It's about fifteen hundred miles to California,
They'll get there Friday if they leave tonight,
She sneaks out at three thirty in the morning,
Leaves a note so she won't see her daddy cry.
Love, Mallory
Mallory Wells took a deep breath and then folded the note in half, placing it on the pillow of her made bed. Usually, her room was in disarray – books and clothing and general clutter scattered about while her bed was a nest of pillows and blankets. But, Mallory had cleaned throughout the night as she packed from a list Lou would be proud of. A list that she now crossed the last item off of: leave a note.
They would probably be all surprised when they woke up and found her gone. Well, perhaps her parents wouldn't be. They might just shake their heads and say 'that's our Mallory' and then she would have to call them and remind them of her existence. It would be her Heartland family that would probably have to hear the news twice before they believed it. And then it would all make sense – how she had barely left the ranch and Copper's side these last few weeks and how she'd hugged Jack goodbye every night, much to the old man's surprise.
Mallory teared up just thinking about it but she knew that she would come back, just as she knew that it was right for her to go. Hudson was starting to feel like an old pair of shoes – beloved, but getting a little too tight around the toes. Mallory had always been of two minds: she had always craved adventure but had been too afraid of falling to see what flying felt like. Then, Jake had kissed her for the first time. Mallory had cradled their romance close to her, thinking for the first time that the adventure would be worth the aftermath.
She glanced at the clock. Ten minutes until he was supposed to arrive and so she double checked her bag. She had managed to fit her whole life into a suitcase and a backpack. It was going to be enough. She couldn't begin again and grow if she carried everything that had been holding her back around with her. Mallory's phone buzzed.
Jake: I'm here.
Mallory felt like her stomach fell out of her body and then she stood up and grabbed her bags. She tip-toed carefully through her sleeping house. Her father wasn't likely to wake but her mother went through chaotic periods of insomnia. She didn't want to have to explain herself face to face to her parents. They'd never seemed to understand her and had never seemed to try either.
She locked her front door behind her and wondered if she'd ever do it again. Then, she took a deep breath of night air and turned down her driveway toward Jack's truck.
It was time to go.
He cuts the engine when he coasts in the driveway,
She slides in and gives him one kiss for the road,
No friends and no family, no job out there waiting,
The whole town will call them crazy but they gotta go.
It was a quarter after three in the morning when Jake left his house and put his truck in neutral, letting it roll down his hilly driveway. When he finally turned it on and the headlights flooded the road that would take him to Mallory's, Jake grinned wildly. He felt the same nerves he was sure Mallory was feeling right now but what was nervousness compared to his happiness and existence?
He cut his engine and rolled to a stop at the end of her driveway. The moments between telling her he was here and actually seeing her come down the driveway were the longest moments of his young life. But then her bags were loaded in the back and she was sitting on the dusty bench seat next to him. Mallory brushed her long blonde hair over her shoulder.
"Ready?" he asked.
Mallory looked back at her house; the silhouette was barely discernable from the night sky.
"It was my idea."
"Our idea," Jake corrected, because he didn't remember things quite that way.
She looked back at him and then slid across the bench seat, giving him a long kiss. Jake pressed their foreheads together.
"I'm ready," Mallory said. "Let's go."
They rolled on, taking the long way to the highway so that they could go through Hudson, taking a long look at the town they grew up in. it looked different in the dark but, to Jake, it still reeked of small town, hometown innocence. There was a whole world out there and Jake was going to get to see it with the girl he'd loved since they were twelve.
"What do you think it's going to be like?" Mallory asked.
"I don't know. Isn't that the point?"
"Yeah," Mallory agreed. "Do you think they'll freak out tomorrow?"
"Remember when Lou went to New York and people didn't stop talking about it until a year after she came back?"
"You didn't know Lou then!"
"That's my point."
Mallory laughed and took one of his hands.
"I love you, Jake."
"I love you too," Jake said, his heart double-thumping in his chest.
Everything he'd ever wanted was happening right now and he was never looking back.
