July 1954, Long Island
Epilogue
I look towards the sky as I listened to the sound of the distant waves and the trees rustling around me. Somewhere a bird begins to sing a little melody.
"Enjoying yourself?"
I turned to see Howard walk down from his mansion.
"Aren't you up early!" he exclaimed.
"Yes, I wanted to get up to see the sunrise over the ocean," I said.
"You never fail to amaze me, Peggy. How much you love the little things, I don't know many people like that."
"And you, you love grand things. Big, interesting fancy things. But you're happy, right?"
"Yes, I am. And you? Are you happy?"
"Yes, I am," I replied.
"Good, I always just wanted to see you happy, you know?"
I nodded silently and we both turned our faces towards the ocean to see the sky slowly turn from the rosy pink and orange of sunrise to blue. We sat like that for a while, without talking.
"I remember you dragged me out of a restaurant, in the middle of dinner, to see the sun set over the Seine in France. Do you remember that?"
I laughed. "I do, it was so beautiful that day."
"There you are!"
I turned to see Maria walk towards us across their massive lawn. She wore a pretty pink dress that swished around her feet and her dark wavy hair floated behind her as she made her way delicately towards us. She looked like the very picture of a perfect lady, as always.
" We got back from the show so late last night! I'm glad you stayed here Peggy, it would've been terrible to have to travel all the way home at that hour! What are you two doing out here so early?" she remarked, laughing.
"Just watching the sun rise over the water," Howard replied.
"Oh yes… I suppose it must look very pretty going up on a clear day like today, doesn't it?" she asked, not quite understanding why someone would get up to watch the sun go up although she woke up in a mansion with the most beautiful of views every day.
"Is Tony still asleep?" Howard asked.
Maria laughed, "Oh yes, the dear insisted on waiting up for us all to get home last night. He must've stayed up until midnight."
The three of us walked inside and had some breakfast before I hugged them both goodbye and promised to visit again soon.
On the way back home, I felt a strange feeling of loneliness. I shook it off, and thought about going back to my own home and husband. I had married Gabe Jones, a man who had been rescued by Steve during the war. He was one of the kindest most wonderful people I had ever met and I felt I had found my place and could be content. Still, the feeling of emptiness did not leave me and I realized that although Gabe was wonderful, he wasn't Howard.