Happy Hour (37 page)

Danielle knelt down at the pews, the sleeping baby boy in his detachable
car seat at her side. A month had passed and there was no sign that her
daughter would ever wake up.

She didn’t hear Mark come in, but she knew who it was when he knelt
beside her. It had become their ritual together. He would join her at lunchtime
when he could. She breathed a sigh of relief at his company. Why they did this,
she wasn’t sure. She’d started coming in here a week after the baby’s birth.
Maybe it had something to do with Jamie’s insistence on having faith. Danielle
resigned herself that it was better to try to have faith than to not try at
all. But she still didn’t know if their vigil would change a thing.

“Hi.” She glanced over at Mark.

“Hi.” He touched her shoulder and squeezed.

“How’s the little man?”

“Sleeping.”

“He needed to.” Mark peered into the baby seat.

Through all the pain and angst she’d suffered these past weeks, Mark had
been right there for her. He’d taken to staying in the guest room at the house
and getting up in the nights to help take care of the baby whom Cassie had
named Shane, after his mother.

Two weeks after Shane had been born, they all agreed he needed a name and
Danielle asked Cassie if she had any ideas. When she’d said Shane, it was
perfect.

Although Mark and Danielle hadn’t become intimate or even been out since
Shane’s birth, they’d grown closer than either had been with anyone in a very
long time.

“Why do we do this?” Danielle asked him, sitting back into the pew.

“What?”

“Come here every day? Waiting, hoping.”

“There is nothing else we can do,” he said. He scooted in closer to her.
“I know you’re angry and directing it at God because that seems easy. But you
come here because there is nothing else to do. Medically, we cannot do anything
more for Shannon. So you need to be here. We have to wait and see.”

“I know. But for how long?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I can’t decide that.”

“How did you do it with your son? How did you move on?”

He motioned with his hand inside the small room, set up with an altar and
a cross. “I told you before that I prayed. Before we lost Kevin, I wasn’t much
into prayer.  I accepted that there was God but I didn’t know how, who, or what
that meant. It just was, for me. And then we lost Kevin and I grew angry and
wanted to stop believing. But once you know something in your heart, you can’t
change it. With Kevin gone, I started praying daily for an answer—anything.
And, I learned that answers are where you want to find them. Ironically, it
took me years to find an answer. The thing is when you lose someone you love,
particularly a child, there will never be a good answer. No matter what. It’s
all in the questions. You can’t ask yourself why did this happen to my child,
but rather, how do I honor the memory? How do I live my life again? How do I
find joy and peace again? When I saw you sitting in my office three months ago,
I knew I’d found some of the answers to those questions. And, there will be a
reason for all of this. I believe that.”

The baby whimpered.

“You really think so?” she asked.

“Yes I do. He’s waking up. I bet he needs to be changed,” Mark said.
“Want me to change him? Then we can take him down to see his mom?”

“Okay. Thank you. I think I’ll stay here for awhile longer though, if
that’s okay with you,” she replied.

“Of course.” He kissed her.” I love you. You know that?”

She nodded. “I know and I love you, too.”

Mark picked up the baby and walked out of the chapel, leaving Danielle to
wonder about God’s answers.

After some time of sitting and doing her best to pray, Danielle got up
and lit a candle for her daughter and for her grandson. “I don’t know why, but
I trust You have a reason.” She made the sign of the cross, and heard her name.
It was Mark.

“Honey, you need to come now. It’s Shannon.”

Jamie rushed through the hospital doors, sprinting past patients and
hospital employees to Shannon’s room. She opened the door and saw Danielle and
Mark standing over Shannon’s bed. Shannon was wide awake and holding her son.
Jamie couldn’t believe her eyes.

“Hi, Jamie,” Shannon said.

“Hi. How are you?”

“A little tired, but good. I think.” She handed the baby to her mom. Even
though she was under fluorescent lights and hooked up to monitors and IV’s,
there was something so beautiful and luminescent at that moment about Shannon,
Jamie couldn’t help thinking that the young woman looked like an angel. “I’m so
glad you came. Mom told you?”

