Then Rowan’s arm gave out and he went down hard against the floor. He pulled in a sharp breath and immediately pushed himself back up, jaw tight, refusing to stay down.
I dropped to my knees beside him. “Talk to me. What is happening?”
He tried to make it into a joke the way he always did, but it did not land this time. His eyes moved toward my mother, and when he spoke again his voice was completely flat.
“This is what your life will look like,” he said. “Struggle and pain and always picking up the pieces. This is what I have been trying to keep you from seeing.”
I turned to my mother for only a moment. “No,” I said. “This is what it looks like to fight for someone you love.”
Rowan stared at the floor between his hands.
“I wanted to surprise you,” he said. “I promised you a first dance at our reception. I thought I could figure it out on my own. I thought I could be enough for you.”
The Words He Needed to Hear
I sat down on the floor beside him and put my hands on his face so he had to look at me.
“You think I married you for a dance?” I said. “I married you. Not your legs. Not what you lost. You. The man who keeps trying even when it hurts.”
His shoulders dropped slightly, like something he had been holding very tightly for a long time had finally released.
“I did not want you to regret it,” he said quietly. “I did not want your mother to be right.”
My mother was still standing in the doorway, and she had not made a sound. Whatever she was feeling was moving across her face in waves.
That night, after I cleaned his hand and helped him get settled, we lay together in the quiet of our room. He stared at the ceiling for a while before speaking.
“I still want to do the dance,” he said. “I want people to see us. Not what is missing. What is still here.”
I traced my fingers along his arm. “Then we do it together. Not alone.”
He looked over at me. “You would help?”
“I am your wife,” I said. “You are stuck with me.”
A real smile finally came through. “Good,” he said.
Learning Together
The next morning he rolled into the living room with the prosthetic legs on his lap and announced it was round two.
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