Let Me Be the One (21 page)

Tom

July.  I was finally able to take a week off.  We were spending a few days getting everything squared away at the apartment and then a few days at the beach with Darcy’s family.  I was pretty sure I had everything planned out perfectly.  Jenna, Dan, Rene, Caitlin, Beth, Ben, Caleb, Luke, Kate, Chris, Cara and Kasia were all set to arrive for dinner.  My parents were bringing Brendan, Terrence, Rob, and Mary.  It was going to be a casual engagement party, just our closest friends and family.  I knew that’s how Darcy would want it.

I guess I was making a major assumption that Darcy was going to say yes but I was pretty confident that if she had stuck with me through the last two crazy years then, yeah
, she was in for the long haul.

Darcy pretty much always took James for a walk along the beach after he had his late afternoon nap.  It was amazing how much James had changed.  He started walking in February and
had pretty much been running ever since.  Darcy usually stayed down there for at least an hour with him making sandcastles, chasing seagulls, or collecting shells.  She spent her childhood at the beach and she started teaching James about the waves from the minute he could understand her.

Darcy was always saying how smart James was.  I’m sure she was prejudiced but the kid did seem precocious.  At
seventeen months he was using a lot of short phrases and he seemed to have a good grasp of what we were saying.  I credited Darcy with that too.  She was a great teacher and a great mother to him. That’s what was going through my head as I made my way down the beach towards them.  “Hey buddy.”

“Da-dee!”

It’s hard to beat the feeling I got every time I heard James scream “daddy” while trotting into my arms full speed.  I whispered in his ear, “I’ve got a surprise for mommy.”

Yeah, since the time he was starting to make sounds I’d been showing him Darcy’s picture and teaching him to say “mommy”.  The first time he called her that she cried so hard I thought she might have scared him.  Now it was second nature.  Although I know in her heart she had no doubt she was mother to him, she didn’t refer to herself as James’s mom to others.  I guess it
just wasn't official yet to her.  Didn’t matter to James, he called her nothing but “mommy” and she happily answered to it.  She always made a point, though, of pointing to Breanne in the pictures we hung at home and explaining to James that she was his mom too and that she was in heaven watching over him.  If Breanne
was
looking down on us I was pretty sure she would have been happy.  James couldn’t be more loved.

“What
are you two whispering about?”

She looked so gorgeous
that she took my breath away.  Always did and always would.

With that, I looked at James and I got down on one knee.  He followed, getting down on both his knees. 
He always imitated me.  It was pretty adorable.  I looked up to Darcy and asked, “Will you marry us?”

She laughed and covered her mouth, nodding before tears pricked the corners of her eyes.  I pulled the ring box out of the pocket of my board shorts and slipped the ring onto her finger.  I was a little nervous about having Rene pick the style but
she done good—it looked beautiful on Darcy’s delicate hand.

I’m sure James had no idea what was going on but he was clapping his hands and looked as thrilled as the both of us were.  I pulled her body close.  I would never get tired of feeling her
body against mine.  She had my heart and my soul; I couldn’t imagine living a day without her.  “Darcy, you make me so happy.”

Darcy

When we walked into the backyard Tom gave a thumbs-up and then we were greeted by hoots and hollers.  I was in shock for a minute as I took everyone in.  Every person here had been witness to our highs and lows and had been pulling for us through it all. 

James ran straight to Rebecca when he saw her, they were like peanut butter and jelly.  I made my way to Terrence and Brendan and hugged them first.  Brendan, like the family spokesperson, said, “You’re already a part of our family, Darcy, but I’m glad he’s
finally making it official.”

Tom and I had a great night just hanging out, beers and barbecue, with the people who meant the most to us.  I said to Tom, “You think
now I can spend some nights at your apartment?”

“
Some nights? Oh no, woman, you’re moving in ASAP.  We’re engaged now.  We can do what we want.  If it makes you feel better, I’ll marry you at City Hall tomorrow.  I just want you to be mine, legally, no turning back.”

“I don’t think my dad would be down for that, me b
eing his only daughter and all, but Tom, I would like to get married soon.  I don’t want a long, drawn out engagement.”  I couldn’t help but to get emotional when I added, “I want to be James’s mother.”

He
held me close and kissed me before he whispered in her ear, “You know you already are but I understand what you’re feeling, Darcy.  I’m with you.  You name the date.”