“Yes. She called me and said that you had to see me. That it was
important.”

“It is. Mom? Mark? Can you let me talk to Jamie alone?”

They left the room with the baby. Danielle shrugged as she walked past
Jamie. “It’s a miracle. Your mom and Mark have been here every day and your
sister. This is wonderful. When your mom called me, I couldn’t believe it.”

“I saw Nathan,” Shannon blurted.

Jamie took a step back. “What did you say?”

“Your husband. I saw him.”

“I don’t understand, Shannon.” She had to be talking nonsense. Maybe the
coma had affected her brain somehow. “What do you mean you saw him? I met your
mom after he passed away so you never knew him. I think you’re tired, honey.”

“I died. I died for eight minutes. They told me, but they didn’t have to
because I remember dying.”

Jamie sat on the edge of Shannon’s bed.

“It’s exactly what you hear it’s like, with the bright light. There were
people I knew there, like my grandma and my uncle, and even a friend I had in
seventh grade who moved away. I didn’t know she’d died. And there were all
these other people there that I didn’t know and they were all sending me love.
And Nathan, your husband, was there and he told me to give you a message.”

Jamie choked. Shannon couldn’t be telling her this. This wasn’t possible.
“What?”

“He’s happy you liked the rainbow and he said that it’s time to love
again. That’s what he wants you to know. He’s okay with everything. Then this
beautiful white horse came over to him, knelt down next to him, and he got on
the horse and they rode away.”

“Oh, my God,” Jamie said. There was no way. No way that Shannon would
have known any of this. Not about the rainbow that she’d seen after leaving
David and Susan’s house, or what Tyler had told her about loving again and
certainly not about the horse that Maddie had imagined her father with. No way.
She sat there for a minute, trying to process all of this. After a minute she
smiled at Shannon and knew there was no processing this type of information. It
just was and accepting it was the only answer. Accepting it on faith was truly
the only answer. She hugged Shannon. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

“I’m just the messenger.” She took Jamie’s hand and held it for a second.
“That’s all.”

Jamie laughed through her tears and walked out of the hospital room on a
mission.

***

Jamie ran through the front door of Tyler’s house. She’d dropped Dorothy
at his place on her way to the hospital. Maddie was out with the horses.
Dorothy sat in the family room off the kitchen, watching none other than a John
Wayne western. Jamie dashed past her. “Tyler?” she yelled out.

“In here,” he replied. “What’s wrong?” He walked out of the kitchen. 
“Everything okay?”

“It couldn’t be better.” She took his face in her hands and kissed him
hard.

“What in the world?” he asked, pulling away.

“You. Me.” Tears streamed down her face.

“What’s wrong? What is it?” he asked.

“Nothing. Nothing at all.” She laughed. “I’m ready. I love you. I am so
ready to love you. I look at you and I can’t think straight. I smell you and my
god, I go crazy. I kiss you and I can’t think of a better feeling in the world.
And you make me laugh and you’re such a good man, and I love you. I really do
love you.”

“I love you, too, Jamie.”  He kissed her back.

Dorothy started clapping. They pulled away from one another and saw that
she’d gotten off the couch and stood a few feet away, smiling and clapping.
“That’s much better than the movie, John,” she said.

They laughed as Tyler picked Jamie up off her feet and swung her around,
kissing her and telling her over and over that he loved her too.

Alyssa hugged Ian and Charlie goodbye. She’d be back in a few weeks and
knew she would miss them so much that it ached. Ian was doing extremely well
for only being out of the hospital for three weeks. He had been in isolation
for two weeks in the hospital after the donation, and he would need monitoring
on a regular basis for up to a year. For now, his future looked bright and he
planned to start college again after the fall session. The admissions office at
UCLA had agreed to let him begin his classes again in January. This would give
him time to get stronger and, while he waited to start school, he planned to
help his dad and Darren out in their business.

