It was a very important day today.
Hannah asked off from work, which was a complicated maneuver—her supervisor has backed off and made the requested changes to Hannah’s schedule, but there is still some lingering resentment for the outside interference from Ramiro. Thankfully, Hannah feels that it is worthwhile—now there is only one evening in the week that she can’t spend with Jack and Lily. And time with them is becoming more and more important to her, especially in light of what happened today.
Lily also stayed home from school, though they told Jack that she just needed a mental health day. The truth was that there was a great deal to do, and even if there hadn’t been, Hannah wanted Lily to be a part of this.
When Jack got home from work today, he came in with his head down, so he didn’t notice at first the lights strung across the doorway and the flickering candles in the hall. “Hey, I’m home,” he called, dropping his briefcase by the door and kicking off his shoes. “What’s that awesome smell?”
And then he looked up, and his heart flipped over.
The windows had been covered with blue and green tissue paper, so the light inside the house made it seem like they were underwater. Somewhere soft music played over the noise of crashing waves. Candles cast up the scents of salt water and smoke and flowers, and seashells were scattered along the bookshelves and on the floor. In front of the door, Lily stood in a grass skirt and a flowered top, beaming from ear to ear.
“Welcome, sir,” she said, stiff with importance. “Your presence is requested by the shore.” Having delivered her carefully practiced words, she gestured for him to go into the living room.
Still stunned, Jack went to obey, but Lily stopped him and quickly whispered a few instructions. By the time Jack made it to the living room, he was stripped of his jacket, tie, socks and shoes, and his pants and sleeves were rolled up. He was also grinning, and the grin grew wider when he saw Hannah.
“I know, I know,” she said, “but I’ll vacuum twice tomorrow, okay? Now just get your feet in the sand, please.”
Stifling a laugh, he stepped into the sandbox that they had set up in the living room, burying his toes in the soft sand they’d brought home from Lowes. “We couldn’t have done this outside?” he asked.
“It’s getting cold in the evenings now, and anyway it looked like rain,” Hannah whispered back. “Now behave yourself, Mr. Higgins. I have a question for you.”
His heart lurched, and some of the awe and emotion returned to his eyes as he looked down at her. “You look beautiful,” he whispered.
“I know,” she said, giving him her hands. She was wearing a flowing white dress, with a necklace of false flowers and real flowers in her hair.
Lily and I stood off to one side, both of us nearly overcome with excitement. We had done our part, and we knew that it would all come off well.
“You told me once,” Hannah began, “that you thought all the most important moments in life should happen on a beach. You said that with the wind and sea and sand, there’s a clarity there that can’t be found anywhere else, and when it’s quiet—which beaches so rarely are,” she added as an aside, “which is one of the reasons I made us our own—you can feel that all the world belongs to you.” She cleared her throat. “Well, this is one of my most important moments in my life, because there is nothing more important to me than you and Lily. I want the whole world to know that you’re mine and that I’m yours, and I want for no one to ever have the right to stand between us.” She looked up into Jack’s brilliant face and lost her trail for a moment, both of them laughing breathlessly, teary-eyed and overwhelmed.
“Oh, just ask him!” Lily demanded, bouncing up and down on her toes.
Hannah drew herself up and cleared her throat. “So I’m not going to kneel,” she said, making Jack laugh again, “because I hate getting sand in my clothes. But…” She held out her hand to Lily, who ran forward quickly and handed her a box before returning to the sidelines. Hannah opened the box, and Jack laughed to see that there were two rings of braided cord inside, the smaller with a single bead of coral.
“Lily’s getting really good with that friendship bracelet stuff,” Hannah whispered as an aside to Jack, who beamed at Lily.
Hannah cleared her throat again and asked with only some difficulty with her voice, “Jack Higgins, will you open the very last door to your family to me, and make me the…the very happiest woman in the world…by saying you’ll marry me?”
“Yes,” Jack said, the moment she had finished. “Yes, yes, yes, yes…” He caught her face in his hands and kissed it, again and again and again.
I kept Lily back for as long as I could, knowing that there was a need for a moment between just the two of them. But when she leapt forward, spraying sand everywhere, Jack and Hannah immediately opened their arms to her. I watched with heart glowing, so happy for all of them.
When the tears were dried and the rings were on and Lily had been praised for such a good job, Jack made to get out of the box, but Hannah stopped him. “We’re not done here, mister,” she said. “Lily has a question for you too.”
“There’s more?” Jack gasped, looking at her.
She laughed, as he meant for her to do, but she was also suddenly nervous. I stepped forward to offer her courage, and Hannah set her hand on her back, and Jack went to one knee before her. “Lily girl, you can ask me anything,” he whispered.
Lily took a deep breath, and she, too, cleared her throat. “Uncle Jack,” she said solemnly, glancing up at him through her lashes, “um…would it…would it be okay if I called you…Dad?”
Jack went very still. Lily watched him anxiously, because she couldn’t see all the fireworks in his soul the way I could.
After a moment, Jack coughed and glanced at Hannah, who was awash with tears now. “Lily bear,” he said hoarsely, “in this particular moment it’s surprising, but it’s still true that absolutely nothing could possibly make me happier. Yes, of course you can call me Dad.”
Lily’s relief and joy nearly hit the ceiling, and she flung herself into his arms. He surged to his feet to catch up Hannah in the embrace, too, and they clung to one another, a tight unit of a family, joined in such a way that no one could ever pull them apart.
“And let no one ever try,” I said to them, wrapping them all in my wings. “May you remain close to one another, through all the trials and struggles of life, and find nothing but love and comfort in one another. May you always have one another, and may the heavens look kindly on your love.”
It was some time before I left them, and by the time I did, it looked like Hannah would have to vacuum more than twice. Not one of them cared, and I think that Hannah will not have to do it on her own. I think this little family will do many things together in the days to come.