flipped to the picture of me at my senior prom, she stopped to quietly stare at it for a few moments.
I’d gone to prom with Madison. The smile that formed on my lips was automatic when I looked at the comparison of my nice tux compared to her completely over-the-top gothic dress. I was smiling at the camera whereas Madison was glaring. That girl had been too much. The only form of color on her was the corsage I’d bought her. She’d been pissed because I’d gotten one with yellow flowers. I’d figured the girl needed a little sunshine in her life, not to mention, black flowers were hard to fucking find.
“Wow. You weren’t kidding about her love for black.” She continued flipping pages.
There was a point in the album where there weren’t any pictures of Mom. I assumed the album would end after that first semester of college, but it continued on. There was a picture of me and Ron. And there was even one of me, Ron, and Linda.
“What the hell?” I asked, pulling the album closer to look.
“Looks like your dad still kept up with you anyway.”
The next page had the Austin Homes article he had first spoken to me about a few days ago. I realized that maybe my dad really had always cared about me but just had funny ways of showing it. A weight I hadn’t noticed was there lifted.