overhead sending out the same message. Of endurance, and of more than that, because life was more than endurance. Life was beauty, too.
I said, “It’s wonderful. It’s perfect. I can’t believe you did the photo, too.”
Gray opened the door to one side of the bed. “Don’t you want to see the rest?”
The closet, and a storage area. I said, “Of course,” and went to join him.
It wasn’t a storage area. It was an ensuite bath.
I cried.
Gray
I said, “Baby. What?” I had her in my arms, and she was sobbing. “If you don’t like it,” I told her, “I’ll redo it. I know I didn’t ask you. It was meant to be a surprise.”
She shook her head violently, then hiccupped a couple times, cried some more, stood back, grabbed some toilet paper, and wiped her nose. “No,” she said and waved her arm around her. “It’s just … you listened. To my dream.”
“Of course I listened,” I said, but I was starting to smile. “When have I not listened?”
She was laughing, and she was still crying, too. “Show me … how everything works.”
So I did. It had taken some creative thinking to fit a luxury bath into the space that had been a former attic, but I had creative thinking. Oh, and I didn’t have CTE, either. My t-tau proteins were exactly where they should have been, and with Daisy’s monitoring, the migraines were down to one a month. I was good to go. Good to live my life.
I said, “Subfloor heating, of course. Bidet toilet. I’d show you, but last time I did that, it sprayed straight up and all over my jeans. Bloody embarrassing. Your cousins laughed like hyenas. It’s got a remote.” I took it off the wall-mounted holder. “You can experiment for yourself. The seat’s heated. That’s nice, anyway.”
“Yes,” she said. “It is.”
“Extra-deep sinks,” I said, “and high faucets, in case you want to … dunno, actually. Do something. Women like them, I’ve heard. Wash your hair, maybe.”
“Or wash lingerie,” she said, “if somebody, say, gives me pretty things for Christmas. Or my birthday.”
“Or because he wants to see you in them,” I agreed. It distracted me a little. I’d bought her a couple very filmy items for Christmas, and she’d worn them. Yeh, she could wash those.
“Soaking tub,” she prompted.
“Yeh. Soaking tub. With this tray thing, so you can lie here and read. Drink wine. Whatever.” Another distracting thought. “And a shower.”
“With eight showerheads,” she said.
There were shelves, too, for white towels, because she liked those at the Wanaka house, would roll them up lovingly and arrange them. Cabinets and drawers under the sinks, so the benchtops could stay clean and open.
“You made a window here so I could look out of the bath at the trees,” she said.
“Or the stars,” I agreed.
“And you put my orchid on the windowsill.” She turned a shining face to me, and there were no more tears. “Gray. Thank you. This is the most beautiful thing anybody’s ever done for me. It’s more than that. It’s the … it’s everything.”
Now that we came to it, I was nervous. “It’s not quite everything,” I said. “It’s the first thing.”
“No,” she said, “the first thing was when you pulled me out of the river.”
“Thought it was when I pushed you into the river,” I said. “That was the story I heard.”
She laughed. “Well, that too. I’m glossing over that, though, and moving on to when you helped rescue my sisters, and then when you helped rescue Frankie again. And then when you drove up there with me to get Prudence—Priya. Oh, and gave all my relatives jobs. There’s that.”
“Not taking credit for that one,” I said. “That was pure self-interest. And would you let me finish? I’m trying to make a declaration here.”
“Oh, by all means,” she said. “Go ahead.” Though she looked nervous.
Oh. That was why all the talking. She was nervous. I put my arms around her and said, “This is us, that’s all, same as it ever was. You and me, doing it together. Step by step.”
“OK,” she said, and took a breath. “Right. Ready.”
I reached into the top drawer of the vanity and pulled out the box, then opened it to show her. A single diamond, emerald-cut and bright as the sun, set on a slender gold band studded with tiny, winking diamonds like stars. Simple and straightforward and feminine and beautiful. Like a daisy. I let her see it, and then I got down on one knee.