“Hell, no,” he said, laughing. “But Chelsy was obsessed with that story, always telling my dad that’s what she wanted for her wedding. So on her wedding day, that sucker brought in hundreds of pounds of gold dust and had it sprinkled everywhere on the grounds as a surprise.” George shook his head. “It was a mess! Everyone had that shit on them for weeks. Hell, sometimes I still see it on my clothes.”
She gazed out over the oak trees, and for a moment she could have sworn she saw them glistening with gold. They stood there, leaning on the railing and watching the day go by until the afternoon sun slanted in the sky and slowly sunk beneath the tree line. It reminded Madison of all the times she had sat with her dad on the back porch, shooting the shit or just being together.
Madison glanced at George out of the corner of her eye, taking in his neatly combed hair and the jeans that came up a little too high above his sneakers. She’d never pictured having a husband like him. Heck, she’d never much thought about being married at all. But standing in this house, she could imagine what it’d be like to raise their kids here. They’d have map rooms and build forts in the oak trees. They’d slide down the banister on Christmas morning and make s’mores in the kitchen fireplace.
This was what she was supposed to want. Ease. Comfort. Happiness. And a part of her was truly happy. But she couldn’t stop the voice in the back of her mind that wondered whether it was enough.
35
laura
“ARE YOU SURE you don’t want anything else to eat?” Laura asked Brian, looking at their hotel’s room service menu. They were sitting on the large king bed, and Brian was flipping through the seemingly endless channels on the TV. It almost felt like they were on vacation, and not waiting anxiously for Brian’s surgery in New Orleans the next morning. “Doctor says you can’t eat past midnight, and you’ve only got an hour before then. Spring rolls? French fries? Chocolate cake?”
Rob and Janet had taken the two of them to Copeland’s earlier that night, splurging on Brian’s last meal before his surgery. He had ordered cheese fries, a rib eye, mac and cheese, and a slice of turtle cheesecake. She had figured he couldn’t possibly still be hungry, but Laura had learned over the years to never underestimate the power of Brian’s insatiable hunger.
Brian wrinkled his nose. “I’m good.”
“Okay!” She closed the menu, put it back on the nightstand, and cuddled up next to her husband on the bed. “Can you believe this day has finally come?”
He wrapped his muscular arm around her shoulders. “Babe, I know this hasn’t been a good year for you—for us—but I want you to know how much it means to me that you stood by me through it all.” It made her happy hearing that—like he finally understood and appreciated all the sacrifices that she had made for him.
She nuzzled her head into his neck, breathing in the familiar musk of his aftershave. “Well, we’re in this together. That’s what marriage is.” Sure, they had their setbacks this year, and maybe she had her own doubts, but she reminded herself they were married and she needed to give their relationship everything she had. Maybe neither of them had grown up completely yet, but they were gonna grow up together.
Brian softly stroked her hair. “So, you’ll still love me if this surgery doesn’t work?”
Laura’s stomach twisted into a knot. She’d spent so much time worrying that he wouldn’t be able to even get the surgery that she’d barely considered the possibility that it wouldn’t work. “Why would you be worried about that?”
He turned on his side and faced her. “What? You not loving me anymore . . . or the surgery not working?”
“Both,” she said, sitting up, her eyes narrowing in on Brian’s face. “Of course I’ll still love you. And of course the surgery will work. Why would you even say that?”
He sighed, lacing his fingers behind his head and staring up at the ceiling. “You’ll be at the hospital the whole time, right?” Brian sounded nervous. He was never nervous, not even when Toulouse High had played their rival in the playoffs junior year. They’d been down by twelve in the fourth quarter, but Brian managed to turn the game around and win it on a last-second quarterback sneak.
“Of course I’ll be there,” Laura said, kissing his forehead and forcing herself to calm down. She had to be strong for the both of them . . . because if she thought about what would happen if the surgery didn’t work, she might fall apart. “Now, are you sure you don’t want the chocolate cake?”
Brian grinned, his mood instantly lightening. He reached around her to grab the room service menu, “Well, maybe just one slice.”
? ? ?
IT HAD ONLY been twenty minutes into Brian’s operation when Janet opened up her purse and pulled out three sandwich bags filled with powdered sugar-covered Chex. “I made some puppy chow for us,” she said handing Laura a bag. “I always get hungry when I’m nervous.”
Laura, Rob, and Janet were sitting in the hard green faux leather chairs in the waiting room. Laura had been studying but was finding the waiting room too distracting. Two young kids kept tugging on their mother’s sleeve to show her their drawings. An elderly man with a smoker’s rattle coughed on cue every five minutes, and a woman with a faux-hawk and a snake tattoo on her neck kept checking her watch and sighing. Everyone was restless, which in turn made Laura restless.
Laura smiled and took the bag from her mother-in-law, grabbing a handful of the sugary snack. “How’s your knitting coming?” she asked between bites.
Janet held up a big square of knitted yarn featuring a gray and yellow geometric design. “Well, I just started. It’s gonna take me a while to finish it.”
“It’s beautiful,” Laura said, admiring the piece. “What’s it gonna be?”
Janet blushed. “A baby blanket.”
“Aw, that’s sweet.” Laura paused. “Whose baby?”
Janet looked back down to her work, as if she didn’t want to make eye contact with Laura. “Yours.”
Laura suddenly felt like the powdered sugar had congealed in her throat, and started to cough. She doubled over, and Janet patted her on the back. She waved her mother-in-law off. “I’m fine . . . wrong pipe.”
“Don’t worry,” Janet said, sitting back. “I know you’re not pregnant, dear. But I hope that you and Brian are able to start your family soon, and thought I may as well get this done so when I do get a grandbaby, it’ll be ready.”
Laura’s stomach roiled and she felt her face growing hot. She was only eighteen—did Janet really want her to become a teen mom? She fought to keep her cool and stay polite.
“Well, that’s just the sweetest,” Laura lied, twisting her wedding band around her finger anxiously. “I’m gonna go get a Coke—do either of y’all want anything?”
“No thanks,” Rob grunted from two seats down, not looking up from the issue of Outdoor Life in his hand.
“Could you get me a Diet Coke, sweetie?” Janet reached into her pocket and pulled out a wad of ones.