Page 81 of Dirty Little Secret, Baby
"Shall we?" Alex asks, and I nod.
When we open the door, to my surprise there are two men standing there, about my age, holding hands. The one with the messenger bag is holding a bouquet of flowers they'd picked out in my shop today.
"Hey, sorry to bother you. We're Ed and Rick. Your new neighbors."
"Pleasure to meet you," I say in place of Alex, and I have to grin because I know how in love the two of them looked in my shop. Customers like that just make my life brighter, and I'm glad the shop has recovered a bit. I now only work two or three hours a day myself, and the rest is handled by staff. Most of the time Alex takes care of Ben during that time, and if that doesn't work, Bertha steps in—whom the little man took to as quickly as to our cat, Cutie, and to Veronica, who often stops by despite all her work.
"We're hosting an event tonight—would you like to come in?" Alex offers, making an inviting gesture after steadying himself a bit. I'm almost sure this is the first time he's talking to a gay couple. But he's doing great, if you ask me.
"No, we just wanted to say hi. We don't want to intrude, and we just wanted to ask what's up with the hole in the hedge?"
"The hole in the hedge?" Alex and I ask in unison.
"Yes. In the hedge to our house next door there's a passage. In it there was a box with all sorts of prank items and a kind of diary in which it was recorded when which pranks were played. Weweren't sure if it belonged to you and wanted to ask. The sellers didn't mention it."
"Now a lot makes sense," Alex says, laughs, and taps his forehead. "All those doorbell pranks, the burning bags of dog poop. That was your predecessors," he says, turning to me. "Remember back then with the bouquet, our first encounter?"
"How could I forget," I say, smiling.
"I thought it was one of those pranks and you were in on it."
"Unwittingly, yeah," I say, grinning.
"The seller's wife made a few innuendos. Maybe she was behind it?" says Ed, looking relieved that the matter has been cleared up so quickly.
"Could be. Now that I think about it, there was a time early on when she kept trying to invite me over, and I didn't take her up on it. Thanks for coming by, Ed and Rick. Are you sure you don't want to join the party?" Alex asks, inviting them in again, and the two of them exchange grins.
"All right. But just for a bit," they say.
"Come on in. You'll have fun for sure."
***
"What an evening," Alex whispers to me as we stand together in front of our sleeping son's crib. Bertha put him to bed and assured us everything went smoothly. She said Veronica suddenly had to run and mentioned something about her boss, looking a little pained. I left her a worried message; she wrote back that everything's fine and she'll come by tomorrow and tell me everything. That calmed me at least a little.
"Yeah, Ed and Rick danced with the mayor. Those two really crashed the party—in the best way," I say softly.
"I'm inviting them every time now. Then these events won't be so stiff," Alex says with a grin. "Sleep well, little man," he adds, gives Ben a kiss, and Ben takes a deep, relaxed breath, rolls onto his side in his sleep, and shows us his little back.
"What an amazing little guy," Alex says, gazing down at Ben, totally in love.
"He is," I agree.
"How lucky I am that you forgave me all the nonsense and now we're a real family, although..." Alex says, rummaging in his pocket.
"One little thing is still missing." With that, he drops to one knee and holds out a small open box with a ring inside. My cheeks burn, my mouth trembles, my whole body shakes.
"Beth Jackson, will you make me your..." Alex begins.
"I will," I say, overjoyed, wiping away a tear of happiness, pulling him up to me, and kissing him—wildly, passionately, and full of love.
"Mommy?" Ben asks, whom I must have woken with my too-loud reply.
"It's okay, honey. Mommy and Daddy are here," Alex says and kisses him, whereupon Ben lies back down and his eyes close at once.
"Come on, Miss Rodgers-to-be," Alex says softly, then lifts me into his arms as if carrying me over a threshold, kissing that spot behind my ear that makes me see stars. "I want to show you how much I love you!"
"I love you too," I whisper, as Alex gently carries me into the bedroom, kisses me, and I can hardly be happier. He switches on the baby monitor on the nightstand, leans over me, and kisses me with the same passion as the very first time.
