Fair Play (19 page)

Téa

“I’ve never seen anything more beautiful.”

“I have,” Nick says, swatting my ass from behind me on the path that just opened up, revealing a spectacular waterfall with a rainbow and all.

“You’re just buttering me up for later. That’s what you’re doing.” I raise my camera and take a burst of pictures of his mother and Serena at the water’s edge holding hands. It’s surreal to know this sweet, gruff, compassionate woman’s life is almost over.

“Butter, now there’s a good idea. Serena, do you have any butter at the house?” he yells down the path.

Both women turn and shake their heads at him.

“Daddy wants to eat butter? Yuck,” Scarlet says, wrinkling up her nose.

I shoot him a don’t-you-dare glare, and he lowers his chin to his chest, smiling. I snap a picture of him at that moment because he almost looks shy or embarrassed, but I know that he’s not.

“You take pictures at the strangest moments.”

“Those are the ones that turn out the best. Remember Scarlet’s dance costume picture?”

She looks up at the mention of her name.

“Pure perfection.”

“Yeah, purfecton,” she tries to mimic me and as always, it’s adorable.

“You two like to gang up on me. It’s not fair.” Nick pouts just like Scarlet.

“You should be used to that, Mr. Quarterback. Your opponents are always ganging up on you, trying to steal the ball, right?”

“Yeah, but the key word there is opponent. We live by the fair play code of conduct, and nowhere does it say you can stab your teammate in the back.”

I lean in and kiss him on his beautiful full lips and press my forehead to his. “It was just a costume. You're a baby.”

“Ahh, see? No loyalty.” He slings his arm over my shoulders and tugs a giggling Scarlet against his other side. “We seriously need to concentrate on teamwork.”

“Daddy, look! It’s a parrot, a real one!” Scarlet points at the branch of a tree just overhead. Sure enough, there is a big parrot chilling out, looking straight at us. It fluffs its feathers and turns away as if it’s bored.

“That’s so cool, Letty. Now you can tell your new pre-school teacher you’ve seen a real parrot.”

“She’s going to pre-school? I thought …”

“Just for two mornings a week, don’t worry, I still need you. I’d need you if she were at boarding school. You know that, right?”

He leans in to kiss me, but the sound of his phone ringing steals his attention.

“I have to take this. I’m still waiting for that detective to call me back.”

“I thought there was no cell phone service out here.”

He presses the accept call button and absentmindedly points at a silver cell phone tower jutting out of the trees a mile or so away. Cell phones have officially reached the jungle. I wonder if all the natives have a phone in their grass skirts? The thought makes me smile, and I hear a click. I look around to see where the sound is coming from and see Scarlet pointing her new camera in my direction.

“Are you a photographer now?”

“Yep, like you.”

“I’ll help you download those tonight when we get home.”

She hugs my legs and takes off down the path, yelling to her grandma that she’s a photrphr. I smile when she mangles the word, it’s a hard word after all.

“Hey, listen to this,” Nick says, hanging up with the detective. “Matt is in jail, and they found his sister on the island and arrested her too. Any guesses as to what her name is?”

“Mollie Pitch,” I say, exhaling her name.

“Yep, he had his sister running around doing his stalking while he was in the hospital. She admitted to doing it but said he threatened her life if she wouldn’t. I don’t know whether to believe that or not but either way, she had warrants out for other things, so she’s out of the picture too.”

“Unbelievable. I’m just glad to know they’re behind bars and I don’t have to look over my shoulder and keep the curtains closed anymore.”

“I think you might be a bit of an exhibitionist, Ms. Brown,” he says, trailing his fingers up my damp back and threading them through the hair at the nape of my neck.

I bite my lip and glance at the waterfall only a few yards away.

“I’ll bet there’s a cave behind the waterfall, wanna check it out?”

“Ohhh, you are so naughty. What about Scarlet?”

