With laughter floating through the hallway, I hear Mom calling Charlotte so she can help her finish getting ready.
“Ready, ladies?” AJ says to Olive and Lana, who are both draped in white knee-length dresses, complete with flowers in their hair.
They’re spinning around in circles, making their dresses fly high, and the excitement bursting from them is something I will always remember about today.
Giggles fill the truck as we make the short drive over to the gardens, finding the lot empty except for one car.Just how I like it.
AJ and I escort the girls down the steps, making our way up to the tree. Olive runs ahead and wraps her arms around the trunk. “Good morning, Mommy.” She cups her hand around her mouth and presses it against the bark. “Daddy is finally happy and it’s the best day of my life. Thank you for watching over him.”
Her words make my chest shudder so I take a deep breath and look up into the clear blue sky, repeating Olive’s words silently on my own.
We continue walking down an unfamiliar path, one that isn’t marked well, one that looks untraveled, but I was told it leads to the place where Olive’s key works. Ari’s dad shared the big secret with me—what lies on the other side of the gated door—and it’s where Charlotte and I should begin our united lives. So that is what we’re doing.
The path comes to an end and we walk up to a wooden gated door between thickly settled trees. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before and it’s amazing.
“Go ahead, Olive. I know you’ve been waiting for this.” Olive takes the key from her little, white clutch purse that Charlotte bought for her and slowly places it into the tarnished lock.
With hemming and hawing, the door creaks open, revealing a large enclosed garden full of blue jasmines and white hydrangeas, with a small, narrow cobblestone path down the center that leads up to a white gazebo. A sign perched in front of the gazebo reads, “Olive’s Secret Garden.” The look on her face is one I wish Ari could see as a thank you for the most incredible gift she could have given.
Olive spins around, looking in every corner before she lies down in a patch of flowers. “It’s like Mom is here, everywhere,” she says. “This is the most amazing place; it must be like heaven.”
I lie down next to her, pulling her into my side. “She’s always around you, Olive. She’s always with us.”
We’re in dress clothes and we’re lying on the ground, and nothing has ever felt so right.
No, wait.Now, nothing has ever felt so right. Charlotte, in her beautiful dress, lies down beside me and Lana joins us, as well. We look ridiculous but I know now, looking back up into the sky, that Ellie and Ari are watching us. I have to believe they planned this.
“Should I just pronounce you husband and wife?” Ari’s dad asks, walking in through the gate. When I told him Charlotte and I had decided to get married, which was more than three days ago, he asked me to give him two months and informed me that he was a wedding officiate. I didn’t know why he needed so long, but a garden isn’t built in a day, I do know that much.
“Please,” Charlotte says, twisting her head, bringing her nose close to mine. Her eyes are glimmering under her lashes and her lips are glossed, reflecting the flowers around us. I’m in love with this woman. I am completely head-over-heels in love with her and it feels right—it feels perfect and complete.
Ari’s dad spouts off a few lines before commencing our marriage and the connection of our new family.
Never in a million years did I foresee my life going in this direction, being with someone other than Ellie, lying in a meadow of blue jasmines while joining my life with Charlotte.
Life is like the center of a blooming flower with each petal lifting over time, slowly exposing our hearts and souls as the motion of life circles around us. I can’t change it and I can’t stop it but I can watch and take in the beauty of it all. I definitely took the road less traveled, and my God, has it made all the difference.
Robert Frost, you are a brilliant man.
EPILOGUE
- TEN YEARS LATER -
It’s eight inthe morning on a Saturday and I sort of figured I would be the only one awake in the house but the sudden onset of wrestling noises in the basement has me wondering who might be up. Maybe Jasmine got down there again. She has a thing for the musky darkness in her old age. For another moment, I continue to listen for more hints and at the same time Charlotte comes down the stairs, groggy and still half asleep. “What’s the look for?” she asks, kissing me quickly before grabbing a coffee mug.
“Do you hear that?” I ask.
Charlotte stops to listen. “Oh yeah, I think Olive was looking for something last night and she’s probably down there continuing the search.”
“What was she looking for?” I ask.
“She didn’t say. You know her, when she’s trying to figure something out, it’s best not to ask questions.” I laugh at her explanation. So true. It’s something we have all learned well throughout her teenage years. “Has Ashley woken up yet? She has a soccer game at eleven and I almost forgot,” Charlotte says.
“Crap, no. I forgot, too. Let me go down and see what’s going on with Olive and then I’ll go take our little princess to soccer. You said you needed to go check on some things at the office, right?”
“Yeah, I want to make sure the new updates were completed by the developers last night,” she says.
“You got it, my big famous CEO,” I say, pulling her down to my lap.
