Reunited After 25 Years 43: The Best Wife Any Man Could Ask For

"He's beautiful," Andrea told her husband when she returned home from the visit. "Just perfect."

Anton heard the catch in her voice and put his arms around her. "Your turn will come soon," he told her. She clung to him and didn't say anything, and he rubbed her back comfortingly.

They went alone to the Parkers for Christmas dinner that year. After the awkwardness of Thanksgiving, Fawn refused to repeat the scenario. Denny refused to go without his half sister, and Darya refused to go without Denny, so Andrea and Anton went by themselves for the first time. Andrea privately gave a huge sigh of relief.

"Where are the others?" Jewel asked when she opened the door to her daughter and son-in-law. Andrea explained the situation.

"Oh, dear," Jewel sighed. "Well, tell Denny we miss him and would love to see him again."

During the meal Anton clasped Andrea's hand underneath the table. "It was one year ago today I asked you to marry me."

"It was one of the happiest days of my life," Andrea told him.

"And mine as well," Anton replied. "You are the best wife any man could ask for, and I love you very much."

"Aw, you're so sweet!"

Andrea loved the matching necklace and earrings Anton gave her this year almost as much as she'd loved the engagement ring he'd given her the previous year.

Later in the afternoon, a severe snow storm started with no warning. Anton and Andrea planned to wait until it eased up before they headed home, but when nightfall came, it still showed no sign of abating.

"You two may as well just stay here for the night," Jewel told her daughter and son-in-law.

"But what about Malinka?" Anton was worried.

"I fed her this morning, so she should have plenty to eat until we get back tomorrow," Andrea assured him.

"Well...all right," Anton said reluctantly.

They slept in the bedroom that had been Andrea's as a teenager. Cuddling with her husband in the bed in which she hadn't slept in over twenty years, Andrea felt cozy and secure as she listened to the storm raging outside.

The storm continued for all of the following day. Andrea helped her mother with the housework while Anton sat chatting with Alan in the living room.

Late on the third day, the storm had finally eased up enough that Anton and Andrea deemed it safe enough to return home.

"Malinka!" Anton called as he entered the house. The cat was nowhere to be found. "Malinka!" Near panic, he quickly searched the house but couldn't find her.

"She must have run away," he breathlessly told Andrea.

Just then the telephone rang.

"If you're looking for your cat, she's over here," Sally told Andrea when she answered the telephone. "The first night of the storm, I heard her mewing and let her in, and she's been here since then."

"Oh, thank you!" Andrea exclaimed. "Anton was worried about her."

"Malinka's at Sally's," Andrea told her husband.

"I will get her," Anton replied.

Andrea waited a very long time for her husband to return from Sally's and was just about to go to the neighbor's house herself when he finally returned.

"Whew! I just about never got away from her." Anton laughed. "She just talks, talks, talks, and when I finally think that she is finished, she talks some more. Her husband is injured in Iraq. She told me all about that. Then what her mother does, what her brother does, what her whole family does. Then she wanted me to look at her toaster. She thinks that it is broken. It is a very simple thing, something she could easily fix herself. Then she wanted me to try a sour cream pound cake she made and tell her how it tastes. After that, she finally let me go, and I almost forgot the cat, the reason I went over there in first place."

Andrea was so relieved to see him that she didn't even feel annoyed at Sally.

"So, have you been having any problems?" asked Dr. Lloyd, who was perched at the end of the exam table upon which Andrea lay with her feet up in stirrups. It was time for Andrea's yearly gynecological exam, and right now was the part she dreaded most, when she had to submit to cold, hard instruments being poked up inside her.

"I've been trying to get pregnant for about six months, and so far, nothing's happened," Andrea told the physician.

"You're just about old enough for menopause," Dr. Lloyd told her. "At your age, there's no time to lose. When I'm finished I'll refer you to a fertility specialist. You'll need to schedule an appointment with him as soon as possible. He'll probably want to see your husband as well, in case the problem's with him."

Andrea worried all the way home. What if it was already too late for she and Anton to conceive a child together?