I shrug. “Guess you’d better figure that out. Last one naked is a rotten egg!” I squeal and take off, picking my way through the grass and rocks to the base of the waterfall.

Serena nods her head in approval and flashes me a proud look when I shove my camera in her hands as I run by. Out of all of Nick’s relatives, not including Scarlet, I love her the most, and saying goodbye in a few days will be one of the hardest things I’ll ever have to do.

Behind the veil of water, Nick and I find a small flat area to stand. I made it here first, but neither of us has removed a stitch of our clothes. We are simply awestruck by the beauty of the sheet of water pouring down just feet from our faces. It roars as it passes, crashing onto the rocks below. I laugh and stick my tongue out at him. He presses me against the smooth rock wall behind us and covers my mouth with his, kissing me until I’m lightheaded and breathless.

When he finally lets me up for air, I open my eyes and blink away the beads of water on my lashes. 

“Marry me.”

I lean in to see if he said what I think he said.

“Excuse me?”

“Marry me. I know it’s only been two weeks, and you don’t know what you’re getting into as far as my career, but I swear you and Scarlet will be my number one priority. I’ve never felt so right about anything in my life. You’re the one, Téa. Marry me.”

Heat spreads up my neck, and I feel lightheaded. Did he just propose? He did, he proposed and in the most romantic place imaginable, behind a waterfall on a tropical island.

“Nobody's ever asked me to marry them before."

"And hopefully, nobody ever will again."

I bite my lip and look over his shoulder at a sparkly piece of quartz stuck in the stone. This is it.  I can't imagine my life any better than this.  "Okay, I will, on one condition.”

“Anything, you name it.”

“I want you to make love to me behind this waterfall right now."

"Right here? Right now?" he says, pointing down at the rock we are standing on.

"Yes, and you'd better hurry, you’re late.”

He throws his head back and roars with laughter.

“Easiest condition ever. I really should get a calendar or an alarm clock so I can be more timely. That bunny is going to get tired of waiting for me.”

“Oh no, that bunny will never get tired of waiting for you. That bunny loves you.”

“How about you? Do you love me too?”

“More than you’ll ever know.”

“Are you challenging me to find out?”

“Yep.”

“Challenge accepted.”

Epilogue

Two years later

Serena made us promise not to come back to Hawaii. We all kissed her goodbye, and I handed her the SD card loaded with the pictures from our vacation and the ones of Nick and Scarlet along with a few of the three of us at her request.

She hugged Nick tightly around the neck, and I heard him whisper, “Tell her I love her, and that I’m happy again.”

She clung to him for a moment and when she could speak, she whispered back, “She already knows.”

I had to walk away. I boarded the plane and went straight to the tiny bathroom stall at the back and cried my eyes out.

Nick told Scarlet I had an allergy attack when I sat down between them right before takeoff. She believed it because she’s four, and four year olds believe what grown-ups tell them.

That was two years ago, and we are back on the big island against her wishes. She held on much longer than she anticipated after she stopped taking the chemo, but four months ago she finally lost her battle against cancer.

I thought it was a shame to associate this gorgeous place with death and loss, so Nick and I decided to have our wedding here.

Today, our friends and family have all gathered with us on the same stretch of beach where Serena saved me from making the biggest mistake of my life.

I can’t imagine what would have happened if she hadn’t been sitting there. I wasn’t living before I met Nick, I merely existed. When that sweet little girl kicked my seat, she changed our lives forever. Thank God she felt the urge to be naughty and rebellious that day.

Bells ring down the beach, alerting us that it’s time to start walking to the makeshift altar.

“You ready, T?” my dad asks, holding out his elbow for me to take.

“To get married or to have this baby?” I ask, pointing at my round, eight months pregnant belly.

“How about we take this one thing at a time. Wedding today, and a baby in a couple of weeks, when she’s due. You don’t want a premature baby, do you?”

