Complete Indelible Love Series

by Cee, DW

  “That was cool, wasn’t it?” That was damn romantic, I thought. It took guts to walk onto the catwalk in the middle of a show and propose.

  “Uh, yeah, I guess.” Nick wasn’t even fazed. “What’s next? Can we eat?” he asked even before the couple left the runway. This man did not have a romantic bone in his body.

  My original thought of visiting Vegas alone was ringing true.

  I had another show to attend, but by the constant fidgeting, I knew Nick wasn’t up for it. I sighed and decided perhaps a compromise was in order. “Can we maybe stand in the back of one more show and watch just the beginning before we have dinner?”

  "Sure." He had a penitent grin. “Sorry. We didn’t have much for lunch so I’m a bit hungry.”

  I kissed his lips and told him to go grab a snack, but he wouldn’t let go of my hand. “Let’s go to the next show and we can catch dinner at the hotel after.” He was determined to see through this day with me.

  Arriving at our next destination, a large group of spectators drew our attention to their circle. We pushed our way to the front and found a man in an Elvis costume on his knee, with a surprised, normally dressed woman hand-in-hand with him.

  We missed the first part of his confession, but we caught the last and most important question. “…will you marry me?”

  Another damn proposal! Was this a conspiracy?

  Though the get-up was silly, the tears in the woman’s eyes were real. She spoke and nodded a yes simultaneously, and the Elvis impersonator stood up and embraced his fiancée.

  It was ridiculous, but my heart ached. I was never a girly-girl and I couldn’t say that I had any fancy notions of a grand proposal. But Nick asking me to marry him in such a business-like way disappointed me. I knew he wasn’t into fanfares, but I wished he’d give me just a little…something.

  “Let’s go.” He pulled me into his body and led me to the next show.

  Of course my focus was completely off when the models took the runway. It took a good hour to get my mind off the proposals I saw, and in truth, it was hunger pangs that eventually diverted my attention.

  I led my very hungry and definitely irritated boyfriend into one of his dream restaurants.

  “How? What?” He was speechless.

  “This is my thank you for suffering through all the shows.” I placed a chaste kiss on him.

  “Did you plan this all along?”

  “Did I plan to bring you to Joel Robuchon and spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on you?”

  The maître d' led us to a cozy table in the corner and left us to peruse the sixteen-course menu. The excitement level on Nick’s face grew line by line and item by item on the menu.

  “How did we end up here?”

  “As soon as you hopped in the driver’s seat of my car and told me you’d chauffeur me five hours into Nevada, I knew I needed to reward you. I made reservations on my handy dandy smart phone and here we are.” Nick looked like a child who was receiving his first meal after having been starved for a few days. “That’s why we needed to attend the last show. I needed to kill an hour.”

  “This is so cool.” He was all smiles, taking a photo of the cover of the menu. “I’m sending the picture to Emily. She’ll be jealous.”

  No sooner had the swoosh sound signaled the sending of the text, there was a ping signaling Emily’s response. Nick chuckled.

  “What’d she say?”

  “She says that if she didn’t need to barf in the toilet every thirty minutes, she’d beg Jake to fly them over here and join us.”

  “Her morning sickness has kicked in?”

  There was shock in his voice. “How’d you know?”

  “Couldn’t you tell there was something off with her when we were in New York? She was tired, she slept more than usual, and she was all-around unwell.”

  “You caught all that?”

  “And obviously, you didn’t?”

  “Hell no. It was only when Jake told me a few days ago that I knew I had another niece or nephew on the way.”

  “What do you think? Niece or nephew?”

  “I don’t think our she-devil will take kindly to another girl in the family, so my bet is on another boy.”

  “Twins?”

  “I hope the hell not. We don’t need three sets of twins on the cul-de-sac.”

  “I guess not.”

  “Speaking of…you never gave me an answer on the house. I’d like to put in an offer soon. You want to purchase it together or do you want me to do it alone?”

  Ah, damn. I guess we never completely discussed this topic. “Well, I’m thinking that…”

  Right in the middle of explaining myself, we heard an “Oh my gosh!”

  Nick and I looked over to the middle of the dining room to find a woman with her hands over her mouth and a man on his knee professing his love to her. She said, “Yes!” and we all cheered for another happy couple.

  Someone was out there mocking me. Another freakin’ proposal.

  “Huh!” I sighed louder than I’d intended.

  Nick’s eyes bore on my visage until he went back to the menu. “Joel Robuchon and his staff have outdone themselves. The menu is amazing.”

  “Yeah…” I sighed again.

  Dinner was a long affair. Conversation dragged on, food service lagged once the dining room filled, and my mood showed less than stellar.