I was seriously considering late September.  I knew it was the beginning of the school year and all
, but taking an extended honeymoon vacation wasn’t in the plan anyway.  I don’t think either of us felt the need to go away without James and Tom still needed to plug along at work.  It was only ten weeks away but I was low maintenance; not a bridezilla bone in my body.

And that was it.  We were set for the last weekend of September.  Save the date cards were out that week, a great winery loft space and the DJ were booked for the reception, and the Church had the opening.  Everyone who was at the engagement party was in my bridal party and they were as low maintenance as I was.  I picked my wedding gown from small shop in Soho and told the girls to pick any cocktail dress from the shop’s bridal colle
ction that they liked.  I picked the simple groomsmen’s suits from there as well.  At almost twenty months, James was going to look adorable in a tiny little suit. 

I guess you could make the process really complicated and stressful but I just didn’t see that there was much to stress about.  As both of my brothers had told me, the wedding was one day, the marriage was our lives.  After I sent the invitations, picked the menu, ordered the cake, and picked the flowers, we were done.  It bas
ically came together for you. 

August for me and James was spent mostly at the beach with Tom heading down on the weekends.  I had Brendan a
nd Terrence with me a lot too.  They loved paddle boarding and playing football on the beach.  Brendan was also undoubtedly drawn to the beach by my neighbor’s three bikini-clad, teenaged daughters who played volleyball with Brendan and a few other boys he and Terrence had made friends with. 

This year Brendan was going to be a sophomore in high school and Terrence was finishing middle school.  They were getting so much older.  They were great with James, so patient when he followed them around and imitated everything they did
all
day long.

One weekend night we were all down on the beach at sunset. I’d made a tray of barbecued chicken and salads tha
t I’d taken down for everyone.  Eating dinner on the beach was the best.  No cleanup.  Tom and I sat there, enjoying a nice plastic cup of red wine—very classy—while watching James chase Brendan and Terrence around.  Tom looked lost in thought.  I asked, “What’s up?”

“I was just thinking about how nice it is for James to have these two but it’s really great for Brendan and Terrence to have a brother so close in age.  I’m just missing Charlie.  He woul
d have loved you, loved James.”

I rested my head on his shoulder.  I would never get tired of feeling this strong, powerful body next to mine.  “Darcy, feel free to tell me no and that I’m nuts, but do you think you might be ready to go
off your birth control pills?”

“Wow, I hadn’t really given it any thou
ght.  You want this for James?”

He looked at me with pure love in his eyes. “Yeah, I
really do.”

After I sat thinking for a minute I turned to him and smiled.  I was sure. “Then I’m in.”

He flipped me onto my back in the sand and had me laughing.  “And I promise, I’m going to make this worth your while.  I have all sorts of tricks up my sleeve that I haven’t even laid on you yet.”

The next day I replaced the pill with prenatal vit
amins.

He wasn’t joking.  I mean, I loved sex with Tom. He made my body feel incredible and made me feel like I was the most loved and desirable woman on the face of the earth.  But now, it was game on.  He seemed to be calling in favors with his parents, my parents, and Luke and Kate with greater frequency.  He made sure that we had at least a few hours, without James, to be together.  And I was oh so down for this.  I mean, we had spent the better part of this year holing up with our parents and sneaking in quickies whenever we could.  They were good quickies but now, this felt like heaven.

We christened every room, every surface in the apartment.  Sometimes he loved me slow and sweet and sometimes it was a little rough and downright dirty.  I loved it all.  He even once took me the way I’d dreamt about before we’d first gotten together.  Tom came up behind me, kissed the base of my neck and pressed his body into mine.  He actually purred the words I’d fant
asized him saying to me, “Darcy, you know I love you, right?” as he firmly planted my hands on the wall above me and told me to brace myself.  He stripped me and electrified every part of my body with his hands and mouth.  It was like sweet torture.  When I felt that my legs might give out on me he entered me, holding me up with both hands on my hips.  He filled me; it was so good.  After we both had our release, he would always hold me close to him tightly, as if he was afraid I’d float away.  

Tom

What a difference a year makes. 

Last year I was struggling, feeling like life was spira
ling out of control and now, again, I felt like I had the world on a string.  I was at the top of my game at work, my sweet girl was about to become my wife, and my son was thriving. 

