T Novan: Exposure Season 4

"Younger," I am corrected as the bathroom light is clicked off and my loving spouse joins us on the bed. She scoops Collin up and snuggles him close. "You’re gonna be an older brother, buddy. So you’d better get a grip." He does so, completely tangling himself in Harper’s hair. "Kels?"

She doesn’t even need to finish the request before I reach over and begin the process of untangling them. "You’re welcome," I tell her with a quick kiss. Looking over at Brennan, I see her rub her eyes and I know it’s bedtime. "Come on, Tabloid, let’s put them down for the night and then come back here and work on that making a baby thing."

"I really like the way you think."

I remember once reading the book The Winds of War by Herman Wouk. I forget if I read it for fun or for a class. I liked it, though, and parts of it have always stuck with me.

I remember his description of the first kiss shared by Byron and Natalie: "The brown wool dress was scratchy in his hands. The perfume in her hair couldn’t be daydreamed, nor the moist warm sweet breath of her mouth. Above all gleamed the inconceivable wonder that all this was happening."

I felt the same way in that carriage not two years ago. Inconceivable wonder.

In fact, I wake up every morning with that same feeling. Except now it extends beyond merely having Kels in my life. My two angels astound me daily, as I watch them grow up before my eyes, hoping they take the best qualities of the two of us and none of the worst, wondering what our next one or two or three or four will be like, and what they will add to our lives. And what I can add to theirs.

Safely home from my travels, I managed to somehow achieve my dreams. I snuggle closer to Kels who sleeps peacefully beside me. I trace the curve of her arm with my fingertips, watching the effect my touch has on her even in sleep. She curls against me, until we truly are one flesh. In her sleep, she reaches out for me, and I give her my hand willingly. Why not? She has everything else that is mine.

As I drift to sleep, I remember my other favorite passage by Wouk, glad to finally understand its meaning: "The human predicament sometimes seems a gloomy tapestry with an indistinct, baffling design that swirls around and inward to brilliant naked lovers. The Bible starts with this centerpiece. Most of the old stories end with the lovers married, retiring to their sacred nakedness. But for Byron and Natalie, their story was just beginning."

That’s what they’ll say about us forty years from now: our story was just beginning.

Thanks to everyone for joining us on this fantastic ride! See you at the movies!