  “Hey.” Nick called out to catch my lacking attention. I looked at him in response. “You know I love you, right?” Wha??? “You know I want to spend my life with you?” OK… “From what you’ve told me, I believe you want the same. With that being true, would you want to get married?” Huh??? “Here. Like as in now, I mean, after dinner?” He understood the “What the hell” look on my face. “It’s Vegas, Bee. Let’s head to the chapel and get married!” He spoke with excitement in his eyes.

  What the fuck! Did he just do this to me again? Another damn “proposal?”

  July 17, 2014 NICK: Proposal TakeOver

  I don’t get women!

  I REALLY don’t get my woman!

  To say I put my foot in my mouth in Vegas would be a ‘mild statement,’ according to Donovan and Laney. I saw nothing wrong with asking Bee to marry me again, and I definitely saw nothing wrong with a Vegas wedding.

  A Vegas wedding would solve a myriad of problems—no hassle, no wait, no wedding planning, no stress...RIGHT?

  “NOT freakin’ right!” Laney yelled at me. “What the hell is wrong with you? Are you a Reid? Has Jake taught you nothing? Have you told Gram what you did this week?” With that, she made all of us walk back to my house and explained what I did, with much emphasis on the words “stupid,” “idiotic,” and “disown.”

  “What’s wrong with getting hitched in Vegas?” I looked more toward Grandfather Roland than Laney. “We can’t all get married in Florence and take month-long honeymoons. Most of us can’t have grand weddings. We Reids don’t live in reality.” I complained to the women this time.

  “Nicholas.” Gram said gently. “Have you asked Bee what kind of wedding she might like? Have you discussed marriage with her?”

  Laney snorted. “I don’t think he’s even asked her to marry him.”

  “Yeah I did.” I defended my actions.

  “Since my wife is too pregnant for me to take you out for a beer, let’s go to the backyard and have a chat with just the men.” My newest cousin couldn’t help the snicker. “Let’s get you away from the angry, pregnant woman.” He kissed his wife and spoke quiet, soothing words, which did the trick. Next thing you knew, my cousin had a huge smile on her face.

  “How’d you do that?” I asked in amazement. “How’d her scowling face turn into a goofy smiling one with a few words?”

  “Cousin.” Donovan chuckled. “There were a thousand pissed off looks before I learned the trick of making my woman smile. It’s all in the delivery.”

  “Help.” No other word was n
eeded.

  By the time we sat with drinks in hand, Jake and Max appeared with Grandfather.

  “Hey, Nick.” Max grabbed a beer, and patted my shoulder. “Jake filled me in on your never-ending excitement.” Max’s eyes were filled with laughter even though he didn’t crack a smile.

  “You laughing at me?”

  “Laughing with you, Bro.”

  “Just remember who brought your wife with him to Mexico when you two were on the brink of breaking up.”

  “And I will forever be grateful for your help. Your sister loves both her brothers.”

  “All right. Enough of the pep talk. Tell me what I’m doing wrong.” All four men looked around at one another with a grin I didn’t appreciate. It was a knowing but I-don’t-want-to-tell-you, grin. “Come on!” I yelled. “Explain!”

  “I’ll go first.” Grandfather stepped up. “When I was courting your grandmother, the first time, I was so whipped, so desperate, all I ever focused on was marrying her. I didn’t stop to smell the roses with her, I didn’t ask her what her favorite flower was, and I sure as hell didn’t care what she wanted. It was all about what I wanted, and I wanted Estelle Cowper.”

  I wasn’t understanding this story. I was just shy of asking, “And your point is?” But of course, I didn’t, and wouldn’t disrespect my grandfather that way.

  “Now Jerry, damn perfect Jerry Reid,” he added sarcastically, “sailed into Paris and whisked my fiancée away by not only reassuring her that he loved her, but also asking her what it was that she wanted. He wanted to know what she’d been doing the months without him. He asked her about her classes, her dreams, and what she wanted to do with their future. Whereas I told her what I wanted for us, Jerry asked her what she wanted for them. Little did I know that I was battling Goliath with no sight of God willing to help out poor little David.”

  My brother was next in a long line of men willing to share their epic stories with me. “You saw me with Emily.” My brother shook his head, amused with himself. “I was no different than Roland. I fell in love with Emi the moment I saw her staring at boxes of cereal in the grocery store. I wined her, dined her, whisked her off to beautiful locations, and assumed there was no other man in her life but me. Who the hell would be a better prospect than me?”

  “Dr. Jake Reid.” Max squealed like a girl. “Ahhhh!” He sounded like a groupie at a boy band concert.

  “I assumed I could do no wrong and took our relationship at light speed. When Max threw us his screw-you ball,” my brother and Max laughed like hyenas, “I punished Emi for hurting me, but in reality, she carved out a place for me in hell and shackled me there. It was during those five months that I vowed to give her everything she asked of me if I ever saw her again. What I didn’t understand was that she didn’t want anything material. She only wanted my heart. I would have known this had I listened to her and paid attention.”

