The Enchantress Returns (8 page)

“I definitely don’t think the deal is sealed,” Bob said. “Yet.”

Alex and Conner narrowed their eyes in perfect unison. Bob reached inside his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box. The twins wondered what it was for a second, but only a second. Once they realized it was too small to hold anything but a
ring
, it dawned on them what it meant.

“Oh my God,” Alex said.

“No way,” Conner said.

Bob looked down at the box with a smile. “You know, when my wife died four years ago, I never thought I would be happy again,” he said. “I save lives every day, but for a long time I thought it would be impossible to save mine. And then along came your mom, and I learned I had been wrong.”

Alex and Conner looked at each other out of the corners of their eyes. They had never seen Bob get so sappy, but still they appreciated how honest he was being with them.

“I know you’ve been seeing each other for a while, but this all seems so sudden,” Alex said.

“We only found out last night,” Conner said. “In our minds you guys have only been dating for one day. Are you sure you aren’t rushing things?”

The way he looked down at the ring, with loving eyes and a heartfelt smile, made it obvious that Bob had never been so sure about something in his life.

“I’ve been around for a while, guys. And I’ve learned that things like this don’t come around very often,” Bob said. “
Not
taking this opportunity to ask your mother to be with me for the rest of my life would make me the biggest fool in the world.”

Bob opened the box and showed the twins the ring. Alex gasped. It was the most beautiful ring they had ever seen. It had a silver band with two large diamonds, one blue and the other pink. They could have sworn they heard music playing while it twinkled in the light, but it was just in their heads.

“It took me a month to find the perfect one,” Bob said. “I knew this was right as soon as I saw it. I thought the diamonds would remind her of you two; they’re different shades of the same cut.”

Alex’s eyes immediately watered after hearing this. Conner folded his arms a little tighter.

“That’s the most touching thing I’ve ever heard,” Alex said between sniffles.

“Stop making me like you again,” Conner said, brow furrowed.

Bob sat up straighter, happy their meeting was moving in a better direction. “I’m not trying to replace your dad and I’m not asking to be your new one,” he said. “But I
am
asking for your permission to ask your mother to marry me. I don’t want to do this without your blessing.”

The twins couldn’t believe it. They both felt like they were passengers on this ship, and now he was letting them be its captains?

“We need a minute to think it over,” Conner answered quickly.

Before Alex knew it, her brother was dragging her into the kitchen. They stood there for a few moments in total silence, just staring at each other.

“What are you thinking?” Alex asked.

“I’m thinking this is uncomfortable,” Conner said. “This is more uncomfortable than the time I walked in on you and Mom talking about training bras.”

Alex rolled her eyes and peeked into the other room at Bob, making sure he couldn’t hear them. “Honestly, Conner, I don’t think we have any power over this. It was really nice of Bob to act like we’re a part of the decision, but you just heard what he had to say and you heard what Mom said last night. I don’t think anything is going to stop them from being together.”

Conner sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

“You’re right,” Conner said. “But who knows if Mom is even going to say yes? Maybe she’ll have reservations about it?”

“Reservations about what?” Alex asked. “She loves him and he loves her. What’s going to stop her?”

Conner looked away from her, not wanting to say what he was thinking, but they were both thinking it.

“Dad’s dead, Conner,” Alex said. “He’s not coming back no matter how much we want him to.”

It was hard for Alex to be so frank. Usually she let the adults in her life dish out the tough love, but since they were slowly disappearing, she had no choice but to serve it up herself.

Conner knew she was speaking to herself as much as she was speaking to him. Alex had a talent for saying everything he didn’t want to think.

“I suppose Mom has given us so much over the years, our blessing is the very least we could give her,” Conner said.

“Yeah, it is,” Alex said and nodded. “This is another big one.”

“Another big what?” Conner asked.

“A big moment,” Alex said and sighed. “We’ve had a lot of them.”

“Yeah, we have,” he said. “You’d think we’d be immune to it by now.”

“Immune to
life
?” Alex asked. “Is anyone ever that lucky?”

Conner grunted and put his hands on his hips. “Fine,” he said. “He can marry Mom, but I’m still calling him Dr. Bob.”

The twins returned to the other room. Bob anxiously stood and faced them.

“Well?” he asked with bated breath.

“The jury has spoken,” Conner said. “Alex and I have decided you may ask our mom to marry you.”

Bob joyfully clapped his hands together and tears came to his eyes. “Guys, you’ve made me the happiest man alive!” Bob said. “Thank you! I promise to take care of her for the rest of her life!”

Buster barked and jumped up and down, joining in on the celebration.

“Where are you going to do it?” Alex asked him.

“How about here, over dinner maybe?” Bob said. “I’ll order food from her favorite restaurant and surprise her when she gets off work.”

“When?” Conner asked.

“The sooner the better,” Bob said. “I’m free next Thursday night. How about then?”

“I have class in the afternoon but I’ll be home by six,” Alex said.

“Great, then it’s settled!” Bob said. “I’ll propose next week on Thursday night at six o’clock! I’ll ask a few of the nurses to keep your mom busy so she doesn’t get home early and ruin the surprise. This is going to be terrific!”

The twins were looking forward to it. Not the event itself, but a chance to see their mom happy again.

“Hey, Bob,” Conner said, “are you going to move in with us? Usually married people like to live with each other—for the first couple months at least.”

“That’s a good question,” Alex said. “Where are we going to live?”

“My house?” Bob said and shrugged his shoulders. “Before she died, my wife and I bought a big house not too far from here, thinking we were going to raise a family. It’d be nice to finally fill all those rooms up.”

The twins looked around their small rental house. The thought of leaving it made them feel sad; it had unexpectedly become home over the years.

