Chapter 29. What the Water Gave Us

Mark sticks his tongue out at his daughter as calm waters from a low tide churn a few yards in front of them. Kate peeks back at him, watching his face closely from beneath the brim of her floppy bucket hat. She experimentally slides the tip of her tongue between her lips in mimicry, but when Mark thrusts his tongue out as far as he can and crosses his eyes, Kate responds with a smile and a delighted giggle instead. The two of them and Savvy – who has Kate propped between her legs to help her sit with support – are shaded beneath a cabana tent while Addison and Weiss are down in the water, calves-deep as they walk along the frothy shoreline.

"Getting that sass started early," Savvy acknowledges with a wide, happy grin when Kate looks up at her as though to confirm her godmother has seen this teasing exchange. Babbles of choppy vowels emerge from Kate's mouth before she resumes shaking her hand that is holding on to a pair of baby sunglasses.

"She gets it from her mom. It comes naturally, but Addison also likes to make faces at her, and now she's got me hooked on doing it too." Mark nods in his girlfriend's direction. The adults have been rotating time spent in the ocean and "Kate Duty." There is a bit more freedom in being able to lap through the pristine waters of this private stretch of Mayflower Beach, but "Kate Duty" is also nice because it involves snacks and beer, and of course a baby in an adorable blue and white seersucker swimsuit and matching hat. (There are sunglasses too, but Kate is far more interested in playing with them than wearing them – never mind the stuffed elephant, rattles, and musical toys surrounding her.)

Savvy bends to place a kiss on top of the baby's head. "Well, sassy though you may be, luckily you seem perfectly content with just sitting in the shade with your dad and Auntie Sav."

Mark smirks. "Yeah. Amazing how much fun having your fingers in your mouth apparently is at this age. Or sunglasses."

"Just as long as they're her sunglasses and no one else's," Savvy says, inclining her head towards the pair of white sunglasses Kate is now casually gnawing on. "I know her mother loves her, but Addison also really loves her Gucci frames. And she loves jewelry, you know. Specifically rings."

"Aren't you subtle," he deadpans.

"Says the man who has never been subtle a day in his life. This is killing me, Mark. It's not like she's going to say no. Is the plan that you propose on whatever night you and Addison ship us off to a hotel with your kid? I'm not buying that that alone time is just for sex."

"That would be the ideal time to propose – and obviously the ideal time for sex, that goes without saying – but I don't really have the proposal set in stone. It's more of a 'right now plan.' I'll just…I'll know when it's the right moment."

"Weiss and I are heading back to the city on Sunday," she reminds him. "You're staying until Wednesday. And I get that this is a free vacation for us, but still. I'm going to be pissed if you don't propose until after we hit the road."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Daddy?" Savvy holds Kate up and shields her face behind the baby's, throwing out an exaggerated fake voice. "Stop stalling. Please marry my mommy. You're lucky to have landed her in the first place. You've out-kicked your coverage."

"Out-kicked my coverage? What am I, a gargoyle?" He snorts.

"I meant personality-wise."

Mark rolls his eyes. "Rude. Also, find a different voice for my kid. That was freaky. You sounded like the flying squirrel from The Bullwinkle Show."

"Wow, I completely forgot about that one. That actually makes sense though. From what I can remember, Bullwinkle the moose always had the worst puns. You would have been a proud connoisseur of that cartoon. Oh, God…" Savvy braces herself when a grin flickers across Mark's face. "What?"

"Just that I watched a lot of TV when I was little kid and I loved The Bullwinkle Show. It was very…a-moose-ing."

Savvy sighs and looks down at her goddaughter. "I'm so sorry, Kate. This is going to be your life. Mark, has anyone ever punched you in the face before?"

"No. Does that surprise you?"

"Actually, yeah."

-

"You okay?" Mark glances over at Addison as they pull away from the hotel. Her eyes have already flickered to the backseat, where there is no longer an infant car seat. Or an infant. "Because if at any time –"

"I'm okay," she interrupts, breathing out gently. "And I know. It's just a ten-minute drive if I change my mind. What about you though, Mark? We're in Conversational Vermont. Are you okay without her for a night?"

