Page 64 of Another Love, Another Time

River:

We have softball practice for our adult league today.

I glance around at our team, split between offense and defense for today’s scrimmage.

My gaze lands on the stands, which are surprisingly full for a practice.

The sun shines through a nice, cool breeze, which could be part of it.

It’s a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

I love our group of fun players who care about putting in the work to get better as a team while still having fun. They are mostly people from work, but we’ve picked up a few players who wanted to play and needed a team.

This year, we picked up a female pitcher who pitched in college.

She’s amazing and gets along well with the team.

Since we have a pitcher, Auggie doesn’t get to pitch as much.

He’s taken over as coach, which he enjoys, but today, he’s pitching while I catch.

We have become a well-oiled machine. I’m sure he would much rather be in the catching position, but he lets me have it. He loves me like that.

Auggie throws a warmup pitch to me. Logan steps up to the base, and I get in my catching stance and give Auggie the signal. He nods and sends the ball my way, but it’s not the pitch I signaled for. Of course, Logan bunts the incoming ball, and it flies into the air.

Auggie runs to cover home plate. I throw off all my headgear and run to catch the ball, which I just barely manage.

That’s weird. It doesn’t feel like a softball. I quickly drop whatever is in my hand. I bend down and look to see what I caught. It looks to be clothing with rubber bands around it. I pull the rubber bands off, open up the shirt, and gasp.

The shirt says, “Will you marry me?”

I spin around to see Auggie down on one knee.

I fall down on my knees. “What are you doing?” I ask, barely getting the words out.

“Isn’t it obvious?” He gestures to the crowd. Our family and friends are here. A lot are holding up signs saying things like “Say yes” or “Marry me instead.”

I look back at Auggie and see that we both have tears in our eyes. We’ve worked our asses off to build the beautiful relationship we have today.

“River, will you marry me?” he asks me.

I tackle him to the ground with all my catching gear on and smash my lips to his.

I pull back. “Yes, yes, yes,” I scream.

The crowd cheers. He pulls away and grabs something from his pocket. It’s the ring, shimmering in the sunlight. He slides it on my finger, and another piece clicks into place.

I love our life. We have both made the decision to only have people who have our best interests in our lives.

Auggie is the man I always thought he was.

Every day, he is intentional in how he shows me I’m the most important person in his life.

I’m sure that when we have kids, that will change, but he has proven to me he will put our family first. I’m going to be Mrs. Auggie Hunt!

Our friends and family approach to congratulate us. I’m smiling so hard my face hurts.

Practice is forgotten, and someone orders pizza. Someone just showed up with a couple of kegs of beer. I look around at the life we built, the obstacles we overcame, and I am grateful for my life.

5 years later

Auggie:

To say the last five years have been a rollercoaster is an understatement. River and I got married six months after I proposed. It was nothing big, just our close friends and family. We were going to wait a few years to have kids, but we got pregnant on our honeymoon.

There were a lot of changes that year. We had our first daughter, Tori. I bawled like a baby.

River is the most beautiful woman, and I am the luckiest man alive.

Baxter and River decided to start their own PI firm, so after Tori was born, River left the department. It took them a year to get a steady flow of clients. It was good because it saved us daycare costs, and she was able to be at home.

After two years, when the PI firm was stable, I decided to quit the department and go back to school. We moved closer to St. Louis so River would be closer to Baxter. He took most of the fieldwork, and she managed most of the office work.

When she got pregnant with our second child, Max, she stopped doing fieldwork altogether. They hired another PI, and she was able to handle all the office stuff.

We are still close to Mackey. He’s the godparent to our son. He comes down at least once a month to visit. He’s met someone here, and we all hang out when he comes to visit. I can see him transferring soon.

Logan now plays for the Cardinals, so we get to see him a lot, too. After all, we go to quite a few games. Tori and Max love to watch their Uncle Logan play baseball.

Melissa has tried to reach out a couple of times over the years.

She doesn’t have our address, but she sends things to my parents’ house.