I felt like I was on a mission to get Darcy with child and we were bo
th having a great time trying.

The day before the wedding, before all the girls inva
ded our apartment for the next twenty-four hours, I sat on the edge of our bed fixing my tie slowly as I watched Darcy getting dressed.  I found that it was pretty hard to concentrate on anything else when she was slipping into a skirt or unzipping a dress.  Today, as I watched her put on a really beautiful, lacy number, I thought her breasts looked extra full; they were nearly spilling out of the cups.  Besides being rock hard at the sight of that, I thought maybe, maybe that was a good sign.  I kept my mouth shut, though. I didn’t want to get her nervous about anything right before the wedding.  

Darcy

Today was the day.  James and I were lying in bed together watching a cartoon before Jenna or any of the other girls woke up.  I loved mornings like this.  James, half asleep, drinking from his sippy cup with his body nestled into mine.

A few more months and he would be two.  I hadn’t been to the doctor yet but the drug store test was positive and my body felt different.  I estimated that I would be due the end of June. 
James would be two years, four months.  I couldn’t wait to tell Tom, he was going to be thrilled.              

By 10 a.m. all the girls had curled into some spot on the king-sized bed.  After a late breakfast we had hair and make-up peop
le coming to get us all ready.  Caleb came by to get James after I dressed him; he looked beyond cute. 

Before I knew it we were on our way to Church.  My dad was so happy, it was written all over his face.  As he took my hand to help me out of the car he joked, “Last chance to run!” and then he turned serious for a m
oment. “Obviously, that was my lame attempt at some humor but really, Darcy, in my eyes you couldn’t have found someone better suited for you than Tom.  I feel blessed that you have someone that loves you like he does.  I know your mom is looking down on you right now and she’s happy.”

I felt it too.  Like everyone in my life, my mother in heaven included, was around me, surrounding me with love.  When I saw Tom waiting for me at the end of the aisle with James in his arms, I was just overwhelmed with
joy.

Tom

They say that if you find the right girl, that moment when you see her coming down the aisle towards you is one of the best moments of your life.  Well, I had the most spectacular woman on the planet making her way towards me in a dress that hugged her beautiful curves, which made me think that those ample curves were compliments of a miracle that was happening inside of her body.  It doesn’t get better than this.

When they finally announced us as man and wife, I was so ready to drag her away and just have her to myself.  That wo
uld have to wait, though—we had some dancing to do. 

I couldn’t believe Darcy pulled this all off in such a short
amount of time.  Everything was great.  It was like a college reunion and everyone we cared about was here to celebrate with us.  Many of us were entering new phases in our lives.  I knew from Dan that there was going to be an engagement within the next few months, Chris and Cara were moving to California for his new job in a tech startup, and Ben was about to leave for an overseas assignment that would take him away for the next two years.

I was more than ready for our next phase.  Being a family, living in
our
home, raising
our
children together. 

As Darcy and I danced slowly together to the last song of the night
, I remembered that I hadn’t given her the present I’d gotten her.  It was something simple, a locket with James’s picture on one side and the other side empty, for now.  She and I were spending the night at a hotel so I told her I’d give it to her tomorrow night when we were back home.  “Tom you didn’t have to get me a present.  I feel bad now, I didn’t get you anything.”

“Yes you did.  You married me.”

She laughed.  “Well, maybe I am giving you something.”

“I know.”

She cocked her head to the side and looked at me suspiciously.  “What? What do you know?”

I had a wide-ass grin on my face. “Nothing! I know nothing, Darce. Now, come o
n, what were you going to say?”

She looked at me with a smile she could no longer contain and then was up on her toes whis
pering in my ear.  “We’re having a baby.”

I picked her up
and spun her around.  “I knew.”

“You did not!”

“Yes I did.”

“How?
I just found out two days ago.”

Now I leaned down to whisper in her ear, “Your breasts look phenomenal.  They’re
huge, so I had my suspicions.”

She hit my chest but was
smiling up at me. “I love you.”

I prayed, with everything I had, that the hardest days were behind us.  I knew now, though, that together we could make it through anything.   I had a woman by my side that was incredibly strong and, above all else, had the most loving, giving heart imaginable. 

I held her close, never wanting to be apart from her again.  “You’re the only one for me
, Mrs. Darcy Farrell, forever.”

THE END

For Now…