Page 83 of Watching Henry

“Hadley, I like you too,” Florence murmured.

Hadley looked up now. “I'm not standing here saying I love you, I'm not saying be my girlfriend. I can't promise you anything. I have no idea where any of this is going. I don't know that we're the perfect fit, I don't know that things will work out in the long term, I don't know if I'm really what you need. All I do know is that I have to try this, I have to.”

Florence looked into her eyes.

“I can't promise you anything,” Hadley said again. “I can't give you certainty about anything. Except one thing. I'm here. I'm here for the long run, I'm here until whatever this is has run its course or we die old and wrinkled on the porch together. I'm here, Florence. And I want to take that risk with you.”

She could feel the tears pricking in her eyes. She could feel Florence reaching out to take her hand.

“Hadley, you are so brave. You are so beautiful, and I can never believe that someone as beautiful and perfect as you could love someone like me,” Florence started.

Hadley backed up a step. “Then I'll prove it to you,” she said stoutly. “I'll prove it to you every day until you believe it.”

But Florence was reaching for her again. “I wasn't finished,” she said, her voice holding a note of its old authority.

“Sorry,” Hadley mumbled.

“But whatever this is, whatever we are, then I want to take the risk with you too,” Florence said.

For a long moment they stood in the warm air, hints of autumn coming down from the mountains and starting to turn the leaves orange. For a long moment they simply looked at each other, Florence holding Hadley's hand and Hadley holding Florence's hand, letting the world spin around them as they re-oriented themselves to this new reality.

“What now?” Hadley asked, eventually.

“I have absolutely no idea,” Florence said. “Isn't that supposed to be the exciting part?”

“It is,” Hadley allowed. “However, and this is out of character for me, we should probably decide what we're going to do in the short term.”

“Aha,” said Florence, seriously. “Well, unless I'm wrong, I'm thinking that Eleanor is probably about to explode from curiosity. So our first stop might be stopping that from happening.”

“Agreed,” Hadley said. “And then the kids and Maeve will probably be wondering what's going on.”

“Hmm, yes, we might be expecting a visit from them at the coffee shop too,” Florence said.

“And after that?”

Florence shrugged and grinned. “Who knows?”

Hadley laughed. “I think I might have created a monster here.”

“Well, I for one am excited to find out,” Florence said.

And hand in hand they walked toward the coffee shop as the warm breeze blew down the street and the very first leaves started to fall.

Epilogue

Florence wriggled in her seat to get a better view, but frankly, couldn't have picked Hadley out of the crowd if she were being held at gunpoint.

“Where is she?”

Eleanor craned her neck, looking down at the neat rows of students, all clad in caps and gowns, then she shrugged. “Damned if I know. Just clap generically, it'll be fine.”

“It's hot as hell out here,” Florence grumbled.

“What happened to you not cursing?” grinned Eleanor.

“Hell isn't cursing. And there are no kids around.”

Eleanor broke out a bottle of water from her tote and handed it to Florence. “We're sitting on bleachers around a football field in the middle of June, it's hardly likely to be chilly.”