“It’ll be weird to move again,” Alex said. “But easy since we never actually finished unpacking last time.”

“I’ve got a swimming pool,” Bob said, trying to cheer up the twins.

Conner’s eyes grew big. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he said. “Bob, you could have saved yourself an entire afternoon if you had just started with ‘swimming pool.’ ”

Alex rolled her eyes. Bob let out a soft chuckle.

“Now Mom better say yes or
I’m
going to be so disappointed,” Conner said.

It was hard for the twins to focus on anything the following week. The looming Thursday stood out like a bookmarked page in their future. The closer it got, the more anxious they became.

Alex and Conner didn’t know why they were so nervous; after all,
they
weren’t asking anyone to marry them. But in a strange way, Bob was marrying them, too. And as apprehensive about it as they were, the twins started to feel excited about Bob joining their family.

Conner was really looking forward to having another man around the house. As much as he loved his mom and sister, he missed having someone else there who appreciated the comedy in a bodily function.

He wrote a short story in his English class that week about a family of trolls whose mother was engaged to an ogre. It wasn’t the most flattering depiction of any of them, but it was quite therapeutic for him. He drew little sketches in the margins of his paper; the troll children looked very much like him and his sister. The one based on Alex even had a headband in front of her horns.

Alex found Conner working on the story one afternoon after school. She had never seen him look so devoted to something before.

“What’s this?” Alex asked him.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Conner said, a little embarrassed. He still hadn’t talked to her about his meeting with Mrs. Peters. “It’s just some creative writing for English.”

“That’s nice—
wait
, is that supposed to be me?” Alex said and pointed to his sketch.

“Not at all,” Conner said. “What would make you think that?”

“Because it says ‘supposed to be Alex’ underneath it!” she said, annoyed and offended. “That’s so rude, Conner. How old are you?”

Conner guiltily looked up at his sister. “There’s something I forgot to tell you,” he said. “I’ve sort of been writing about the two of us a lot in my English class.”

“What do you mean?” Alex asked.

“About our adventures in the fairy-tale world,” he said. “They’ve made for some great stories—that’s why Mrs. Peters called me into her office the other day. She really liked them and wanted me to consider being a writer. She said I may have what it takes, whatever that is.” He paused. “Thoughts or concerns?”

Alex blinked twice. “I think that’s a wonderful idea!” she said, and Conner sighed with relief. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“I was worried you wouldn’t want me spreading our business around,” Conner said. “You’re kind of the co-owner of our experiences.”

“On the contrary,” she said. “I think they
should
be told.
We saw so many things and met so many people it would be a waste to keep them to ourselves. Dad would be so proud of you.”

Conner smiled to himself. He hadn’t thought about that.

“Really?” he asked. “You think so?”

“Absolutely,” Alex said. “He’d be so happy the storyteller gene went to one of us. I’ve always tried telling and retelling stories, but you’re so much better at it than me. You’re funny; people like listening to you.”

Conner shrugged. “Aw, shucks,” he said. “But I’m not going to argue.” He pulled out the stack of his stories to share with her. “
This
one is about Trix’s trial and this one is about Trollbella giving freedom in exchange for a kiss—wish I could forget about that.
This
was my first one, about the Curvy Tree, but I was super paranoid people would find out it was true so I changed it to the Curvy Giraffe. It doesn’t make as much sense, but oh well, I’m learning.”

“This is great, Conner,” Alex said. “
Really
great.”

Conner grinned from ear to ear. He believed her much more than he believed Mrs. Peters. Her approval gave him the validation he needed to believe in himself.

Alex flipped through her brother’s stories. She smiled and laughed as she scanned through them, remembering the events they were based on.

“Oh dear,” Alex said, looking up from the papers, a fresh thought behind her eyes. “
Bob.
Are we going to tell him? Are we going to tell him who Grandma and Dad really are?”

Conner couldn’t answer. The thought hadn’t crossed either
of their minds until now. How were they going to share their family’s biggest secret with him?

“
Should
we tell him?” Conner asked.

“We probably should in case Grandma ever shows up with an elf or a fairy on our doorstep,” Alex said.

Conner looked off into the distance. “Gosh,
who are we
?” he said. “What other family has a problem like this? Most skeletons in the closet don’t have wings.”

“I imagine he’ll have a lot of questions either way,” Alex said. She let out a long sigh. “But it’s not like it’s really relevant anymore. It may be pointless to tell him we have ties to another dimension if we don’t get to interact with it ever again.”

“Guess we’ll just have to play it by ear,” Conner said. “It may be a good excuse to have in our back pocket for when we get older. We could tell Bob we’re going to the fairy-tale world and then go to a party instead.”

Alex tilted her head and looked at him curiously. “Why would we ever choose a party over the fairy-tale world?”

Conner shook his head. Just for once he wished his sister would think like a normal teenager. “I keep forgetting you’re an eighty-year-old trapped in a thirteen-year-old body,” he said. “Never mind.”

The end of the week slowly arrived and the twins woke up to a beautiful Thursday morning. They gave their mom extra-long hugs just before they left the house, causing her to raise a suspicious eyebrow at them as they headed to school. Alex and Conner felt like the day passed by extra slowly. They glanced up at the clock every five minutes only to be disappointed it hadn’t
changed much. As soon as school ended, Conner ran home and met Bob at the house to help prepare for the night. He cut corners over his neighbors’ lawns and was so careless he nearly tripped over a lawn gnome.

Alex was too antsy to enjoy her honors course or be sleepy on the train ride back. She just wanted the night to be perfect for her mom. And from the looks of things when Alex finally got home, it was going to be pretty close.