Page 52 of Kiss Me, Darling

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“This islike a window into your family,” Lucy whispered halfway through the play. It wasSeven Brides for Seven Brothers.

“You’re not wrong.”

“I mean there’s the singing,” she pointed out first. “The brothers who are all big manly men on the outside, but big old softies on the inside.”

I tried to laugh as quietly as possible. “Again, you’re not wrong. But there is far less kidnapping in our lives.”

“Valid point.”

Like the first play I saw here, the seats were stadium style around a pit where the actors performed below us, singing to us as if we were somehow part of the experience with them.

Lucy loved it. She gushed afterward as we made our way outside and to the car. “We should come back over the holidays. I want to see something every time we visit.”

“I like this plan. Do you mind if we make a stop on the way home?”

“Not at all.”

Not too far from the ice cream shop was a pastry store. Lucy loved pastries. “We can grab dessert and maybe a treat for breakfast?”

She clapped her hands with delight. “I’m dying for something sweet!”

They boxed up chocolate croissants for the morning while Lucy and I each selected an eclair. “I want to show you something.” We ate as I took her hand and led her down the boardwalk.

“I didn’t put on bug spray.”

“We’ll only take a minute. Hopefully we don’t get hauled off by a swarm of mosquitos.” I laugh, but after dark it’s a real possibility, even with the mosquito mitigation efforts. “Just up here.” The wood of the walkway was lined with soft string lights, giving just enough light to see but not enough to attract every bug on the planet.

I pointed out into the darkness. “Right out there, twenty-odd years ago, we traipsed out into the hammock after Ben and London. There was a thunderstorm coming and we all knew it was a bad idea, but we did it anyway.”

She smiled. She knew this story. But she didn’t know what I was about to say.

“So the lightning hit and it threw us all back like in a superhero movie when the villain does some big move. I got thrown the furthest. I went through a palmetto bush. Those things are nasty. I had cuts all over my arms and back. It was like someone had zapped me, wiped my mind blank. Like a hard reset on a computer.”

“It must have been terrifying.” She looked up at me in the dark shadows and all I wanted to do was kiss her forever.

“I wasn’t scared so much as I was...surprised. It rocked me, down inside. And then Grandma and her prophecy.”

Lucy shook her head. “How many times do I have to tell you to let that go?Youcontrol your destiny.” She even jabbed her pointer finger into my chest for emphasis.

“I know. And I mean that. I really, truly know that now. Grandma and I had a good chat about her prophecy and it helped me finally let it all go.”

“What did she say?”

I took her hand and pulled it to my chest, placing it right over my heart. “She said I pulled away from the family. That it was like I needed to be alone, and that turned into thinking Imustbe alone. And that was the wrong way to live my life. She basically said I was cursed until I realized I needed love in my life.” I swallowed hard and my heart was hammering pretty hard in my chest at this point. “You’re the love that came into my life and I don’t ever want to live without you.” I awkwardly reached into my pocket and pulled out the ring. “Be with me forever?”

Her eyes narrowed on the ring I held up between us. I panicked because she seemed very confused, but I think it was just surprise, because a moment later she threw her arms around me and kissed the crap out of me. “Yes! Let’s be together forever!”

Epilogue

December 19th

Calusa Key

Berlin

Istood twitching in front of the “small” gathering of the Anderson and Kaine family and friends. It was not small. It was huge. And it included my damn ex.

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