Coming Home to the Mountain: Complete Edition

10. Meadow

CHAPTER 10

Meadow

I n the morning I wake up in Reuben's arms. I roll over to take him in, the morning light filtering through his window. The promise of a new spring day. My heart is so freaking full it could explode. He kisses my forehead.

"Morning," he says. "You sleep okay?"

A grin spreads across my face. "I could use a few more hours. I think today will require an afternoon nap. You kept me up way too late."

"You regret it?" he asks.

I laugh. "No, not at all."

"Are you a coffee person in the morning?"

"Yes," I say, "with sugar and cream."

He grins. "I can do that." He gets out of bed and pulls on a pair of gray sweatpants and my ovaries practically burst at that sight. I never realized how good they looked on a man with a morning hard-on. I swallow.

"I should probably call my sister. Let her know I'm alive."

"I'll meet you in the kitchen?" he asks.

"Sounds good." I reach for my phone that I left on the bedside table and text Lulu.

Me: So that happened.

Immediately, she replies.

Lulu: Are you safe? Are you good? Are you happy?

Me: Yes. Yes. Very.

She sends me a kissy face emoji and I turn my phone down on the table, reaching for my underwear and a T-shirt from Reuben's drawer that he gave me last night after our 1:00 AM bath. It still smells like him. Like the fresh air and the pine trees. I reach for the crutch then walk into the kitchen. Seeing him make a pot of coffee, my heart thrums with happiness.

"You look beautiful in the morning," he tells me.

I reach for my hair, spinning it in my hand. It's long and messy, but I like that he still finds it attractive, finds me attractive.

He cups my cheek with his hand that practically covers my face. He's so much bigger than me, I think. He kisses me softly. "Do you like to eat when you first wake up?"

I shake my head. "Not usually. I'm a 10:00 AM breakfast kind of girl."

He laughs. "Fair enough. But I need something first thing when I wake up." He reaches for a banana on the kitchen counter and unpeels it then takes a bite as the coffee brews. "So," he says, "I need to go get Plum in a few hours. What's your day like?"

"I don't have much going on," I say.

"Well," he says, "I was wondering..."

"Yeah?"

"If you would want our families to meet."

"Our families?"

"Yeah. Maybe it's too fast or too forward, but..."

I laugh. "Tell me more."

"Well, it’s Sunday, right? And my family always has a big Sunday dinner. It's a Rough family tradition. Everyone has to come. No one's excused. I was wondering... What do you think? Do you want to see if your family would like to come over?"

"You're inviting my parents to your parents' house?"

Reuben nods. "Too fast?"

I think about last night, how we went from zero to 100 in one day flat. "I think we tossed too fast out the window yesterday."

He pours us coffee, shows me the sugar bowl and the creamer. Once our drinks are fixed, we go to the back patio and sit down in chairs at the table.

"It's beautiful out here in the morning," I say. The birds are chirping. There's dew on the trees. "You're pretty lucky to have this every single day."

"I know, right? So I know you're in a family band and you're only here for a week."

"We leave tomorrow," I say.

He nods. "So where are you going next?"

"There's a music festival in Northern California in the Redwoods. You'd love it there, actually."

"Sounds amazing."

"Yeah. Well, it's a festival we go to every year. It's four days and super fun. A lot of family friends will be there. It's a pretty good time. My parents grew up in Sacramento so they know the area."

"That sounds nice," he says. "And after the Redwoods?"

I twist my lips, thinking. "I know we're going to Santa Cruz for a two-day jamboree. Next month I'm pretty sure we're headed down to Baja, to Todos Santos. It's a little artsy community and they have a music festival in the summer. Knowing the triplets, they're going to want to stay as long as possible and my parents have probably booked us some shows at cafes and some local venues. There's a lot of art galleries down there. That sort of thing."

"Wow," Reuben says, "so you'll be playing music all summer."

I take a sip of my coffee, thinking. "It's not just the summer, Reuben. We are going to keep doing shows everywhere forever. I can't imagine my parents stopping anytime soon."

"And your brother Nate and his wife Jessica, they do this full-time as well?"

I nod. "Oh yeah. Jessica's an incredible singer. We do lots of duets together. Nate plays the keyboard. Dad is on the banjo, and Mom can play the fiddle and the cello. She's all strings."

"How long have Nate and Jessica been married?" he asks.

