“So I could make jewelry again?”
He nodded. “After the heart transplant, after you’ve healed. What do you think?”
Ella wiggled her lips from side to side the way she did when she was thinking. “I’d like that.”
As the heat continued to vibrate through the ceiling vent, her fingers traced patterns on his chest. Felix closed his eyes.
“Take off your T-shirt,” she said. “I want to touch skin.”
“I don’t think that’s a good—”
Ella put a finger to his mouth. “Shhh. Take it off.”
He did; and Ella burrowed into his naked chest. “Now it’s your turn to open Pandora’s box,” she whispered between butterfly kisses. “Start by telling me why you disengaged from the family. It was long before Harry was diagnosed.”
“It’s hard to focus when you’re . . .”
“Do you want me to stop?” Her voice sounded breathy.
“God, no,” he groaned and, pulling Ella’s face up to his, kissed her gently. Then he flattened his hand over her heart. “But your heart’s running a marathon. We can’t do this.”
“I know.”
She snuggled into him, and Felix started to talk. Words spilled out, about spanking Harry, about the fear that he could become his father. And then Ella asked, as he knew she would, about the scars, about whether Tom had them, too. And Felix told her everything. For Ella he relived the memories, even the one he’d never shared with Tom.
“Did your mother know?” she said.
“I have no idea. Marriages are full of secrets.”
“Not ours. Not any longer.”
He began to tap his palm, jabbing himself with his fingernails despite the pain. Ella reached for his hand and kissed the tips of his fingers one by one.
“What aren’t you telling me?” she said.
“I stepped down from the partnership this week. After your transplant, I plan to leave and set up by myself.”
“Felix, no. Your job means everything to you.”
“You mean more. Things have changed, and I have to adapt. Something else I’ve learned from Eudora.” Felix tweaked her nose. “What if we’ve been given a gift?”
“Are you serious? I have a near-death experience, and you become the family optimist?”
“Apparently so. Tom is turning in his grave.”
Ella gave a wheezy laugh.
“What if this bizarre period in our lives is a second chance to help us find everything we’ve lost? Help me face my fear of being a father. Help you find your way back to that dream of a little jewelry shop.”
She snuggled into his chest, and gradually her breathing fell into the gentle flow of untroubled sleep.
He’d had such hopes for Valentine’s Day, and it had surpassed every one. Despite the circumstances that had brought them together as a couple, there had been nothing accidental about their marriage. She had chosen him, just as he had always chosen her. “I chose you, Felix.”
Buzzed, Felix vowed to stay awake—the keeper of this most perfect moment.
THIRTY-FOUR
Harry jiggled from foot to foot outside the women’s restroom. What was taking Sammie so long? The movie would be starting. Not that he really cared if they missed the beginning. Or the middle. Or the end. He was here only to sit in the dark and hold Sammie’s hand. Maybe sneak in a kiss. For the first time since Mom’s heart attack, life felt normal. He was on a date! Like every other hot-blooded American guy on a Saturday night. Except for Max, their designated chauffeur, who was wandering across the lobby shoveling fistfuls of popcorn into his mouth.
“Giving up my Saturday evening for true love,” Max had said earlier. He’d also told Harry he and Sammie could sit in the back of the car and make out, but Harry had some pride. He let Sammie sit up front on the way there but leaned forward to hold her hand. Well, as far forward as the seat belt would allow. Touching Sammie meant anchoring himself in pure happiness. He wanted to be with her forever and ever and ever. Times infinity.