Cause when you're young and in love, yeah,
You might do some things that don't seem all that smart,
Cause there ain't no greater distance
Than the eighteen inches from your head to your heart, yeah.
The day that they decided to run away together was a normal day. What had become their normal, anyway. Mallory took Copper out for a ride down to the river where Jake was waiting for her, the dapple-grey gelding named Lucky tethered nearby. Copper snorted as she tied his reins near to Lucky so that they could graze without getting territorial and then she sank down next to Jake. He had spread a picnic blanket out for them; a feast that easily fit in saddle bags spread around him.
"Is this all for me?" she joked.
"No, I'm waiting for a different blonde. You know Jamie, right?"
"I'll push you in that river, Jake, don't think I won't."
"I know you would. Sandwich?"
Mallory reached for one of the cookie bags instead. She had always been a big believer in dessert first.
"Your mother ever tell you that you'll rot your teeth out?"
"Jack did," Mallory mused. "My mother never told me much of anything."
Jake's hand gently caressed her own. Mallory glanced at him and became trapped in his warm eyes. It was the way Jake had always looked at her and she was thankful that her eyes had been opened to her own feelings because sitting here with Jake in the warmth of early summer was the only place that Mallory could imagine being.
"Do you ever worry we'll turn into our parents?"
Jake thought about it for a long moment, staring out over the river. While this mindfulness had once bothered Mallory, now she realized what it meant: Jake was taking her seriously. It was a rare feeling for Mallory, who was used to word-vomiting and hoping something stuck.
"I don't think it would be bad to turn out like my parents. They're both happy, still love each other. What else could I ask for?"
"What else would you ask for?" Mallory pushed.
Jake finished off his sandwich and leant back on the blanket, propping himself up on his elbow. "Well, I can count on one hand the amount of times each of them had left Alberta. I'd like to see more of the world than that."
Mallory's hair swirled around her face and it was her turn to look out over the water. She had always wondered what coffee on another continent would taste like, what it would be like to wake up to a city morning instead of a country one, or how it would feel to spend a January in a place where it didn't snow.
"Yeah," Mallory admitted, "I've always wondered what's out there. I guess I've just been afraid of finding out. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad with you."
Mallory rolled onto her stomach, facing him.
"You askin' me to run away with you?" he drawled, making it clear that he was laughing about it, even though there was a seriousness in his eyes that made Mallory curious.
"What if was?" she asked, the idea becoming seductive. "Would you go?"
"I'd follow you anywhere."
"Where would we go?"
"Anywhere."
"Even a big city?" Mallory asked, snatching his cowboy hat from his head and placing it on her own head.
"Give me that," Jake said, taking it back. "What are you trying to say?"
"Hard to imagine you as a tourist in LA or something."
"I have to stand out or you might run off with a movie star."
Jake winked at her but Mallory just shook her head, thinking of Austin. The idea of fame and always wondering why someone was talking to her seemed exhausting. It also seemed lesser than the way Jake was looking at her now. He was always open and honest and she'd never had to wonder what was going on in his mind. When she was much younger, she had dreamt of grand romances; good girls and bad boys, the flair of something forbidden, topping off with long declarations of true love at first sight. Now that she was slightly older after spending time chasing that, she had realized that those ideas, those dark boys that didn't know how to open up and not make it about themselves, didn't equal the romance she had always wanted. Jake's love was a warm blanket comforting, always there, and loved back.
"I wouldn't leave you."
"Just leave with me."
Mallory nodded. "But we could go to California."
"What would your parents say?"
Mallory shrugged. "Does it matter?"
"We could take my truck."
"Disappear in the middle of the night," Mallory asked, her flair of the dramatic still with her. "They'll never stop talking about us."
"Even if we came back."
"We'd come back eventually. When we were ready."
Jake kissed her, the brim of his hat hiding the sun.
"When do you want to go?"
Mallory glanced at Copper, his long tail swishing across his legs. Her heart hurt as she thought about not being able to see him every day but when she looked back at Jake, she knew she couldn't pass up the chance that would lead her to rest of her life.
