BEN.

I'm finally leaving Orange today, but yesterday's chemo kicked my a.s.s, so instead of staying with Rose at Griffin's, my father's picking me up and taking me home. There's no reason to have Rose see me like this yet. I'm going to miss her sweet smile, but I'll be seeing her next weekend. For now, I'm just going to sleep the Memorial Day weekend through.

47.

ROSE.

"Well, this is it, Rosebud," my father says, tossing the last of my things in the truck bed. When I came up on Sat.u.r.day morning, I brought some of my clothes back so I could make room for my summer things. Plus my father bought me a bigger dresser and a new TV since Griffin's place will be my full-time home for a while.

"We're gonna miss you guys too," I tell him, talking to my mother, Beth, and Patti as well.

"I can't believe both you and Terri won't be home this summer," my mom says.

"Well, be thankful Terri found a boyfriend up at school," Beth says, "this way she'll leave Rose's alone."

Patti laughs, but Terri really p.i.s.sed me off when she did that, so I just fake a smile.

"You know she only did that because of the situation, she was jealous of all the attention you were getting," Patti says. "She's over it."

"Yeah, well, Rose might not be," Beth says.

"I'm fine. So, you guys can come down anytime, you know. Griffin has lots of couches you can crash on if you just wanna hang or watch a movie."

"Or go to that bar y'all talk about," Patti says.

"Yup. That too, if you want."

"Rose, please come visit us too," Mom says.

"Of course. I'm only an hour away."

"I know. I just miss you when you're not here, but I'm glad you're happy again."

"And dancing," Dad chimes in.

"And dancing," Mom repeats.

"I love you, Rosebud."

"Love you too, Dad."

I say goodbye to everyone one more time and then get in my truck to head back to Haledon. Hopefully in time to help Ben move in.

Too late.

Griffin and Mick, in the kitchen having burgers, inform me that Ben's all moved in, but not feeling all that well.

"But he said as soon as you get here, to send you on up," Griffin tells me.

"Okay, thanks. And Griff, thanks so much for letting him move in. We really appreciate it."

"Hey, no problem. Worked out perfectly. Knox graduated, moved out, Ben moves in. Perfect."

"Yeah. Thanks." I smile. It did work out perfectly. I'd forgotten all about Knox being a senior, so Ben and I don't have to move in together, but we still get to live in the same house.

Ben's door is shut, so I knock.

"You can come in," Ben calls from the other side of the door.

"Half-pint," he says weakly when I come in.

"Were you sleeping?"

"No." He pats the spot next to him on the bed. "Just not feeling great. But I'm better now that you're here."

I kick off my shoes and climb into bed with him. "Chemo's kicking your b.u.t.t?"

"Little bit, half-pint. But look, I wanna show you something." He takes his laptop off the nightstand and opens his email. "Isaiah sent me this this morning."

"Isaiah?"

"Johnny's nurse. His mother's new husband."

"She got married?"

Ben nods. "Yup. But that's not it. Johnny's mom got a call from one of those big gaming system companies. Apparently, Johnny was working on a program that would allow for voice-control gaming. I don't know the particulars, but evidently, he came up with a way to use voice codes to play actual games. He was using the technology they already have for quadriplegics, where they use their straws in some controller, but Johnny said they were too slow. So he came up with a voice code system."

"Wow."

"Yeah. Anyway, in his letter to the company, he said he'd love to work with them to bring this into fruition. They'd emailed him back, but they never heard back from him. They a.s.sumed he went with another company, but they called anyway. His mom told them he'd died. They offered her a substantial amount of money to use his system anyway. She accepted. One point five million."

"Holy crow."

"Best part is, Rose, he never gave up." Ben's eyes are tearing now. "He did fight until the end. This proves it." He taps on the screen. "Oh, half-pint." He closes the laptop and sets it aside. "You don't know how much it bothered me thinking he gave up. I know his life would have been difficult, but I hated to think he'd gotten so low he'd just waited to die." Ben wraps his arms around me and kisses me on the head. "He got what he wanted in the end. He's providing for his mom, and she's not alone."

