She was right. It was when I was least prepared to find an amazing, rare treasure that I did.
She glances at me in question as I open the car door for her. “You did get gas after you got back to the city, didn’t you?” I shake my head sheepishly, and she groans. “Alright. Gas station first, then ice cream?”
“Sounds like a date.”
A real date. The first of what I hope is going to be many. Tons. Years’ worth. I know I might be getting ahead of myself, and this is a pretty big leap for a guy who didn’t want to even go on one single date, but this is Rowan, and Rowan is special. Rowan is everything. She makes me want to hope. No, that’s not right. With her, I actually can hope. I can think about tomorrow. I can breathe again. I can feel.
So yes, this a real date. And I’ve never been more thankful or excited.
EPILOGUE
Rowan
“Do you have that order packed? The red velvet dress and the white gloves?”
Cliff grins at me as he thrusts a giant flat box into my hands. “You bet I do. And the Edwardian wedding dress, a set of very wild white boots with huge platforms, the hand tooled leather purse, and the very strange hat with the fishnet at the front of it.”
I take the box out of his hands with a laugh. “It’s good to see that you’ve been working so hard to get your terminology correct. Although I am impressed you knew the wedding dress was Edwardian.”
“I did because it’s one of your favorite pieces.”
“I’m impressed you knew that too.”
Cliff saunters over, removes the box I just took from him out of my hands, and sets it onto the already overflowing table. We have the entire basement dedicated to my online vintage and retro clothing business. Two rooms for the inventory, one room for the processing, and the other for outgoing and incoming packages. We have a huge kitchen table filled up for outgoing packages. Since it’s Saturday, and this is the day we send everything out, the table is mounted a few feet high with boxes of all different shapes and sizes.
Cliff wraps his arms around my waist and tugs me up against him. “Of course, I know what your favorite things are. I’ve had two years to practice.”
I lace my arms around his neck and stand on my tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheek. “But still. I know a lot of people who are together a lifetime, yet they don’t know anything about each other.”
“That’s highly unfortunate for them then. I know all your favorites. I happen to know the cactus we named Prickly Chrissy is your favorite because you love the pink blooms. I know that out of our three cats, you don’t have a favorite because you can’t choose favorites amongst your ‘kids.’ I know you love all things vintage but finds from the eighteen hundreds really get you excited. And I know that all your favorite board games are the ones I suck at the most.”
I giggle right near Cliff’s ear. I lean in and kiss his earlobe gently before I run my tongue over it. I’m rewarded with a shiver that produces a set of equally amazing shivers skittering up my spine. “It seems you have me pegged.”
“And I also happen to know you love working with and for my parents.”
“Stop.” I scrape my teeth over his earlobe. “Just because I’m only part-time at the company doesn’t mean I don’t love it. I will always love it. Seeds are actually quite exciting.”
“No, I think it’s just that you love to steal glimpses of me every chance you can get.”
“I do. And I also love your humility.” I trail my tongue along the shell of Cliff’s ear. “I also like that since you already have your degree, you help me all the time with mine. I don’t think I’d be able to pass any of those hard math classes without you there to explain it all to me.”
“You’re a superhuman,” Cliff groans as I go back to nibbling on his earlobe. I happen to know he loves it, although he’d never say those words out loud because he thinks ear affection is kind of strange. He also doesn’t listen to me when I tell him that ears are probably an erogenous zone all on their own. “You’ve been taking night classes for two years. You have this amazing business. You work at the company with me. We live together. You take care of my ass. And you still have time for gardening and board games and all the fun stuff.”
“Well, that’s because we split all the crappy stuff like housework and dishes. And you help me out with this. And math. Yeah, that should have gone on the crap list for sure.”
“Look at all you’ve accomplished in two years.” Cliff gently sets me back so he can look me in the eye. “I can’t wait to see where we are in another year, or two, or three.”
“Me? I couldn’t have done any of this alone. I would never have wanted to. You’ve helped me so much.