"Soon."
They can barely make rent on a rundown apartment,
She's waiting tables and he's a valet,
They're behind on the bills and the car's barely running,
But he buys a ring with the tips that he's saved.
Five months later, they were still in California, although not in the same spot. They were slowly making their way around the state, trying to decide where they would go next. For now, Mallory was working as a waitress in a greasy diner that had her talking about Maggie's more often recently. Jake was working nights as a valet for an upper scale club. He hated it, though he tried not to tell Mallory that. He would have switched jobs, were it not for the tips he made. He had carefully squirreled tips away until he had saved enough and then he went to an antique store, far enough away from their little apartment that he knew Mallory wouldn't have been in.
"Morning, Jake."
"Hey, Carl." Jake went straight to the display counter, his work boots echoing loudly on the old hardwood floor. Even though he wasn't doing anything that required steel toes, he just couldn't get used to the feel of sneakers.
"Here to take anther look?" Carl asked, scratching his grey beard. I told you I wouldn't sell it out from under you."
"No, today's the day," Jake said, pulling out his wallet. "It's coming home with me."
Carl grinned, showing off a mouth of nicotine-stained teeth. "Well, finally!"
He put the ring on the counter and Jake inspected it. It was exactly how it had looked when he had first walked in – a thick silver band with one larger diamond in the middle, smaller ones dotting along the sides of the band. It was beautiful and, more importantly, he could picture it on Mallory's ring finger as they grew old together.
He felt breathless the whole way home with it, trying to figure out what to do with it now that he had it. He knew he had to give it to her tonight – not only could Jake not wait but Mallory would find it. She had super powers when it came to finding out things that she couldn't.
He was waiting at home when Mallory stumbled in, her uniform in her backpack and her hair in a bun that was steadily falling apart.
"I smell like French fries," she complained.
"I don't mind."
"I think I'm breaking out."
"You're beautiful."
Mallory collapsed on the couch next to him. "You love me. You have to say it."
Jake pulled her feet into his lap, knowing they were sore. "I love you, therefore, I tell you the truth. I think you're beautiful."
"I should shower. Wanna come with?"
Jake saw his chance. To the point was something he was good at. Long romantic speeches was something he was bad at. Cheesy and something that would make Mallory smile was something he could manager.
"I think I'd rather shower with my fiancée than my girlfriend."
He watched several emotions flit across Mallory's face – namely surprise and outrage – until he got the ring out of his pocket, holding it out to her.
"Will you marry me, Mallory?"
Her brown eyes went wide and, for the firs time, he had managed to make Mallory Wells speechless. He had almost managed it after their first kiss but she had only gaped at him for a second before grabbing the front of his shirt and telling him to kiss her again.
"Oh, don't cry, Mallory. You don't have to marry me."
Mallory shook her head and then laughed, "No, that's not why. All my life, I've wanted someone to love me the way you do and I spent so long not realizing it … I'd marry you tonight, Jake, I really would."
Jake slid the ring on her finger and it fit just as he'd been praying it would.
"Maybe tomorrow," Jake said, his hands sliding up her legs. "I think one night of saying fiancée is needed."
"Fiancé," Mallory repeated, giddily. She kissed him and then batted hands away. "Shower time. I'm not doing that while I smell like work."
Mallory bounced to her feet, offering him her hands. The light caught her ring and Jake smiled to himself. Mallory Wells had run away with him and now she was going to marry him. He couldn't ask for anything more.
When you're young and in love, yeah,
You might do some things that don't seem all that smart,
Cause there ain't no greater distance
Than the eighteen inches from your head to your heart.
Mallory picked out a white dress from a thrift store all alone. It wasn't how she had imagined picking out her wedding dress would be. She could have told people that she was getting married or invited people she worked with but she found that didn't really want to. They had gotten engaged four days ago and she hadn't even told anyone about that. It wasn't as though she wanted to be secretive but Little Miss Busybody had become a woman who had learnt the value of privacy. It seemed impossible that she had changed that much since leaving Hudson but she felt like a whole new person. She was happy, confident, and she was going to be a wife.
