The Caretaker:Exclusive Bonus Scene

Bonus Scene

The Choice

Noon

I couldn’t believe I’d agreed to this, or that I’d agreed to Solace meeting up with Patrick. We should’ve been in bed, holding and loving each other, instead I was sitting in front of airport arrivals waiting for my cheating wife. 
 

Technically, I’d cheated too. We were still married, after all, but she’d ensured we wouldn’t be for much longer. 
   

Horns blared from every direction as the pickup zone became more congested and disorganized. Through my rearview mirror, I spotted airport security making their way through the chaos, ordering everyone to move their vehicles. Cars weren’t allowed to idle in this area, but Stacey hadn’t exited from baggage claim yet. I’d have to circle around this whole damn place again. 
   

She stepped through the revolving glass doors just as I threw the truck in drive. My hands trembled as I shifted the gear back to park then gripped the steering wheel. Stacey stood under the protection of the building’s overhang, looking left and right in search of me. 
   

I watched her for a few seconds. Watched as she shifted her handbag from one shoulder to the next before deciding to just hold it in her hand. She fidgeted when she was nervous. 
 

She wore her long hair down, the blonde at least three shades darker than Solace’s. I was surprised to see that she looked the same. Guess I’d expected someone who’d ripped my heart out not to also look like the person who’d filled said heart with joy for so long. She didn’t seem evil at all. Didn’t seem like someone who’d committed the ultimate betrayal, or someone hateful and conniving. I felt all those things to my core while staring at her, though. I felt all those things about her. 
   

A knock on my window startled me. I rolled it down, rain making its way inside as the irritated security guard informed me that I couldn’t sit there. 
 

“My wife… Uh, the person I’m picking up is right there.” 
 

Stacey was already looking through the wet windshield when I turned to point at her. The security guard mumbled something before walking off. I couldn’t hear him through the blood pounding in my ears. 
 

Stacey gave me a sad smile before hurrying to wheel her luggage over to the truck. I grabbed the door handle then paused, a small part of me not wanting to get out and help her load the large suitcase into the back. She didn’t deserve my help, not after everything she’d done to me. Bad enough I was already giving her a ride home. 
 

In the end, it was never in my nature to let anyone struggle, not even her.

 
“I got it,” I said, taking over for her. “Get inside.” The rain battered the both of us as she stared wide-eyed up at me. “Get in the truck, Stacey.” 

She nodded, hurrying for the passenger side. 

I was drenched by the time I hopped back into the driver’s seat and took off. 
Stacey’s gaze on me felt like a hot brand as I maneuvered around the bottleneck of vehicles to exit the airport. I didn’t speak until I’d merged onto the highway. 
   

“Talk.”
 

“Can we wait until we get home?”
   

“You and I no longer have a home together, Stacey, and I’m kind of in a rush to get back to my life.” 
 

“Your… life?” 
   

I glanced over at her before focusing on the road again. She looked lost, on the verge of tears already, but I couldn’t let that get to me.

 

“Did you think I couldn’t have a life without you?” I snapped. “That I was just sitting around hoping you’d come back to me?” 
 

“No, of course not. I just… I guess I hadn’t thought beyond how much I must have hurt you.” 

“What did you want to talk to me about?” I said impatiently, suddenly not caring about why she’d done what she did. Nothing she said would’ve made a difference, it would’ve only added to the pain she’d already caused before vanishing in the wee hours of the morning three months ago. 
   

“Can you at least pull over then? Please, Noon.” 

I hated hearing my name leave her lips. It felt too familiar, and we were strangers now. Had probably always been. She wasn’t entitled to say it anymore, she wasn’t entitled to me. 

I’d been about to argue out of spite, because how dare she ask anything else of me. But between the bad weather and my rising anger, pulling onto the shoulder seemed like the best idea. 
 

The swoosh of the windshield wipers and the traffic whizzing by on the wet road filled the truck’s cabin, adding background noise to my internal struggle. 
   

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, pulling a humorless laugh from me. 
   

“You’re sorry?” I said mockingly. The two words transported me right back to our argument the night of the museum charity ball, with me standing in our living room as she broke me into pieces. 

“I’m in love with someone else. I’m so sorry, Noon. I never meant for it to happen, but it did. And… I want to be with him.”
 

“That didn’t make me feel any better before, is it supposed to make everything better now?” I stared straight ahead, my emotions firing all over the place. 
   

“No, it’s not,” she said. “But it’s the truth.” 
   

