Chapter 61

Ann Marie spent the first hour of our drive on the phone with her parents. They were nearly frantic with worry, but Ann Marie was calm and cool and went out of her way to make it seem like the storm never got near her and the babies. Even though Ann Marie called often while she was with me, it did not seem to help her parents feel any sense of peace about the danger they thought she was facing. Their concern was beautiful Her parents obviously cared very deeply about their only living child and grandchildren.

By the time we got out of the worst of the storm damaged area it was late. We traveled on past the military base where we stayed so comfortably and headed up into Kentucky. It was easy to find another Marriott with a big suite available and I booked it for two weeks, thinking we’d surely have some kind of plan by then. The babies traveled well, but they were very tired and went down quickly.

Ann Marie seemed tired and depressed about her car, so I decided to surprise her with some good news. “Let’s try to forget about the bad things and talk about fun things, OK?” Her smile was weak, but willing. “If you could buy any kind of vehicle at all, what would it be?”

She twitched nose a couple of times, and said, “I’d like a great big SUV, with all the room I’d ever need for strollers, baby things and me.”

“Done,” I announced confidently. “Your wish is my command. We will find the closest great-big-SUV-dealer in the area and I will buy you the one you like best, tomorrow morning.”

My surprise fell flat, because Ann Marie didn’t understand how seriously I loved spending money on people I liked. “Ann Marie, I’m extremely wealthy and the cost of the car of your dreams isn’t even one days’ worth of interest to me. We’ll shop until you find exactly what you want and then I’ll have so much fun buying it, you will have done me the favor, not the other way around. I mean it.”

Her eyes were as big as dinner plates as she finally realized that I was serious and intended to do exactly what I said I wanted to do for her. “But ... I’ve ... I don’t ... I can’t afford ... you don’t want to buy ... But...

“Why???”

“Because you are special and I want you to be as happy as you can be. If a new SUV helps make you happy, then we will go buy it for you. If you ask again, the answer is, ‘Because it made me happy. That’s why.’” It took some time but Ann Marie finally accepted what I said at face value and we drifted off to sleep cuddled like small puppies.

The morning brought a big room service breakfast that we dawdled over for almost two hours. The babies were bathed, fed and dressed and we headed off for Car Row, which turned out to be about a black down the road from the Marriott.

The salesman who met us seemed to want to be anywhere but helping two folks on a hot summer morning, so I sent him away and demanded to see the sales manager. When he appeared I knew this was not going to be the place we purchased Ann Marie’s new vehicle, so I thanked him for his time and walked away.

At the adjoining dealership we were greeted by a smiling woman, dressed professionally and genuinely glad to meet with a potential customer. It took about an hour for Ann Marie to decide on a cherry red Cadillac Escalade, which I traded the Mercedes on and paid the difference, which wasn’t much and we were off to lunch while our new best friend browbeat the make-ready department into getting the Caddy ready for delivery in two hours.

Ann Marie was stunned speechless.

She kept looking down at the brochure about her brand new ride and giggling. Her mouth was so interesting to look at when she giggled. It made me think of other things she could do with it, that would make me just as happy as she was right then. Lunch was a bit of an ordeal because she couldn’t stop talking about her new vehicle and promising to make it up to me later.

I very dearly hoped that she keep her promise...