“Nope. I’ve got the cake and the drinks. Claire is picking up decorations. Just bring yourselves.”
Ellie started with her bedroom closet, taking down the boxes that held Dan’s clothes and personal things. She’d kept them in plastic bags, so Dan’s scent was still there. She inhaled, the familiar smell stirring memories and grief.
“I miss you, Dan. But I’m keeping my promise. I’m moving on.”
In tears, she sorted through one box after the other, separating the handful of things she wanted to save for the kids, like his dress uniform and dog tags, from the things she would take to the thrift store. But the tears soon passed, and she found herself smiling and even laughing at the good memories.
There was the shark T-shirt he’d bought on their honeymoon in Hawaii. Here was that ugly sweater he’d gotten from an old aunt that Ellie had always teased him about. A dozen pairs of jeans. She would donate those.
Other things she decided to keep. His high school yearbook. A certificate for making Honor Roll his senior year. A box of seashells he’d collected as a child.
She went through her things, too, culling clothes she hadn’t worn for a while. When she finished with her closet, she moved on to her dresser, hoping to make room in a couple of drawers for Jesse. The lingerie she’d worn for Dan went in the thrift store pile, along with old T-shirts and the skinny jeans from high school that she’d always dreamed she’d one day wear again.
“Not going to happen,” she told herself, holding them up to her waist.
She packed the keepsakes carefully away in a single box, which she stuck on a shelf in Daniel’s closet, then carried everything else out to her car. Fifteen minutes later, she was home again, that weight off her shoulders.
She walked back into her bedroom, looked around at the walls. She couldn’t just take the photos of Dan down and shove them in a box. She wasn’t trying to erase him from her life. She was just trying to put things in perspective.
On a sudden inspiration, she went to the garage, found her hammer and some hooks for hanging pictures. Then she rounded up all of the photos of Dan that sat around the house and divided them up. She went to work first in Daniel’s room and then in Daisy’s, creating an arrangement of photos on their walls.
Dan was their father. It was right that they should grow up knowing what he looked like, seeing his face every day.
She left the portrait of him on her dresser, setting the flag from his funeral and the shadow box with his medals and patches next to it. He was gone, but she would always honor him. He’d been her first love, her husband. He was the father of her children. And he’d been an incredible pilot.
There was one more thing.
She took off her wedding ring, kissed it, and tucked it into her jewelry box, her throat growing tight. “I love you, Dan, but I have to let you go.”
And that was it.
She stepped back, looked at her bare bedroom walls. They wouldn’t be bare for long. She and Jesse would cover them with new memories.
But for now, she had a birthday cake to bake.
*
Jesse had an important errand to run and got home from work a little later than usual. He parked in the driveway and walked through the front door to find Daniel in full meltdown because no one could find his blankie.
Daisy sat beside him, in tears over her brother’s distress.
Ellie was on her hands and knees, looking under the sofa. “I can’t find it anywhere. I know I brought it back from my parents’ house.”
“Could it be in the car?”
Her eyes went wide. “I bet that’s where it is.”
She started toward the coat closet, but Jesse held up a hand. He was still in his parka and boots. “I’ll go check.”
He found it half in and half out of the vehicle. It had probably gotten caught when Ellie had shut the door, and no one had noticed. He went back inside, blue blanket in hand. “Here you go, little man.”
Daniel’s eyes went wide, anguish disappearing from his face. He reached with both hands, hugging his blanket to his chest.
Daisy smiled, too. “You founded it.”
The twins were learning more words every day.
“Yep. I founded it.” He took off his parka and hung it in the coat closet, then stepped out of his boots.
Ellie walked over to him, wrapped her arms around him. “The past half hour here has been nothing but wailing over that blanket.”
“Maybe we should search for a duplicate somewhere to keep on hand in case of emergencies.”
Ellie looked up at him. “What a great idea.”
“What smells good?”
“It’s a recipe for chicken parmesan I found online. It should be ready in about ten minutes.” Ellie walked toward the kitchen. “How was your day?”
He told her about the calls he’d taken on the slopes, some part of him marveling at how much he loved his new life. It didn’t matter what happened out there in the world because, at the end of the day, he came home to Ellie and the kids.