Vows

Wednesday, July 7th, 1954

The next afternoon Dean pulled up at Maggie’s house at precisely one p.m. The back of his collar was moist and the fabric damp, it was promising to be another warm, muggy summer day. He walked up the front steps, expecting to see Teddy and the pup come running out. Only Captain Nemo was in evidence, first barking and then leaping in excitement when he recognized Dean. With his free hand, Dean ran his hand over the dog’s head and scratched his ears, ignoring the sloppy kisses the puppy doled out, his eyes on the front door.

Maggie stepped out of the house and shut the door behind her. The look on her face was guarded. Her hair was pinned in place and she was dressed in a summer frock with short sleeves that were cuffed. The fabric had delicate flowers in red, mustard yellow and cornflower blue which danced over a white cotton background. A matching belt was cinched around her tiny waist.

“Where’s Teddy?” Dean asked, the present he had brought for him still out of sight behind his back.

“At the neighbor’s, Ms. Burkin, why?”

“I found something at the airport and wanted to bring it to him.” Dean put down the wrapped package he had bought on a tiny table there on the porch. “Well, perhaps later.”

“Perhaps.” Maggie’s voice had a professional tone, the one he had first heard in the hospital. A stab of fear filled him, had he messed it all up, bolting like he had that last day?

He held the door for her, helping her into the vehicle before walking around to his side and starting the car.

“Are you going to tell me where we are going?” Maggie asked.

“I need to look at a house, I was hoping for your opinion on it.”

“My opinion?”

“Yes.”

She gave him a measured look, as if trying to understand what he was doing. The sun was beating down. It was early July, and the temperatures were soaring into the nineties already. It was going to be a merciless summer.

It took only a few minutes to drive to the house in Northeast. It wasn’t far from his rented room on Tenth Street, another ten blocks to the north on St. John. They made small talk along the way, Maggie’s guard lowered as he asked how Teddy had been doing training Captain Nemo.

“Well we have Sit and Stay down pat,” she said, a smile creeping over her face. “He’s been doing so well listening to the trainer. Teddy, that is, not the dog. The pup adores Teddy and does everything he says. You would not believe the racket that dog makes when I have to send Teddy to Ms. Burkin’s house before I leave for work. You would think the dog’s heart was broken.”

“I found a book for Teddy I think he will like.”

“It looked like a book. Which one?”

“Rinty. It’s a Rin Tin Tin book and the dog on the cover is identical to Captain Nemo. I thought it might help with his reading.”

“Thank you, Dean that was kind.”

Dean turned left on Spruce, they were almost there.

“This is a lovely area,” Maggie noted. There were children playing in yards and running down the sidewalks.

“Yes.”

“Is this the house?” she asked, pointing to a smaller place across the street as they slowed to a stop.”

“No, that one there, the brick house.”

Maggie gasped, “Dean, that house is enormous.”

He held the door for her and she got out, eyes locked on the house.

“The real estate agent tried to talk me out of it. It seems that everyone wants new these days. She heard I was a writer and insisted on showing me a half dozen newer homes before I insisted on something different. The house was built in 1901 so it is over fifty years old.”

They walked up the front path to a large, shady porch. Instantly the temperature fell noticeably. “This porch is well-shaded, perfect for summer,” Maggie noted.

The real estate agent had left it open for them and they entered through the set of leaded glass doors into a small entry, before they were faced with another set of large doors. The wide front entry was far better than the home he had shared with June and the children. She had preferred a more modern look, while he appreciated older homes, so their house, built in 1925, had been a compromise.

She turned to Dean, “You are asking my opinion on this?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Dean smiled, “I just need a second opinion. I walked through it already, but I wondered what you would think of it. Is it a house you would ever think of living in?”

“Think of?” Maggie scoffed, “Don’t you mean dream about living in?”

“Come on,” he said, taking her hand, “Let me show you around.” Her fingers stiffened, then relaxed within his grasp.

He led her through the house. She stopped and sighed, “Those stairs are stunning. All of my friends at work are obsessed with the newer architecture,” she said, her eyes roaming over the carved banister of the stairs. “But none of the modern homes have any real class to them, no detail or workmanship. Just look there,” she said, pointing towards the stained glass windows. “Such delicate roses. And the gold damask wallpaper is timeless.”

Dean smiled, he had asked the realtor for just that detail, remembering Maggie’s reaction to the stained glass at The Savoy.

There were four large bedrooms. By the time they had explored the second floor, Maggie was shaking her head.

“Dean, you can’t possibly be considering this house.”

He frowned, “You don’t like it?”

“What? No, I love it, it’s beautiful.” She threw her hands in the air, “But houses like this, they need families. They deserve them. How many children did the owner have?”

“Seven, if I remember the agent right.”

“Exactly, seven. You will just knock about in this place. It’s too much.”

“I never intended to live here alone, Maggie.” He looked at her, his fingers running over the velvet covered box in his pocket. “You said I was kind, earlier, but that isn’t what this is to me. You, and Teddy, you both mean more to me than some fleeting dalliance or interest.” Dean reached out and captured her hand and then he bent down, his injured leg protesting as he balanced on one knee.

Maggie’s eyes widened. Later Dean wondered if he hadn’t have taken her hand at that moment if she would have fled the house.

“Dean, this is insane.” She made as if to pull away.

“Hear me out, Maggie.”

She stopped, her face a mix of emotions.

“You were just the person I needed in my life when I lay there in that hospital bed. You didn’t sugar-coat anything, you didn’t sing platitudes of my lost family, and you didn’t let me lie there and obsess about what had gone wrong.”

