Across The Hall (50 page)

swatted at it and rubbed the spot it tickled, only to have it tickle him again as she bounced with laughter.

“What are you two troublemakers up to now?” I asked and returned Quinn’s grin with a wink.

“Papa and I are looking at your funny picture book.” Anne announced with a giggle.

“You are?”

She nodded furiously, tickling Quinn again as she did.

“We don’t have pictures like this in books at home. Wil you come look too, Grammy?”

Her big green puppy eyes pleaded with me. How could I say no to that?

I joined them on the couch and wrapped an arm around Anne as I sat close to her. The arm around Anne pressed against Quinn’s side and he

reached over with his free hand to trail his finger tips over it. I took part of the book placing the middle of it directly onto Anne’s lap. I gave her a little

kiss on the top of her head as I settled in.

“Now where are you?”

“We’re looking at the pictures of you when you were a princess.” She stated with the fascination and awes that only a five year old can have.

Curious to see just when I was a princess, I looked down to see her dainty little finger pointing to a picture of Quinn and I at our senior prom. I

laughed and told her that night I felt like a princess.

We flipped through a few more pages of pictures of Quinn and I from high school. We came to the graduation pictures and my eyes involuntarily

fil ed with tears. It wasn’t the fact that I knew there should have been more pages fol owing this of the years Quinn and I had missed. I was long over

that. It was my dad’s image staring back at me that did it. Even after al this time, I stil teared up when I saw his picture. There were several pictures

of everyone from that day. Both Quinn and I alone, together, with our respective parents and even a group shot of both families combined. I choked

back the sadness that threatened to over whelm me. I sniffed and lightly touched the picture of Quinn’s parents along with Dad standing with Quinn

and me in the middle of the big, happy group. I couldn’t help but think that there should have been more like that. I felt cheated of a group photo like

this from Kel y’s birth, our wedding, holidays and al the other occasions when both families gathered.

Quinn squeezed my arm in comfort and understanding. I bit my lip and then felt a little finger brush over it in the same gesture we used to get her

to stop biting her lip al the time.

“Don’t do that, Grammy. You’l make it hurt.”

Anne had inherited my bad habit of chewing on her bottom lip. Her mother, Kel y, had been trying to break her of the habit because she often had

chapped lips.

I gazed into her serious green eyes and didn’t see them as my daughter’s or my own, as they were so often remarked upon. Instead I saw them

as my dad’s. Little Anne was similar to him in so many ways. She tended to be a serious little girl who, even though she spoke clearly and wel for

her age, often remained silent unless there was something that needed to be said. She had his curls, which were slowly darkening to the same

auburn shade as both mine and dad’s had been. I often felt that she was a little piece of him come back to me.

I gave her a shaky smile and said, “You’re right, baby. Thank you for reminding me.”

We al turned back to the book and flipped through the next page of the graduation pictures. We continued on through the book. The next few

pages held a few with Jason and the rest of the guys I knew through him. After that there were some with Kai, Sloane, Kerri and Reed.

I began to notice that Anne was flipping through the pages more and more quickly with every turn. I assumed she was getting bored, until she

peeked up at me with an odd look and a crease on her brow. I glanced at Quinn questioningly to see if he noticed her behavior. He just shrugged

and looked back at the book.

I let it go and enjoyed seeing my friends as we were so many years ago. I would have liked to look at the pages longer but Anne turned the pages

after just a quick glance. Final y, she stopped and looked from Quinn to myself, stil with a look of confusion wrinkling her forehead and scrunching

her nose. She freed her bottom lip from between her teeth as she asked, “Where did Papa go?”

“What do you mean sweetie?” I wasn’t sure what she was asking.

“He isn’t in any of the pictures anymore.”

I shifted from Quinn’s sad eyes into those of our granddaughter’s.

“Papa went to col ege at Princeton and I was at the University of Minnesota.” I answered simply, thinking that was al the answer she would need.