I shook my head in disbelief before responding. “I loved you, more than anything. You destroyed that love, destroying me in the process… And now I’m supposed to be okay because the one thing you didn’t lie about was that you’re sorry? What, has your conscience been eating away at you all these months? Getting in the way of your life with Patrick?” I sneered. I hated speaking his name as much as I hated hearing her say mine. “You think making amends will fix—”
   

“Wait… how do you know his name?” 
 

She didn’t know that I’d found out the details of the man she was sleeping with. Didn’t know I’d fallen in love with his husband. 
 

“How do you think I found out? I spent every waking hour trying to find the man who stole you from me. Imagine my surprise when I found out that, not only were you leaving me for him, you were both on the same humanitarian trip together.” My insides coiled from the pain, burning hotter and growing the more I let it out. My heart ached as the feeling of not being good enough returned. As the feeling of not being man enough for her—because I couldn’t give her a child—resurfaced. “But Patrick didn’t steal you, did he? You went willingly. You pushed aside everything we’d ever been through, you pushed me aside for—” 
 

“We’re not together anymore,” she blurted out in the middle of my tirade.  
   

I whipped my head around. “What did you just say?” 
   

“We’re not together anymore.” She wrung her hands in her lap. “I broke things off.” 
   

Swallowing, I stared through the rain pounding down on the windshield again, my mind racing. She’d asked me to pick her up, said she needed to speak with me… And Patrick had asked to speak with Solace too. A sinking feeling came over me. “Why are we really here, Stacey? And why did Patrick ask to meet with Solace?” 
   

“He did? Wait… H-how do you know Solace?” 
   

“That’s not important,” I said, even though Solace was the most important thing in the world to me. We’d agreed not to tell either of them about our relationship. Our loving, supportive, healthy relationship. “Did you ask to meet so we could discuss our divorce?” Because, while I initially had a long laundry list of questions I needed answers to, I couldn’t imagine what she’d want to talk about if it wasn’t about getting a divorce. 
   

“No,” she whispered, “at least I hope not.” 
   

The sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach deepened, and all I wanted to do was rush to Patrick’s house for Solace. Because if Stacey wasn’t here to talk about officially ending things so she could move on with Patrick, then what was Patrick trying to convince Solace of right now? “What are you saying?” I breathed. 
   

“I’m saying…” She took a deep breath before letting her words tumble free. “I’m asking if there’s any way you can forgive me? If there’s any way we can work things out.”  
   

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, couldn’t believe the nerve she had. “You left without saying goodbye.” My breathing went shallow, my chest tightening as I tried to wrap my head around things. “You promised to love me forever, promised we’d get through anything, so long as we were together. Through thick and through thin, remember?”
 

“Yes. I know, Noon. I—”
 

“And then you had an affair,” I spat, putting an end to whatever desperate thing she’d been about to say, “and you left your wedding rings on our nightstand before walking away from our life as I slept in the next room.” A lump formed in my throat, making it harder to speak. “And now you want to know if we can work things out?” 
   

“I’m so sorry, Noon. I’m—”
   

“Stop it!” I banged my hand against the steering wheel. Stacey flinched. “You don’t get to fucking do this to me. You don’t get to—”
   

“I’m pregnant.” She said it so low I thought I had to have heard her wrong. 
   

“You’re… what?” I twisted in her direction again, the tears flooding her eyes telling me I hadn’t heard her incorrectly. 
   

“I’m pregnant, Noon.” 
   

Pain, joy, confusion and hope threatened to fill the hollowness she’d caused inside of me. My gaze dropped to her stomach, but I couldn’t tell much through the baggy shirt she wore. “Is… is it…” 
   

“No,” she said, flushing with embarrassment or shame. Maybe both. 
 

“Right.” I felt silly now that I’d thought about it. I couldn’t even recall the last time we’d had sex, and then there was the small issue of me not being able to get her—or anyone—pregnant. I tried to ignore the voice telling me the last part was the reason we were in this mess to begin with. 
 

“Of course it’s not mine,” I whispered. Disappointment and rage replaced the tiny blip of joy and hope. My heart cracked right down the middle, and I snatched my arm away when she reached over to lay a hand on me. 
 

“God, I’m so sorry,” she repeated, sounding even more anguished. “You don’t deserve this.” 
 

“No, I don’t,” I answered dejectedly. “I deserve better.” And I had better. I’d fallen asleep next to “better” for months now. I’d been loved unconditionally by “better” for months too. Better would be waiting for me in Haley Cove. 
   

Instantly, that disappointment and rage melted away, joy and hope returning as I took stock of all I had to be grateful for. Now I was fighting back my own tears, although not for the reason she likely thought. 
 

