Candy lifts her glass and everyone else in the room raises theirs, voices ringing out at the same time in reply. I look around the room and I can’t help but smile to myself, jiggling Benji up and down and seeing everyone I love within the span of the same space. In spite of the fears that we had about Alex, about our age differences, everything else, it all worked out. Somehow, we’ve made it to be a real family and a family that loves each other very much.
As the crowd disperses to start looking through the paintings again, I step closer to Candy, seeing that Lexie is also making a beeline for us.
“Well done, Can-Can,” she says, leaning in for a hug as Tommy and Lizzie automatically scamper to their mother’s side, Tommy hugging one of her legs. “You’ve really knocked this one out of the park.”
“Thank you,” Candy smiles sweetly. “How long do we have you for?”
“I’m staying over tonight,” Lexie says. “Tomorrow, I thought we could maybe go out for lunch? Then I’ll head back home in the evening.”
“I’m glad we’ll have time to catch up,” Candy says. “How’s Greg doing?”
Lexie smiles at the mention of her current beau. I’m not sure that I entirely approve – after all, nothing is quite good enough for my daughter – but knowing how accepting she was of us, I have to give her the benefit of the doubt that she knows what she’s doing. “He’s great,” she says. “He just got a promotion at the bank. He’s thinking about getting a new house – something with a couple of bedrooms.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Bedrooms for what?” I ask, on guard. Is she trying to tell us…?
“For sleeping in, Dad,” Lexie says innocently, flashing me a smile which is anything but.
“Don’t be a grump,” Candy laughs at me. “Not tonight.”
“No,” I agree, slipping my arm around her shoulders. “Tonight, we have more than enough reason to celebrate.”
We enjoy the party for a few more hours, everyone mingling, laughing and talking, about art and life and nothing at all. I wonder if, somewhere in this room, someone is meeting the person they will be with for the rest of their lives like we did back then. It’s a wonderful evening, and we sell most of the paintings before the end of it. I couldn’t be more proud.
But the best part of it comes right at the end when all of the guests are gone. After we close up the gallery for the night, leaving the clean-up for tomorrow. After we get in the car and Bernard drives us, all of us, back to our home. After we settle the kids in bed and Lexie goes off to her own room, and after we change out of our fancy evening clothes and into comfortable pajamas and settle down next to each other.
My favorite part of every day is always the same. When I lay in bed next to my wife, and I look at her, and I say, “Shall we turn the lights off?” and she says yes, and for a long moment I just look at her; the woman I love. The woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with and will, the one I just had to have.
And she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me, too.