Of course that wasn’t enough.

“Why didn’t you go with him?”

“Wel , I stil had some growing up to do.” I flashed a smug grin at Quinn, only to have him wink at me in return. “If I had gone with your Papa I never

would have met your Aunties Kai and Kerri or your Uncles Sloane and Reed. Then what would you do without your Uncle Reed to toss you around?”

I tickled her side, and she grinned before peering up at Quinn. I firmly believed that we were living out the fate meant for us. I looked at our time

apart for those few short years as worth it to have brought the others into our lives.

“Keep looking, short stuff. There wil be more with me coming soon.” The happiness I heard in his voice warmed me. It reminded me that it real y

was only for a short time in our lives that we were apart.

Sure enough, Quinn appeared on the next page. It was of Quinn and me with the others at one of the many games nights we used to have. I didn’t

recal which one it was. I could tel from the distance Quinn and I were sitting apart that it had to have been before we were together. While everyone

else was looking at the camera, I was looking at Quinn. From the look of sheer longing on my face there wasn’t any wonder just how much I had

wanted him back in my life. From then on, in the photos that both Quinn and I were in, we were always close together, often touching one another.

A couple of pages chronicled the months I was pregnant with Kel y. My favorite one in that set was the one Quinn took of the two of us on the day

he proposed. I closed my eyes and let the vision in my mind replace the picture.

Quinn took me on a drive early one Saturday morning, not long after we found out I was pregnant. We stil hadn’t told anyone but we planned to do

that on Sunday when we would al be going to the Lobatos’ place to celebrate the Fourth of July. It didn’t take me long to realize that we were

headed towards Quarry Springs. I tried everything to get him to tel me why we were going there. He remained silent, just smiling at me smugly. I

had just given up when my last threat only got him to wiggle his eyebrows at me and ask if I would do that anyway. I turned and looked out the

passenger side window and realized we were near the turn-off for the farm. I turned to him and asked if that was it and he nodded.

Quinn had slipped down to Kai’s place that morning, before he’d woke me up, and put a picnic basket together. After a show of my appreciation

for planning it, we had a simple lunch that Quinn had made. Later Kai told me she tried to get Quinn to just order something made but he insisted on

doing it himself. We feasted on fresh fruit, deli meat sandwiches and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. It was perfect. After lunch, we spent a lazy day

out in the sun just enjoying each other. It was getting near twilight and I jokingly asked if we were staying out there al night or going back. Quinn said

we would go back but there was one thing he had to do first.

There in the fading light, he took my hands and told me when he’d let me go before he’d lost a part of himself but finding me again had made him

whole. He pul ed a ring from his pocket and my breath hitched as I stared at it. I recognized it as his grandmother’s and knew he had to have it since

Christmas because that was the last time he had seen her. When I turned my attention off the ring that was catching the fading light and throwing

sparkles back onto Quinn’s face, he smiled at me. “Sylvia, this ring is a symbol of my promise to you that I wil never leave you again. Even when we

aren’t physical y together you wil always have this reminder with you that I am yours now and always.”

He said more and I’m sure it was very beautiful, but my focus was entirely on his eyes and the sincerity and love that was in them. There was

never real y a question of what my answer would be. It did become a question of when it was going to take place.

I looked up into Quinn’s eyes then and saw the same expression in them as there was thirty one years before. I melted at that look now as I did on

that day.

We also had pictures from a very quiet, very private wedding for Kai and Sloane. It surprised us al when Kai announced that her wedding was

going to be limited to just their close friends and immediate family. Of course it was an extremely beautiful and absolutely perfect Christmas

wedding, except I was also about thirty-two weeks along. It didn’t seem to matter to Kai since she found me “the perfect dress” anyway.

