Her eyes brightened. “Really?”
“Sure. After the way I’ve been catering to you, you’re going to owe me some home-cooked meals. I intend to collect every single one of them.”
“Deal,” she said with a grin. “However, I should probably start with simple stuff. Remember the time I tried to make you a birthday cake? It was so crooked. I thought I could fix it by applying a little extra frosting, but it didn’t help.”
“What I remember is the color. You made it that weird blue-green.”
“It was teal,” she said, sounding amused and faintly defensive. “I wanted a baking color, but something a little masculine.”
“Cakes are, by definition,
“I couldn’t find it anywhere so I had to make it myself. With food coloring. It took a long time to get the blend right.”
“Did you ever think about the fact that if it wasn’t available for purchase that there might be a reason?”
Her mature response was to stick her tongue out at him. “It wasn’t all that bad.”
He pressed his hands on the table and rose to his feet. “Actually it was, and I have proof.”
He walked into the family room, to the cabinet against the far left wall. On the bottom shelf were a couple of photo albums. He picked them up and set them on the coffee table in front of the sofa. Then he returned to the eating area and carried Josie the few feet to the sofa.
“This is torture,” she complained as he set her on a cushion. “I’d forgotten you’d taken pictures. It’s cruel to remind me of my lone baking failure.” She glanced at him and giggled. “Don’t you dare mention it’s the only cake I ever tried to make.”
“Would I say that?” he asked as he settled next to her. “Let’s see if I can find the proof here somewhere.”
He set the first photo album in front of them. Flipping the pages forward, he let them fall open randomly. As he glanced down, his breath caught in his throat. He hadn’t found the birthday cake pictures. Instead the two exposed pages contained photos from their first Christmas morning together.
Del’s throat tightened as he stared at the moments in time, frozen in vivid color. Josie ripping open packages, her flannel nightshirt tails riding up her leg to her butt. Her short blond hair was mussed, her face makeup-free and bright with anticipation. Several more pictures showed her holding up a white seethrough nightie. In the last picture on the pages, she’d unbuttoned her plaid nightshirt and was holding it open enough for him to see the hollow between her breasts. Her mouth formed an exaggerated, sexy pout, her eyes danced with amusement.
Josie, so lean and carefree. Moving easily, knowing that her body would do whatever she asked. Her face…He leaned forward and studied the familiar features. Features that had little in common with the woman sitting next to him. Even knowing they were the same person, he had trouble reconciling the past with the present.
“I look so different,” she said quietly, reaching out and rubbing one of the pictures. “Younger. I can’t decide if I was pretty or not then. I think I was.”
“You were,” he said and risked looking at her. “Pretty and full of life.”
Sadness softened her expression. There weren’t any tears or hints of self-pity, yet he knew this had to be difficult for her.
“We don’t have to look at these if you don’t want to,” he said.
“I think I would like a little trip down memory lane. If you don’t mind.”
He shook his head and turned the page. More Christmas pictures, these taken at his folk’s house. He and Josie had gone there for dinner. There was a photo of the table, perfectly decorated in red and green with a huge pine- and-red-rose centerpiece.
“Your mom sure knew how to set a table,” Josie said, pointing to the gleaming crystal and silver.
But Del was paying more attention to her. Sitting this close, and on her right, he could see the tiny scars under her chin and by her ear. He’d never noticed them before, but now he recognized the permanent marks of her surgery. Her skin was smooth and tight, her mouth and eyes as they had always been. But the rest of her was so very different.
“You’re beautiful now,” he said without thinking.
She turned to look at him. Doubt darkened her eyes. “You think so?”
“Yes. You were pretty before, but now you’re beautiful. Not just your face, but your hair, too.” He touched a blond curl. “I like it long.”
She blushed slightly and turned her attention back to the album. “Yes, well, I did wear it short before, didn’t I?”
“Too short.”
She squinted at the pictures. “I’d have to agree with you.” She sighed. “Although I do miss that body.”
“I don’t. I like this one.”
She grimaced. “That’s because you haven’t seen it. Trust me, it’s not attractive. Not only are there parts that don’t want to work right, there are also some pretty angry looking scars. Not to mention the twenty pounds I’ve gained.”
“I like the curves.”
“Really?” She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. “I do have cleavage for the first time in my life. That’s kind of nice.”
He thought about asking to see it, but figured that was way out of line. Instead he continued flipping the pages of the album, documenting their history in single moments. There were vacation trips and more holidays. When they were finished, he reached for the second book, then paused.
“You up to this?” he asked.
She touched the lace-edged cover. In the center of the album was an oval containing a picture of them standing together on their wedding day. Josie wore a white lace wedding gown, fitted and sleeveless. Del was in a dark tux.
“I can stand it if you can,” she murmured.
He could. He opened to the first page. One of their wedding invitations had been tucked into the binding. Josie pulled it out and opened the flap of the envelope. There was a picture on the front-of her and Del together in a park. He was carrying her piggyback and they were both laughing at the camera. It was late fall, but a warm day because they were both in shorts and T-shirts. They looked happy and impossibly young.
Without thinking, he slipped an arm around her shoulders. The second he realized what he’d done, he wondered if he should pull away or leave it in place. Fortunately, Josie snuggled close and leaned her head on his shoulder. When she sighed, he felt her soft breath on his neck.
“Turn the page,” she said when she’d replaced the invitation. “I want to see the rest of it.”
He did as she requested, flipping through their rehearsal-a casual affair with Josie carrying a bouquet of ribbons and bows from her wedding shower-to the crowd that gathered for the ceremony itself.
“There’s your dad,” he said, pointing to a tall man looking uncomfortable in his tux.
She nodded. He remembered that all of her family had come out for the wedding. A.J. and David, her oldest brother, had been ushers. Her sisters had been bridesmaids with young Blair and Brent acting as ring bearer and flower girl. Until Del had seen all the Fitzgeralds together, he hadn’t realized how large her family was, or how small his appeared by comparison.
There were pictures of the ceremony and the reception, and a few pages from their honeymoon in Hawaii. In the back was an envelope. At first Del didn’t realize what was inside, then he started to laugh. He reached for it, but Josie grabbed it first.
“I don’t think so,” she said, straightening and holding it away from him.
But when she pulled out the pictures inside, she didn’t prevent him from looking over her shoulder.
There were ten photos in all, taken with an instant camera. Josie was in their honeymoon hotel room, posing for him. She was nearly naked in all of them, vamping like a model, being coy in one picture and bold in another.
“So strong,” she whispered, rubbing her finger along the length of her muscled leg in one picture. “I felt like I could take on the world. Now I feel weak and boneless. As if I could collapse and fade away at any moment.”
He took the pictures from her and shoved them back in the envelope. “You’re not weak, Josie. Anything but. You couldn’t have gone through what you have without being strong. It took guts and courage to face the pain and the months of physical therapy. You’re the strongest, most determined person I know. I’m sorry for all the suffering