She bought the white dress with the short skirt and lace sleeves. She carried it in her back pack until she reached the court house. She and Jake were getting married at eight o'clock tonight and she had twenty minutes to fix her hair and make-up before she was supposed to meet him. She changed in a bathroom stall and then spread her make-up open in front of her, adding eyeliner and mascara and a little blush. She stared at herself in the dirty mirror and combed her fingers through her blonde hair. She looked like a young, blushing bride. Which, she supposed she was. Her pink lipstick looked more perfect than it ever had before. Mallory stared at herself and waited for the nerves and the indecision. She waited for the flightiness that had plagued her all of her life and it didn't come. She twisted the ring on her finger and she didn't feel it. She just wanted it to be eight o'clock because she wanted to get married. She shifted on the little black kitten heels she had also found at the thrift store until it was time and then she opened the doors to the courthouse. Jake was standing there with the judge that would make them husband and wife and Mallory almost took off down the short aisle.
It was a far cry from an elegant aisle in a church, her father on one arm while her mother wept in the front row. There were no bridesmaids waiting to take her bouquet – she didn't even have a bouquet! – and, yet, it didn't bother her. It hardly seemed to register with her. Jake was standing there, in an ill-fitted suit that he had convinced his friend, Carl – who Mallory had never met nor heard of – had leant him for the occasion from his shop. He was the most beautiful thing that Mallory had ever seen and she almost tripped over her own feet on the way to him. It would have been just like her to fall flat on her face on her wedding day.
"Do you, Jake Anderson, take Mallory Wells to be your beloved wife, to have and to hold, through sickness and health, 'til death do you part?"
"I do."
The way Jake said those words were branded onto her brain. She was going to remember that until she died.
"Do you, Mallory Wells, take Jake Anderson to be your beloved husband, to have and to hold, through sickness and health, 'til death do you part?"
"I do," Mallory said, staring up at him.
She didn't quite know how she had ended up here, married and away from home, living a life of working and moving on that she just never fathomed for herself, but she had Jake. Mallory wasn't a crying girl but she felt the slightest bit of tears coming to her eyes as she looked at Jake.
"With the power vested in me by the state of California, I now declare you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride."
Jake kissed her deeply, even though it was a courthouse wedding and there was no one to show off for, it was their wedding day. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back until she ran out of breath, burying her head down against his chest. A wife. She was someone's wife. She had a husband.
"Now, I just need you to sign a few things," the judge said.
Mallory and Jake both did, but neither could take their eyes off one another. Finally, he took her hand and they walked out of the court room together. They had moved out of their apartment, quit their jobs, and packed the truck to move on in the morning, so, tonight, they were spending their night in a hotel. It was a little more fancy than they would probably spend their money on normally but it was their wedding night. Jake insisted on carrying her through the door, though Mallory had to swipe the card, and he settled her down on the queen size bed.
"We just got married," Mallory whispered. "Oh, wow. We just got married."
"Oh, wow."
Jake tilted his head to kiss her and Mallory pressed her hands to the sides of his face.
"I love you, Jake. Do you know that?"
"I knew that before you did," Jake said. "You didn't believe me when I said I'd grow."
"I –"
"I'm too country, you're too rock and roll," Jake teased. "Oh! You have to wash your hair and clean out your closet before I kiss you. Is that it?"
"I'm gonna kill you."
Jake's eyes glowed. "You love me."
Mallory's lips gently brushed his own – not a true kiss, but the promise of one. "You love me too."
Mallory knew it and Jake knew it too. She slid his coat over his shoulders and then lost herself inside of her new husband, thinking that the world outside of their little travelling bubble barely existed anymore, and she would tell everyone everything when they resurfaced. For now – forever – she only wanted Jake.