  That was a nice story but was I stupid? I still didn’t understand what this had to do with me.

  “I see you still don’t get it.” Donovan said. “You want to go first or shall I?”

  My brother-in-law was in a damn good mood when he said, “I don’t recall any problems during our courtship. We only had a pesky family friend playing havoc with our emotions, two ex-girlfriends of mine making my then-girlfriend insecure as hell, my stubborn asshole nature keeping us apart—all a damn long, walk in Central Park.”

  They didn’t make men any cooler than my newest brother-in-law. His self-deprecating humor in addition to his unconditional love for my sister, made him ideal. My sister was a lucky woman, and I hoped she understood it.

  “Since Max stole my idea of taking the easy way out, I guess I have to tell the real story. You know I struggled and refused to admit my feelings for Delaney.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Once I admitted them, I figured all was well, we’d get married, and life would be easy street. What no one revealed to me was that I hadn’t asked Delaney to marry me. I always told her that she was to marry me. What I’m trying to say, Cousin, is that all women want a proposal of a lifetime. She doesn’t want you telling her that you want to get married. She does NOT want a ‘Let’s get hitched in Vegas’ proposal, and she sure as hell doesn’t want a business proposal. Get on your knees, tell her not that you love her, but how much you love her, and put your heart on the line for the firing squad to shoot the hell out of it. It’s when you’re willing to put yourself out there, that she’ll understand your love for her.”

  My head automatically shook back and forth at the stupidity of this situation. “Now why the hell didn’t any of you tell me about this sooner?”

  July 21, 2014 BEE: Proposal DiscOver

  I decided to let go of what happened in Vegas. Nick was never a smooth character like my nephew, and I knew he loved me. I accepted this and didn’t want to make a fuss over what he didn’t get right.

  We spent most of our days since Vegas apart because of work and school. He had to be at the lab most of the time keeping an eye on his experiment, and I had to make up for the days I spent in Vegas.

  “Your phone’s ringing.” Missy nudged. “It’s in your purse.” She laughed at my space cadet ways.

  “Hello?”

  “Hello, future sis.”

  “Jane?”

  “Yep.” She answered with a chuckle. “How about we have a girls’ night at our place? Your nephew offered his home, along with food, drinks, and servers, but I think we need to meet away from the cul-de-sac.” The sarcasm dripped from her voice. “I told Donovan that his precious wife and babies would be fine. I’d call him if Laney even hiccupped the wrong way.”

  I laughed. “I’ll come if there’s some of that coconut cake Emily is so fond of.”

  “I’ll let my brother know his wife is craving it. I’m sure he’ll bring enough for the cul-de-sac to share.”

  I liked Jane. She was refreshing and honest. All the Reid women were impressive in their own right.

  I called my niece to see if I could offer her a ride to Jane’s.

  “Hi Auntie.” She sounded tired.

  “How you holding up?”

  “I feel as big as a house, and look as big as a house. Since I came downstairs, I’ve been on this couch all day, barely able to move.”

  “What about lunch?”

  “Hubby came home midday and brought me food, but I haven’t eaten. I could only stomach the smoothie.”

  “I called to see if I could pick you up and take you to Jane’s in a bit.”

  “That would be nice. Donovan wants to follow me to Jane’s. He’s so nervous about my well-being.”

  “Your husband loves you.”

  “That he does,” she agreed.

  The day went quickly and next thing I knew, Laney, Emily, and I had arrived at Jane’s for dinner, dessert and conversation.

  “I see Jake took my suggestion to heart and brought home a coconut cake.” Jane greeted us in her driveway.

  “Your brother brought home three cakes. One for tonight, one for home, and one for Laney.”

  “How are you feeling, Emily?” Jane patted Emily’s stomach that had bulged quite a bit already.

  Emily caressed her own stomach and answered, “This one has been the least difficult. I still get nauseous, but by noon, I’m fine. But, I’m also exhausted by noon, usually.”

  “You do have three other children to take care of, while carrying another.” Jane spoke while leading us to her intimate dining room. “Are you finally going to get some help?”

  “I’m unsure about the help, but Jake and I decided the twins are ready for a nursery school three days a week. I’ve started looking into a place where they can engage with toddlers their age for two to three hours.”

  “That sounds perfect.” Laney added. “I think they’d do fine even attending every day.”

  Emily nodded. “We’ll see how they adjust and if they like it, that’s the next step.”

&n
bsp; "Here." Jane placed several bottles of Perrier in front of Laney. “Your husband says you need this with your dinner or you’ll have indigestion all night.”

  Laney had a sheepish grin. “He’s a bit of a worry-wart. I can’t imagine what he will be like when the babies are born and I start school again.”