Cambridge, five years before
"Married?"
"I don't mean today, Beth. But yes, I see us together in the not-too-distant future. Don't you?"
"Well, yes. I mean, I love you and one day, yes but we don't live close to each other, Luke."
"No, but that's what they have airplanes for."
He watched her pull her knees up and hug them, resting her chin on them.
"Beth, do you only see me as a fling?"
"What? Of course not. But I'm twenty-two years old. I have dreams."
"I know. To teach but I thought part of that dream was to have a family too."
"It is."
"I don't see what the problem is," he said, standing up and running his fingers through his hair. She knew that when he did that, he was thinking and worrying. He got dressed and grabbed his keys. "I need to go."
"Luke, please don't just leave."
"I need to. I'm sorry."
……
Current times, Elizabeth's house
The next morning, Elizabeth was still thinking about that minor fight that had turned into a major one they had had in Cambridge.
"Mommy?" Noa said quietly.
"Hi, sweet pea," Elizabeth said, picking her up and kissing her cheeks. "I love you so so much."
"I know. To the moon."
"Yep."
"Hey, there's my beauties. How are you this morning?" He hugged both of them but he could feel the slight unease in Elizabeth's demeanor.
"Beth?"
"Tea?" she asked, keeping her eyes turned away.
"Hey, look at me please."
Her eyes filled with tears. "I'm sorry. Good morning."
"What's wrong?"
"I love you." She looked up at him and then hugged him tightly.
Lucas put Noa on the ground and asked her to go play for a few minutes.
"Why does loving me make you cry, sweetheart?"
"I was so stupid that day, babe."
"What day? You are so very not stupid, Elizabeth."
"Five years ago. The morning we broke up."
"You weren't stupid. You were scared. Overwhelmed. So was I. That was why I walked away. I shouldn't have done that. I should have stayed and talked to you about why you were wanting to slow down."
She held him tighter and just breathed with him. She loved him so much and to think of ever losing him again…it killed her.
"I'm not going anywhere, Beth. I promise."
"I know."
"We just weren't ready then. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it that day."
"We are going to get married," she told him. "And I'm ready now. Well, in March. I want to be your wife."
He lowered his head and slowly and thoroughly kissed her. "You and me, sweetheart. Forever."
….
End of January
Lucas got off the plane in LA coming from New York for the last time for hopefully a long time. He would always want to visit New York, take the girls there for Christmas the next year to see the big Rockefeller tree, but he didn't live there anymore.
He had shipped his belongings to the new house and they would be arriving the next day. For tonight, he had a mattress that Elizabeth had put at the new house. That would be just fine.
He texted Elizabeth. "I'm home!"
He didn't have luggage, just a carryon so he headed toward the doors where he hoped Elizabeth would be waiting with Noa.
She was there in her car and Noa was waving at him. "Hi, Daddy!" she yelled out the window.
He grinned and got in the car, leaning over and giving Elizabeth a kiss. "Hi, honey. Hi, Noa!"
"You're home, Daddy? For good?"
"For good, baby."
"That's awesome!"
"Fifty nine days," Elizabeth told him, pulling into traffic.
"I know. It can't come fast enough. I have a plan for a nice long honeymoon."
"Where?"
She hoped he remembered that she'd always wanted to go to Hawaii.
"Maui."
She squealed and smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that."
"I found a deal for a two week stay at a resort there. Think you can get two weeks off work?"
"Yeah. Absolutely." She wasn't going to miss a chance to go to Maui with her new husband.
"Okay so our wedding is fifty nine days away," he said, pulling out his phone calendar. "Valentine's Day is only fifteen days away."
"Very true. Are we doing gifts?"
"I want to but we don't have to."
"No, I want to."
"Great."
"Mommy, I'm staaaarving!" Noa said from the back seat.
"We will be home in a while, punkin."
"Or we could go out, my treat," he whispered.
"Okay, sure. We have a lot to celebrate."
……
After breakfast, Noa talked them into going to The Book Spot. As they wandered, Elizabeth thought back to her last visit to the bookstore in Cambridge.
Almost five years before, Cambridge
She was hoping he would show up. It had been a week since they had really spoken. Since he had walked out on her. She had been overwhelmed too, her emotions so out of whack lately. She texted him a few times and he texted back but it wasn't the same type of conversations they always had.
She wandered through the aisles of Heffers, looking for a mystery he would like. Maybe she would feel closer to him somehow. She found one and then went over to grab a coffee and purchase the book. As she read, it just made her sad. Just as she was about to leave, someone sat across the table from her.
She looked up. "Luke."
"I'm sorry, Beth. Forgive me for leaving?"
She nodded and walked over to sit on his lap. "Of course I do. I'm so sorry that I overreacted. I don't know what's wrong with me lately."
"Its okay." She leaned her forehead against his and just breathed him in. "I love you, Beth."
"I love you too."
