Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

"I'm almost scared to say it, but I think this is the last of the boxes," Charity announced to her gathered family as she pulled a small stack of unpacked boxes toward the middle of the room.

"I thought it was going to never end!" Lucas exclaimed, pretending to stagger around in pain, hamming it up while Addie laughed.

"Honestly, me neither," Charity agreed, popping a laughing kiss onto her son's head when his flailing brought him into her orbit.

Dominic shook his head at Addie, an exaggerated look of sadness on his face. "These two are total weaklings, huh, Ads? We had way more boxes when we moved from Boston."

"Yeah, we're the pros." Addie flexed her muscles, taking her turn on the center stage of their impromptu family theater.

"Why don't you unpack this one if you're so good at it, then?" Charity teased, shoving the biggest box to the little girl. With good humor, Addie and Lucas fell upon it, happily carrying armfuls of spare bedding to the upstairs closet.

Charity knew that the two kids would soon turn the large box into some sort of house or vehicle or rocket ship, despite initially claiming they were "too grown up" for playing those kinds of "baby games." To give them their credit though, she allowed, their cardboard construction projects were a lot more advanced than the "cut holes for a window" version she'd made when Lucas was a toddler and they'd moved into their old house.

"You do have a point, despite all the teasing," she said to Dominic. "I'm so glad we didn't have to pack everything in the house."

Since they were combining households, they had found that many of their items were redundant. Nobody needed, after all, two microwaves. They'd compared notes, sold off whichever was less nice of the extraneous items, with tiebreakers going to Dominic's item, since it was already in the correct house. This had left them with a nice little bundle of cash, which Charity and Dominic planned to use for a weekend family trip sometime later in the year. Maybe someplace warm, Charity thought, when they were in the middle of seemingly endless New England winter.

"And the commute couldn't be beat," he joked, looking out the window where they could see the side of Charity's former house.

"True," she agreed. "But I'm still glad to be done."

The kids came back down the stairs, Milo accompanying them, bundles of craft supplies in their arms. Apparently, Operation "Make the Big Box into Something Cool" was a go.

"Oh, wait," Dominic said, drawing everyone's attention. "You're not actually done. We've got one more."

To Charity's surprise, the kids immediately dropped what they were doing and looked intrigued.

She frowned down at the small box her boyfriend handed her. This box didn't look familiar and seemed too small to be one she'd have chosen for packing up her belongings. It was only a little larger than a shoebox.

"What's in here… ?" she muttered to herself as she cut through the tape holding the box together. Inside was a jumble of items that looked nothing at all like her neat packing job.

"What is it?" Lucas asked, an oddly innocent note to his voice.

Curious herself, Charity drew out the first item. It was a small picture frame with a pressed flower behind the glass. It was pretty, but the flower weirdly looked… smooshed.

"A flower?" she asked bemusedly.

"Huh," Dominic said, his tone as strange as Lucas's had been. "Didn't you plant those kinds of flowers last summer?"

"Yeah," she said absently, "but I didn't preserve them."

The next item was a paper cup with the Seastar Espresso logo. It was the tiny size she saved for kids. On the side, in her own handwriting, was the word GILLY, the name of Addie's beloved stuffed goose.

"Is this yours, Ads?" Charity asked, handing the item to the little girl.

Only Addie wouldn't take it. She tucked her hands behind her back. "Not mine," she said quickly, eyes wide.

The next item was another pressing, this one of a beautiful, perfect fall leaf. Then a photograph of Charity and the kids at the marine center and the seating cards for her and Dominic from Marty's wedding. Charity's eyes began to well up as she looked at each of the little items, the mementos from her relationship with this wonderful man.

"Wait, wait," she said, dashing at her damp eyes. "I'm moving too fast. Let's look at each of these."

Addie and Lucas, who had been starting to look as though they were about to expire from the difficultly of holding themselves back, sprang into action.

