Better Together – Epilogue
"Harm! Will you stop?" Mac scolds me as she swats my hand away from the tray of sugar cookies on the counter. "Those are for the kids! And they are for after dinner. It's only 0623, Harm. Who would have thought you'd be eating sugar cookies at this hour? Of all the people." She mutters.
She picks up the tray and abruptly turns on her heel to place the cookies in the cupboard above the stove.
I chuckle as I take bite of the cookie I managed to snatch. "I can't help it, Mac. I'm beginning to share in your eating habits. Besides, who would have thought you'd be this strict about eating cookies anyways?"
"Harmon Rabb, married life as made you a pushover!"
"It has not!" I defend myself. "It has just brought out certain…characteristics…that were there all along…they just didn't come to the surface until married life. Therefore, I can't possibly be considered a pushover."
Wait…that doesn't make any sense… maybe she didn't notice.
No such luck, she noticed and she's trying not to laugh. "If you say so, Sailor." Her eyes zero in on the smear of icing on the corner of my mouth and without hesitation, she leans forward to kiss it away. "Mmm. Delicious."
"Me or the icing?" I wonder aloud with an eyebrow arched.
"The icing," she smiles, her eyes sparkling.
Before I can do anything else – like kiss her back the proper way - I hear the pitter-patter of little feet running down the stairs.
"No running inside!" Mac calls, and all three of them quickly come to attention in front of her standing from tallest to shortest.
"Sorry!" they apologize in unison.
"We just wanted to see if Santa found us here."
"Oh, I think he sure did," I speak up. "Why don't you take a look and see, huh?"
There's a chorus of oohs and aahs.
"Can we open them now? Please, oh, please, oh please?"
I'm almost about to tell them they can open one present each right now from their stockings, but Mac speaks first.
"Not yet, we have to wait for your parents to wake up so they can watch you open them, too."
"Okay, Grandma. I guess we can wait."
I raise an eyebrow at the boy as a warning. Mac may think I'm a pushover, especially with our grandkids, but Christmas or not, they have to remember to be respectful. My grandson and I will be having a little chat about respect and manners this afternoon.
"Well, Grandpa got up extra early today to make his famous French toast for you guys, so why don't we eat breakfast? I'm sure your parents will be up by the time we are done eating."
Jonah and Colin sit at the kitchen table and wait for me to bring them their breakfast. They are eight year old fraternal twins who have their grandmother's Marine appetite. I swear they inhale the food as soon as I put the plate in front of them. All I have to say is I'm glad I don't have to pay their parents' grocery bill…especially when they reach their teen years.
Mac is in her element as I watch her put their three year old cousin, Emma, in the booster seat at the kitchen table. She makes silly faces and blows raspberries on Emma's face and both grandmother and granddaughter laugh in delight.
This is the thirtieth Christmas Mac and I have celebrated together – as an "us." There was a time – a very long time – that I hated Christmas and everything about it. It was horrible when I was a kid and my dad was MIA, but once I got closure about his fate, I didn't dread Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as much. That night of Mac' car accident, could have given me another reason to hate Christmas, but luckily she survived and we were given a second chance. I'm so glad we figured things out that day.
We married a soon after. Some people thought we were rushing into things, but most people understood that Mac and I had a nine year history. Harriet even told us that we had "been dating for years without calling it dating." We made a lot of sacrifices and compromises for both of us to remain in the military until we reached our twenty years, but it was worth it. After Mac retired, we moved to Pennsylvania to take care of Gram's farm. She had left it to me when she died, and it had sat neglected for far too long. We had a lot of updating to do, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Our kids were old enough to help at the time, and they had such a thrill in contributing to make the house our own. It made the move easier for them. I never would have thought I'd retire and move out to the country, but at least the farm isn't too far from Pittsburgh and we can go to the city as often as we like. I miss the excitement of military law and flying Tomcats, but my life a prosecutor does fill the void a bit. Mac ended up dividing her time between the kids, practicing family law part time, and teaching law classes in Pittsburgh.
That thing about a female Marine being like the energizer bunny…? Guess it holds true after they retire. Once a Marine, always a Marine.
Neither one of our children seemed to share in my passion for flying, or followed our footsteps by joining the military or becoming lawyers, and that's okay –even if the lack of interest in Sarah and aviation did disappoint me some tiny bit (it was how I bonded with my father and I thought I would do the same with my kids – but we found other ways). That's what every parent wants on some level or another – they want their children to be independent and forge their own path in life. Our daughter became a pediatrician and our son became a forensic accountant.
For the record, our kids, who also happen to be twins, don't have my looks and Mac's brains or vice versa. Right around the time of our first anniversary, Mac had to have a hysterectomy. It wasn't the ideal way to celebrate one year of marriage, but we got through it. We went through all the steps and began the process to adopt. A social worker matched us with a set of six-year old twins named Allison and Jeffery. They had been born to a crack addicted mother and tested positive for the drug in their system when they were born. As a result, they bounced from foster home to foster home for the first six years of their lives. At first, no one wanted them because they were "crack babies" and by the time they were old enough to show they had no long term health impairments from the drug, no one wanted them because they were "too old."
As soon as we met them, we knew they were destined to be our children - that we could love them and give them the family they deserved. Everything just clicked. They belonged with us.
My trip down memory lane ends when Allison and her husband and Jeffery and his wife come into the kitchen. I look over at Mac notice her mouth "I love you," followed by a wink.
I smile back – my typical "flyboy grin" – and move to stand behind her. "I love you, too," I whisper against her ear with a gentle squeeze to her shoulders.
She squeezes my hand. "We did well together."
"That we did, Mac. That we did," I agree.
Mac and I did a lot of growing. We learned to let go of things that didn't matter anymore, and how to hold on to the things that are important.
We are better together – it proved true when we were partners all those years ago at JAG and it also proved true in life.
I wouldn't want it any other way.
End.