"That's good news, Ben."

"Do you know when he submitted that email to the company?"

It's a rhetorical question, I know that, but I say, "No," anyway.

"The morning he died." Ben lets out a single silent chuckle. "At least G.o.d waited for him to hit send before He took him."

I think about this for a while and then I say, "Maybe that's the closest thing to a promise we're gonna get."

"What's that, half-pint?"

"We make our plans, do our best to get there, and hope G.o.d agrees with them, or trust Him to know better."

"Maybe." After a few moments of silence, Ben says, "So, half-pint, you know what'll make me feel better?"

"What's that, Benito?"

He shakes his head, then says, "Taking a nice hot bath together."

48.

BEN.

"What if Griffin and Mick hear us?"

"Who cares? Besides, it's a big house, half-pint, and I'm all the way on the third floor."

"But it's daytime."

"You've never taken a bath during the day?"

"Well, not recently, and when I take a shower during the day, I at least close the curtains and shut off...well, you have a skylight...and no curtain."

"No one'll see us from a pa.s.sing plane flying by. Besides, it'll be nice and bright. The sun will keep us warm when the water cools."

"You're not going to take no for an answer, are you?"

"Nope. Water's already running, I'm already naked, my leg's off. It's your turn, Rosie."

She sighs, but it's accompanied by a smile and that sweet peach blush of her cheeks. So I sit down on the edge of the huge claw-foot tub and tug her toward me by the hem of her shirt. I lift it up over her head, then I tug down her pants and she steps out of them. While I unlatch her leg, she undoes her bra. Finally, I slide her panties down and can't help myself I kiss her right in the center of all her red curls. "My G.o.d, you are beautiful, Rose."

Her hands are on my shoulders and though I'm tempted to have my way with her right here, I choose to be patient and make this night special. We've never been together naked without our legs, so this is huge. I want her to feel comfortable and ready. And there's no need to rush. We have the rest of our lives to make love, because there is no way I'm giving this woman up. EVER.

I stand up, sliding my hands up her body as I do, and help her into the waiting tub. I climb in behind her, reach over to shut off the water, and hold Rose beneath the afternoon sun.

Epilogue.

June 12th, 2015 ROSE.

"Okay, before we go outside and you and your father get me up on one of those things, I have to give you this." Ben hands me a big shopping bag.

"What's this for?" I look inside the bag and see a bunch of different-colored tissue paper.

"Well, I know what today is and I wanted to give you a gift to acknowledge this past year. It wasn't your easiest year, but you came out of it stronger, braver, and more self-a.s.sured. I'm proud of you, Rose. A year ago, you thought your future held no value, and now look at you. You're captain of the college dance team and you didn't have to give up your education major at all. You are doing exactly what you always wanted to do, and you thought you'd never be able to do it. And well, I just wanted you to know how proud I am of you."

"Oh, Ben." I hug him. "This year ended up actually being the best year of my life. I met you. No matter how that had to happen, I wouldn't trade it for the world, because...what if I didn't get crushed by that truck a year ago today? I'd have never have met you."

"Well, you might have, since we both were going to the same college, but yeah, I get what you're saying."

I smack him in his side and break the hug. "Always a smart-a.s.s."

"Always. Anyway, the other reason I got you this gift is because you were sneaky and didn't tell me your birthday was in March. I totally missed your twenty-third birthday."

"Well...you were kinda busy and all, what was the point?"

"The point is, I shouldn't have to find out when my girlfriend's birthday is from her best friend. That's the point."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. There'll be plenty more, old lady."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm only eleven months older than you."

"Whatever."

"Whatever."

"So open your gift."

I shake my head, but at the same time, I place the bag on the couch and take out all the tissue paper. At the bottom of the bag is a large box wrapped in gold wrapping paper with a red bow similar to the one he had stuck on top of my Valentine's Day pudding. "Let me guess, a whole bunch of chocolate pudding," I say while carefully unwrapping the present.

"Uh, no, but I can always get that for you."

I laugh. "No, just kidding." But I stop laughing when I see the name on the box. "You didn't?" I look at Ben before opening the box. "No."