I flip my hand over and link her frail fingers with mine. I glance over at her.
“I waaant too have booth of ourrr familiesss over fooor a bar-beee-que when weee get backkk from the lake.”
Squeezing her hand in mine, I lift it to my lips. “Sounds good, baby. I’ll let everyone know. We’ll do it soon.”
“Thank yooou.”
As we finish our lunch, I keep my eyes on Molly in case she needs help. Once we’re done, I take our dishes to the sink to rinse and stack in the dishwasher. Gray and Gemma left a few minutes ago to go do their own thing in their rooms. Walking back to Molly, I bend and pick her up.
After a gentle peck to her lips, I ask, “Where to, milady?”
She giggles, the sound soothing my soul. “Can weee siiit outside for a whillle?”
“We can do anything you want.”
I carry her over to the back door and reach down for the knob, then push it open with my shoulder. Instead of setting her down in her own lounge chair, I take a seat and set her on my lap sideways. Her head rests against my shoulder, and she stares out into the backyard toward the flowers Gemma planted for her a month ago. Molly likes to be outside as much as possible. She says the fresh air is calming. One day, Gemma came to me and said she wanted to plant a pretty flower garden for her mother to look at while she was out here. It’s full of dahlias, her favorite flowers.
“Telll me a ssstory,” Molly murmurs.
I smile against the top of her head. It’s usually me who asks her for stories, but as of a couple of months ago, she’s been asking me for them more. I still ask for a story from her at times, but not as much as I used to. It’s a struggle for her to speak, and I don’t want to add to her discomfort.
Squeezing my arms around her middle, I nuzzle my nose into her hair and bring my mouth close to her ear.
“When you appeared in the doorway at the back of the church, the day you became Mrs. Bradshaw, you took my breath away and stole my heart again. Up until that point in my life, I often asked myself how I got so lucky to have a woman as perfect as you. I never found the answer. But after that day, I stopped asking and accepted the fact that I was the luckiest man on the planet. I no longer cared what the reason was. It took every bit of strength in my body that day to keep from running down the aisle to you, picking you up, and rushing you back to the officiant. You always hear about the groom having cold feet the day of his wedding. I never experienced that. I never doubted we were where we were supposed to be in that moment. The day you married me, you made my life complete.”
I feel her lips forming a smile against my neck. “Yoou were sooo handsomme that dayyy.”
“And you were the most beautiful sight my eyes had ever seen.”
“I wisssh we could relivvve that daaay,” she says wistfully.
I hold in my smile and begin playing with the end of her ponytail. “It was a beautiful day.”
She hums in the back of her throat. “It was.”
We sit in silence for a few minutes, letting the light breeze wash over us.
“Hooow did Mrrr. Fischerrr like the piecesss?”
“Just as much as he liked the others. Said when I start back up again, he wants me to contact him about making some for his other companies.”
The Fischer commission ended up being pushed back a couple of months after the original finish date. Even with Owen’s help, there was no way I could finish in the allotted time. Not with Molly needing me so much. Over the last several months. Mr. Fischer and I have formed a friendship. Thankfully, he understood when I came to him about my concerns of not finishing the job on time. I was fully prepared to have him give the rest of the job to another contractor, so I was surprised when he graciously offered to extend the deadline by a couple of months. While Nancy was here yesterday visiting, I took the last pieces into the city.
I’ve taken the next several months off. Over the years, we’ve managed to save a good nest egg, so we won’t hurt