After enjoying breakfast together, we’re walking hand-in-hand in the backyard. I’m taking in the surroundings on this beautiful fall morning, watching leaves slowly fall from the tall trees, down to the ground.
“I love the white fences,” I tell him.
He swings our arms together and says, “I knew you would. That’s why I had them painted.”
“How long have you lived here, Wyatt?”
“Going on two years now.”
“I’m...I’m completely shocked and impressed. This is so much land. It’s like a taste of paradise.”
“This is what you wanted, though, right?”
“I’m sure you didn’t buy this house thinking about what I wanted.”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“For obvious reasons. We just recently reconnected.”
“What’s your point?”
“My point is, you could not have possibly known that we would be together again.”
A smile comes to his face. “I had faith. I didn’t know how it would happen, but I’m glad your father was a man of his word and remembered me in his will.”
“He wanted us to be together,” I say, having come to the conclusion after I watched the DVD my father made.
“He did. He knew how much I loved you.”
I smile and inhale fresh, crisp air. It seems that everything here is perfect. Even the brown, cold-stricken grass is perfect. And the horses...they are beautiful. “Do you take care of grooming the horses yourself?”
“No. I hire people for that.”
“Hmm...must be those men you sent to my dad’s house for your things yesterday.”
“No, not them. But since you brought it up, I want to apologize to you again for that. My plan went totally wrong.”
“Your plan?”
“Yes. You were to follow my mother over here before my guys showed up to get my things, and then I was going to drop down to my knees,” he says, dropping to his knees.
“Wyatt, what are you doing?” I ask, blushing.
I watch him take a ring from his pocket and I immediately recognize it. It’s the ring he’d originally proposed to me with and there’s a few tweaks to it. Looks like there are bigger diamonds. And the ring looks shinier like he had it professionally cleaned.
“Geneva McDowell, my wife that I love more than myself, will you spend the rest of your life with me?”
I’m moved to tears – so touched by his gesture that I feel my hand tremble in his grasp.
He continues, “And will you promise to do everything in your power to make up for the ten years that we lost?”
I dab my eyes with my free hand and say, “Yes, and yes.”
He slides the ring onto my finger and then stands to kiss my lips. “You like it?”
“I love it.”
“Good. I wasn’t sure whether or not I should tweak it. I knew how much the original meant to you.”
“It’s beautiful, Wyatt. I love it,” I say, wrapping my arms around him.
I embrace him in my arms, squeeze him tightly.
“Now, let me finish giving you the tour,” he says, taking my hand into his again.
“Here are the stables. And actually, I converted one of these into a man cave.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes. Let me show you.”
He goes into one of the empty stables and, when we climb the ladder to get to the loft, he says, “Here it is. The man cave.”
I glance around and see a Carolina Panthers poster on the wall, a couple of futon couches, a huge flat screen TV and other little trinkets.
“You like it?”
“It’s pretty neat, but why didn’t you make one somewhere in the house?”
He shrugs. “Because...I wanted to have something to remind me, no us, of our childhood. We spent many nights in the loft, at your father’s place, didn’t we?”
“Yes,” I say. Most of them were spent with him holding me in his arms, reassuring me that things would be okay.
“Now that you’ve seen the man cave, let’s get out of here. I still have more to show you.”
Once we’re back down on the ground, we walk even further to a pond. It’s not as close to the house, as the pond is at my father’s place. It’s further away, and it’s bigger. There’s even a little dock there with a small canoe tied to a post.
“You built a dock?”
“Yep. I figured we can come out here some mornings and have cocoa and marshmallows.”
“That sounds nice.”
“I thought you might like it. I’m thinking we should put a small fence or a gate around it so our kids don’t wander off into it.”
Our kids. The thought of actually having kids with Wyatt brings a smile to my face.
“Now, we need to talk about Atlanta,” he says.
“What about it?”
“Well, I know your shop is there...”
“It wasn’t doing well. I was going to close it anyway.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t have a huge client base, and I’ve never made enough money in that shop to pay any bills. I was living off of savings.”
“So you’re okay with me stealing you away from there and moving here? Permanently?”
“I’m very much okay with it.”
“And your spa...is it something you would like to continue doing? Did you like that line of work?”
“Yes. I mean, it is what I went to school for, but I don’t mind giving it up, Wyatt.”
“It’s not like you can’t have one here, you know.”
“I guess I could, but I don’t have clients.”
“I’m sure you’ll get clients eventually.”
I shrug. “I guess so.”
“What do you mean, you guess so?” Wyatt asks, facing me now.
“It just seems like such a daunting task to start all over.”
“We’re starting over. Does that seem like a daunting task to you?”
I lose myself in his eyes, then after a moment, I say, “No. Not at all.”
“Then opening a new spa here won’t be either. You’ll have my help. As a matter of fact, you’ll have all the help you need, sweetheart.”
I rub my hands together. It’s cold outside and I feel my body beginning to shiver.
Wyatt suggests we go back inside. Says he’ll finish showing me around when it warms up a bit.
After I get a cup of hot coffee and he has tea, he says, “So not sure if you noticed, but you passed a strip mall on the way here, probably about seven miles up the road.”
“No. I didn’t see it. I was distraught, remember?”
He smirks. “Right. Anyway, darling, I think that will be a good spot for your spa. There’s an empty store there for lease.”
“Wyatt, I can’t afford that.”
He smiles and stares at me adoringly. “My sweet angel…your first mistake is thinking that you are still single. You’re not single anymore. We’re married.”
“Okay, but still...how can we afford it?”
He smiles again. “Do you remember our first meeting in Mr. Price’s office?”
“Yes, I remember.”
“You had asked about the accuracy of your father’s net worth and Mr. Price informed you that your father sold his egg farm?”
“Yeah.”
“He sold it to me, Geneva.”
“He did?”
“Yeah. He did...sold it to me for one dollar.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep. First, I thought he had lost his mind, because I knew the farm was worth at least ten million dollars, but he said he wanted me to have it. Said he wanted to make sure you and his future grandchildren had a comfortable life.”
“He said that?” I ask, feeling tears flood my eyes.
“Yes, angel. He said that. Why are you crying, sweetheart?”
“I feel so guilty, Wyatt. All that time I didn’t reach out to my father, give him a card or anything, but he was looking out for me this whole time.”
“Sweetheart, there’s no need to feel guilty about anything.”
“Why not?”
“Because your father felt guilty for a long time about how he treated you. A long time. And it’s not your fault how you were raised. You shouldn’t suffer anymore and I’m not going to let you suffer. Your father is gone now, baby. You are my wife. My responsibility. And as your husband, I promise to love you, protect you, be your best friend, your lover...your everything. But I can’t do that if you’re still holding on to the past. We have to look forward, to what our lives will be now...to living and starting a family of our own and trying our hardest not to repeat the same mistakes of our parents. Agreed?”
I nod and suck in a long breath. “Okay.” He’s right. In life, if you don’t use your own mistakes, even the mistakes of those closest to you as a guide for your own path, then cycles will continue. I want this cycle to end with me. I can’t imagine my children going through the same things I went through. I can’t fathom the feeling of my child living in fear of me. I want to be happy and I want my children to grow up in a loving, nurturing environment. And I want to live the happiest life possible with the man who loves me unconditionally. Who fought for me. Who waited for me.