Page 41 of Someone to Remember
Ten
Iris
Gage shakes me awake. “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty. We’re home.”
I fell asleep on the way home from checking on Taylor and the kids one more time after the funeral home. Thank goodness Gage still has his wits about him, because mine are gone.
“Wow, I was out cold.”
“You fell asleep midsentence.”
“What was I saying?”
“Something about the next Wild Widows meeting.”
“I’m losing it.”
“You’re on overload, babe. Time for a good night’s sleep.”
“You’re right.”
“I usually am.”
“Jeez, I walked straight into that.”
He laughs as he meets me in front of the car and puts an arm on my back to send me toward the kitchen door. We remove our coats in the mudroom and hang them next to the empty hooks where the kids’ coats should be.
It’s weird to come home to a house with no children in it.
“I hate when the kids aren’t here,” Gage says, echoing my thoughts, as he so often does.
As much as I loved Mike—and I loved him very much—my relationship with Gage is deeper, forged on loss and grief and the understanding that only a fellow traveler could possibly have.
“I do, too. Even though they’d be asleep, we’d still feel their presence.”
“I’ll pick them up in the morning and get them back where they belong.”
I turn to him and put my hands on his chest. “Thank you for everything today—and last night. I appreciate you stepping up the way you did for my friend.”
He kisses my nose. “Whatever you need. And whatever Taylor needs going forward. We’ll make sure she gets all the support we can give her.”
“Do you think…”
“What?”
“I hate to even say it.”
His brows furrow. “What’s on your mind, honey?”
“Should we postpone the wedding?”
We’ve been counting down to Thanksgiving weekend, when we’re set to tie the knot that Saturday. Next week, friends and family are coming from all over to celebrate with us. I get a queasy feeling in my stomach when I think about wallowing in my second-chance happily ever after when Taylor has lost hers.
He looks slightly stricken by the idea. “Uh, well… I guess that would be up to you. If you don’t feel like you could go through with it…”
I feel terrible for having to even suggest postponing when we’ve been so excited about it. The kids can’t wait to marry their Daddy Gage. “Not because of you or us. You know that’s not it. I just wonder if it’d feel appropriate so close to Taylor’s loss.”
He wraps his arms around me. “Sit with it for a couple ofdays and see how it feels then. It’s still fresh, and emotions are running high.”