"Well, this," Addie said, holding up the pressed flower, "is from when Daddy squished your flowers, except he didn't keep the real ones because he didn't love you then, so we had to get a flower that was kind of the same and then I got to squish it under my foot."

In her excitement, the little girl let her words trip over one another.

"Didn't love me then?" Charity teased, using levity to hide the rush of emotions threatening to overtake her. "I'm wounded."

Dominic held up his hands in a gesture of innocence. "I plead the fifth."

"And then ," Addie went on, sounding exasperated that the adults were interrupting this important narrative to joke around, "that cup is from when you met Gilly."

"Which was also when you met Addie," Dominic amended with a chuckle. "I was determined not to like you, but you cut the knees out from under me with how sweet you were to her."

"I was nervous about a new town then but I'm not anymore," Addie said in the tone she reserved for talking about her past, as if it had happened decades ago instead of mere months.

"And this is a leaf from when we all cleaned up Miss Marty's wedding place," Lucas chimed in. "That one is the real one so it's even cooler."

"And when I was taking that photograph," Dominic added, his voice low and thick with emotion, "I thought, ‘Hey. My family.'"

Charity lost her battle with tears.

"Why is she crying?" Lucas stage whispered to Addie. "This is nice stuff. We worked hard."

"Sometimes grown-ups cry when they're happy," Addie whispered back, her voice equally audible. "It's weird."

Dominic, who was looking a bit damp in the eyes himself, chuckled along with Charity at that.

"I love you, Charity," he said solemnly. "I know you and I haven't had the easiest road to get here but meeting you and loving you has completely changed my life. I thought moving to this tiny coastal town was going to mean that my life was bland and boring, but I got here and found you, and now I'm on the greatest adventure I could ever imagine." His lips twitched into a smile. "I should send Addie's old therapist a thank you note for suggesting it."

"Oh, yeah, Doctor Donohue is nice," Addie said absently.

The adults, however, had eyes only for each other in this moment.

"There's one more thing in the box," Dominic urged. "Look inside."

Charity returned her attention to the box in her lap and, indeed, there was something still nestled inside, tucked inside a bunch of tissue paper. Her breath caught and her hands flew to her mouth.

Since she was otherwise occupied, Dominic reached in himself and pulled out the little box. Its size and style made its purpose undeniable.

They'd all been sitting on the floor together to unpack, so he had to raise himself up to one knee, rather than lower himself. It was different from the usual, but Charity wouldn't have it any other way. Their family was a little different from the usual too, after all.

"Charity Turner," he said, lifting the lid of the box to reveal a simple but beautiful engagement ring with a round cut diamond at the center. It was perfectly Charity's style, straightforward in its elegance, the perfect accessory for her dressed-up days and the usual ones, where she was a down to earth mom and coffee shop owner.

"I love you so much," he said. "I cannot imagine another woman I'd rather have at my side during the chaos of our lives because, with you, it becomes wonderful chaos. Being with you is a dream and I never want to wake up. So know that it will make me the happiest man alive if you agree… will you marry me?"

Charity could barely wait for him to stop speaking before she blurted out her answer.

"Yes, yes, of course I will marry you! Yes!"

She surged up onto her own knees so she could catch his face between her hands and give him a long, loving kiss. Behind them, the kids cheered.

And then, when the kids apparently decided they'd had enough of their parents kissing, Lucas said, "Yuck."

And Addie said, "Stop kissing already and put on the ring! I helped pick it!"

Milo, overwrought with the excitement, yelped and chased his own tail. Lucas tried to tackle-hug the dog and missed, flopping onto the floor while Addie giggled madly.

"Are you sure you want to sign on to this chaos for the rest of your life?" Dominic asked with a teasing grin. "Or, wait, you already said yes. No takebacks."

"I would never," she said, leaning into his comforting embrace. "This kind of chaos is exactly how I want to spend the rest of my life, no question about it."