Pam

I fixed us both a glass of wine and after getting comfortable on the couch, I told her the story of Nigel. I didn't leave much out so there were the expected oos and ahhs and a giggle or two. I honed in on his character and the joy we had when we were together. As I was relating this to her, I realized I had not enjoyed anybody to the same extent since Bob and the love I felt in my heart speaking about him convinced me it was true.

"So did he actually propose or say he was thinking about it?"

Well, I think he did but I don't know for sure. He fucking winked when he left the shop, the motherfucker."

We both laughed at that and pulled ourselves together and fixed lunch. I did ask her not to say anything to anybody. I needed to process all this. She knew for years that I had always said I would never get serious about anybody else.

That evening, I called Nigel while lying in bed.

"Nigel, It's me"

"I know that, Pam"

"OK, then, about what you said. I'd like to be exclusive with you, OK? I don't know where it will go. I can't promise anything but I would like the two of us to just be the two of us, no previous girlfriends, no beefcake boys for me. Just you and me, OK?

"Pam?"

"Yes, Nigel?"

I'm coming over to make love to you now."

"OK"

That's what my man did. I let him in. Marylyn had already gone to bed. He proceeded to tear me up. He pounded me, fucked me, jumped my bones, screwed me, ate me, licked me again, plowed it and took it hard and soft. Then he kissed my bare nipples and held me in his arms as we slept. In the morning, I made him do it again.

After I washed him in the shower and dried him off, I took my man into the kitchen and made him a breakfast and showed him off to Marylyn. She just sat there and grinned.

"You two sure made a lot of noise."

OK, I turned a couple shades of red but Nigel just chortled and said

"She's quite the screamer, isn't she?"

We enjoyed a good breakfast and Marylyn shooed us out of the house. Later that evening I called Margo.

"Well, hello, little girl."

"OK, Margo, how much do you know?" I knew Nigel and Dan were friends so if Nigel talked at all about us, she would know.

"Pami, I know he loves you and he is going to pursue you till hell freezes over and never, ever, take no for an answer."

"Well, you are probably right but do you remember that conversation we had many years ago when I told you I was never going to take another man seriously again? Oh wait, of course you do. You're gloating about it, aren't you??"

She just burst into that boisterous Daniels laugh I love so much. She and her brother had that same similar laugh. It was throaty and full and loud. I could pick it out from across a room.

"Listen, my little baby sister, I knew when I first met Nigel that he was going to be your love. There was just something about him that yelled Pam every time I looked at him and he is good to look at, isn't he?"

"OK, you won. We are an item, at least for now but I'm going to take my time with this and if just being together long term works, that's what it will be. If we end up with more, so be it. But, I wanted you to know, I love you for everything you have ever done for me over the years and, my big sister, thank you for introducing me to him. You are right."

We ended the call before we would have both burst into tears

The next several weeks were hectic. Nigel and I took our romance public among our friends and acquaintances and found ourselves invited to everything that everybody was doing. It was too much too fast, really, but somehow we absorbed it all. David and Marylyn closed on a large condo in San Rafael while Millicent and her husband bought a house in Sausalito. Kiera was going to live with them for a while although I got the feeling that both the girls didn't want to be separated from each other. Once in a while I would wonder if Michael was one of those lucky men who enjoyed the opportunities with two beautiful women in his house.

I never asked.

Nigel asked if I wanted to move in with him but I deferred on that. I didn't think I was ready for that much. I still liked my independence and I also had the two horses as well as the twins when they visited. It was really nice to still be an independent woman living in Napa. Even still, I knew I was falling further in love with the man.

A couple of months later, a crisis of sorts appeared. Nigel worked for a business consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, and had transferred from the London office three years earlier. It was a path to a senior executive role if he was interested. Because of how these kinds of companies mentor and promote, the expectation was he would move on to take a promotion at another office. McKinsey wanted him to come back to London to head the operations for European business development. It was a lucrative opportunity, one he had been working toward since his divorce.

So he sat me down one evening and asked me what I wanted him to do or if I would ever go with him if he went back to London. To tell you the truth I was torn. I love him to death but my roots are anchored right here. All I have for immediate family is my sister Cindy. I told him all of this and let him know that I just didn't know. I cried like a little girl that night. Nigel hugged me close and told me he would work something out.

He didn't have to. Millicent used to work for McKinsey out of the same office before she went to work for her father and before Nigel transferred in. When David took over the Phoenix operations, he hired Millicent. With her influence, David offered Nigel a senior role with the company. Stephen had also offered to bring Nigel into the real estate business but David's offer was more tuned to Nigel's expertise. He accepted and we had a celebration dinner at a great restaurant that had just opened in the city.

Nigel invited everybody in our inner circle, David and Marylyn, Stephen and Cindy, Millicent and Michael, Kiera and a guy she was seeing off and on as well as Margo and Dan. Even the two twins were there. Everybody had a great time and before the deserts were brought out, somebody had bribed the Jazz trio playing off to the side to serenade all of us. It was wonderful. Then the music slowed and dropped a bit in volume. I looked to my right and Nigel was on his knees. He took my hand in his and he asked me in front of everybody.

"Pam Daniels Giardone, you don't have to tell me when or how long. I can wait forever but will you accept Nigel Miles Hegland as your husband to be?"

He opened the small box and the diamonds glistened in the soft light. He had a small tear in his eye and they were flowing out of mine. I knew back at the coffee shop that my answer would be yes when he asked but I didn't expect it that night. I stuttered but I got it out.

"Yes, Nigel Miles Hegland, I will be your wife."

He slipped the ring onto my finger and we embraced to the rousing cheers around the table and in the restaurant. I think the happiest face there besides Nigel and I was the face of Margo. She has always been my angel and probably my closest friend besides my sister. I look at her and I see Bob but it has become a happy memory rather than sad now. When I look at my husband to be, I see Nigel, as it should be. That's how I knew I could say yes.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Two years later, one of them was sideways, which wasn't good. The other one, well she was just anxious. I went the easy route. The doctor gave me a local and a few minutes later, laid two wet babies in my arms for the first time before the midwife took them to clean them up and test them before swaddling them and giving them back to Nigel and me. They were two dark haired girls with dark eyes and porcelain skin and when we named them they became Margo Roberta Hegland and Cynthia Ann Hegland. Ann was Nigel's deceased mom. I wanted it for a first name but he insisted on Cynthia. He knew both names were my closest friends in the world. I wrote in the name Roberta when I saw Margo's face. David and Marylyn are their godparents and their daughter Julie now lives out here and is my perfect little babysitter.

Nigel still rocks me hard and 'Pussy Hound' keeps trying, the dork.