EPILOGUE
10 months later
Dylan
It took me a long time to recover from my wife’s passing. But once Zoe came into my life… well, the recovery got easier. A whole lot easier. Our love was different, not better, just different. Less based on childhood understandings, and more based on who we were now, as adults, and who we wanted to be under the influence of the other.
All this to say, I hadn’t felt good in a while. And Zoe was making me feel really fucking good.
After the trial, there was nothing to stop us from being together. No past experiences, no professional roadblocks, nothing. That night, after the key lime pie, I took her out for our first real date. No sneaking around in dirty pubs or having sex in offices. We closed out the restaurant. The servers stayed late, just because we were so obviously having a great time. People in Fallow Springs were kind like that.
Our relationship blossomed. She was my first stop in the morning for a delicious pastry, and my last stop at night for a sweet kiss. We went to the movies in winter, and come spring, we strolled in the park, feeding the ducks and dipping our toes in the lake. The warmth suited her, the sun looked brighter on her skin, the air tasted more strongly of daffodils.
She met Danny after we’d dated for only a few weeks. I knew you were supposed to wait longer than that, but I couldn’t help myself. When you know, you know. And sure enough, they got along so well it brought tears to my eyes. Zoe talked to him almost like he was a little adult, and I could see that Danny relished the treatment. She was just as good with kids as I’d imagined her to be.
Come six months, I could wait no longer. I asked my mom if I could talk to her about arrangements. I was prepared to have a difficult conversation and being a wonderful mom, she started.
“So, I was thinking it was high time I moved on.”
“Really? I couldn’t have done this without you.”
“I know, sweetie, but you have someone now to help you and, to be honest, I’d be delighted to enjoy my retirement.”
Her things were packed up within a week. I suspect she’d been ready to go for quite some time. But not to worry — she moved two blocks away. Close enough that she could see her grandson whenever she pleased.
I finally felt confident enough to handle Danny alone, not in any danger of collapsing under a torrent of depression that would alienate me from my child.
But I didn’t have to take care of him alone because I invited Zoe to move in. She said ‘yes’ before I could even finish making the offer. She broke her lease and her furniture was parked outside my house in a U-Haul almost quicker than even my mother’s emigration from the space had been.
The home before had felt like an altar to Lila’s passing. With Zoe inside, it once again acquired the coziness of a family, the familiarity of loved ones. Her art adorned the walls, her throw pillows nestled on the couches. She wasn’t making it hers — she was making it ours.
And though the change surprised me at first, Danny almost immediately began calling Zoe Mama. I questioned if she was comfortable with that, if it was okay that we were moving fast. She told me that she wouldn’t have it any other way. I know — I’m an extraordinarily lucky man. You don’t have to tell me.
Spring faded into summer, and we spent our days on the playground with Danny or letting him run around in the bakery as the official taste tester. When he got too hyped up, Zoe always knew how to calm him down. We even began having ‘family dinners’ with my mom, Tom, Gladys and Mina. Around us, we were building something worth sustaining.
Summer dissipated, and before we knew it, fall had descended. The leaves dropped, and we had to put Danny back in his little puffer jackets that he absolutely detested. Like his father, he preferred being bare-chested.
Halloween rolled around, and Zoe and I were tasked with figuring out a couples’ costume.
“Salt and pepper?” I suggested.
She shook her head. “Meh.”
“Antony and Cleopatra?”
“I’m not that extravagant.”
I threw up my hands playfully. “I’m no good at costumes. What should we go as?”
A grin transformed her face. “What if we went as each other?”
Skeptical, I replied, “Um, how?”
“You know, you go as a baker, with the little chef’s hat and apron, and I’ll go as a cop. I can wear your hat and jacket. I mean people totally dress up as that stuff anyways, so it could be pretty funny if we did it together.”
“Are you sure we’re not gonna look, uh—”
“Crazy?”
I nodded. “That’s the word.”
“Nah,” she said, sidling up to me and wrapping her hands around my lapel. “I think we’ll just look like we’re young and very much in love.”
I pecked her on the nose. “Well then, good. Because we are.”
That night, I found myself dressed in the aforementioned apron and chef’s hat. I turned to Zoe, showing her the ensemble.
“Don’t I kinda seem like a dad who got lost on his way to a barbecue?” I asked.
“Nah,” she replied. “More like a hunky Top Chef competitor.”
“Oh fine, as long as you make sure to keep the word hunky in that description.”
She grinned, and finished pulling on her outfit — black jeans, a black top, thick, ‘kick your head in’ black boots, topped off with my jacket and hat. At her insistence, I’d also given her my handcuffs, under the condition that she promise not to tell Tom I was loaning them like toys.
“Who said I would use them as a toy?” she queried coyly.
“What, have you got something else in mind?”
“I guess ‘sex toy’ does have the word toy in it.”
Mmm, she had a naughty mind, and I relished it. I couldn’t wait to get her out of the all-black outfit and play the grown-up version of cops and robbers.