“No, of course not. She’s cramping my style though. I need my balance back, and it would be nice to see my feet again.”

“Sweetheart, that baby’s gonna cramp your style for the rest of your life. Better get used to it.”

“I don’t cramp your style, do I?”

“Nah, not anymore I guess. You were a lotta work for this old man though, I’m not gonna lie.”

“Yes, but I’m perfect now, right?”

He rolls his eyes, “Yes, of course, perfect.”

“Hey, that didn’t sound very convincing!”

“I’m kidding with ya. Honey, you are better than perfect today. I can’t believe I raised such a beautiful, successful young lady, and I couldn’t be more proud to give you away to such a good man.”

“He is pretty great, isn’t he?”

“No one deserves you more.”

I turn to check myself in the full-length mirror Nora put in the living room for me. It was too hard dressing in the tiny bedroom, so the women took over the biggest room in the house to prepare.

Nick hasn’t seen my dress yet. Keeping it a secret hasn’t been easy. That man is a super snooper. I don’t think he will be surprised that it’s not white though. Red has always been more my style, and this floor-length strapless gown is exactly me. I didn’t want to totally shock Nick’s extended family, so the dress is modest and not completely red. The bodice is white, and the skirt slowly changes to red until the very bottom is blood red. My shoes are by the lovely designer Converse and since I couldn’t wear a t-shirt, I have a little button with an arrow that says I’m With Him.

Nick chose a black tux, but Scarlet and I insisted on allowing her to wear red too. Her name is Scarlet after all.

“Okay, let’s get moving,” says the wedding planner that I didn’t need. She’s done nothing but get in my way and drive me nuts, but Nick’s mom said everybody has a wedding planner.

“Look at your daughter,” Dad says, pointing down the beach. My heart skips a beat every time someone refers to her as mine. I love her like she’s mine, there’s no doubt.

I lean over the railing of the beach house and see Scarlet skipping around, throwing tons of red rose petals all over the beach.

Everyone has been telling her to walk a straight line and only sprinkle a few at a time, but I secretly told her to go wild and have fun because that’s what I want my wedding to be about.

I want to celebrate new life.

After the ceremony, Nick and I, Mrs. Téa Wood, slip away from the party to the beach.

“Do you have it?”

“Yeah, right here.” He pats his jacket.

“It’s that small?”

“I guess so. This is what he gave me.”

“What if that’s not even her, what if they just scooped up some dirt off the ground and put it in a jar and say it’s your aunt?”

“Téa, that’s morbid. Why would they do that anyway?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they spilled the ashes or maybe they lost them.”

“I think that baby is like a steroid, boosting the creativity cells in your brain. You’ve been extra … interesting lately.” He pauses when he says interesting, like he’s trying to find a word with no negative connotations.

“I’m sorry, it’s all this stuff,” I say, gesturing toward the reception. The base of the music is vibrating the glass of the country club we rented for our reception.

“And this.” I slide my hands under my belly.

“I know it’s a lot. I’m pretty sure these are my Aunt Serena’s ashes though, okay? Do you want to do it or should I?”

He’s referring to scattering her ashes in the ocean. She figured we would be coming back for a wedding or something eventually, and she left instructions for Nick and me to take care of her ashes.

“I think you better do it. I’m so fat I’ll probably fall in the ocean.”

His eyes soften like they always do when I refer to myself as fat.

“You’re not fat; you’re growing my baby.”

“Our baby.”

“Yes, our baby.”

“Have you narrowed down the name list?”

“Yeah, I want to name her Serena. We wouldn’t be together today if it weren’t for her. Do you think that will be okay with your family?”

“I think they’re going to love it. Scarlet and Serena, sounds perfect. Come on. I’ll hold your hand, and we can do this together.”

We kick off our shoes, and he leads me to the edge of the water where he removes the lid. We each place a hand around the urn and another on my belly to say
goodbye
to one Serena and
welcome
to another.

THE END.