Page 46 of The Cadence
“T hat’s it.” Kirsten threw down her knitting needles and one of them impaled itself into her grandma’s rug.
“This is too small! It’s im-fucking-possible.
” She looked up from the wad of yarn on her lap into the faces of Miss Mozella and Miss Sloane.
“I’m sorry for swearing,” she told them both, and then she turned to me and mouthed, “Un-fucking-believable!”
“I saw that, too,” Miss Mozella informed her. “Pass me your hat.” She picked up the green tangle that Kirsten had produced and she seemed puzzled as she turned it one way and another. “Well…”
“How are you doing this?” Kirsten asked Will. “How is it possible, with hands the size of yours?”
He held up the tiny sweater he had been diligently working on. “I enjoy knitting. It’s very relaxing.”
“And then there’s you,” she said, turning on her boyfriend.
“You don’t like it?” Cully finished the seam and cut the threads. “I think this quilt is turning out great. I’m really into the nine-patch, Sloane.”
“I thought you would be.” She smiled at him, and he grinned back at her. “What if you and I went over to the fabric store tomorrow?”
“I can’t,” he said ruefully. “I have class.”
“That’s more important. We can pick up something for your binding later,” she said, and he nodded. He only had one more semester before he finished his degree in computer science and he had already lined up a job for after graduation, so he was all set if his career as a quilter fell through.
“This has been such a lovely visit with y’all,” Miss Mozella told us as she discreetly put the mess of Kirsten’s hat under the table. “I can’t believe that—”
She stopped, because we all heard the soft cry through the baby monitor. The little body on the screen twitched angrily, and two tiny legs kicked.
“I have him!” Ophelia Bodine called. In a moment, we also saw her on the screen.
As she didn’t like to sew or knit, she had decided to take on most baby duties.
“There you are, you sweet thing,” she murmured as she leaned into the crib.
She carried him into Miss Sloane’s living room and there was a short skirmish as we all fought over who got to hold him.
“I win,” Kirsten announced. “He’s mine! And I don’t want to knit anymore.”
“First, I’ll do the diaper,” Cully chimed in, and they went together to take care of their little guy.
We had all been concerned when Kirsten told us that she was pregnant, but she was doing great and so was her boyfriend.
Miss Sloan had been a very good influence, and I liked to think that I might have been, too. Anyway, they were wonderful parents.
Will won the next argument over who got to hold the baby when Cully brought him back, now freshened up.
It made sense that he could triumph over the rest of us since he was the largest and strongest person here.
I thought he might have been the gentlest, too.
He looked down and smiled into the baby’s face and I felt my heart actually melt.
“You have to get going on that,” Miss Mozella said, elbowing me. “I need one of my own.”
“It would be mine and Will’s,” I told her.
“Ophelia and I will have something to say about it,” she let me know.
Will’s mom had changed as she’d gotten further away from the death of his dad and the tumult of their life together.
She and Miss Mozella had become good friends and we got to see them a lot, and I knew that when I had a baby, we’d see them even more. That was fine with me.
I shook my head at her as she chuckled, and I put down the sweater that I was working on.
It wasn’t half as good as Will’s, anyway, and it could wait.
I walked over to him and hugged my arms around his neck so that I could lean on his back and look down at the baby, while also giving him some love.
“Hello, Calla.”
“Hi, Will,” I answered. He turned his head so that I could kiss his cheek, which I did several times.
It was one of the benefits of being officially a real couple: I felt I could kiss him whenever I liked, and I liked to do that a lot.
We’d gotten married the previous spring in Tennessee, with many of his football teammates and their families in attendance.
His best friend DeSean had stood up with him and I’d had an array of bridesmaids, from Tennessee and Michigan, and one male attendant, Cully.
He’d been thrilled with his role and promised that I would get to be the best lady when he and Kirsten tied the knot themselves.
Will checked on the baby, who was perfectly content.
“What would you think?” he asked me quietly.
“I’m retiring after this season.” He’d had another ankle injury the previous year, and it had been a bad one.
It was bothering him enough that he was prepared to hang it up.
“You’re busy with your furniture business, but I’d have more time. ”
“You do so much,” I countered. “Would you really want to cut back?”
“To take care of our family? Do you have to ask? Of course,” he told me.
Well, that was lucky, because there was some important information that I wanted to discuss with him.
I’d planned to wait until we had a private moment, which was a little hard to come by.
We were busy with football, furniture, family, friends, and so many other things.
I’d started to schedule time for just the two of us, and I had several hours blocked off later today, after his mom and Miss Mozella caught their flight back to Chattanooga.
We had a little issue—right now, it was extremely small, but in about eight months, he was going to have to knit more tiny sweaters for us, too.
“I’ll take my son,” Cully said importantly.
He was extremely proud of himself, his child, and Kirsten, who had been in labor for quite a long time…
I would try not to think about that for the next few months.
Will would worry enough for both of us. He was doing so much better with his anxiety and with intrusive thoughts, but anything having to do with me was a big trigger for him.
Luckily, he had strategies to cope a lot better, and he wasn’t trying to push though on his own anymore.
Now that his arms were free, my handsome husband suggested that we go out to the porch to admire the landscape. It also gave us a minute of privacy, which had been hard to come by during this latest visit. We did love hosting but it was also nice to be on our own.
Will checked to make sure that we were out of the eyeshot of the people in Miss Sloane’s living room before he folded me into a hug. “My mother has been talking about us moving home to Tennessee after I retire,” he said. “What are your thoughts?”
I thought of the winters up here, which were not my favorite. “I wouldn’t mind. We could spend our summers in Michigan, at the beach. But would it bother you?” I asked him. “Would you worry that people back home would only see you as a bad Bodine?”
“I’m trying to be the Bodine that breaks the mold. I’ll set the stage for the next generation, too, whenever that generation might arrive.” He looked at me a little questioningly. We hadn’t been especially careful lately with protection. More like, we’d thrown caution to the wind.
There would be a next generation sooner than he knew, and I was sure everyone in it would be proud to carry the same name as this guy. I sure was. “Give me a kiss,” I requested.
“Gladly,” he said, and did. “Since we’re married, I can do that whenever I want.”
“You kissed me a lot before we were married, too,” I reminded him.
“But now I also get to brag that you’re my wife. I tell people that I’m married to an artist and entrepreneur, who’s also the sweetest and kindest woman in the world, and also the cutest.” His hand reached for my butt. “Let’s go home.”
“Your mother is here!” I told him. “Will…I’m not going to be able to say no if you keep doing that.”
“Later,” he promised, and I would hold him to it. We had a long, exciting night to look forward to.
A night? I smiled up at him, and he bent to kiss me again.
We had so much more than that ahead of us: fun with the people inside, fun with people we hadn’t yet met, new ideas, new places to visit, children (maybe more than one).
I couldn’t even imagine what the future held for us, but I was looking forward to all of it, and I loved Will Bodine more than I ever had.
It just got better all the time, and that was the truth, without any need to hide it.