She pressed her lips to his forehead and then just held on. "I do want to marry you, just not right now. You know? I don't want you to doubt how I feel."
He nodded. "Fair enough." He saw the book she was reading and grinned. "Nice book. That's a good one, I hear."
"I wouldn't know. I've been reading the same paragraph for a half hour. I just wanted to feel close to you again."
"We have two more weeks together until we fly home. I'm going to make sure we feel as close as possible during that time."
……
Currently, heading home to Hope Valley
"What's on your mind?" Lucas asked, squeezing her hand as she drove.
"You. Us. When we got back together in Cambridge."
"That was a good two weeks."
She turned red and squeezed his hand back. "And now look at us. Getting married. An almost five year old daughter."
"Can I have a kitten?" she chimed in from the back seat. "For my birthday?"
Lucas nodded at Elizabeth. "Maybe, punkin. We will see. A kitten is a lot of work."
"I'm big! I can work."
"Right now, it's a maybe," Lucas said, backing his fiancé up. "Mom and I need to talk about it, okay?"
"Yeah. Okay, Daddy."
"Good girl." He was constantly amazed at how agreeable she was. "I love you, Noa Faith."
"I love you too, Daddy."
…..
Later, dinner time
"Can we sleep over, Mommy?"
"At the new house?"
"Yeah. I want to sleep in my new room!"
"Why don't you ask your Dad. If he says yes, sure. We can sleep over."
"Yay! He'll say yes."
And he did. He found it hard to say the word "no" to Noa. That would be interesting in the future.
Elizabeth and Noa grabbed their sleeping bags, which they never used, and pillows and overnight bags and then they all drove to the new house.
"We don't have any food yet," Lucas mentioned. "Let's make a stop at the store. I also need some toilet paper, soap and a razor…"
"You're not shaving your beard, right?" Elizabeth asked. She loved his beard. She loved touching it while he kissed her, and she loved that it didn't quite cover his dimples.
"I was thinking about it."
"Please don't. I love it."
"Is that right?"
"Yes. Please keep it."
"Alright. No razor."
"Thank you."
After the store, they made themselves at home at the new house.
"Punkin, I'm going to camp out with you in your new room, how does that sound?" Elizabeth asked her.
"You don't have to, Mommy. I'm not scared."
"I'm glad. It might be fun though. We can talk and read books and stay up late."
"That's okay. You can sleep in your room with Daddy."
Noa skipped upstairs to her room, leaving Elizabeth alone with Lucas.
"Trying to get out of sleeping with me?" he teased. She turned red and looked away.
"Of course not."
"Hmmm. You sure?"
"We've slept in the same bed before, Lucas. Why would I try to get out of it?"
"I don't know. You tell me, babe."
"Maybe because things are different?" she admitted a minute later. "We are different. Grown. We're parents and…I want to wait this time."
He put his arms around her and kissed her softly. "I'm fine with that. You don't have to sleep in our room with me. You take the bed and I'll camp out in the extra room. I'm not pressuring you, Beth. I would never do that."
"I know. Just so you know though, it wouldn't take much pressure for me to cave in." She kissed his cheek and winked, walking upstairs to get Noa's bedtime routine started.
Once Noa's bath was finished and she had brushed her teeth and dressed in her jammies, she walked downstairs to find Lucas.
"Daddy?"
"Here, sweet pea," he said, from the living room. He had turned on the gas fireplace so the room had a warm glow.
"Can I stay here with you?"
"What about your new room?"
"I want to be with you."
"How about if I ask your mom and we bring the mattress down here? We can sleep in the living room by the fire."
"Cool!"
Lucas stood and walked upstairs, knocking on the master room door. "Beth?" he said as he opened the door. "Oh! Sorry!" he said, walking back out.
He chuckled as he closed the door. She opened it a moment later, her arms over her chest.
"I'm sorry. To be fair, it's not the first time…"
"Please," she started, covering his lips with her index finger. "That's hardly the point."
He put his hands on her hips and pulled her close. "You're so gorgeous but I'm sorry that I made you uncomfortable."
"Is it weird that I'm not as uncomfortable as I maybe could be?"
"Not to me. We love each other. We were happy together."
She nodded and stretched up to kiss him. "You made me and still make me very happy, sweetheart. But for the next 58 days, if I'm behind a closed door, can you please wait for me to tell you to come in?"
"Okay."
"Okay."
"So the reason I came up here was to get the mattress. All three of us are going to camp out in the living room. Noa is down there waiting."
"Sure. I'll grab the blankets and pillows."
Not long after they all reclined on the mattress, Noa was asleep. Lucas crawled over to Elizabeth's side of the bed and took her hand.
"I'd like my parents to meet you and Noa. Before the wedding," he whispered.
"Alright."
"So what do you think about taking a long weekend soon? Fly to Omaha and drive to Brownville."
"Just tell me when. We will figure out a way."
.