Ida was doing great at her new job and continued to live with Linda. She still didn’t have a perfect relationship with her mom, but I still had hope it would get better.
And Mike…
Mike!
“You said Mike was coming home?! What happened? Did he get fired?” Pete blinked a few times. It probably wasn’t the best time to talk about his brother, but I was worried now.
“Not fired… He got sick and had to leave his assignment earlier than planned. He’s moving in with Dylan,” he informed me.
I raised one brow. “Moving in together, huh?”
He just rolled his eyes. “They’re friends, Jackson. You lived with Mike too, remember?” I shivered for effect. I did not like to think about Mike like that. He was like a brother to me. It made Pete laugh.
“Let’s talk about something else then,” I began. “Like our wedding.”
He beamed at me. “We should have it here!”
“We definitely have the room for it. The dining room can be where we have the reception.”
“And we can have the ceremony outside, like your painting. I want a flower arch, too.”
“Hmm, we can definitely do that. So, a summer wedding?”
“Maybe in September?”
“This September?” I questioned. It was only two months away. Could we even plan it in time?
“Next year. I want to enjoy being your fiancé first. Besides, I want to make sure everyone can attend, and it isn’t very kind of us not giving them more time to plan. I also want us to have time to go on our honeymoon, and since the club is still so new, it seems wrong to shut it down for two weeks.”
“I think next year will be perfect,” I sighed, happily. “Biscuit can hold the rings, or just be there and look cute.”
He laughed softly. “I would love to see you try to make him do anything other than nap.”
“I can definitely try,” I agreed, laughing. “I want Mike to be my best man. I figure you want Dylan as yours?”
“If I picked anyone else, he’d lose his shit,” he grinned. “But I wouldn’t want anyone else anyway.”
Dylan and Pete had taken up gaming together again, and were playing week nights while chatting via headset. It had helped make them close again, and while they had fun together, I’d paint or do my own thing. I liked that we each had our hobbies to do at night. Working together meant we were always at each other’s side, but with our own time to do whatever we wanted, it helped us maintain our own interests.
“So, a September wedding in the garden. Dancing inside into the early morning hours, and then, what about the cake?”
Pete’s eyes were gleaming again, and so, we began planning for our dream wedding. All while naked in bed together. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
Pete
49 years later.
“Got everything?” Ida asked, shutting the car door and locking Jackson inside the passenger seat.
“Yeah, I think so.”
I sighed as I looked at the mansion. This was a hard decision, but the right one. Jackson, my poor, sweet Jackson, was starting to forget like his father had. It was starting out slowly, but I had no idea how long it would take before his body couldn’t hold on anymore.
Finding a one-story home for us to live out the rest of our lives in, was easier than I’d thought. Ida had helped me find the perfect home, and the one ghost who lived there was all too pleased to get some help to move on, leaving the property ghost free.
It might be selfish of me to want Jackson and myself to spend the afterlife together too. I had no idea if he wanted to stay after dying, but I wanted more time with him. Even the fifty years we’d been together hadn’t been enough time with my dream man.
I told Jackson we were moving into a retirement home, mostly because he kept forgetting how much money we had. It was easier for us to live in a small house without any stairs he could fall down, which would have happened twice if Nic and Mitch hadn’t been there to catch him.