But for right now, we had some trick-or-treating to do.
“Is Danny all ready?” she called from the living room as she grabbed the three pumpkin bags we would use for the evening.
“Yeah,” I returned.
I lifted Danny into my arms and walked him out to Zoe. She took one look at him, and peals of delight burst forth from her throat.
“Oh my God,” she gasped. “It’s perfect.”
I’d dressed him as a little miniature cowboy, one who bore a rather notable resemblance to Tom. The final touches had included a small, stick-on mustache and big sunglasses. If not Tom, he at least looked like the Lone Ranger.
“Stick ‘em up, cowboy,” she said to Danny.
“Pew, pew!” he screeched back. “I’m Dada.”
“I’m not a cowboy,” I began to correct, but Zoe cut me off.
“You’re right, kiddo,” she said. “Your dad sure is a Wild West, gun slingin’ bad boy.”
I laughed, “Do cowboys trick or treat?”
“They do now,” she said giddily.
We prepared to walk out the door. Zoe gave us both our plastic pumpkins and began to snap some pictures of Danny. While she was distracted with that, I took the moment to hide a surprise within the candy bag.
Soon, pictures were all taken, surprises all hidden, and a dish of candy was left unattended for those trick or treating at our place while we were out. We closed the front door and flooded into the streets, where all the other families were milling about while the kids ran from door to door. A sort of impromptu block party was forming. We waved at all our neighbors, though we couldn’t allow Danny to wander on his own. Two year olds were dangerous when untethered.
“You know,” Zoe said, “I’ve never actually trick or treated before.”
“What?!” I cried. “Impossible.”
“New York. There were no doors to knock on.”
“Unacceptable. I know you got these little pumpkins as jokes, but gosh darnit, we’re gonna get you some candy.”
She grinned. “The neighbors won’t care that I’m a little old to be doing Halloween?”
“If they knew that you’d been deprived as a child, I’d be ostracized if I didn’t take you out.”
“Well,” she said finally, “okay then.”
With Zoe’s agreement, we began to go door to door, Danny leading the way every time. Like Zoe, he had a sweet tooth. He would hold out his little bag to each person behind each door and fumble the proper greeting words with a huge smile tacked to his face. The candy-givers melted every time.
All the neighbors knew us and knew our story, and perhaps that was why they weren’t surprised when we held out bags and asked for candy of our own. Instead, our fellow adults just laughed and went along with it. Maybe they figured our road to happiness had been challenging enough, and that we’d damn well earned some candy. Who’s to say?
Zoe admired our bags of treats as we started walking home, noting, “Okay, this is a pretty great holiday. Why can’t we have this every month?”
Now was my moment. “What’s your favorite candy?” I asked calmly, already knowing the answer.
“Mmm, I guess Snickers.” Oh please, it was definitely Snickers.
“Here,” I said, holding out my bag. “I think I got a jumbo Snickers a few houses back.”
“All mine?” she asked with bright eyes.
“All yours.”
She took my bag and turned to Danny, watching him as she began to sift through it, using her hands to paddle through the ocean of candy. Her hands stopped moving, and I knew she’d come upon it.
By the time she’d pulled out the small velvet box and turned back to face me, I was on one knee. Danny, and the entire neighborhood, looked on.
“Oh my God,” she whispered, looking rapidly between the box and me. “Is this—”
“Open it,” I replied.
She did so with trembling fingers, and when the box popped open, she clasped a hand to her mouth and shrieked, “Holy sh— Snickers, it’s beautiful.”
I’d been careful to pick out the perfect princess-cut diamond with a silver band that would complement her pale complexion. Sure, it’d taken me about a month’s pay, but I didn’t care. I wanted to see that ring on the hand of the woman I loved for every day for the rest of my life. That meant it needed to look pretty wonderful.
“Zoe,” I said from my knees, “you’ve made me happier than I ever thought I’d be. The minute you drove into my life with that broken brake light, you changed my world. You’ve become a mother to my son, and I’d be honored if you agreed to let me escort you from now until our last breaths. How does that sound?”
The crowd looked on in excitement, everybody’s breath caught in their throat, while we all waited suspended in time for an answer.
Tears rolled down from her green eyes down her perfect, pinky cheeks, and she shouted, “Yes. Of course, Dylan, it’s always been yes.”
I grinned, leapt up and pulled her into my arms.
“This,” I said in a low voice, happiness emanating from every pore of my body, “is what you want? Fallow Springs, the bakery, Danny… and me?”
“This life is the only one I ever want to have,” she replied, and I knew she meant it. “All of that. It’s who I’m supposed to be, and you’re the man I’m supposed to be it with.”
“Well okay then,” I said, tugging her even closer. “Where do we start this perfect life?”
“Right here,” she replied, placing a hand on my cheek, curling it around my ear and stroking my hair. “With a kiss.”
The townspeople erupted into cheers as I dipped Zoe low to the ground, pressed my lips to hers, and sealed our fate with a kiss.