He pulled the box with the ring out, “You reminded me that I had the ability to make my life into a future that I wanted. That I could be a writer that I could dream.”

He opened the box. Inside was a classical gold band. Three large round diamonds lay nestled within it, buried deep in a beveled edge. The diamonds sparkled, dancing prisms of light, reflected by the Edison lights overhead.

“You also helped me realize that, despite my mistakes as a husband and a father, I could be different, better. It took me some soul-searching. I went off to the book tour, wondering if I was somehow trying to play a white knight and ride in to save you. But the fact is, Maggie, that I need you and Teddy far more than you need me.”

He looked up into her eyes, “You complete me. I love you, and I want to marry you, Maggie. I want to adopt Teddy, and spend the rest of my life with you.”

He placed the box in her hand. “I want this house filled with a family. Our family.”

“Dean, I...” Her hands were trembling, “Are you sure you are ready to take on a child that isn’t yours? With your book, you are a public figure, this will end up in the papers. Can you imagine what they will say?”

“I don’t care what society or convention says about us. Let them gossip about it being ‘too soon.’ I only know that I love you and Teddy and that being with the two of you feels natural and right. And if you feel the same way, then say ‘yes.’”

He paused, “Or say ‘no,’ but one way or the other, I think you had better say it soon before I find I’m stuck here and can’t get back up without help.”

Maggie’s lips twitched. “On two conditions,” she said, trying not to smile and failing.

“You have conditions?”

“I do.”

“Let’s hear them then.”

“I keep my job and you teach me to drive.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes.”

“Done.”

“You don’t mind?”

“What, do I mind you driving? Maybe a little, you might be really bad at it.”

The look of shocked amusement on her face was worth it. “No silly, me keeping my job.”

He grinned at her, “Are you kidding me? I figure you are my backup plan in case the next book is a flop.”

They both laughed, and Maggie leaned down to help him back up. “Then yes, Dean Edmonds, I will marry you.”

Barely an hour later, and she sat in the car, staring at the department store across the street and refused to budge.

“I don’t want a big to-do, Dean. People will talk.”

“To hell with them. Besides, we are just going in for a dress. You deserve this, Maggie.”

“But, it’s...” She stopped for a moment, staring at the building with a mixture of excitement and dread. “It’s Harzfeld’s, Dean. It’s so...posh.”

He laughed. “You know what I mean, Dean Edmonds.”

He took her hand, “I promise, they won’t eat you. Sell you an expensive wedding dress, undoubtedly, but I’ve heard that shopping here is a fairly painless process, possibly even something that can be endured. I have also heard that some women actually enjoy it.”

“It’s too much.”

“Please Maggie, let me give you this one thing,” Dean had said in the face of her objections.

“You have given me far more than just this one thing, Dean,” she said and proceeded to tick off the items on her fingers, “An enormous house, with no less than four window units, the dog...”

“That was for Teddy,” he said smiling.

“The ring.”

“I have never known a woman to argue so much against buying a pretty dress,” he mused.

“It’s too much! Harzfeld’s is...well...” she stared at her feet, fingers twisting in her lap, wiggling her toes in her shoes. “I’ve never even stepped foot in that place.”

Dean blinked, “Never?”

“Growing up, we had the money, I guess. Lots more than I realized. But my mother, she was raised to be frugal. She would never have allowed me inside that store, not if I’d been engaged to the king of Persia. And I’ve always wanted to go inside, not just look in the windows, but...”

“But what?”

“I’m nervous! I’ve heard how nice it is! They will take one look at me and know I didn’t belong there.”

“That’s it, I’m taking you in there myself.”

“You can’t! The groom never sees the wedding dress before the wedding!”

“For you, my dear, I’m prepared to break some rules.”

They finally had agreed to go into the store together, and after he walked her to the appropriate department Dean made his escape to the Men’s Department, leaving her in the capable hands of a matronly saleswoman.

The next day he called Scotty and gave him the news.

“Well, damn, if Lucinda wasn’t feeling so poorly, I would be on the first flight out.” He paused, “The papers will have a heyday with this one. You know that, right Dino?”

“Don’t the papers have anything better to gossip about?”

Scotty laughed, his voice loud and clear over the phone line, “Whether they do or don’t, you can’t blame ‘em. Juicy stuff and all. Famous writer marries fallen woman and adopts her illegitimate son.”

“Seriously? That’s what they are going to write?”

“That and more, I’m sure.” He paused for a minute. “But fuck it, don’t you worry about it one bit, Dino. She sounds like one hell of a woman. Between this wedding and your abrupt departure from the tour, I’m going with the whole eccentric author angle. Your fans will eat it up. And it’s sure to sell more books!”

Scotty had then put him in touch with a lawyer who, after trying and failing to convince him to get a pre-nup, had put together the adoption paperwork in record time. “Are you sure you want to do this, Mr. Edmonds?” He had asked.

“Yes, I am.” Dean had said, his tone inviting no further questions from the attorney. The attorney had drawn up the paperwork to be finalized the day after the wedding.

The following week, they were married in a small, private ceremony. Maggie had chosen a simple, yet elegant wedding dress and her co-worker had done her hair for her. Dean’s fellow roomers and Ms. Abney were invited on his side.

Maggie had one co-worker from the hospital and also her neighbor, Ms. Burkin, in attendance. Teddy stood stiffly in his new suit and took his ring-bearer duties very seriously, determined to make them both proud.

Afterward, the boy had flung his arms around Dean and whispered in his ear, “I’m glad you are my dad now, Mr. Dean.”

“Me too, son, me too.”