Last thing they need is another mouth to feed, but they want one,
They're just kids themselves but that's gonna change in nine more months,
The next house they rented in southern California had a claw foot tub, which had been Mallory's bargaining tool in convincing him to spend the hundred dollars a month on it. Though Jake had never admitted it, he was glad that she had pushed for it, because, now he was spending nearly more in than she was. He was soaking in it on his day off one day, now that he had picked up a job in a vineyard. He heard Mallory get home and he called for her. She walked into the bathroom, half-naked by the time she entered the door and fully stripped before she settled into the tub between his legs.
"But I wanted the tub. I was being annoying."
"You're always annoying." Jake kissed her ear.
"Me? Excuse me!? Who stalked who at the age of twelve?"
"Puppy love." Jake trailed his fingers up her arm. "And who could blame me?"
"I did."
"And now we've been married for a whole month and you haven't killed me yet."
Mallory's head leant back on his shoulder. "An accomplishment."
Mallory threaded her fingers through his.
"Well, I'm proud of you."
Mallory held his hands up over her heart.
"Want to know what else we accomplished?"
"Running away from home?" Jake said. "Getting married and not telling our parents? Falling in love and not apologizing for it? A lot of people can't do it."
Mallory guided their hands down her chest and over her stomach. "I'm pregnant, Jake. We're gonna have a baby."
Jake could feel the tension in her body, though, in true Mallory stubbornness, she refused to turn and look at him to see his reaction. Jake reached up with her other hand, spreading it across her body and leaning his head forehead to hide it in the crook of her neck, the bubble bath foaming water splashing up their bodies. They hadn't been married long; they had never even talked about when they wanted children. They were still such babies themselves. And yet … And yet …
"We're really going to have a baby?"
"I peed on a stick between the breakfast rush and the lunch rush," Mallory said. "I missed my last period. What do you think?"
"I think I hope she looks like you."
"I think I hope he acts like you," Mallory responded. "But, does that mean you want them?"
"I want a life with you, whatever that means. And I thought about our children. I thought they were someday children."
"Surprise."
Jake pulled hot water over her chest and collar bone. "A good surprise. Are you ready to be a mom?"
"I just don't want to be my mom," Mallory said. "But I don't want you to be my dad, either. Your parents were really parents to you and that's the kind of mom I want to be."
"Please don't tell me that I remind you of your dad," Jake said in a deadpan.
"I never would have left Hudson with you – or even kissed you! – if you did. I want to be a good mother, though. I know I don't know a lot but I want this baby."
"Me too."
Mallory turned to smile at him and Jake kissed her. Their life together had been on fast forward since their first kiss but Jake knew that he wouldn't change it. Mallory had never been normal, always moving to the beat of her own drum. It was something he'd always loved about her, even when it frustrated him.
Under the water, he walked his wrinkling fingers across her stomach.
"What are you thinking?" Mallory asked and he could hear her worry, but she shouldn't have been. He would never be the type of man who would abandon his child or its mother but he had married her, had been thinking about everything they would have together. They hadn't decided to have this child now but that didn't make it any less wanted to Jake.
"Should we go home and have our baby there?"
"We have a little time to decide but it would make life easier, wouldn't it?" Mallory sighed. "They're going to think we're crazy."
"They already thought that." Jake kissed her neck. "At least we got married first. Can you imagine what they'd say if we didn't?"
Mallory laughed. "Well, it's close enough. They'll think it's a shotgun wedding anyway."
"What teenagers get married for love?"
Mallory shrugged, reaching up with her toes to turn on the hot water and flood more warmth into the tub. "We did."
Yes, Jake thought. Impossibly, somehow, they had.
She wakes him up at three thirty in the morning,
Ready or not their new life's gonna start,
Seven pounds and eighteen inches,
The doctor lays that new baby's head right on her heart.
Mallory sat up, careful not to disturb Jake. He was face down on a cheap motel pillow. They had checked in late last night, even though they were just over half an hour away from Hudson. No one was expecting them and Jake and Mallory had thought they'd be a better surprise at ten a.m. than at midnight.
