Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 100713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
“Yep.” Griffin smiled at his wife. “The very one.”
The next picture was us after a ball game. “We look happy,” Moretti said. “We must have won.”
“Did we ever lose?” Cole joked. “I can’t remember.”
The photo from prom made all the wives laugh. “Aww, look at you guys,” said Blair. “All dressed up in tuxes like proper gentlemen.”
“We were,” Moretti said. “Except maybe Weaver. He got a little out of control.”
I grunted in reply and shuffled to the next photo, which was the four of us after graduation. “I think I put this one in.”
Everyone looked at it in silence a moment. “Hard to believe twenty years has gone by, isn’t it?” Cole asked.
Moretti shook his head. “I’ve got three fuckin’ kids. How did that happen?”
“Uh, I think you know how it happened, and how many times am I going to have to ask you to watch your mouth?” Bianca gave her husband a menacing look.
“Sorry,” he said, tipping up his beer. “It’s just so crazy to me. I remember burying this thing like it was yesterday.”
“Me too,” Griffin said. “Remember how we couldn’t imagine what we’d all be like?”
“Yeah. We were scared we might be bald or have big old beer guts.” Cole laughed.
“We wondered if we’d still be playing baseball like those old timers on Thursday nights,” I said, laughing. “Remember?”
“Oh yeah.” Cole took a drink of his beer. “Guess we have our answer. At least we still have our hair.”
“You guys still look amazing,” Blair said. “Hardly a day over eighteen.”
“Maybe a day,” Cheyenne teased. “Possibly a week. But not a month.”
I went to the next photo and heard a gasp. “Maddie!” Blair said. “Is that you?”
Maddie looked closer. “Oh my gosh, it is! I always wondered what happened to that picture!”
“It was here in Beckett’s hope chest,” Moretti joked. “And look, it worked.”
Everyone laughed, and I felt my face get a little warm.
“You must have known even then,” Cheyenne said, touching her heart. “That’s so sweet.”
“I guess I did.” I glanced at Maddie, whose eyes were bright and shining. As much as I loved our friends, I suddenly wished we were alone.
But that was nothing new. I never felt like I had enough time alone with my wife. It was hard to balance the demands of the kids and my dad and the ranch with our longing for each other, but we tried. Sometimes we just put everyone to bed and shut our door. Sometimes we snuck out to the barn. Every once in a great while, we begged one of my sisters to come stay for one night while we checked into a bed and breakfast.
Although, truth be told, we never did go to breakfast.
My body and soul craved hers, always.
Later, after we’d said goodbye to our friends, put the kids to bed, and closed up the house, we climbed the steps and slipped into bed.
I wrapped my wife in my arms, and she snuggled into my side the way she liked to at night, with her head on my shoulder and her arm around my waist.
“I still can’t believe you put that picture of us in the time capsule,” she said softly.
“Why not? You know now I was crazy about you back then.”
“I guess, but you just hid it so well. And we were both leaving for college. How did you know we were even going to keep in touch, let alone end up together?”
“I didn’t.”
“But you must have,” she insisted. “Deep down. Don’t you think?”
“Maybe. I suppose it could have been fate.”
“Or maybe you have magical powers and you made it happen,” she whispered dramatically.
I laughed, kissing the top of her head. “If I had magical powers, I’d have brought you back to me way sooner.”
“True.” After a moment, she picked up her head. “What if I hadn’t come back here? Would you have come to find me?”
“Yes.” I’d learned how to answer these kinds of questions of hers—with my heart instead of my head.
“How do you know?”
“Because, Maddie Weaver.” I rolled her beneath me and looked down into her eyes. It was too dark to see the beautiful bottle green of them, but I’d know the exact shade even with my eyes closed. “You were then, are now, and always will be the only girl I’ve ever loved. I don’t know what I did to deserve coming home to you, but nothing else in the world has ever felt so good, so I’m gonna keep on doing it.”
She smiled.
“Was that a good answer?”
“Yes.” She took my face in her hands. “I’m gonna keep on coming home to you too.”
“Then I guess it’s settled. It’s you and me forever.”
“It’s you and me forever.”
I pressed my lips to hers and sealed the promise with a kiss.
THE END