Forty-Three
Paige
Three months later,everything had settled into a gratifying and delightfully boring normal. Evan and I were better than ever, and living together was amazing. He spoiled me every day, and I pretended to fight him. My steroid dose steadily decreased, and it was great to make plans and not wonder if they would fall on a good day or a bad one.
The holidays snuck up on us. It was Christmas, but it sure didn’t feel like it. As I stood in my aunt’s kitchen, cutting cheese to put on her fancy silver tray—just like I had last year—I couldn’t shake the feeling of something missing inside. That something being my smart ass cousin teasing me for most of the night, the way he always had.
A lot had happened between last Christmas Eve and this one. We all tried to put on a happy face for Jack Junior’s sake. It was the first holiday that he was old enough to tear into the huge pile of presents waiting under the tree. I tried not to dwell on the fact his father wasn’t there to share it. Maybe my uncle was right: my dream was real and Jack was always here. My aunt and uncle had an eight-by-ten photo by the tree of Jack holding his baby last Christmas. I still couldn’t look at it without tearing up.
“Feels weird, doesn’t it?” Aunt Marie traipsed into the kitchen wiping her hands on her apron. I nodded and gave her a sad smile. “But seeing my grandson makes me happy, and Jack would be mad if we moped around all night, wouldn’t he?” She squeezed my chin and I giggled. “I got the rest of this. Evan could use some help bringing chairs up from the basement, I think. Why don’t you go see if you can give him a hand?”
I kissed her cheek. “Sure, Aunt Marie.” I wandered out of the kitchen and down the basement steps. This was a loud Christmas, as our second cousins from Boston were in this year. It was hard to dwell on my sad thoughts when I couldn’t hear myself think over the Yankees/Red Sox suck arguments.
“Hey, handsome. I was sent down here to help you. Where are the chairs?”
A wide smile spread on Evan’s face when he noticed me.
“I’m sure you don’t remember,” He came over to me and picked up my hand. “But this is where we first met.”
“It is?”
Evan nodded and laced our fingers together.
“Jack and I were down here the summer after freshman year playing Grand Theft Auto and you sashayed down the steps in tight hot pink shorts, golden hair bouncing back and forth.” Evan pulled me closer and wrapped his arms around me.
I groaned. I remembered those shorts. I’d worn them everywhere just because of how much my mother said she hated them.
“I sashayed at fifteen?” I giggled.
Evan shrugged. “You introduced yourself and smiled at me, then asked if you could watch us play. All I saw was how green your eyes were and I couldn’t concentrate on the rest of the game. Jack kept busting my balls because I was stopping at all the traffic lights with my stolen car. Fifteen years old and I was already ruined for anyone else.”
“I set the bar that high?”
Evan pressed his lips to my forehead as he chuckled.
“Then I got to know you, and you were the sweetest thing. Not a mean bone in your body, other than when you and Jack used to fight.” Evan raised his eyebrows.
“Yeah, he was lucky enough to be the only person I could tell why I was pissed off at him. I miss that, and so many other things.” I looked away and Evan turned my head meet to his gaze.
“You were always so beautiful, and watching you go out with the wrong guy over and over again was torturous. At least for me.”
“And for everyone upstairs, too.” I nodded up the stairway at my loud family. Thanks to Aunt Rose forgetting her hearing aid, they were even louder.
“Then by some miracle, a year and a half ago, I finally had my chance. I was done being a chicken shit.”
“You mean when I hit on you at Starbucks?” I kissed the corner of his mouth and ran my lips down his jaw. Evan chuckled and nodded again.
“I’m not sure when it happened. Maybe it happened right here all those years ago, but I fell in love with you. You were it for me and there was no going back. Then, I almost lost you.” I took his face in my hands and kissed his cheek.
“I’m so sorry, babe. I’ll never forgive myself for hurting you like—”
Evan pressed his finger to my lips and shook his head.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned over these past few months, I’m done wasting time.” A slow grin spread on Evan’s face as he got down on one knee in front of me. My breath caught in my throat. I can’t say I hadn’t expected it. I’d known that we were heading this way, but now that it was actually happening, the air in the room got thin and my heart pounded in my ears.
“I love you. More than I ever thought I could love anyone. You’re everything to me. You’re my heartbeat, my lifeline, my Daisy. You’re all the beauty in my life. I need you. Only you. Whatever the future holds for us, all I know is I want it to be with you. I want to end every day by crawling into bed with you. I want you to have my last name.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a black velvet box. Inside was a beautiful diamond ring with a round stone set in an antique band. “This was my mother’s. I think she would approve. She was always happy when I was happy, and I’msohappy with you.” I ran my hands through his buzzed hair and down his stubbled cheek. Evan beamed at me, the way he always did. That look was what I’d missed the most when we were apart. He was my lifeline, too.
“Paige Alexandria Taylor, will you marry me?”