Mallory pressed her hands to her bulging stomach, feeling her baby move. It was the strangest sensation and, even now, at months pregnant, she wasn't used to it.
Come on, kid, let me sleep, Mallory thought. She knew it was useless and it was also a taste of what to come after the baby was born. Mallory groaned and laid back down, closing her eyes. It wouldn't help but she didn't have anything else to try. She shifted restlessly as the minutes ticked by. And, then, it began to hurt. Deep, rolling pains that came from deep inside of her. As quickly as it had started, it stopped. Mallory touched her stomach, feeling the baby move again, and it only slightly helped the fear coursing through he veins. She had read books and articles about pregnancy but she had never been through it and she couldn't know exactly what to expect from reading. She thought about calling her mother or calling Lou, even though it was three in the morning.
Is it normal? She wanted to know. Am I okay? Is my baby okay?
Also, surprise, there's a baby on the way.
Mallory stared at the clock, feeling paralyzed by her indecision. Then, the pain came again. Mallory had been experiencing Braxton Hicks throughout the past month or so but this pain felt different. She was only eight months along but her instinct told her that she was in labour.
"Jake!" Mallory cried, bolting upward. "Jake!"
He snorted, rolling over. "What's going on? You okay?"
"The baby. I think the baby's coming."
Mallory had never seen Jake wake up so fast. They were both shaking as they dressed, checked out, and got into the truck. Mallory clawed at her thighs as another contraction rolled through her. The relief that she felt when the hospital came into view was a momentary painkiller but that just left more room for panic. Was their baby healthy? It wasn't supposed to be time yet. They were supposed to have another month!
The nurse at the admin desk took the fact that Mallory was so young and eight months along very seriously. Mallory was quickly admitted and Jake helped her into her hospital gown.
"I'm scared," Mallory admitted. "Jake, I'm really scared."
"Me too." Jake put his arms around her to help her in the hospital bed. "Do you want me to call someone? We're not that far away."
Mallory glanced out the dark window, even though she wasn't sure if she was facing Hudson or not. "No. Not yet."
"Okay." Jake took her hand and she could see the excitement on his face. "We're going to have our baby."
"Our baby doesn't have a crib or a name or –"
Jake stopped her ramble, in the way only he could. "Our baby has us and we'll make sure they have everything."
Another contraction took over and Malloy cried out.
"All right, well, that's how Mom is doing," a short, black woman said as she walked in the room. "I'm Dr. Marshall. Let's take a look at how things are progressing and then we'll see if we can do something about that pain."
"Please," Mallory begged.
"Is this your first child?" Dr. Marshall asked, rolling a stool to the end of the bed and then snapping on gloves.
"Yes," Jake and Mallory said together.
"So, good news is that your baby is in a good position for birth. Unfortunately, Mallory, your baby is moving too quickly and we won't be able to give you an epidural."
"The baby is only thirty-eight weeks," Jake said. "Should we be worried?"
"Your baby is considered full-term. While there is a chance that any baby born between forty weeks, there's no reason to worry before we have. Your chart says you've been having regular check-up appointments and, so, if your other doctor hasn't noticed anything yet, I wouldn't fear for the worst at this point."
But Mallory worried anyway. She was a mother – she had been since she had peed on that little stick – and her baby was priority. The baby that she hadn't met yet but that had been sung to and talk to, whose feet had pushed against her stomach hard enough that Jake had been able to trace the outline of impossibly small toes, the baby that didn't have a name yet because both Jake and Mallory agreed they couldn't name their baby without seeing them.
Mallory was in labour for just under three hours but it felt like three days. Jake held her hand the whole time, wiping the sweat from her brow, and doing his best to reassure her, even though Mallory knew he was holding his breath along with her. Despite the fact that he was right there, Mallory felt alone. Jake would never feel the way that she was now, feeling like she was drowning in pain and fear.
"Almost there," Dr Marshall said.
"You can do it!"
Mallory screamed with her last push, feeling like she had emptied herself of everything. She couldn't even think about catching her breath because then her baby started to cry, and Mallory was stunned that they had managed to have this baby at all.