She needed to get back to her business and art classes. She could breathe
easier knowing that her son was on the road to recovery. One thing was still
uncertain though—Darren. They’d grown so close during this time and spent much
of it together. They’d been to lunches, dinners with the family, even a movie
to help take their minds off of the heavy situation they found themselves in.
There was something there between them, and that something had gotten bigger
each day. Alyssa didn’t know if she could give it up, or if she had to, and she
didn’t know what Darren wanted. There were so many questions that had gone
unanswered. The focus had been all on Ian as it should have been, and now as
she felt she could relax some, she had no answers where Darren was concerned.

He’d insisted on driving her to the airport. But first he wanted to take
her to lunch at their favorite fish taco place up in Malibu—something she
couldn’t pass up.

They’d sat at the picnic table out front eating the delicacy and avoided
discussing what they both really wanted to talk about. After lunch, Darren took
her hand and they walked down to the beach. This had become something they did
together whenever she was in town.

“I want you to stay,” he said.

“I have to get back. I have my gallery and my classes.”

“I know. But I want you to stay.” He paused. “For good. You won’t have to
get rid of your place or the gallery even. My job gives me freedom to travel
and we could spend weekends, holidays, and summers in Napa. I love it up there.
But I want you here with me. With the family. You’re family now, too.”

Alyssa brought her hand up to her chest. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Will you think about it?”

“I, I, are you asking me to move in with you?” she said.

That’s when Darren got down on his knee. He took her hand and she sucked
in a deep pocket of air. “I’m asking you to marry me. I know we haven’t known
each other long, and I know circumstances have been difficult, but I know that
I have never felt this way about anyone before. I love you, Alyssa. I am in
love with you, and I want you to be my wife.” He took something from his jeans front
pocket—a jewelry box—and opened it. There was a square cut two-carat diamond
encased in platinum.

“You’re serious?”

He looked at the ring and his hands were shaking. “I’d say so.”

She fell to her knees. “I did not expect this. No, I did not, but you…oh,
boy, you. Yes. Yes. I will marry you.”

Darren took the ring out of the box and placed it on Alyssa’s finger. He
held her face in his hands, drawing her into him; he kissed her with a
sweetness that warmed her entire body. She pulled away from him and said, “Take
me home.”

***

Darren took Alyssa to his home.  It was on the smaller side like her
cottage in Napa, but it had a view of the Pacific and a modern flair versus her
French country style. She loved it—stark white walls with navy blue chenille
sofas and butter suede chairs, platinum accents, and an open kitchen with a
granite center aisle that mixed dark, blue, black and turquoise, with the
cupboards painted in the turquoise and trimmed in black. The art was the deep,
dark ocean itself beneath them. Huge glass windows gave view to the splendor of
it all.

“This place is beautiful,” she said.

“This is our place now.”

She smiled. “Where’s your bedroom?”

“Our bedroom.”

“Our bedroom. Where is it?”

He took her hand and led the way down a short hallway. The room was
painted in a soft jade color, the velvet duvet cover was a darker teal and
again the view couldn’t be missed. “Boy, you have taste,” she said.

“No. I had a really expensive decorator.”

“I love it.”

“Good.”

Alyssa stepped closer to him, breathing him in, taking this moment in.
She unbuttoned his shirt and slid it off his shoulders. Darren started to
undress her, but she shook her head.

“Are you okay?’ he asked, alarmed.

“Better than okay.” She pushed him down onto the bed.

He laughed. “I see.”

Alyssa undressed slowly in front of the man she’d just pledged her life
to. When she’d been with Terrell he’d healed her from the past, she’d been able
to make love and forget what James had done to her temporarily. But with
Terrell she’d also given him her power. She’d needed a leader. With Darren
she’d found a partner and she’d never felt so powerful and at ease. What James
had stolen from her had been taken back, actually given back to her and Darren
had been the one who’d assisted her on the journey back to herself.

He reached for her hand and she undid his belt and took off his pants.
Naked, they laid in each others’ arms, their bodies warm fit together. She
rolled him onto his back and kissed his neck, his lips and then slid her mouth
down his body and took him in her mouth. “Oh baby,” Darren said. A few minutes,
he touched her shoulders. “Come here,” he insisted.