He nods. "Also okay. It kinda helps that she's a happy baby. And that we left the room when she was distracted with tugging on Weiss's hair."

"Yeah. Well, as much as I already miss her, it will be nice to have a night potentially to ourselves. Do you think it's weird that Sav and Weiss know we dropped them off at a hotel room with our kid so we could basically have sex?"

"We had sex last night too, you know."

"Well, they don't know that."

"We have a kid together. I'm pretty sure they know we have sex, Addie."

-

"Oh, Mark. Look," Addison waves her cell phone towards him while they are cleaning up after a nice dinner. "Sav just sent a video. Kate likes the rain!"

Mark navigates the last dish into the dishwasher and walks over to Addison. The scene outside the window behind her features dark clouds shadowing above an equally dark ocean as droplets fall from the sky. Unbelievable and yet predictable, he had said to her when a wall of low-hanging clouds started to draw across the sky in the late afternoon, in what has otherwise been a perfectly sunny, cloudless week.There's just something about us and rain.

Addison presses play and hands Mark her phone. He laughs when he sees a short clip of Kate being held close to the window by Weiss. She is slapping her hands uncoordinatedly against the glass, the outside of which is smeary and fogged with thick droplets. She appears fascinated by the rain, emitting little ah-ah-ah sounds as water splashes against the ground.

"That's good. I mean, it's not entirely surprising. You don't really hate the rain anymore," he gives Addison's shoulder a light squeeze as he sets her phone on the counter. "Not completely, anyway."

"No, I don't hate it. Not when I'm with you and Kate. And speaking of rain…do you want to kiss me in the rain?" She raises an eyebrow.

"Really?"

"Mm-hmm," she giggles, taking his hand. "We talked about it last time, but I was pregnant and lazy. Right now I'm neither. Come with me."

They quickly go outside, not bothering with shoes or additional articles of clothing to keep them warm. Mark follows her lead, assuming she won't go that far, but she surprises him and tugs him all the way down to the water. Sea foam hisses around them, white-whisked bubbles rushing past their ankles as they wrap their arms around each other.

"Hey," Mark laughs, making a vague gesture towards the sky. The rain is starting to land more heavily now, and he knows other storm companions will not be far behind. "What are we going to tell our kid if we get struck by lightning?"

"I imagine we'll be dead first, so."

"Fair point. Did you wear a light-colored shirt just for me?"

"No," Addison glances down at her pale pink button down, already soaked through. "It just worked out that way. Lucky you. And now as soon as you kiss me, literally everything about this will be cliché," she says, and Mark immediately tilts his face down to meet hers, embracing the cliché.

It's feather-light and exploratory at first, but then he teases her mouth open wider, sliding his tongue out to meet hers and eliciting a quiet gasp. Addison giggles against his mouth when a wave knocks both of them in the knees. It startles them, and they wisely move a bit closer to dry land (but they are not in fact wise enough to get out of the water completely).

"We're putting on quite a show for our neighbors," she says in between resumed kisses, flicking her head to move a wet strand of hair off her cheek. She gives Mark an amused look as his hands slide against her bottom and the back of her thighs.

"It's dark," he smirks, fingers curling against her through her jeans. "Even if a neighbor was close enough to see us from this angle – and none of them are – it's way too dark for them to notice how much my hands are enjoying you. When in Vermont by way of Cape Cod, right?"

"It's not going to be just your hands enjoying me soon, I bet," Addison responds suggestively. She places her own hands on Mark's chest. His shirt feels fused to his skin. "Oh, Vermont. That poor, innocent state that we're slowly debasing with our explicit conversations and sexual encounters."

Mark smiles in agreement and holds her more firmly, pressing her wet body against his as they continue to kiss. He rakes his hands over her curves appreciatively, but stills them on her waist when he feels her tremble in his embrace.

"Cold?"

"Y-yeah," she nods, grabbing his hands and holding them at her sides. "Just a few more minutes though," she smiles and leans against him, words husky as they land on his neck. "I don't want this to end yet."

"Me either," Mark tells her. And then he knows. "Addison. Marry me."

