Owen stops me in the middle of the parking lot, pulling me from my thoughts. He looks back at the church. "Are you saying your mom and the pastor were … together?"
"I'm saying they were something."
In the hot summer sun, Owen tugs me to his chest. "She must have had a reason for not telling you."
I'm sure she did. People keep secrets for different reasons. I know a little something about that.
We get in Owen's car and he cranks the air conditioning.
"Can I stay at your place tonight?" I shrug out of the cardigan I wore over my dress. "I don't want to be alone in my house right now."
"Actually," Owen says, turning to face me, "what do you think about putting your stuff into boxes and bringing them to my place, then taking the stuff out of boxes and putting them in drawers and cabinets?"
My mouth drops open. I'm still reeling from the watch, and now this? "You want me to move in with you?"
"Yes." He purses his lips nervously.
I laugh. I don't know why but I'm laughing, and then I'm crying, and Owen pulls me into a hug and wipes away my tears.
"Of course, I'll move in with you," I say, sniffling. "I don't know why I'm laughing. Or crying. It's just a lot. This day is a lot."
He nods and then a nervous look creeps over his face. “I wanted to ask you something else … but this day is probably not the time for it.”
I frown. “Is it a good something?”
He nods, his eyes piercing into me.
“Well, then today is perfect for it because I don’t want to remember this heavy feeling.”
He takes my hand. “You know how you told me that your mom’s last words to you were how much she loved being your mom and how much she loved you?”
I nod, getting teary-eyed at the memory. Dropping my hand, Owen reaches into his pocket and pulls out a slim ring box.
My eyes widen.
“Well … your mom’s last words to me were to give me her blessing for us to marry…” He gulps. “If you’ll have me.”
A sob breaks through my throat and I feel it then. A small tingle up my arm, a presence in the car with us.
My mom.
“Yes!” I cry out and we crash together, kissing as my tears fall in a seal around our lips.
It’s not as perfect as some may think this should be, proposing in a car at my mother’s funeral, but it’s perfect for me. It gives me hope in a future with Owen, a future I will have to navigate on my own, without my mother. It gives me faith that things are going to be okay.
Hah. Faith. Something I had with me my entire life.
That night, after unpacking most of my things and setting them up around Owen’s house and in his dresser, I snuggle in beside him to go to sleep. Staring down at the huge princess-cut stone on my left finger, I smile.
What an emotionally draining yet also fulfilling day.
Owen reaches for me, his hand landing softly on my abdomen.
My abdomen.
My eyes flutter open, then close, and as I'm slipping back into sleep, I have a final, drowsy thought.
My period is late.
With everything going on with my mom, I never did get around to going on birth control.
Chapter 29
Owen
"Do you want to grab a beer after work?" Ace rounds the nurse’s station, holding on to either end of the stethoscope that's slung around his neck.
"No can do," I answer, slapping the paper files I'm holding against the desk. "Today Autumn had all of her stuff sent to my house from New York. I gotta help her unpack."
I can't help the wide grin on my face. Fifteen-year-old me is pumping a fist in the air in excitement. Hell, twenty-eight-year-old me is doing the same.
I got the girl, the girl of my dreams. My future wife is Autumn Cummings. It still feels crazy to say.
Ace wrinkles his nose like he's just smelled rotten potatoes. "You're out of your mind. A girl tries to leave a toothbrush at my place and it's sayonara." He whips his hand around like he's waving goodbye. I know he’s joking, he was happiest of all for Autumn and I. Even offered to throw us an engagement party.
"You'll change your mind one day,” I tell him.
He shakes his head and pounds a fist against his chest twice. "Bachelor for life."
"Fifty bucks says one day you'll eat those words."
He throws out a hand. "A hundred says I never will."
We shake on it. Nurse Theresa stares at us from her spot behind the computer, wearing a low-key look that says, I don't know how you two are doctors, because you're idiots.
Ace takes one look at her expression and says, "Well, that's my cue to leave." He goes in the opposite direction I'm headed in, which is to my office to grab my things so I can leave the hospital.
When I get to my car, I send Autumn a message asking her if she needs me to pick up anything on my way home. She responds with a picture of some casserole cooking in the oven.
I know it won't always be this way. Next week Autumn and Livvie will start moving inventory into the new space at Tlaquepaque. She'll be interviewing potential employees, and Livvie will move down to Phoenix to be with her husband, leaving Autumn in charge of it all. But for right now, it feels like the domesticity I always wanted with her.
After pulling my car into the garage, I walk inside. The place smells good, and it's not just the mouthwatering smells wafting in from the kitchen. There's a candle burning on a table, something that definitely wasn't there before. There are also new throw pillows on the couch, and a blanket draped artfully on the back of a chair.
"Welcome home," she says, her arms sliding around my waist from behind. She presses her nose into my back as she hugs me.
"Music to my ears." I loosen her grip so I can turn around to face her. Placing a finger under her chin, I tip up her face to kiss her. "You're beautiful." Her hair is piled messily on her head. She wears yoga pants, a tank top, and not an ounce of makeup.
She rolls her eyes as if she doesn’t believe me.
"I have something to show you," she tells me, and her eyes sparkle like a clear night sky. "Follow me."
I do as I'm told, trying to guess what it is she has to show me. What if it's a floral comforter for our bed? I make a face, and I'm glad she's in front of me and can't see it. How am I going to tell her I don't want a floral comforter without hurting her feelings? I’ve never lived with a girl, and I’m kind of freaking out she’ll want pink and flowers everywhere now.
Oh shit. What if this is our first big fight while living together? What if—?
Instead of going right into our bedroom, Autumn takes a left into an empty bedroom I have across the hall. My stress evaporates. She's probably making the room into an office for herself. That I can totally handle; she can floral the crap out of it for all I care.
I walk in and pause, trying to understand. Pieces of furniture are strewn around the middle of the room. In the corner by the window is a rocking chair. Beside it is a ridiculously huge stuffed hippo.
Hmm, not exactly the office décor I would imagine for her. I suck in a sharp intake of breath when my eyes land on one of the furniture boxes in the middle of the room.