Nuts About You

Chapter 10: Happy Girls Are The Prettiest

“So, that’s what happened,” Adam said, “We have been together ever since; we were even voted cutest couple of Cedars Prep for two years. Then we both went to college in North Carolina and married shortly after we graduated and I was drafted into the NBA.”

“Wait, wait, wait, I thought you guys had to get married because Mom got pregnant with Jack,” Lillian said.

Adam nearly choked when he heard that. “Who told you that?”

“Aunt Lydia,” Jack, Daisy and Lillian said as one.

“Lydia?”

“Yes, last Thanksgiving. She got very chatty after she drank all that Bacardi.” Jack said and then asked, “is it true? And be honest, dad!”

“Yes and No.” Adam said truthfully “Marie and I were already talking about getting married; I was hopeful of getting drafted into the NBA and I wanted Marie to come with me wherever I went; we had already decided to get married after I knew what team I would be playing for and had settled into it; when she got pregnant we just decided to marry sooner. It was no hardship to marry your mother, I loved her and loved would-be Jack the second your Mother told me we were going to have you.” Adam said as he looked at Jack and then at his two daughters, “Same as I loved you two. I won’t say it wasn’t scary, because it was. I was 22 and your Mom 21, we were barely learning to take care of ourselves when we had to learn to take care of someone else but I don’t regret it, any of it.

“We were very lucky, though,” Adam said after a pause, “our marriage could have easily gone the other way, and we have certainly have had our ups and downs over the years but I have loved your Mom every step of the way and I have been so very happy with her. I would marry Marie Rush again any second, any day.”

Just then the screen near where they were blinked and changed, showing the latest arrivals and, finally, Marie’s plane showed up.

“Mom’s plane landed!” Daisy said excitedly.

“Finally,” Lillian exclaimed glad both to have her Mom back and because they would finally leave the airport, even though hearing the story of how her parents met hadn’t been so bad.

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Marie Parrish (nee Rush) would be the first one to admit that life for her and her sisters had turned out just right. The eldest, Jas, had married her high school sweetheart, had four kids and was blissfully happy; Liz had, eventually, married Will Daniels (her once nemesis and then high school love) after they broke up during Liz’s freshman year of college because they both needed to find themselves, and found each other some six years later and eloped about two weeks after seeing each other again. Kelly had, after several years of working for different designers, created her own clothing line and now was the owner and head designer of “Rush” a brand which was not only very popular but also eco and animal friendly. Lydia, the youngest of them all, well, she had four marriages and four divorces and two children that were being raised by their grandparents but, over all, she seemed happy with her life – not that Marie would know otherwise as they had never grown close.

As for Marie herself, she was happy. Sure, marrying Adam at twenty one and becoming a mother a few months later hadn’t been her plan but she had been so happy and so in love that putting her professional life on-hold for what turned to be more than ten years hadn’t been much of a hardship. While Adam played for the NBA, she stayed home, raising her three children and doing some freelance work for friends and acquaintances around the kids’ schedules.

Once Daisy –her youngest daughter – got to the forth grade, Marie decided to re-take her career and founded a small game-developing firm along with some of her college friends. Now, a few years later, Nut House Games created some of the most popular time-management games and owned three of the hottest online-gaming sites (including The Kingdom –the game Marie and Adam used to play as teenagers – which Marie had bought two years earlier, revamped and re-launched it to great success); and she herself was one of the most respected game developers in the country.

Which was why she had spent the last week at a conference in San Francisco and away from her children and her husband. But now she was finally going to see them! She was so excited – as is she hadn’t seen them for seven years instead of only seven days – as she walked through baggage claim and she didn’t notice all the eyes that were drawn to her.

Marie still considered herself the plainest of all the Rush sisters, lacking Jas and Kelly’s delicate, model-like beauty, Liz’s girl-next-door wholesomeness and Lydia’s trampy-trashy appeal; but she had grown into a lovely woman, with her long dark hair curling down her back and warm brown eyes. Thanks to Kelly’s careful fashion tutelage (as in Kelly picked all of her clothes and then just passed Marie the bill) Marie dressed well – right now she was wearing a tunic-like purple top, dark blue jeans and ankle boots and the only jewelry she wore was a white-gold antique bracelet featuring a squirrel-and-nut which Adam had given her for their first wedding anniversary and her wedding and engagement rings – and the success in her work gave her a confidence that showed in her posture and stride; but what really drew eyes to her the huge smile on her face product of a happiness so deep that radiated from her.

Finally, she saw her children, all three of them waiting for her, all dark haired, brown eyed and attractive.

“Mom!” They exclaimed and ran to her, hugging her and talking all at once, about their week, the things they needed her to do for them (like take Lillian shopping for new clothes, and fix a costume for Daisy’s school play and how Jack needed her to drive him and his best friend to the next two over to buy concert tickets) and all in all being selfish and loving in the way only children can be; even if her son was good three inches taller than her now and still growing; and Lillian had a boyfriend now – which drove Adam up the wall – and Daisy saw and knew much more than she let on.

Marie kissed and hugged her children and handled over their presents before they let go of her long enough for her to see Adam.

Fifteen years of marriage and she still thought Adam Parrish was the handsomest guy in the world; he might no longer have the best abs in the tri-state area (he had stopped exercising so much after retiring from basketball, he hadn’t let himself go, his body was still great for a guy nearing forty he just didn’t push himself so hard anymore) but there were no other abs she cared to see.

“Adam!” She exclaimed, dropping her suitcase and bag with the kids and embarrassing them by running to her husband like a fifteen year old.

“My Lady Squirrel,” He laughed hugging her and picking her up, twirling her around. He still called her Lady Squirrel sometimes, which made her giggle as she wrapped her legs around him trying to be as close to Adam as possible while in a public place.

“I missed you.”

“No more than I did.” Adam said.

And then they proceeded to further embarrass their children by kissing in front of everyone. It was a good kiss too, the kind one usually only saw at the end of romance movies once the guy got the girl and they were kissing and a big fat The End began to show in the screen.

But for Marie and Adam it wasn’t the end of the movie. Their love story was still on going; their love for each other never ending.

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End of Chapter 10

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End of Nuts About You