"What?" She is almost certain she heard him wrong over the sound of the wind pushing wildly around them. Thunder growls somewhere across the ocean. She leans back, studying him closely.

"I'm proposing. And we're not in the car. This isn't a car proposal."

A slow smile teases her lips up. "You're proposing to me," she whispers. It only takes a moment for overwhelming happiness to set in. She smiles and blinks back tears beginning to gather in her eyes as Mark tangles their fingers together and coaxes her closer. Addison suddenly thinks about how she felt the first time she held her daughter. She knew with absolute certainty in that moment that her life was meant to include Kate, in the same way that slowly, over time, she realized her life was meant to include Mark. She blinks this sentiment away and refocuses herself, wanting to be present for this moment, to remember this moment. She has wasted far, far too much time worrying about what is happening in her life versus what is not, what could have happened versus what did not. And now she is here. And it really is the most remarkable thing, that Mark is here with her.

"Yeah. I'm proposing," Mark says, raising his voice to be heard over the storm battering around them. "I love you. You and Kate are my entire world. I know how this started – how we started – is crazy and one day we're going to have to pull off some serious hook and ladders and end-arounds in order to explain our relationship to our kid, but I just know that it's you. It's supposed to be you. You're it for me. The middle and the end, the present and future. You walked into my life with the most incredible heart and beautiful hair and more shoes than any one person needs to have. You walked into my life and my apartment and you stayed. And now you need to keep staying, because I love you, and I swear I will love you forever."

"Mark," she says softly. Because this is Mark and Addison needs to say so just to ground herself more in what is happening. She believes in him and he believes in her and last summer they somehow managed to believe in each other enough to build something from the smoke and ashes of their previous lives, from all that history. Addison inhales shakily as the love of her life drops to a knee, calves and thighs instantly submerged in water. His hand claws around in his pocket, searching for what she knows will be a ring.

"Addison Forbes Montgomery, will you marry me?" Mark snaps open the box, and places a diamond ring flush about the tip of her finger.

"Yes!" Addison half-screams and half-laughs. She beams when he slides the ring onto her finger. "Yes, Mark. Of course I'll marry you."

Mark grins, water sluicing down his legs as he stands back up. They grab onto each other and run back towards the house, steps sluggish in the wet sand and then clunky as they bound up the stairs dividing their property from the beach.

"Holy shit it's cold," Mark says practically in one breath, words crushed together when they reach the front porch.

"You…" she laughs, dropping her hands to her knees, slightly winded and incredibly giggly. "You were kneeling in the water."

"Yeah," he grins. "Not my brightest idea. Let's get dry."

Addison shakes her head. An idea comes to her. "Let's get wet. More wet. Warm wet," she says, still full of happy and borderline-delirious laughter when Mark shoots her a justifiably confused look. "Shower with me?"

He likes this idea.

The water is far from warm by the time they're done in the shower.

-

"Trick plays," Addison murmurs later that night, wrapped in his arms. Mark blinks at the sound of her voice cutting through the darkness. He was starting to drift off, warm and sleepy following a second round of lovemaking.

"What?"

"When you were proposing, at one point when you were talking about what it will be like when Kate is old enough to know how and when we started dating…I think you threw some football references in there."

Mark grins in confirmation. "I did. I was nervous. It didn't matter how many times I practiced the speech in my head. I retained the basic elementsof what I wanted to say, sure, but the football part was unexpected – I blame Savvy for that because she had made a football reference earlier in the day. Don't tell her though. I want her to think that I'm cool and that I was totally relaxed about the proposal and that I was able to wing it and it was perfect."

"It was a perfect proposal, Mark. But Savvy definitely doesn't think you're cool. She knew this was coming though?"

"She did. And she helped me pick the ring. I mean, that's the one I wanted to get you, but it got the Savvy Stamp of Approval. Do you like it?"

"I do," Addison assures him. She had honestly barely noticed the engagement ring when he originally placed it on her finger, but has since had the opportunity to marvel over it. Her eyes again sweep over the round center diamond flanked by two smaller pear-shaped Moissanite gemstones. Delicate, curled embellishments wrap along the top and sides of the white gold band. It is truly the most beautiful ring she has ever seen, modern and vintage and elegant all at once. "It's stunning, Mark. I'm…I'm so happy right now. And I want it to just be us tonight, but I also can't wait to go get our kid tomorrow morning."