There was a time I would’ve given anything to hear those two words from her.
   

I’m pregnant.
   

And for a minute there, I’d felt that happiness. The happiness of knowing I’d get to be a father. Now all I felt was relief at knowing the baby wasn’t mine, at knowing that once we severed ties once and for all, it would be permanent. 
 

Solace’s timid smile filled my mind’s eye, reminding me that my dreams were waiting for me to get back to him, waiting for us to make them come true. 

“Kids?” he’d breathed after I’d casually mentioned us possibly having children of our own. 
 

“Is that something you would want?” I’d asked, heart hammering in my chest. He’d lost Gavin, and I wasn’t sure if he’d want to try again. 

“With you? Definitely,” he’d replied. 
 

I realized then, that I could no longer be angry with Stacey for ruining my life. If anything, I owed her a thank-you. 
 

“He doesn’t know. Patrick… He can’t know.” 
   

“Why not?” 
   

“He’s not the person I thought he was,” she breathed, a single tear fell down her cheek. It took a lot for her to admit that, to admit she’d made a colossal mistake. Unfortunately for her, her mistake led me to my salvation. 
 

Cars and trucks zoomed by us as rush hour traffic picked up, and the rain came down in sheets now. All I could do was shake my head, sadness for her trumping all other emotions. No kid should have to endure Patrick as their father. Stacey bit down on her bottom lip, her tears streaming past her chin. She looked lost, and willing to do anything for her unborn child.
 

“If only you would’ve realized before now that a baby didn’t need to be biologically mine for me to love it. We could’ve done this the right way, Stacey.” 
 

She closed her eyes, likely hearing the finality in my voice. 
 

“Would it have made a difference?” she asked, voice trembling. “If the baby was somehow yours, would it have mattered?” 
 

I thought about that, thought about Solace, thought about the life we had planned. Would I have given all that up if, by some miracle, the baby Stacey carried had been mine? “No,” I whispered, sure in my answer. “It wouldn’t have mattered.” I wouldn’t have left Solace to live a lie with her, not even for my child. “I have someone waiting for me. Someone good and pure. Someone who would never hurt me the way you did. I love him. I plan to spend the rest of my life loving him, raising our own family with him, and I have you and Patrick to thank for that.” 
 

Stacey opened her eyes then, confusion shining within the waterfall of tears still pouring from them. 
 

“Neither of you appreciated us. You left us broken, barely recognizable to ourselves. But we found love through our darkness, Stacey. Solace is my home now. Solace has my heart.” I didn’t give a damn if she and Patrick found out now or later. They couldn’t hurt us anymore, and in some small way, I hoped the news would help her move on. I hoped that her knowing I’d found love again, happiness again, would go a long way in her being able to forgive herself. That baby was going to need their mother whole, and so I wanted her to find peace. 
 

Stacey covered her mouth, shoulders shaking as she cried harder. I unbuckled my seatbelt, scooting over to envelope her into a hug. She had a hard, long road ahead of her, but children were blessings, and I knew how badly she wanted them. “It’ll all be fine once you hold your baby in your arms,” I told her. 
 

I was eager to get her home and then get back to Solace, especially since I could take a wild guess now at what Patrick wanted to see him about. If Stacey had realized she’d made a huge mistake, then Patrick surely had as well. Only a fool would let Solace go.  
 

Stacey gave me a small smile when I let her go. “He’s good to you?” she asked. 
 

“He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” I hadn’t said it unkindly, or with malicious intent, but I wouldn’t dim Solace’s importance to me, wouldn’t dim the bright light he’d shined down on my life… Not even for her. 
 

“Patrick blamed Solace for his unhappiness. He said he wanted more children, after losing Gavin, but Solace refused.” She ended with a sigh. 
 

“Patrick is a liar,” I replied, and a master manipulator if he’d used Stacey’s desire for children to lure her into an affair with him. 
 

“Yeah, I know that now,” she said darkly, as if she couldn’t believe how gullible she’d been. She accepted the handful of tissues I’d pulled from the glovebox. “He just seemed so easy to talk to, you know? He made me feel like we were going through similar things. He made me believe he could give me everything I ever wanted.” She huffed a wry laugh. “How ironic.” 
 

Ironic—I assumed—because she’d wanted a child, which it seemed she would now have, but she clearly wanted it as far away from Patrick as possible. 
 

“I’m so sorry I hurt you, Noon. More sorry than you’ll ever know.” 
 

“I forgive you,” I said, because I realized it was true, and because she needed to focus on what lay ahead for her, not on all the pain she’d caused me. I would be more than okay. My forgiveness started a fresh round of sobbing, and I waited it out with her before putting my seat belt back on and pulling into traffic again. 
 

