A LOVE FOR ETERNITY
Chapter Five
Have I Told You Lately
Two Weeks Later...
Rose was sitting on the sofa,
reading a book, when she heard Jack come in through the front door.
They were now living in his old house.
The day after they had arrived, Anne had taken her shopping for new clothes,
while Jack and Jim had managed to get some furniture. Everyone in town was
happy that Jack was back and, of course, they all liked Rose a lot. Every one
of them had helped them to get settled. Just three days after their arrival,
the house had been ready to move into. Every once in a while they got a
visitor, but they were also happy when they were alone.
Their wedding was to be in three
days, but Rose wasn't nervous at all. The whole town was invited, and everyone
was looking forward to it. The day before, Rose and Anne had bought her wedding
dress. It was white—of course—had short sleeves, a V-neck, and a short train.
Rose knew that Jack would also like it.
"Hello, darling," Jack
greeted her as he entered the living room. He went over to her, sat down, and
kissed her lovingly. "Guess what happened."
Rose thought for a while. "I
don't know—tell me."
"Well, there was this shop,
but it had to close down, and now the space is empty. So, I bought it with some
of the money my parents left me. It is now ours, and soon we'll be able to open
an art store, maybe even sell a few pictures of my very pretty soon-to-be-wife.
I don't know if we'll be very successful, but I think we can try. What do you
say?"
"It's great! Now you'll
really be a big artist! I can't wait. But what do we do about the farm?"
"I thought that maybe we
could sell some of the property or I could have the store as a part-time job.
That would maybe work. But I didn't want to sell anything before asking
you."
"Let me think...maybe I
could run the store, so you could run the farm and we could earn more money and
wouldn't have to work so much," Rose suggested, hoping that she would be
able to do some work. She had never had to do it before, but she was more than
willing to try it.
"That's a good idea, but
wouldn't it be better if we both ran the store? If we did this, we would have
much more time together. And, like I said—we could sell some of our property.
If you don't like the idea, we won't do it. I was just thinking that you
wouldn't be so much alone then," Jack told her.
"That's even better,"
Rose answered him. She could already imagine them as the owners of the store,
earning a lot of money. "What will we call our store? I mean, what will it
be named?"
"I also thought about that,
and I have a pretty good idea. It's simple, but it think it will suit
us—Dawson's Art," Jack suggested, looking at Rose, hoping she would like
it.
She nodded. "That's
good—really good."
"So, that's it?"
"Yeah, that's it."
It was settled. Soon they would
have something to be proud of.
*****
The next day, Rose was shopping
with Anne and Joanna, a girl from town. They were looking for a wedding present
for Jack, but couldn't find the right thing.
"Rose, how long are you
going to drag us around this town? We've been searching for hours, and visited
most of the shops. How long will this go on?" Joanna asked tiredly. She
was about twenty years old, and Rose thought that she was really pretty. Her
brown hair was nearly as long as Rose's, and was falling down her back in
gentle waves. She wasn't married yet, but she expected Tom Barry to ask her any
day.
"We'll search until we find
the right thing," Rose hissed back, when she suddenly spotted a sign that
said Andrew's Photo Shop. "What's this?" she asked, and pointed at
the sign.
"Oh, why didn't I think of
it earlier? You can let him take a photo of you, frame it, and give it to Jack.
That would be perfect," Anne announced.
The three of them went in, and only
thirty minutes later, came out again. They had taken a few photos, and Rose
would pick them up the next day. Andrew had promised that he would hurry so
that they were ready when they picked them up.
In the meantime, Jack and Jim
were also in town, but they were careful not to run into the girls. Jack was
looking for a wedding gift, too, but he found it earlier than Rose.
They were at a jeweler’s, where
Jack searched for a ring for Rose. He found it immediately. It was a simple
gold band with three blue diamonds and engraved roses. He also let the jeweler
engrave a special phrase in the inside of it. When he looked around the shop
once more, he found the perfect gift for Rose. It was gold locket, heart-shaped
and hanging on a thin gold chain. It had a red, also heart-shaped, diamond on
it. Jack knew that Rose would like this, and so he also bought it.
Rose arrived at the house just a
few minutes after Jack. Anne and Joanna had already gone home, so she had
walked back alone.
Jack was in their bedroom when
Rose arrived. He quickly put his presents into a drawer and then went down and
saw Rose already sitting in the living room.
"Hello," he said
lovingly, and sat down beside her. He put his arms around her and pulled her
close to his body. "I can't wait until we are finally married."
"It won't take long until we
are."
They sat there and didn't say
anything for a few minutes, just enjoying being together and having each other.
"How was your day with Anne
and Joanna?"
"We had so much fun. I'm so glad
that I know them. We went into almost every shop in town, but we never bought
anything. We were just looking around and enjoying ourselves...my mother never
let me go alone without a maid, and she always decided what I had to buy. So I
really enjoyed this day." Rose smiled brightly at Jack. This was just what
she needed. Fun and freedom.
"I'm happy that you like it
here. I was afraid that you would want to go back, and get tired of having me
around you all day."
"How often do I have to tell
you," Rose said, pretending to be angry, "that this is not what I
will do? I just want to be here with you because this is where I belong."
She smiled again. She was really happy. Life was better than it had been ever
before. When her father had been alive, life had also been good. They would go
into the city and go shopping or to the park, just having fun. But when he had
died, everything had changed. Her life had become dark and lonely. Now, it was
bright again.
Rose snapped back to reality when
she felt Jack kiss her fingertips gently, like she had done that night in the
car so long ago. She looked at him and saw the love in each of his movements.
She leaned her head down until her face was in front of Jack's. She looked into
his eyes, and saw again only love.
And then she kissed him. But it
wasn't just a kiss, it was a sign of her love, and it was full of passion. At
this moment she felt it again, knew again that it had been the right decision
to leave her old life and go with Jack.
Rose wrapped her arms around him,
and they lay back on the sofa. Suddenly, Jack stopped kissing her and just
looked at her.
"What's the matter?"
Rose asked, really not knowing what she could have done wrong.
"I just realized how
gorgeous you are. It's not that I didn’t know before, but I see it again every
time I look at you." He smiled. "Ah…what am I talking about? Just
kiss me again."
And so she did. Her lips melded
with his, and they became one with this kiss. All their love came out,
exploded, and filled the whole room. Only a few minutes later, they went up to
their bedroom. There they began another trip to the stars.