Anne was thril ed with the next group of pictures. She giggled at seeing her mom so smal , “just like baby Spencer.” We had pictures of Kel y with

everyone, but my favorite was the one of her, Quinn and I. I was holding her, gazing into her beautiful little face with wonder, while Quinn was

beaming with pride down on us. Quinn pointed to his favorite. It was of me asleep with Kel y tucked in my arms both of looking both peaceful yet

completely wore out.

There were several more pages of baby Kel y. She was everyone’s darling and we al took pictures of her frequently. After that fol owed our

wedding. By sheer coincidence it took place exactly one year to the day of us finding out I was pregnant. We had a lovely outdoor service in Alex

and Marie’s backyard. Quinn picked a spot in the yard near his mom’s flower beds and said the spot had special meaning to him. He didn’t

elaborate.

I briefly took in the first of the pictures. It was Quinn standing at the end of the isle waiting for me. I turned my gaze off the book and onto him. That

line you hear in too many movies and books was true. He was just as handsome now as he was that day. His hair was stil dark but silver was in a

ful y fledged takeover, especial y in the last few years. His laugh lines were deeper and the crinkle around his eyes had expanded. Both of which

were more pronounced as he smiled down at his first grandchild. His brow also had a couple permanent furrows. None of it bothered me. I knew

each worry and each smile that helped bring them about, and each one had been shared with me.

I heard the pages being turned but I didn’t look down at them I continued to study Quinn lovingly. I knew the pictures of our wedding wel . There

were the standard wedding pictures of me with Quinn and I, Quinn with his parents and al of us together. There were the ones of the wedding party

and Jason giving me away. I wasn’t sure if he would because I knew he wasn’t the biggest supporter of Quinn and I. He was the closest thing I had

to a family member. Jase had been thril ed I’d asked him to do it.

Then there were the candid pictures from that day. Ones of Kai and Kerri helping me get ready, some of the guys decorating Quinn’s car and the

one and only proof we have of why Reed should not be trusted to take care of things.

“Grammy, why is Uncle Reed crawling on the grass in his dress up clothes?”

I elbowed Quinn and asked sarcastical y, “Yeah, why is he crawling around?”

Quinn chuckled as he told Anne “look at Grammy’s pretty rings. See the one without the shiny stone on it?” She nodded and pointed to my plain

gold band. “That is the ring I gave your grandma on the day I married her, but before I did I had Reed pick it up at the store where I had a man write

a special message to your grandma in it. Uncle Reed was handing it to Uncle Sloane to hold until I needed to give it to your grandma.”

Quinn had simply had “yours forever” etched inside my ring.

“Reed dropped it in the grass and we almost didn’t find it. I almost didn’t get to marry your grandma and that would have been sad.” Quinn teased

the girl. Nothing, not even a lost ring, would have kept us from marrying that day.

Anne knew the teasing tone her grandpa had and played along with him. “That would have been real bad. Who would have made you cookies?”

She said, shaking her head.

I giggled at the two of them and took over turning the pages for the moment. We flipped past pages of the day we moved into our first house.

Marie’s parents had given us a smal house for our wedding. It wasn’t the cottage I had admired that New Year’s Eve with Quinn so long ago, but it

was stil in the same neighborhood and was very similar. It had been a picturesque little place. I hated leaving it after just five short years but we

outgrew it with the birth of our son, Bil y.

Quinn and I laughed at the pictures from Kerri and Reed’s wedding. After a nasty argument with her mother over a reception venue, Kerri

spiteful y turned al wedding planning over to Reed’s mom. The ceremony itself was a very upscale traditional catholic wedding, with one exception.

A few minutes before she was to walk down the aisle, Kerri had had it with her mother’s constant complaining. The question of whether or not a

shotgun would be involved pushed Kerri over the edge. She sweetly replied, “No, but the bride is going to be barefoot.” She then kicked off her

overpriced heels and did indeed walk down the aisle barefoot.

The reception, which had been the source of contention between Kerri and her mother, ended up being at the local VFW in Reed’s hometown.