My mind became consumed with thoughts of Solace, and I couldn’t wait to drop Stacey off so I could call and make sure he was okay. All I wanted to do was get back to him, to meet up at the tavern like we’d planned, and take more photos, capture more memories for the family we planned to build together. 
 

We’d probably only gotten a few miles down the highway when suddenly I heard the screech of tires, shaking me out of my deep thoughts. A truck crashed into the metal divider separating us from north bound traffic. 
 

“Noon, look out!” Stacey’s shout was the last thing I remembered right before being blinded by bright lights, before everything went black—

 

***
   

Bolting upright in bed, I blinked in the dim light of the bedroom, the dream I’d been having feeling realer than any dream I’d ever had before. I tried to recall it, feeling the final, missing pieces of my past shift into place as I did. 
   

Next to me, Solace slept on his back, our son, Rowan, tucked into his side. I twisted toward him, my toes bumping up against our daughter, Penelope’s, arm. She’d worked her way down to the foot of the bed in the middle of the night, cuddling one of her cats. 
   

Smiling, I brushed Solace’s hair off his face to kiss his sleep-swollen lips. I loved how they parted slightly when he slept, how they got all pink and puffy and warm. 
   

He stirred a bit, but not much. Not until my kisses trailed along his cheek to his temple. “Mmmm,” he groaned, voice rough and deep. “Okay, I forgive you.” 
   

I chuckled softly against his skin. He’d warned me that letting the kids watch The Goonies would result in them being too terrified to sleep in their own beds. I hadn’t listened to him. “How was I supposed to know they wouldn’t find Sloth endearing?” I whispered. 
   

Solace sluggishly opened his eyes, one side of his mouth lifting into a lazy smile. “What’s got you so happy this morning, care bear?” 
   

“I’m always happy when I wake up next to you.” 
   

“Yeah,” he started, shielding his eyes, “but your smile isn’t usually this bright before sun-up.”  
   

My shoulders shook with silent laughter as I kissed his whole face again. “The sun will be up in minutes. Think we can sneak out of bed without waking these two critters? I want to show you something.” 
   

It took a good deal of acrobatics, but we managed to extract ourselves from the bed without disturbing the kids. 
   

“What has gotten into you?” Solace asked with amusement as I tugged him downstairs and into the family room. “You’re acting worse than the kids on Christmas morning.” 
   

I pulled him down to the carpeted floor, then hauled our photo albums out of the entertainment unit’s bottom cabinet. Solace frowned as I rummaged through the pages of the album in silence, even placing the back of his hand against my forehead to check my temperature.  
   

“I’m not sick.” I grabbed his hand, kissing his wrist before getting back to my search. 
 

“It’s six in the morning and you’re looking at pictures.” 
 

Patience, husband. There's a reason for my madness. A-ha!” Finding the photo I searched for, I removed it from the plastic sheet, handing it to Solace.  
 

“Okay…” he said slowly, taking it. 
 

“That’s the day you taught me how to take professional photos. The day we burned all of Patrick’s clothes.” 
 

“Yeah,” he agreed. “We went over this before. We went over all these pictures and what they meant.” 
 

“Yes, but we didn’t go over how I felt while taking them.” Because I hadn’t remembered that. 
 

“Because… Wait… What are you saying?” Solace’s words were breathless as he started to clue into what I was getting at. 
 

“I’m saying I thought you were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in all my life. I’m saying I felt guilty for wanting you when we were supposed to be going through one of the worst things that had ever happened to us. I’m saying I was falling for you even then. I’m saying I’d already fallen in love with you.” 
 

Solace had been kneeling, and he fell back on his ass now, staring at me with watery blue eyes. 
 

“And this one,” I said, passing him another photo. He was asleep on his grandfather’s couch after a night of lovemaking. My hands had done a number on his hair. 
 

“This was when we first got to Haley Cove,” he whispered. “Our first night here.”
 

“I watched you while you slept. I imagined us raising a family here. Imagined our babies having the best parts of you, which meant they’d have every part of you.” Because there wasn’t a piece of Solace’s soul that wasn’t good, wasn’t perfect.  
 

Solace let out a sound that was part laugh, part sob, but his tears hadn’t fallen yet. “What else were you thinking?” 
 

“I was thinking about how much I wanted to be inside of you again, but I’d already spent hours doing that. You needed your rest.” 
 

He blushed, and after all these years it was still the sweetest thing I’d ever seen. My eyes grew wet then, and I rushed to find another photo before I became too emotional to speak. I passed him another one, and he immediately began to cry. 
 