I went to see her about a year ago to make it clear that our friendship was over and to stop reaching out.

She started crying and screaming, and our visit was cut short.

River knew I was going, and she supported it. She said if I thought it would help, she would support it. We haven’t heard anything from Melissa since.

Our relationship with our mothers has improved. River and her mother went to see a therapist. I know River wanted to forgive her mother, if not for herself, then for her dad. I also know she wanted our kids to grow up with their grandparents in their lives.

If you had asked me seven years ago if this is where I would be, I would have laughed in your face.

I fall in love with my wife more and more every day.

She is truly my soulmate, and I thank God every day that she decided my boneheaded ass deserved another chance.

I can’t imagine my life being any better, and I promise not to take it for granted.

River and I are celebrating our five-year anniversary tonight.

Baxter and his new wife are keeping the kids.

I’m glad he ended up with his wife. It was touch-and-go for a minute, but he pulled his head out of his ass before he lost her.

The girl he had been seeing was not the right girl for him, but he couldn’t decide. I’m glad he made the right choice.

Baxter and I have become as close as he and River over the years. I love our little handpicked family.

River and I have picked up the tradition of doing “family” vacations, with last year’s being the first one. Everyone enjoyed it, so we will be doing more. We love getting everyone together.

I look up and see my wife walking towards me, so I pat my lap. We didn’t do anything fancy for our anniversary. When I asked her what she wanted to do, she asked for steaks on the grill and a bonfire.

I just got the fire going. She sits down on my lap, and I wrap my arms around her. Then, she snuggles her head into my neck. We sit in a comfortable silence, watching the fire burn. She lifts her head, presses her lips to mine, looks me in the eyes, and says, “I love you, Auggie.”

I squeeze her. “I love you more.”

10 years later:

Auggie:

River and I are celebrating our ten-year anniversary today. We talked about going on a trip, just she and I, but decided to go on a trip with the family. Growing up, River and I loved exploring and traveling, so we wanted to do that with our kids.

We have three kids now, and all of them keep us on our toes.

Tori, who is nine, thinks it’s her job to boss everyone around.

Max, who is seven, is just as sweet as can be.

He adores his older sister. And we have GG, who is going to give us a run for our money.

She’s three, but boy, does she have a big personality. I’m not sure where she got it from.

Today, we’re at the beach with all the parents. Baxter’s, Mackey’s, and Logan’s families are here, continuing the tradition with our chosen family. We have mostly repaired our relationships with our moms, but my wife is currently butting heads with the grandmothers.

Baxter has a daughter the same age as Max.

They remind me of River and me. They would spend day and night together if we let them, but Mackey also has a son around the same age who wants to hang out with them.

The grandmothers tried to intervene before River stepped in.

She won’t force the kids to include him, but the grandmothers will.

They’re all good kids. If one of them were rotten, we wouldn’t force it. Our kids come first, no matter what. I never want them to feel the way River did.

Melissa was released from prison last year, but we haven’t heard from her. Baxter and River keep a file on her and make sure they know exactly where she is. As soon as she was released, she moved to the West Coast. I don’t care, as long as she stays away.

River and I still play on the adult softball team, but Tori and Max are in sports, so we don’t get to play as often.

Both of us have left the police department.

I went back to school to get my teaching degree.

I coach baseball now, and Baxter and River run their PI firm.

With the kids, they mostly work from home, but they’ve hired a few people to do the fieldwork.

It’s great having her at home with our crazy schedule. We divide and conquer our schedules.

We still take turns cooking dinner. I feel so fortunate that she came back for me, that she gave me another chance to prove to her that I would never take her for granted again.

My life has been so full of life and joy since she came back into it, and I thank God every day for the blessings in my life.

I’ve always loved River, but I didn’t love her the right way.

It was a selfish love, an immature love.

The love we have today continues to grow a little more every day.

Just when I think I can’t love her anymore, she does something to prove me wrong.

The love we had as kids was real, but it was another time, another love.

The love we have now is the forever kind of love. -The End.