"Five years," I say. "I know Jessica wants to have a baby. She'd be such a good mom. I mean, Nate would be a great dad too. I'm sure it will happen pretty soon."

"What about you?" Reuben asks. "Do you want kids?"

I try not to blush as I think through my answer, thinking about Plum. Last night Reuben said he loved me. Was that too much too soon? In the light of day, I wonder if those were just words that you whisper in bed. I'm not quite sure they're words that will be repeated now that the sun is out. Now that the moon is hidden.

"I want a family," I tell him. "I imagine most people who grew up in a big family either want a big family of their own or one or zero kids. Me, I would probably be happy in the middle somewhere. I don't know. On the other hand, I can easily see myself with a big old family, as long as I can have my little witch doctor kitchen somewhere in the house or the RV," I clarify. "I think raising a family would bring me a lot of joy and happiness, and I don't have ambitions for a big career outside of the home. I'd like to have a business and if it supported just me, that would be awesome. But if I had a family to help support, that would be really great too. So I guess my long answer for an easy question is yes. I would like to have kids someday." I smile. "What about you, Reuben? Do you want more kids?"

He finishes his banana before answering. "I think so. Having Plum taught me what it means to be a man and a father. I'm not saying I have it all figured out. Hell, I'm just making it up as I go. But I'd like to do that again. But with a partner this time. I know there are no guarantees for that. When you make the choice to have a child, you have no idea of how life is going to turn out. But if I had the chance to do it again with someone I loved, yeah," he says, looking straight at me. "I'd want to have more kids with them."

I take a drink of my coffee. "I'm not saying I don't want to come to your house for family dinner," I say. "I do. I'd like to meet your parents and the rest of your siblings. But I don't want..."

"Don't," he cuts me off. "Don't try to end this when we've just begun. Don't say words you can't take back."

"We already said a lot of words," I tell him, "last night."

"Do you regret it? Whispering things like I love you?" He sets his coffee mug down, leaning his elbows on the table.

"I don't regret anything," I say. "The things I said last night I meant. In that moment, I felt so much love for you."

"Felt?" he repeats, stiffening.

"Yes," I say. "It doesn't take away what I feel in this moment. I'm just saying in that moment, there was so much love between us. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever been a part of, ever experienced, Reuben, and that's because of you."

"Because of us," he says.

I nod. "Us."

"You don't think you really love me?" he asks.

"I didn't say that at all. I do think I love you." Tears fill my eyes again. "See, you keep making me cry. Yeah. I think I love you. This whole world you have here. It's..." I look around the property. "It's a fairy tale."

"What if it didn't have to be?" he asks. "What if it could be real? Not just something made up in a book. What if it could be your life?"

"What are you trying to say?" I ask.

"I'm not trying to say anything. I'm trying to let you know that I love you. I love what I know of you. I love what I can see for us. I don't know how that's going to work with you in the Redwood forest and in Mexico, but..."

I swallow. "I can see it too, this being more than a fairy tale, make believe. I can see it being our story."

"If you mean that," he says, "then your family has to meet my family before you guys leave. If we're going to do something that's long distance, that's going to take time to figure out, and I don't want to waste any of the time we actually do have together," he says. "I want us to see this through. I've lost someone before, Meadow, and it hurts. The idea of not trying when you have the chance, that's not how I operate."

My smile falters as I look at this man in front of me. This man who is more than I imagined. “Long distance?”

“I figured it was what you would want. I don’t want to pressure you, Meadow.”

I bite my bottom lip. “I don’t want to pressure you either. But the idea of leaving you… after falling in love with you… It seems impossible.”

“I know,” he says, taking my hand in his. “I love you, Meadow. I don’t want to watch you drive away tomorrow. Hell, it’s the last thing I want.”

“What do you want?” I ask.

“I want you. A life with you. I want that fairy tale.”

"Okay," I say, swallowing my fears. "I guess you'd better call your mom and see if she has room at her table for nine more."

He chuckles. "That's quite a number."

I laugh. "Are you already coming back on your offer? If you want, I can just have my mom and dad come. The rest of the family doesn't..."

He shakes his head. "No, we are going to need your whole family there."

I set down my coffee cup and slide over to him, sitting in his lap. I wrap my arms around his neck, wondering if Reuben might do something extraordinary tonight. If he might ask me a question that will change the course of our lives forever. "Is it going to be a night to remember?”

Reuben runs his hand over my back, drawing me closer. “Yes, Meadow. I promise, it will be a night we will never forget.”