"Dinner smells wonderful, Mrs. Bouchard, but I was wondering if I could freshen up first?" Elizabeth asked.
"Its Helen, dear. And yes, of course."
She led Elizabeth, Noa and Lucas to the guest rooms. "So this is where Noa can sleep," Helen pointed. She had apparently received the memo that a certain little girl loved purple.
"And then here," she said, opening the door across the hall from Noa's room. "You and Lucas can stay here."
"Oh…um, I'll sleep on the couch," Lucas said, referring to the family room.
"Nonsense, babe. I'll just bunk with Noa."
"I just assumed you two…," Helen hesitated. "Well, you're getting married and you have Noa…"
"We're waiting," Elizabeth told her.
"I see. Okay then. You can figure out what will make you most comfortable and I'm going to get dinner on the table."
Lucas smirked at her and she blushed walking into the bedroom. He stayed in the doorway, leaning. He looked pretty sexy in that pose.
"Stop," she told him.
"Stop what?"
"Looking so hot. You're making this waiting thing extremely difficult."
He laughed and walked in the room which did not help at all either.
"Oh gosh," she muttered before standing on her toes and bringing his head down so their mouths could meet.
He let her take charge and then he slowed it down and pulled back, wrapping his arms around her.
"We are waiting, Beth. Remember?"
"I miss you, being with you. Its been so long."
"I know but I'm right here and I'm willing to wait. I think its important for us, after all we've been through. Plus, we can't do this in my parents house if we decided to not wait."
She nodded, peeking over his shoulder. "I understand but there is a lock on the door."
"Elizabeth Grace Thatcher, I want our last first time to be perfect, in Maui, in our private bungalow. With candles all around and soft music and the warm ocean breeze blowing through the open door."
"Private bungalow, huh?"
"Yep."
She kissed him slower this time. Lingering and full of love. "I love you with all of my heart, Lucas Bouchard. And you're right. A private bungalow sounds perfect."
….
The next day,
"Grandpa!" Noa yelled, chucking a snowball at him when he looked. His face broke out in a huge grin that matched Lucas' that Elizabeth loved so much.
The giggles and laughs as Martin ran around with Noa was music to Elizabeth's ears. Noa was always a happy child, even as a baby, but she barely knew Martin. The love was mutual between them despite that fact.
Lucas handed her a cup of hot coffee and stood next to her on the porch while they watched.
After a few minutes, Lucas apparently decided he wanted in on the snowball/tag game they were playing and handed her his cup of tea, kissing her nose and jumping off the porch.
"Yay! Daddy!"
Lucas picked her up and hung her upside down by her legs, earning more squeals and giggles.
Elizabeth chuckled and walked inside to warm up and find Helen. She heard clanging in the kitchen so she went there.
"Need any help?"
"Hello, dear. Sure, I'm just preparing lunch."
"Its smells delicious."
"Would you like to chop up the veggies for a salad?"
"Absolutely."
"Lucas tells me that you teach?"
"I do. Second grade. I love it so much."
"Mm."
Elizabeth didn't know what that meant so she stayed quiet and chopped. She wished she knew something more about Helen. She knew tidbits but not enough.
"This is a bit awkward," she started. "But I don't know a lot about you and Martin."
"What do you want to know?"
"Maybe what you both do for a living? Have you always lived here in Nebraska?"
"Martin is a counselor at the University and I run the registration desk at the local dentist. Part time is enough to keep me busy."
As Elizabeth was chopping the last pepper for the salad, she heard Noa screaming and sobbing. She ran for the door to find out what was happening.
Lucas carried her inside and Elizabeth noticed she was holding her arm at a weird angle.
"Oh, baby girl. What happened?"
She couldn't catch her breath, so Lucas answered. She slipped and fell on her arm. I think it might be broken."
"Moooommmmmy," Noa cried, trying to reach for Elizabeth.
"Okay, punkin. Let's take you to the doctor alright?"
"It hurrrrrts."
"I know. Try to hold it still."
"I'm sorry, Elizabeth. I should have been watching her more closely. But she climbed up on a mound of snow and I couldn't tell her to get down fast enough."
Elizabeth stood on her toes and kissed him. "Its alright. Its not your fault, Lucas. Kids get hurt."
It was killing Lucas to see his baby girl in so much pain. He just wanted to take it away and he still blamed himself a little even though Elizabeth said not to.
Elizabeth slipped her fingers into his hand and squeezed. "They will take good care of her, honey. She will be just fine." They had just taken her back to take an x-ray but they promised they'd be right back.
A tear fell down his face. "It was so hard to see her hurt, babe. I've never felt so helpless before."