"Oh my God," Jake said.
The squalling, red-faced baby was placed on her chest.
"Congratulations, you have a daughter."
A daughter.
Mallory placed her hand against her baby's slick back and looked up at Jake. He was a straight shooting, no nonsense kind of cowboy, just like all the cowboys strutting around Hudson were like, but he was crying unabashedly as he hesitantly reached out, their daughter's tiny fingers gripping the tip of his own. There was nothing that could be said as Mallory laid there, feeling like she could have stayed in that moment together. Their first moment feeling like a family.
"All right, let's get baby and Mom all cleaned up," Dr. Marshall said, "and take a look, make sure everything is okay."
Mallory wanted to know without a shadow of a doubt that her baby was okay as much as she didn't want to let that baby out of her arms for even a moment. She let Dr. Marshall take her daughter while a nurse began to clean around her legs. As embarrassing as it was, Mallory just tilted her head back and stared at Jake. He kissed her.
"A little girl," he said. "I can't believe it."
"Oh, believe it," Mallory said. "If she's like me we're in so much trouble."
"If she's anything like you than she'll be perfect."
"I love you," Mallory said. "And, I think I know what I want to name her."
The next time her healthy, sleeping, bundled baby was in her arms, she officially had a name. Mallory cradled her baby while Jake squeezed into the bed next to her, his arms around her. She knew time was passing but it didn't feel like it. Time felt frozen. But, then, Mallory looked out the window at the bright sunlight.
"Jake, can you pass me my phone?"
"Who are you calling?"
"I'll give you one guess."
Jake probably knew her well enough that she didn't have to guess. She held the phone up to her ear, hearing it ring and ring, and then, finally, she heard the voice on the other end.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Jack."
"Mallory! Well, it's been a long time. How are you?"
"I have a baby," Mallory confessed. "Jake and I had a baby."
"Oh, Mallory."
"We named her Jacqueline Marie," Mallory said, tears coming to her eyes, emotions from the early morning overcoming her. "After you and Jake's grandmother."
"I'm honoured," Jack said, and Mallory could feel how much he meant it.
"We're in Calgary," Mallory said. "She came early. We almost made it home but that means she's definitely got Wells in her."
"I can't wait to meet her."
"I've missed you, Jack."
"I've missed you too."
"Tell everyone I'll see them soon and that I've missed them too. And tell them about Jacqueline. She's got lots of hair already, just like Jake's, but when she opens her eyes, they look like mine."
"She sounds beautiful."
"She is."
Mallory kissed her daughter's head and then she kissed her husband.
Life was beautiful.
When you're young and in love, yeah,
You might do some things that don't seem all that smart,
Jake adjusted his hands on the reins, his heels tapping the sides of Thunder's sides. The quarter horse moved into a canter, easily overtaking the older horse in front of him. Mallory looked over her shoulder as he caught up to her and Copper.
"I was worried you were going to forget," she teased as Jake slowed Thunder so they were talking side by side.
"Don't you forget, Daddy!" Jacqueline chirped from where she was settled between Mallory's body and the saddle horn.
"I wouldn't forget," Jake said, more than amused by his four-year-old's attitude. He nudged Thunder closer to Copper so that he could take Mallory's hand. "Happy anniversary."
"Happy anniversary," Mallory said.
"What's anniversary?"
"An anniversary is a day where something special happened. Mommy and Daddy got married on this day."
"What's married?" Jacqueline demanded.
"It's what you do when you love someone and you know you're going to love them forever."
"Oh." Jacqueline tugged on Copper's mane. "I'm gonna marry Connor."
Jake groaned at the same time Mallory did.
"You're too little to get married," Jake said, not feeling like much of a hypocrite. In about ten years, though, he was sure that he was going to start to feel like one.
"And she's not going to marry Connor Odell," Mallory said, covering Jacqueline's ears.
"What do you have against Caleb?"
"Nothing! But, Amy's having a boy and four years isn't that much of an age gap," Mallory said.
