~*~Kevin~*~
I was up before Tracie. I hid in the studio again. About seven there was a knock on the door. I knew it was Tracie. I opened the door for her, "I thought you might be hungry."
"Thank you. I guess I am." I sat the plate off to the side and hugged her, "I love you."
She kissed my cheek, "I love you too."
"Have a good day at work."
"Not working today. I’ll be laying on the couch reading."
She walked off before I could say anything. No guilt at all. She is amazing. I need her to be around, but not near me. Not right now. Not yet. She’s a good woman.
I heard the doorbell around one. Guess they’re here. Tracie will sign for them.
I came out a little after three. The envelope was on the kitchen table. I tore it open and looked through the papers. Same ones I’d signed months ago, judge signed yesterday. I took a deep breath. It’s over. I went looking for Tracie. Found her asleep on the couch with her book on her chest. Moved that. I sat down on the floor and watched her sleep. She stretched and opened her eyes, "Hi."
I smiled, "Hi."
I felt her fingers in my hair, "How are you doing?"
I put my arm across her stomach, "I’m free." She didn’t say anything. I guess she was waiting to see how I was going to go, "Thank you for signing for them, thank you for letting me deal with this on my own, and thank you for being here." I leaned in and kissed her.
"You know I’d do whatever you need."
"I know. I needed this to be over."
She kissed me this time, "It doesn’t matter how bad you want it. It still hurts."
"Yeah, it does." I pulled her to me and held on. This is what I needed now, "How would you like to go out to dinner with single man?"
"I’d like that."
The next day all the guys met up at the studio. Nick cornered me at one point, "You ok, Lee told me the papers are final."
I thought for a minute and smiled, "I’m very ok."
"Good, I also hear that your girlfriend decked your ex-wife. How is her hand?"
"Healing. It freaked her out. I’m going to kidnap her and take her to the cabin. I’m going to ask her to marry me."
Nick spit his coke out on me, "Holy shit, Kevin. Jumping right back in there."
"Yeah, for the right reasons this time." I wiped off my arm, "You’re girlfriend is pregnant, you going to make an honest woman of her."
"I asked. She turned me down."
"Ouch, I’m sorry."
"Said she won’t get married just because she’s pregnant. She’s right. I did it badly."
"When did this happen?"
"The night I found out she was pregnant. I’ll try later. I’m not going anywhere. I hope that Tracie doesn’t shoot you down."
"My plan is to lock the door, hide the keys. There is no way down the mountain except to walk the 7 miles if I have the keys. I’m keeping her there until she agrees."
Nick laughed, "Or kills you."
"I’ll hide all the knives."
We left Friday morning.
~*~Nick~*~
I told Lee once they were gone. I didn’t want any girl shit to go on. She smacked me for that one. She agreed with locking her in the room and not coming out till she agreed, or one of them was dead. We were going to a wedding this weekend. One of the assistants that work with her. We got dressed up and she looked beautiful. She thought she was getting fat. She was. But it wasn’t fat, it was baby. Therefore she looked beautiful. We sat in the back and watched the ceremony. It was a beautiful wedding. As soon as they were pronounced man and wife I felt tears run down my check. I had my arm around Lee and I kissed her. She saw the tears, "Nick, sweetie, what’s wrong?"
I shook my head, "Nothing’s wrong. I can’t wait until it’s us up there."
I watched her face soften and her smile, "Yes, Nick."
"Yes what?"
"Yes, I’ll marry you."
