Epilogue

Maura POV

The ringing on the other end of the phone barely had time to chime in my ear with anticipation before the hurried answer came through. I took a deep breath when I heard her rushed tone. "Honey I won't be able to pick you up before the show," I explained with disappointment evident in my voice. "There was a small issue at the café that has since been remedied...but I have lost some time and don't want to make both of us late. I still need to run home for a quick shower, darling…"

"Okay, Maur." I could tell she was appeased with the statement well enough for now. "I hope the small issue was nothing that needed to be discussed with your business partner."

"No, but I will tell my wife." I waited for a beat, a smile appearing on my end of the line that I knew she could feel on her's. "Jane, sweetheart, the dishwasher went out again at the café and I used the set of tools your father gave us for our wedding gift to repair it by myself."

"You were strangely excited for those tools."

"Jane, you know tha—"

"You had a very rewarding experience when you went on a call with my father a few years back and developed a new appreciation, yada, yada, yada... How late are you going to be for the show? I'm sure there will be at least five minutes of talking and introductions beforehand or something."

"If I don't hit any traffic, maybe ten minutes."

I could tell she rolled her eyes, expecting a much greater number than I gave. "Need me to stall?"

I laughed with a snort at the comment. "If I go beyond ten minutes, you have my permission." I let a moment of silence pass before adding, "You don't not, however, have permission to use our daughter for the task."

"So letting her run around on stage with a fire extinguisher is out of the question?"

"Jane! That experience alone could cause so much…"
"I love you, Maur. We'll see ya soon. Bring a change of clothes for Ava. Kisses."

And with a rumble of laughter she hung up the phone. Not before I heard her mother chastising her in the background. She must have already been at the school saving our seats for the performance. After spending the whole day with her mother I am sure she was eager for a change of scenery and arrived at the auditorium an hour ahead of time. Our nephew TJ was chosen from his sixth grade class to perform in a recital with the top students in the area for a summer recital. He played the cello beautifully after developing a love for the instrument when he was five years old. It's hard to say where the passion came from, but he was certainly very talented and was going to go a long way if he kept at the same rate he was currently going. His parents, my now sister and brother in law, were incredibly supportive of this and could see how much it meant to him.

It was too soon to say whether or not mine and Jane's daughter, Ava, was going to be so musically inclined - she was only two years old and eager to see and touch everything. I never knew I could be a mother after the distant upbringing I had endured as a child. But one day, about a year or so before Jane proposed to me, we had taken TJ to a Red Sox game and when leaving the park a driver had not been paying attention to the stop sign behind the parking garage and nearly ran us down. I had evidently, with flawless instincts, used my body as a shield while bringing TJ to safety. Jane, seeing it all first hand in front of her, swears up and down that I dove and rolled a couple times with him in my arms. I can't be sure of that detail as it all happened so quickly, however it was the first time I thought I could be a mother. I remember the look on Jane's face after I explained this new personal discovery. That look is forever chiseled into my memory along with the expression she held when I told her that after a year of trying, I was finally pregnant. Also up on the timeline of my wife's favorite faces is the look she wore on our wedding day when I made sure all the men in the wedding party and those closest to her all wore Red Sox uniforms. Her days of hiding as a secret super-fan ended after taking me my first ever ball game.

We had a simple, elegant, and absolutely beautiful wedding at Castle Hill on the Crane Estate. Though the location had been so grand and ready for a crowd of hundreds, we kept the number at ninety-nine guests exactly. Small and intimate only applied to the list of people attending, not to the size of venue we had chosen. Frankie and Tommy walked me down the aisle, which Jane did not know was going to happen until the moment we rounded the corner. Everyone had assumed they were running late for the wedding and we could almost hear the murmurs of people asking where they were. Months before the day, she had asked if it was okay if she walked down first and could be there to greet me after I walked down. Unbeknownst to her, I had already asked her brothers to walk me down the aisle together, so her inquisition aided in my surprise to her.

They made a sweet scene at the front of the altar when asking me if I was really, really sure I wanted to marry their sister then handing me off with granted permission and a kiss on each cheek. They both then took turns warning Jane to not screw this up because I now had two brothers who would take care of the situation, their Italian accents growing thicker by the end of the scene unfolding. We had arranged for Angela to become ordained so she could marry us. When we had asked her, she cried for a good two hours and then promised she would not do that at the wedding. She held up to her promise and delivered a speech that left not a dry eye in the house.

It seems so long ago whenever I think about it. It has been about nine years since Jane showed up at the aquarium and made me a promise. We were together for two and a half years, engaged for a year and a half, married for two years, tried for a child for a year, and now have a two year old child. We have been living together since about sixth months into the start of our relationship. Now, still at the condo my parent's left to me in their will, Jane and I along with the help of her brothers and cousins, had all worked together to do some renovations. We had set out on making the place specific to our needs as a married couple with a child on the way.

Time was flying by just too quickly, I murmured to myself as I came to a rolling stop in our parking spot. I managed to shower, change, and reapply make up in forty minutes which gave me just enough time to get to the school within the window I had estimated.

Seconds before the introduction of the first student I am sneaking into the back of the auditorium. The loud shut of the door turns a few heads, including my daughter's, who calls out for me and nearly takes off running before Jane scoops her up, pressing a kiss to my cheek in the process that still warms me from the inside out and we slide into our seats.

As TJ sweeps his bow across this instrument that has almost become an extension of his body, I am immediately entranced with the sound he creates. I cross my legs and relax into my cramped seat excited for his performance. Taking a hold of my wife's only free hand as the other one clings to our daughter who has fallen asleep on her shoulder, I brush my thumb over the back of her knuckles in an intimate gesture that is only for us to share. I lean over and kiss Ava on the arm because it is the closest part of her to me and with the soothing jazz tones in the background I am suddenly overwhelmed with emotion.

When the final note of TJ's performance comes to silence and Ava rolls her head so I am able to see her face, I gently push her hair back from her forehead and catch Jane's eyes in the process. We shared a look that held an entire conversation in less than three seconds. She kissed the back of my hand that held hers as if to seal the deal. In the blink of an eye, and with full knowledge and trust within the abilities of my wife to read my mind and I hers, we came to a decision that we wanted another baby.