Page 74 of Winter Break

I’d talked to Anita earlier that day. She and Wyatt were in London, enjoying Fiona’s hospitality.

I unlocked the door, and our group cut through to the front by way of the toy store, spilling out onto the boardwalk, where a crowd had gathered, everyone bundled up, chatting under the pole lights. Music was piped in through the sound system that Martin and I had had a hand in getting refurbished, and a barge, staffed by some of our local firefighters, sat a few miles out in the ocean, waiting for midnight just like the rest of us. Martin and Stephanie Lessand were there next to Chris and Leila Garner. I was surprised to find Brett and Mallory standing next to them, with a stroller.

“Is that my brother?” Dalton asked as our dance club group dispersed among the crowd.

Before I could respond, my tipsy boyfriend shouted, “Brett! Mal! Get the fuck over here.”

“Language,” I muttered under my breath, tilting my head toward him. Uncle Dalton had been working really hard to minimize the number of curses he said in front of his nephew, but he didn’t always succeed.

“You bring my nephew in here, right now! Are you crazy, having him out in the cold?”

“It’s not that cold out here, Shorty,” Brett countered.

And Mallory assured us, “We just got here, and he’s all bundled up.”

Dalton swung the door open, the bell jingling violently as he slammed it. “Bring him in here! Right now!” Most of the people in the area were watching my boyfriend’s outburst. Mallory and Brett looked at each other with resignation, Mallory and Brett whispering to each other before he turned the stroller around and headed our way.

Under his breath, Dalton said to me, “We’ll have more sense with our kids, right, Turner?”

The comment may have caused my heart to palpitate, my throat to dry, and my words to fail me, but Dalton just moved on, glaring at his brother as he sheepishly brought the stroller into the store.

Dalton and I had been together, truly together, for a year at that point, and while he technically lived at home while working at and attending school at Tidewater University’s regional oceanic campus, he spent most of his time in the little apartment above the toy store. We had emotional epiphanies and boring routine days in my little apartment. Before Dalton’s month-long trip to the Arctic over the summer, we’d cried on the couch, then admitted we were being silly, and that we’d see each other in a month. Then he told me he loved me, and I told him I loved him right back.

Six months later, and Dalton had another semester under his belt as we’d celebrated another successful holiday season at the beach, Business had picked up for me, thanks in large part to the clubs and activities Dalton helped me organize.

Our year together was culminating in the New Year’s Eve fireworks that were about to go off.

Brett positioned the stroller in front of the riser and plopped into the reading chair while my world tilted on its axis.

Dalton took my hand and led us to the counter, where he hopped up before spreading his legs and opening his arms for me. I walked toward him, and he kissed me before turning me around and backing me up to lean against him.

His arms were wrapped tight around me, but he looked at his watch, the time and his rainbow flag background lighting up as he moved his wrist.

“Just a few more minutes,” he said.

I leaned back and whispered, “Dalt?”

“Yes, baby?”

“You want to have children?”

“Huh?”

“You just said, when we have children …”

“Oh yeah,” He laughed. “I did, didn’t I? And I do.” I may have sighed. Dalton jumped right over it, rambling on in a way I’d come to love. “I mean, only if you do. And maybe after I get my PhD. My schedule will be much more flexible then, though I’ll still need to travel every once in a while, I suppose. But my mom will help out. I mean, she helps those two.” He pointed a finger at his brother.

“But only if you want to, of course, Turner,” he concluded. The only sound was the chatter of the crowd outside and the cooing of the baby nearby.

“Do you think, maybe? Someday? I mean, would you …”

I turned in his arms before he could ramble on more. “Of course, I do, babe. I can’t wait to have children with you.”

We had been whispering, but we were also alone with Brett and the baby in an echoey empty store.

“Just maybe be more careful than Mal and me.” I turned in Dalton’s arms, facing forward again and staring at my ridiculous best friend. “So you don’t miss out on having a super-fun wedding first. I mean, one of the Garner boys should hold out for marriage.”

I could feel Dalton holding in his laughter behind me as a smile that was painful to contain cracked my face.