All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.
–Charles M. Schulz
I might be dreaming.
The murmur of sounds reaches me from a distance: voices, birds, wind blowing through trees. I’m vaguely aware of the shifting of a body next to me. The warmth of sunlight on my face. A soft blanket under my back. My stomach is full. The air is warm and scented with trees and Guy’s pine-scented cologne.
“Don’t go too far. Stay where I can see you,” Guy’s voice calls, near my head.
The warm length of his arm settles around my midsection.
His voice tickles my ear. “Are you sleeping?”
“Yes. But no dream has ever been this good.”
“What are you dreaming about?”
I turn into him, hiding my face in the crook of his neck. “We’re having a picnic in Central Park. On Great Hill. Near the trees. The girls are playing with bubbles and I’m lying on a blanket with you. It’s a sunny, beautiful day and I have everything I could ever want.”
His lips brush my hair. “It’s not a dream.”
“Thank God.” I lift my head and his mouth presses to mine.
“Ew!” Ava shrieks from somewhere nearby.
We turn toward the noise. Both girls are standing about ten feet away from our picnic spread. Ava’s got her eyes pressed shut. Emma is next to her, grinning. She smacks the bubble stick out of Ava’s hand.
“Emma!” They run off into spring sunshine.
Guy’s arms tighten around me, his eyes meet mine, the green hue lightened by the sun, matching the grass around us. “I was going to ask you—”
His phone rings. He curses but doesn’t let go of me, only removes one arm and wiggles to excavate the phone out of his pocket before pressing it to his ear. “This better be an emergency,” he answers.
Carson’s voice is a murmur on the other end of the line.
I snuggle deeper into Guy’s side and his free arm squeezes me gently.
“Okay. Right. Sounds good. That’s all fine. Now don’t bother me for another hour.”
Carson responds, but all I can make out is a distant waa waa waa, like he’s one of the adults on Charlie Brown.
“I don’t care if the restaurant catches fire—okay fine, call me if someone’s dying, otherwise, I’ll be in later.”
He hangs up without another word and tosses his phone. Then both his arms surround me.
“What did Carson want?” I ask into his t-shirt.
“To tell me the divorce was finalized.”
I lift my head. “Really?”
He smiles, the dimple appears, and I wonder if I’m dreaming again. “Really.”
“Hmm. Good.”
I snuggle back in. “I feel bad for her.”
“Me too.”
Four months ago, I wouldn’t have conceived of being so magnanimous. After our little conversation, I thought Marie would do her best to continually make life hell for Guy, and therefore me, by proxy. But instead, she more than cooperated. She even apologized, in person, first to Guy and then to me. She seemed legitimately sincere—not a crocodile tear in sight. She said she has abandonment issues that have nothing to do with Guy or anyone else, and everything to do with how she perceives herself.
“Can we have ice cream?” Ava is back, at the edge of the blanket now.
“In a minute,” Guy says.
Ava groans and flits away with Emma again.
Wasn’t Guy going to ask me something? “What were you going to—?” My phone rings, vibrating in my back pocket.
Guy groans and slides his hand down my side, lingering on my butt before he answers it. “Hello? Hey Fred. No she’s busy.”
“Ask her how Granny’s doing,” I murmur into his chest.
“How’s Granny?” he asks.
He rubs my back, listening to her talk and interjecting with, “oh” and “that’s nice”.
Fred is now living in Blue Falls and staying with Granny, at least for now. The day after Guy and Oliver appeared at Christmas, Granny fainted in the middle of an impromptu archery contest we were doing in the backyard. Apparently, Granny’s been having some “spells” but insisted it was nothing. When we wanted to take her to the doctor, she threatened to shoot all of us. Then, she bullied Fred into staying with her for a bit to mollify everyone, since Fred wasn’t keen on coming back to New York, anyway. Fred has been giving us updates on Granny’s condition, since she isn’t one to admit to any kind of weakness.
I count out ten breaths before he says, “That’s great, we’ll call you back later, okay?” and then hangs up on her.
“I’m silencing your phone,” he tells me, tossing it on the blanket behind him.
“Okay.”
“What are you doing tomorrow?” The words are a rumble against my face.
Why is he asking? I could swear I already told him this morning.
I pull back and meet his eyes. “Catching up on work. I have to go sign the lease renewal on my apartment before the office closes at six, and I have to go through the list of trucks for next month and pick four of them to send to Oliver.”
“What if you didn’t?”
I wrinkle my nose. “I have to look them over. What if they totally stink? Oliver would kill me.”
“No, I mean, what if you didn’t renew your lease?” His eyes are dancing.
I frown at him. “Then I’d be a homeless wretch. Or I’d have to sleep in my truck which is not comfortable.”
He laughs and ducks his head into my neck. “What if you actually understood my veiled references and moved in with me? With us?”
My heart stops in my chest and then takes off again at triple time. I sit up so quickly the blood rushes from my head. “Are you…really? Are you sure? What about—?”
“We want you to move in, too.” Ava and Emma are both standing in front of us, holding hands. Emma pulls a necklace from around her head and hands it to me.
It’s not a necklace, it’s a key on a chain.
I take it from her with trembling fingers.
Ava nods solemnly. “We need a strong female role model.”
I blink at all three of them, tears filling my eyes. “You mean it?”
Emma plops next to me on the blanket, tilting her head watching the tears fall. She frowns and pats me on the back. Then she pats the top of my head.
Guy chuckles. “Of course. I love you. I want you with me always. As much as I can have you.”
“You’re at our house almost every night, anyway,” Ava says, rolling her eyes.
“I love you, too. All of you.”
“Great,” Ava says. “Now can we have ice cream?”
Guy laughs. “Yes, you monsters. You can get the money out of the front pocket of the picnic basket.”
“Come on, Emma.” Ava pulls at Emma, helping her to stand. “I’m sure they want to make out now.”
Guy tugs me into his side and then rolls us both down on the blanket, tugging me into his side so we’re lying face to face again.
“My lease ends next month,” I say. “I would be living with you next month. You won’t be able to get rid of me.”
His smile is brighter than the spring sun dappling over us through the break in the trees. “Perfect.”
Nerves flutter in my belly. What if I ruin everything? “But what if we live together and you decide you don’t like something about me?”
He watches me, an adorable crease appearing between his brows. “Like what?”
I flap a hand. “I’m messy.”
He shrugs. “I have a maid. And you’re not that bad. I have teenagers.”
“I have food stuck somewhere in my person, most of the time.”
A flash of teeth at that one. “I’ll enjoy trying to find it.”
“But what if—?”
He leans over me, forcing me to my back, cutting into my space, an arm on either side of my torso. “What are you afraid of?”
I blink up at him. “Everything.”
He runs his nose along my neck, sending shivers down my spine and straight to my lady bits.
“We’ll have more opportunities to be alone if we share a bed,” he says into my neck.
I breathe out a sigh. “Okay.”
“Okay? That’s it?” He pulls back to look down at me. “No more objections? Sex is what sways you?”
“What can I say? You know how to combat all my fears.”
He laughs. “Remind me to scare you frequently.”
And then we’re kissing and I’m amazed all over again that all of my dreams are now my reality.