"We're not arranging a marriage for her. If she wants to marry Connor, she can … when she's forty or I'm dead whatever comes first."
"WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?" Jacqueline yelled.
Thunder's ears flattened but Copper was more than used to childish antics and didn't even blink.
"If you're dead before she's forty, I'll kill you myself," Mallory said.
"That doesn't –"
"I said what I said."
Jake knew better than to argue with her. "All right, you're the boss."
"We knew that," Mallory hummed. "Come on, Copper, we're almost there."
She loped off and in no time at all, Jake was spreading a picnic blanket out on that familiar spot by the river where they had first agreed to run away. Jacqueline was rifling through the picnic basket, hunting for the cookies because, as much as Mallory had crossed her fingers otherwise, Jacqueline was her mother's daughter.
"Don't go near the water without us," Mallory warned.
"I won't," Jacqueline promised.
Jake leant back on his elbows, watching their brunette daughter tripping around the grass and plucking some out to feed to Copper and Thunder. Jake almost warned her about keeping her hand flat but she had grown up around horses and knew better, even at her young age.
"So," Jake asked, "Where do you want to go next summer?"
It had become their tradition, each year, to return to this spot and decide where their travels were going to take them. They had pinkie swore, their first Christmas with Jacqueline, that just because they had a little girl didn't mean they couldn't go places and it didn't mean they had to become their parents either.
"I have a two-year plan," Mallory said. "Tell me what you think."
"Couldn't decide?"
"I want to go to France next year," Mallory said in a rush, like if she didn't get it out, she would never say it, "and then the year after, I don't want to go anywhere, because I want to have another baby."
"Another baby?"
"Well, we have a house this time, a crib … Jacqueline's still breathing so how bad at this parenting thing can we really be?" Mallory laughed. "And, you know, we'll have decided on this one. If we want another one. I think I want three. I know we talked about one more but I think I want three. Stop looking at me like that and say something!"
"Let me get a word in edge wise," Jake drawled and Mallory rolled her eyes and flopped onto her stomach. "I think I'll hate France."
"You said that about Mexico too."
"But I'd go anywhere with you."
Mallory smiled at him.
"And I would love to have another baby with you."
"Mommy, can Copper have a cookie?"
"No, cookies are human treats!" Mallory called back. "Jake, I think we're crazy."
"That's what everyone in Hudson says. Good thing we found each other."
"Good thing you followed me around like a lost puppy until I came to my senses."
This time, it was Jake's turn to roll his eyes and then he tugged the brim of his hat lower over his face to hide his expression. Mallory stole the hat from his head.
"Give me that."
"Nope, it's mine now!"
"Mallory!"
"Jake!"
He reached for his hat and she tried to pull away, and they ended up tangled around one another. Jake closed his eyes and kissed her, holding her close.
"I love you."
"I love you too."
Jacqueline popped up between them, grabbing a cookie out of the bag.
"I love you!" she trilled and climbed up their legs. "Kiss me too!"
Jake and Mallory kissed her chubby little cheeks and then Mallory and Jacqueline quickly got into a small argument about whether or not Jacqueline should eat a sandwich before she got another cookie or if she should just get another cookie. Jake watched Mallory take Jacqueline into her lap before presenting her with a ham and cheese sandwich and then he looked around him – the horses grazing, the river running, the peace in the air – and he imagined them in the future, another baby in Mallory's arms, their faces a little older, but that same ring on Mallory's finger and the same love between them.
Jake couldn't help himself and he hugged Mallory from behind, feeling his wife lean into him.
"Happy anniversary."
"You already said that."
"I'm only allowed to say it once?"
Mallory leant her head back on his shoulder. "Kiss me again, Jake."
So, Jake did.
But thank God for those eighteen inches,
The distance it is from your head to your heart, yeah, yeah, yeah.
The song in this fic is Eighteen Inches by Lauren Alaina. I heard this song and thought of Jake and Mallory and decided to write a little something for them.
Let me know what you think!
~TLL~