"Hi." I grin, going to him and tilting my head up to kiss him on the lips as he leans down to meet me.
"Did you find enough?"
"Yeah. We had to go to five different grocery stores, but I think we rounded up at least one for everyone. There are over fifty in the back of the truck."
"Thank you." I smile, putting my hand on his cheek and gazing into his eyes, so easy to get lost in.
"You’re welcome. But baby? These pumpkins aren’t exactly light. Where should I put them?" He’s grinning at me though.
I blink. "Oh! Sorry. Here. Put them here." I indicate the large table that I’ve decorated with a fall themed orange, plastic tablecloth. Perfect for messy pumpkin guts.
Leo sets the two pumpkins down. "Are the boys with Mr. Cooper?" I ask.
"Yeah. I dropped them off at his place after we picked up the last batch of pumpkins. I told him we’d be by to pick them up on our way home. They were a big help with the pumpkins, even Cole."
I nod and smile, happy that our boys are spending time with the man who is like a grandpa to them.
I do the last of the cleanup as Leo brings the pumpkins inside. When I walk back out to the main room, the table is crowded with pumpkins of all sizes. We’ll have a fun day carving them tomorrow.
Nicole and Kaylee and her little brother Mikey are coming by to help. Nicole is pregnant with her and Mike’s third child, a happy surprise. I know that seeing her teeter around here in her crazy heels and big pregnant belly is going to give me a heart attack. And I know she’ll tell me to stop being silly, that just because she’s pregnant, there’s no reason for her to wear the frumpy, orthopedic wear that I’d have her in if I had my way.
Leo grabs my hand and pulls me toward the stairs and I follow, knowing where he’s taking me. We enter the small room at the back and he opens the window and helps me climb through, onto the roof. I walk a little ways to the side and sit down. He sits down next to me, and I put my head on his shoulder as he pulls me close to keep me warm.
"This is my favorite place in the world," I whisper in his ear.
He smiles and brings my arms up and around him. "This is my favorite place in the world," he says back, smiling.
I nuzzle into his neck and smile against his skin, kissing him there and then laying my head on his shoulder again as we both look out across the night.
It was nine years earlier that my Leo had proposed to me on this roof. We were married two months later in a small ceremony with our closest friends, the family we had chosen, in attendance.
Right after our wedding, Leo had hired a construction company to come in and re-hab the entire property, it being important to both of us that we fix it up rather than tearing it down and starting from scratch. The roof of the house was re-shingled, but other than that, it remained unchanged, ours.
Several months after that, when The Willow House project was in full swing, I had taken my husband’s hand and led him out to our roof, and under a warm summer sky, I had told him that I was expecting his baby. He had stared into my eyes, frozen for several beats before that beautiful smile that I love so much spread across his face, and he pulled my shirt up and kissed my belly again and again as I laughed. Then he had pressed his cheek there and looked up at me, and I had seen my beautiful, uncertain boy in his expression. I had run my fingers through his hair and whispered, "Yes, Leo, you’re going to make an amazing dad. Some people just know things in their heart."
He had smiled at me and then suddenly looked panic stricken as he practically dragged me back to the window. "What are you doing?" I had laughed.
"No way my pregnant wife goes out on a roof," he had said. "I don’t care how safe this one is."
Later, baby Seth slept in a pack and play in a quiet corner upstairs in what had been my old room.
When Landon got his degree a year after we opened, we offered him the job of Director and he accepted. I was here as often as I could be but I was a busy new mom, and I knew I needed the help. He brings life and enthusiasm and fun to the place and everyone loves him. How could they not? He’s very loveable.
Several years after that, when I was nine months pregnant with Cole, my water broke in the front room as I was hanging artwork from a project I had done with the kids. Later, Cole took his first steps in The Willow House as the kids cheered him on.
We have a big garden in the back where the kids help plant vegetables and then collect them when they're ripe. What was once the empty lot next door now has a basketball court at the front and a big grassy space at the back for the kids to run around and play. We planted a Willow tree in the middle and put several picnic tables around it. It was still small, but someday it would grow big and strong, its branches bending and swaying in the wind. Sometimes the wind would be bitter cold, and sometimes it would be warm. I thought that sturdy tree would be okay either way.
Inside, we created art centers, a music room and a whole library dedicated to books and reading. It's where I tell stories if the kids ask. When my own book was published, Leo bought about twenty copies for that room alone. I just shook my head and laughed. But when I saw the way some of the kids looked at that book and asked me if I really grew up in the foster care system just like them, I decided to let them stay. I want the kids to know that their situation doesn't need to limit them – that if I could find the courage to reach for my dreams, so can they.
We also have computers and tutors who help with homework. We have a big kitchen where volunteers teach the kids how to cook and prepare meals.