“I took this right before leaving to meet Stacey at the airport. I remember thinking this was the saddest smile I’d ever seen.” 
 

“I didn’t think you’d come back to me,” he said, voice thick. I leaned forward, kissing him softly, infusing it with all my love, tasting our tears. 
 

“I remember thinking there was nothing that would keep me from coming back to you. Nothing. I watched the house in my rearview mirror until I couldn’t see it anymore. Then I gunned it to the airport… Then I chose you.” I’d told him so before, even without remembering it. I knew he believed me, that if he hadn’t at first, I’d more than prove it with the ferocity of my love for him and our life together. I would have spent the rest of my life proving my love to him, if that’s what he needed. 
 

But I hoped it meant everything to him now to know for sure, because it meant everything to me. It meant everything that I could give that to him. 
 

Solace nodded, biting his lip to hold back his sob. “What about this one?” He pulled out a photo of our meadow, beautiful wildflowers spread throughout it. We’d never been able to figure out why I’d taken the photo. I’d chalked it up to wanting to capture the beauty of spring. 
 

I took the picture from him, staring down at it as I said, “This was going to be where I proposed to you. Right there, next to the tree we’d made love under.” 
 

Solace covered his mouth with his hands, happiness shining through the tears in his eyes. “You did propose to me there,” he breathed. 
 

“I did,” I agreed, without ever remembering that was the plan. I urged Solace onto my lap before kissing him this time, sliding my hands into his hair. 
 

“Ew,” Penelope’s voice sounded from the top of the stairs. “Cover your eyes, Rowen. Dad and Daddy are kissing again.”  
 

“Don’t cover your eyes while walking down the stairs!” I called out to them. To Solace I deadpanned, “Did you tell your brother he’s banned from the house?” Our daughter got all her bad habits from her uncle Gavin, including saying “ew” every time she caught me and Solace kissing. 
   

Solace laughed, wrapping his arms around my neck. “Not yet. It’s on my list of things to do after finding a few minutes to ride you in privacy.” He undulated onto my lap, making me moan.
 

“I can’t believe it’s come down to stolen moments in the shower or closet.” 
 

“You wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said against my smiling mouth.  
   

“Ew,” Igor chirped on a loop from the kitchen. 
   

“Dad and Daddy are kissing,” Elenor bellowed. “Dad and Daddy are kissing.” 
   

I scowled in their direction. 
   

“At least they aren’t talking about our cocks anymore,” Solace said wryly. 
   

“For now,” I corrected. I didn’t trust those birds. 
   

We dried our tears as Penelope charged into the family room, her bunny in hand. Rowan bounded in behind her carrying his turtle, his brown, shaggy hair bouncing away. He had a love of animals too. They leapt on us, and Solace and I grabbed them into a group hug—careful not to harm the wiggling animals in the process.     
   

“Guess what?” Solace said, fixing the top button on Rowan’s pajamas before our boy took off. There was no keeping him still for long. He settled down in front of the photo albums, resting turtle Tim on the floor next to him.
 

“Give me a hint,” Penelope said. At least we still had her interest.  
   

“How about we just tell you?” I tugged on her blonde braid. 
   

“Dad got all his memories back,” Solace whispered. 
 

She gasped, hopping up and down with her bunny in her arms. “You remember, Dad? You remember!” Her squeal caused Rowan to bound back over to us, squeezing his little body between me and Solace. Penelope was three the last time I’d regained any of my lost memories. She was seven now. Her enthusiasm brightened my morning even further.  
 

“Yeah, squirt,” I said, gazing lovingly at Solace as I kissed Rowan on the head. “I remember everything.” 
 

“Grab some old pictures from the blue album so we can test his memory,” Solace said, always looking for ways to engage and play with them. 
 

“Okay!” Penelope dropped down in front of the old albums. “Help me find pictures, Row!” 
 

“Go on, buddy,” I whispered, giving him one last kiss. They flipped eagerly through the album that contained my past with Solace. 
 

“Be careful,” I murmured to my husband, sending his arms around my neck again. “Some of those memories aren’t appropriate for children.” I bit down on his neck before kissing away the sting. 
 

“Just tell them the clean version,” he breathed against my lips. “Tell them how much you loved me. Tell them you chose me. Tell them you chose us.”

 

The End  

 

Did you enjoy the boy who loved Wicked? Have you read the follow up short story: the man who loved Wicked? If not, what are you waiting for? Phoenix and Sebastian’s bonus scene is up next, and it picks up from there! Read it here.