He smiles into the graceful curve of her neck. "Me too. Text Savvy at some point though before you fall asleep. I don't think she can take waiting much longer. She's getting close to cracking."

-

"You know, you completely caught me by surprise with the proposal, but I should have known something was up," Addison says a few days later as they make their way back to Manhattan after a blissful week and-a-half in Cape Cod. "You didn't make any car proposal jokes on the way to the beach house."

Mark chuckles. "I kept waiting for you to joke about it, too."

"I must have been distracted by the cutie in the back seat," Addison glances in the rear view mirror, catching sight of Kate's sleeping face in the mirror affixed to the headrest. "So. About the wedding…"

"Oh, I see," he says with a lazy grin. "I can't propose to you in the car, but we can talk about the wedding in the car. And actually, we're about to cross into Connecticut. I'm surprised you haven't clammed up yet."

"Ha," she rolls her eyes. "I just have a few initial thoughts I want to share. I don't intend to plan it all in the car. The wedding though…can it be small? I mean, realistically it's not like we have that many friends. Kind of an occupational hazard of working long hours. But I was thinking like, us and Kate, obviously, and then our parents, Sav and Weiss, Maggie and her husband, Naomi and Sam if they're able to come – I know it's been a long time though – and maybe less than one hand's worth of people from work who were closer to me than Derek and haven't been weird particularly weird or uncomfortable around us since last fall. Josie and Charlene for sure. And, I mean, if there's anyone you want to invite – like maybe the Tennisses, for example – then of course they would be included too. It's just that, well, I know Derek is your best friend –"

"I know it would probably be too weird," he finishes for her. "I get it. And small is fine."

"Are you sure though, about it being small? I mean, it's your…first wedding."

Mark cannot resist a little ribbing at this observation, especially when the look on her face indicates that she finds it a bit funny too. "And last. Some of us get it right on the first shot, you know."

"Ass. Well, it's my last too," she laughs. "And it's not like I heard you raise an objection during the first wedding."

"I wasn't in love with you at the first wedding. I was just an idiot who knew you — and yeah, yeah. I know I'm still an idiot. But anyway, it really can be whatever you want it to be, Addison."

"Okay. And…can we get married in the winter, maybe?"

He smiles. A request for a winter wedding does not surprise him. "Yeah. I'd marry you next to a dumpster, Addison. I just want to marry you."

"That would be disgusting, but I appreciate the sentiment. Okay, well those are my initial thoughts. I'm done for now. And as much as I like keeping this news between us and Sav and Weiss, we should probably call our parents this weekend to let them know. It's the adult, Vermont thing to do."

"Yeah, it is," Mark agrees. "Your parents won't be surprised though. I called them beforehand to let them know my, uh, intentions…God, I hate that word. Anyway, I know you don't really listen to anyone – least of all your mother – and it's kind of antiquated, but Savvy said I probably let them know ahead of time that I was planning to propose."

"Savvy really is the ringmaster of this relationship."

"That she is. And your parents said they were happy for you and for us, by the way. They said this better be your last wedding 're too tired to have to do this a third time."

"Damn, I'm really taking a lot of heat for having a second wedding."

"And, um…" Mark glances over at her, fingers curling tighter around the wheel. "I also called Derek. Not for permission or to get his approval, obviously, but I just…I felt like he deserved to know I was going to propose to you."

She holds back a weak smile and tries to joke first to break the ice. "You notified a lot of people ahead of time. Good thing I didn't say no. How embarrassing that would have been for you. What…" Addison feels herself tense a little. "What did Derek say though?"

"The first thing he said was 'wow.' And then he said okay and that it's kind of weird for him, but he's supportive and he wants us to be happy. He said congrats. And I believe the words 'good luck' were also in there."

"Did he mean 'good luck' to the both of us for taking the plunge? Or 'good luck' to you because you're marrying me?"

"Not sure. I didn't ask him to clarify."

Addison's lips curl up in a smile. "Why do I have a feeling that it's the latter?"