"I know." She reached up and dried his tears. It was hard to see him so upset too and blaming himself.
Helen and Martin walked into the waiting room with a cup of coffee for her and tea for him and some cookies.
"Thank you for coming," Elizabeth told them. "And for the coffee."
"Of course we came, dear. Noa is our granddaughter and we want to be here."
"Parents of Noa Thatcher?" a nurse said with a smile.
Lucas and Elizabeth stood up and walked with the nurse to a curtained area.
"Mommy! Daddy! I was so good when they took the pictures of my arm. They told me to hold really still so I obeyed."
"Good girl, punkin," Elizabeth said, kissing her forehead. Lucas did the same and smiled down at her.
"I'm so proud of you, sweetie," he told her.
"Thank you, Daddy."
The doctor walked in and put the x-rays up in the light box. "Looks like Little Miss Noa has a fracture right here in her wrist."
The doctor walked over and sat down on a stool and touched Noa's wrist gently. "We are going to get someone in here to get a cast on her. Might take a few minutes though. Is it hurting, Noa?"
"A little."
"I'll get you some Motrin too."
…..
A few more hours went by and finally Noa had a purple cast and no pain so they went back to Helen and Martin's house to rest.
Helen had gone out and purchased a teddy bear, some balloons and flowers and decorated Noa's "room."
"Wow, Nana. Thank you!"
"You're welcome, my dear. How are you doing?"
"I'm sleepy."
Lucas put her down carefully on her bed and started to cover her up.
"Wait, Daddy. I gotta go potty first."
"Oh, sorry, bugs."
After she was settled, Lucas walked into the room he was staying in and sat on the bed. Elizabeth knew he was still kicking himself for Noa getting hurt so she walked in and sat next to him, taking his hand.
"You alright?"
"Yeah."
"Your mom just told me that if we wanted to go out tonight alone, they would watch Noa."
"I'd rather stay here."
"It is Valentine's, babe. So it might be fun to just go somewhere."
"I want to make sure Noa is okay. She might need us and if we leave…."
"Your parents will take care of her. You know that and they promised to call if she needs us. I think she will like spending time with her new Nana and Grandpa and probably won't miss us much."
She kissed his cheek and leaned into him, waiting for his decision.
"Maybe a movie? There's a theater in town that shows old movies. I bet they have a good one tonight."
She smiled and nodded. "I'd love to go to a movie with you. I think its been since Cambridge since we've done that."
"From what I recall, we didn't watch a whole lot of the movie that night."
"It sure was fun though."
…..
As they sat in the almost empty theater, back row, munching on popcorn, Elizabeth brought up something that had been bugging her.
"So…I realized something today when I was inside talking to your mom."
"What's that?"
"I don't know very much about them or your childhood. I was trying to figure out why that is. I can't believe we didn't touch on that the whole time we were dating."
"I'm sure we talked about it."
"I mean, I knew that you grew up in a small town but I had no idea what your dad did or does for a living or your mom."
He could see it in her face that she was bothered by it. "Why does it bother you so much?"
"We are getting married. I feel like those are things we should know about each other before doing that, don't you?"
"Well, sure but I also feel like we have a lifetime to learn things about each other. Right?"
He had a point but…
"Babe, what do you want to know? I'll tell you everything. I wasn't intentionally hiding anything."
"Are you sure?"
He put his popcorn down and put his arm around her shoulders. "Of course not. Don't you trust me?"
"I do. I just realized that I didn't know as much about you as I thought I did."
"Elizabeth, look at me." He turned her chin to meet her eyes. "You know me. You know the important things. Anything else, we literally have 50 or 60 years to learn about each other. Personally, I'm looking forward to that. Not to mention having more babies and getting Noa a kitten and celebrating all the birthdays and anniversaries and holidays. I can't wait to make memories and traditions with you."
"It does sound pretty amazing."
"That being said, ask me anything, sweetheart. My heart is yours."
This time, instead of making out the whole movie, they talked and talked with a few kisses mingled in.
After the movie, they walked hand in hand down the quiet streets of Brownville.
"So, to recap, we are going to have at least one more kid, maybe two. A kitten for Noa and a dog for me."
She giggled and squeezed his hand. "And I want to keep teaching after we have more kids."
"And I'll work from home to save money on daycare," he continued.
"And we will try to take time for just us every day, after the kids are sleeping or early in the morning to make sure we keep our marriage strong."
He stopped walking and turned to her, his eyes searching hers. "Less than six weeks. Think we can make it?"
"What's six weeks when we will have 60 years together?"
"Good point, love. I'm marrying a smart woman."