72 years later “Would you like another cookie?” Sue asked, looking down at her drowsy husband as he lay on the picnic blanket.
“Are you kidding? You’re trying to kill me slowly with good food, aren’t you? I couldn’t eat another bite. In fact, I don’t know if I can even move now,” Jack said, laughing as Sue snagged another cookie from the container.
Pulling her toward him on the blanket, Sue yelped as she lost her balance and fell on him sideways, her slightly swollen belly landing somewhere along the lines of Jack’s ribs. Putting his hands on her abdomen, he caressed their unborn child as he pulled her to him to kiss her soundly.
“I thought you couldn’t move,” she said, giggling at him as she broke away in order to breathe.
“Amazing what a person can do with the right incentive,” he said, waggling his eyebrows at her as he rolled her onto her back and lay on his side, leaning on his elbow to look at her.
A bright red maple leaf drifted lazily down, landing on his lady love. Picking it off her, he twirled it in his fingers haphazardly, using it to caress her nose, her cheeks, her neck, and down her chest.
“I like what you’re wearing today. You know I’m always a sucker for a red sweater,” he said, his fingers sliding around the deep v neckline of her top.
“Tell me about it. I thought you were going to make me get married in that old red sweater I used to have,” she said, laughing.
“You mean you got rid of that?! Sue! I loved that sweater!” Jack said, a look of horror on his face at the idea of losing something that had figured so mightily in their lives.
“I guess I should have asked if YOU wanted it. Jack . . . it’s just a sweater,” she said, and then looked at him with some amusement as she twisted her lips in a rueful grin. “And no, I didn’t get rid of it. I just quit wearing it . . . besides, I don’t think it would fit very well, now!”
Rubbing her tummy, he smiled at her, and said, “I think it would fit just fine, but I’m no expert.” As he kissed her again, a shower of leaves fell from the tree above them, covering them with the colors of autumn.
“Did I ever tell you that God used the color red to show me how much I loved you?” he asked, watching her as her eyebrows went up.
“How’s that?” she asked curiously.
“Well, let’s just say that I was pretty angry at myself and with God for encouraging you to go out that last time with Dog-Boy . . .”
“David,” she said evenly, rolling her eyes at him.
“Yeah, David. Anyway, I was pretty mad. I got to thinking about all the times I could remember when I was attracted to you . . . the bachelor auction . . .”
“Red dress . . .,”
“Uh-huh,” Jack said. “When we kissed at Callahan and Merced . . .”
“The infamous red sweater . . . ,”
“Yep,” he confirmed, “the red of your face when you blush . . .,”
“Not fair, Jack . . . your EARS turn red . . . I’m just more of an ‘all-over’ blusher,” she corrected.
“Whatever . . .,” he smiled, “and then there were the red leaves the night I told you I loved you.”
“I love you, Jack. In any color, at any season, even when I’m mad at you, I love you,” she said. His story about the colors almost had a poetic quality about it, to her. She loved that she had married a thoughtful man. A man who liked to put connections together.
“I love you, too,” he said, kissing her tenderly.
“So you’re saying that whenever you ‘see red,’ you think about how much you love me?” she teased.
Winking at the woman he loved, he pulled her a little tighter, letting his hands roam over her luscious body. As he lay there with her, thinking about the spicy nature of their courtship and marriage, he laughed. “I guess you could say that being married to you has me “seeing red” every day of my life . . . and I’m saying that like it’s a GOOD thing!”
FIN
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