the idea

There had been a set back.

Gavin thought he might not recover from it.

First there was Martha's wedding, which went off without a hitch.

He was certain then... he'd be married by Thanksgiving. Maggie seemed set on such an occasion.

She hadn't wanted anything big. There was lots of talk. But now he wondered if they'd been talking about Martha and Brice's wedding, all along.

A week before the wedding, Martha finally explained why she couldn't fit into the wedding gown. She was pregnant.

At the time, Maggie didn't speak ill of it. She went on and performed the ceremony. They'd gone on, soon after, to meet up with Leo and Sal in New York City to deliver Sophie, safe and sound in a bright apartment looking over the city.

And he knew it was hard for Maggie to let go, but she really hadn't known Sophie all that long. After all, Sophie was so happy to see Sal and to be with him.

However, it left Maggie distraught. She'd been so silent on the way back. He should have known something was up.

And now it was a cold silence. He didn't even know if she had her job, anymore. There were so many things he didn't know. After all, there was hardly any work to make ends meet, for himself, at his photography shop. But somehow he got by... as the days got colder.

There was a jingle at his shop's door. Of course, Gavin didn't move all that fast. Finally, he made it to the counter.

"Excuse me, is it Garvin or Gavin?" The man winced.

"Actually, its Garvin." He didn't have to think on it long. He still had a lot of business cards with Garvin on them.

"Good, says so right on the card." The man's smile was dazzling. He introduced himself as Wade. "I'd like a portrait of my son and myself. We haven't had a recent one. He's in high school now. Of course, he's made me take down all the baby photos, by now. But, the wall is so empty in the livingroom. And I was discussing it," Wade pointed across the street. " with Oliver..who told me how you took all those photos of his establishment. Said I should come and see you."

"We do try to help each other, when we can." Gavin now thought of himself as Garvin once more. He pointed to the box of muffins from Oliver's on his counter.

"So, you'd come out and do it? The photograph?" His bright eyes had a way of waking Garvin up.

"Just what kind of photo, do you have in mind?" Garvin wanted to know with a wince. He hoped it wasn't a nude or something strange. Like arrows pointed at him.

"I dunno. It wouldn't be too old fashioned. Just out back, near the river. Newt likes the river." Wade told Garvin. "He's all I've got, you know." That's when Wade explained to Garvin how his marriage never worked out, over a decade or so ago. "But I still wanted my own family." He'd used a surrogate. It was just Wade and his son.

For the first time, Garvin had never thought of such of a thing, and at the moment it felt like a brilliant idea.