“You stay there,” he said to me, after kissing my forehead.
He set up a humidifier and took VapoRub out of his backpack.
“You’re like a medical Mary Poppins,” I told him.
He laughed, but I tried not to, because I knew laughing would turn into coughing and would make it hard to breathe.
“Just wait until you see what else I have in here,” he said.
Then he walked to the part of my living room that had the kitchen area in it, and he began dicing onions and throwing them in a pot with some olive oil, which he’d also pulled out of his backpack.
“What are you doing?” I asked, watching him from my place on the couch.
“Chicken soup,” he said. “It’s a Gold family recipe. And there’s actually scientific backing to why it’ll make you feel better. Bone broth is good for you—it has iron, zinc, amino acids; so is garlic, it’s an antioxidant with diallyl sulfide; liquids are always good to keep things moving around in your body; and the heat will break up mucus.”
“So I’ll be healed up in no time,” I said, watching him cut up the chicken.
“That’s the plan,” he said, smiling over at me. “But I’ll come and take care of you as long as you need me to.”
It might have been the fever, or the fact that I’d been feeling sick for days, but when he said that, it brought tears to my eyes. When I was a kid, I always tried to take care of myself, whenever I could, because moving around was hard for my mom, especially when she had a flare-up. And Ari and I tried to take care of each other if we couldn’t manage it alone, especially after my mom got really sick. It was hard for her to do much caring for anyone else—and your grandpa was so preoccupied with her. I felt bad when I needed them and tried not to. Now that I’m thinking about it, that’s probably why I never told your grandfather about you, about how messed up I was that year. But Ezra acted like taking care of someone wasn’t a big deal. He said he’d do it for as long as I needed him to.
“I love you,” I told him from the couch that day. It was the first time I said that to him.
“I love you, too,” he said. “But maybe you’d already noticed.”
I hadn’t. Or maybe I had. But hearing it was so wonderful. Knowing that I didn’t always have to fend for myself—or count on Ari.
* * *
—
That was what popped into my head when he took my hand and slipped the ring on my finger. Somehow he’d figured out my size. And that, too, was perfect.
“It’s three diamonds,” he said. “For our past, our present, and our future.”
I looked down at my hand, and there they were, three round diamonds all lined up, all the exact same size. His promise to me that we’d be with each other forever.
We kissed then, on the lifeguard chair, with the waves crashing, the wind in our hair, both smelling like sunscreen and the sea. I never wanted that moment to end.
When we got back to the house, Ari was waiting with Ezra’s parents, a celebratory bottle of champagne chilling in a bucket of ice.
As soon as I saw her, I flew into my sister’s arms. “He asked my permission instead of Dad’s,” she whispered to me. “And waited before he proposed to find a weekend I could come out to celebrate afterward. You’ve got yourself a keeper.”
I hadn’t cried until then, but those words did it. I’d found a man so kind, so caring, so thoughtful, someone who knew how much my sister meant to me and made her part of our union. A man who I knew would be a great dad to your future brothers and sisters. I vowed to myself then that I would do everything I could to make him feel loved, understood, inspired—the way he did for me.
41
When they got to Little Italy Pizza, which was incongruously located in Midtown West, Emily said, “I know it doesn’t look like much, but it’s open twenty-four hours and is the New Yorkiest New York pizza around.”
“I’m in,” Rob said, letting go of her hand to open the door for her.
“Thanks,” she said, walking in front of him, forced to slide inches from his chest as she stepped through the door. The nearness made her feel like a magnet, her body pulled toward his, her willpower alone keeping them apart.
Rob ordered a pepperoni slice, and Emily found herself hungry, too, so she got plain cheese and sat down at a booth. Rob paused when he got there, as if he wanted to slip in next to her, but then thought better of it and sat opposite. Emily noticed one woman nudging the man she was with and pointing at Rob. Would Rob be able to go out for pizza like this much longer without a baseball cap covering his face?