When You're Gone

He looked over at his wife, who was still sleeping peacefully beside him. She was smiling softly, most likely dreaming. He wondered what she was dreaming and why it made her so happy. Mack kissed her forehead very softly and got out of bed slowly, trying not to wake her.

Padding out to the kitchen, he started a pot of coffee, knowing its scent would wake Rose. Mack unlocked the front door and picked up the newspaper the paperboy had left and went inside again. Mack deposited it onto the table and went back to he and Rose's bedroom.

She was awake now, he knew by looking. But she obviously wasn't pleased with being awake, seeing as how she had her face covered with a pillow. "Rosie," Mack said in a sing song voice, "Rosie, wake up. I have coffee going and I'm about to start breakfast." Mack seized one of his own pillows and hit her with it. Rose groaned loudly.

"I hate you she mumbled," rolling over onto her side to hide from him. Mack laughed. He leaned over, tossed her pillow away and kissed her on the cheek.

"I know you hate me, Rose. I know you do. And may I just say that I love you very much as well."

Rose heaved a dramatic sigh. "All right, I'm up. Are you happy now?" Rose managed to sit up. Mack nodded to confirm that he was indeed happy and then laid his head in her lap.

"I love you," he said again, reaching up to cup her face in his hands. "I really do."

"I love you too, Mack," Rose assured him. "I believe you mentioned breakfast, though, and I'm very hungry."

"I'll get on that," Mack promised. "The paper's on the table."

Rose got out of bed and went to the kitchen, pouring herself a cup of coffee and sitting at the table, one hand pressed to her growing tummy as she read the paper. Mack started breakfast then. "Anything you need to get done today, Rose?"

"Nope. No plans or errands at all. Why?"

"Oh nothing," Mack answered airily as he set a stack of pancakes on the table in front of her. "Just something I have planned. But don't ask. It's a surprise."

--

Two hours later Mack ushered her into the car. "Mack-" Rose began, knowing her stubborn husband wasn't going to give the surprise away no matter how much she asked him to, "Where are we going?"

"Just be quiet and imagine it, Rose. I'm not telling you anything until we get there." Mack wouldn't even look at her but he was grinning at the road ahead.

"All right," Rose sighed. She was quiet for a moment. "Will I like it, Mack?"

"Yes. Or at least, I hope so."

That gave her no further information to work with. She turned her attention to the window, pondering.

"And we're here," Mack announced ten minutes later, pulling into the driveway of an unfamiliar house. The first thing Rose noticed was a For Sale sign in the yard. She smiled.

"Mack."

"We're just looking, Rose. It's not going to hurt anything if we just look."

They were met by a real estate agent, who instructed them to take a look around the house. Mack and Rose wandered from room to room, taking in all the features. Rose was sold, Mack could tell. He slipped out to talk to the real estate agent.

Rose came downstairs just at the real estate agent left. "Mack, this is a nice house, but it's kind of expensive and…" She looked at him, one hand on her belly, "We have a baby on the way. I don't know if we can afford it."

"The baby is the reason we need to move, Rose. We can't stay in the apartment forever, especially now that our family is about to get bigger. And we're both twenty-eight now. We can't live with our parents or anything."

"Well, I'll crunch the numbers."

Mack wandered away into the kitchen. "I like these cabinets. Don't you like them, Rose?" Rose followed him into the kitchen, suspicious now.

"Mack, what did you do?" Rose asked in the pointed sort of tone only wives are capable of using. But Mack didn't answer her question. He instead went on with admiring the cabinets. "Mack," Rose said again. "Seriously. What did you do?"

"I may have bought the house," he said casually.

"May have? You may have bought the house?"

"Rose, listen to me. We would be happy here. It's perfect for us and for our baby. There's plenty of room here for the three of us."

Rose nodded. "We would be happy here. It's the right house for us, Mack. But what are we going to do about the cost?"

"Well, we'll work it out, Rose. But don't worry about it. It's ours now, and that's what matters."

Rose managed to smile at him. "I guess it is."