A heavy, rattling sound against the house jolted Amanda from a deep sleep. In the adrenaline rush of alarm, she noticed that her husband was not in bed and the house was otherwise quiet. A quick glimpse through the window showed the ladder laying in the yard in pre-dawn dimness, but no sign of Lee or anyone else. She snatched her blue housecoat from the hook on the closet door, pulling it on as she raced down the stairs.
Just as she reached the kitchen door, heart pounding, the door opened with the rushed words. "I'm okay. I'm okay. That didn't turn out like I planned. I'm sorry I startled you." Lee stepped in, grimacing slightly and brushing feebly at the debris on his clothes.
"Oh, Lee, what happened?" His words did little to reassure her. Amanda scanned his face and hands anxiously looking for cuts or scrapes. Under the guise of removing twigs and leaves, she gently probed his back, torso and limbs, checking for any damage.
Now that the alarm had passed and Amanda had been calmed, Lee's disgust at his failed plan took center stage. He stilled her searching hands with an embrace. "I had intended to start our anniversary with a little window romance. I wanted time for us alone before the festivities this afternoon. Since we don't have a trellis any more, I used the ladder. I didn't brace the foot of the ladder properly, and it started sliding when I was about 5 rungs below the window. The good news is: I still have cat-like reflexes." He kissed her hair and released her, moving to the cabinet to get out the coffee mugs.
Amanda appreciated his effort to plan a creative beginning to their 30th anniversary. The mystery marriage had proven unworkable before school was out, and Lee and Amanda had announced their engagement in early June. Dotty was beside herself planning the wedding. The boys had never looked handsomer giving her away. Billy was as proud as a papa standing as Lee's best man. And Amanda's hidden world mingled bizarrely with her family life. Mrs. Marston swapped recipes with the church secretary, while Francine cozied up to Bryce Topping, and T.P. talked about gardening with Rev. Mills. Since their early relationship had been documented in Agency files, it was easy to pinpoint the exact date of their first meeting and commemorate it with their public wedding. Thirty years later, they hadn't regretted one moment of their adventure. Billy, T.P., Joe and Dotty had already passed on, but the family and many other guests would be celebrating with them at a party this afternoon.
"Well, that's a relief. You could have been badly hurt falling that far!" Amanda noticed gratefully that Lee had already made the coffee and poured them each a cup.
"Ah, no worries. I rolled into it and bounced up almost as good as new." He grimaced again as he lowered himself into his chair. "The bad news is: I squashed our anniversary breakfast." He tugged a zipped plastic bag from each pocket of his jacket to display two flattened bakery items.
He shook his head ruefully as he handed one of them to Amanda. "Climbing through the window wasn't one of my best ideas. I had intended this to be breakfast in bed, complete with coffee." He nodded toward the pot of brew.
She smiled in delight, "It's still warm. Is this one of those peach cinnamon muffins?" She carefully opened the bag and inhaled the spicy fragrance.
"It was the closest thing I could find to a Pilgrim's Peach Puff. But now it's ruined." He tossed the other bag onto the table, and thrust his hand through his graying hair with a snort.
"I wouldn't say 'ruined.' Not by a long shot," Amanda countered. Her voice lowered and she got that certain look in her eyes. "We can feed each other every morsel. Very romantic indeed." She picked out one of the larger crumbs and offered it to his lips, gazing into his eyes. As he accepted her offering, she caressed his lips lightly with her fingertips. In a throaty voice filled with promise she said, "This is only the prelude."
The End