Wild Ride

by Rebecca Avery

  Picking up the hotel phone, he dialed Lilly and Bobby’s room. After a few seconds Chuck said, “What did you do man? Lilly’s over here shaking like a leaf… thinks you’re mad and shit. She’s pregnant, man… you’re supposed to be the rock right now… the rock. Did you seriously tell her she’s gaining weight? Way to go man… way to go!”

  With that he hung up and then busted out laughing at the look on Lilly’s face.

  “What did you just do, Chuck?” Lilly asked in shock.

  “You can thank me later,” he winked at her.

  Having wrapped a blanket around herself and put on her prosthetic, Meredith grabbed her clothes off a chair and headed to the bathroom and quickly scrambled into them just as Bobby banged on the door to their room.

  Opening the door to the bathroom she watched as Bobby stood in the doorway looking at Lilly for a few seconds in confusion. Then he walked over to her and kissed her as though he was trying to consume her. The display of passion toward Lilly made her look at Chuck.

  “You interrupted my morning ride boss…” Chuck said, walking to the door and holding it open.

  “You scared the hell out of me, Charlie… next time you do that shit I’m going to hurt you,” Bobby said before taking Lilly’s hand and leading her out of their room.

  Closing the door he smiled at her and dusted his hands as though he had dirt on them. “Now where were we?” he asked, approaching her with a sexy grin.

  The trip back from New York was fun since the nervousness of testifying was behind them all and Melody was a much better passenger. Meredith, Lilly, Sherri, and Dana talked and giggled nearly the whole trip back. Meredith was sorry when the trip ended. Almost as sorry as she was that the nights spent in Chuck’s arms would once again become few and far between rather than a consistent thing.

  The morning after arriving back from New York Chuck stopped by Tommy’s house and he was all smiles.

  “Did you ask her, man?” Chuck asked.

  “Yep,” Tommy replied with a grin. “You are looking at Dana Atkinson’s fiancé.”

  Chuck gave him a bear hug of congratulations and then said, “You got mine then?”

  “Actually, Dana liked the one you picked out better so I gave it to her instead,” Tommy said and then after a pause laughed. “I’m kidding!”

  “Man, I’m a hot mess as it is… like sweaty kind of nervous. You know old Judge Patterson is probably going to punch me right in my mouth when I ask him… right?” he laughed.

  “Grow some balls, Chuckie… oh that’s right… they’re in a jar in his office right?” Tommy laughed.

  “Seriously not funny right now,” he snickered.

  “Luck’s been with you so far this week… here’s hoping it sticks,” Tommy said smacking him on the shoulder and then handing him a bag.

  An hour later he was sitting in Judge Patterson’s office in a chair being scrutinized by the older man and attempting not to keel over from heart failure.

  “Though I appreciate hearing about your new venture in the world of high dollar art, Mr. Reynolds, there is only one reason a man looks like he ate nails for breakfast and his coffee’s kicking in… so why don’t you ask me what you came to ask me,” Judge Patterson said.

  “Nathan… Judge Patterson… I know Meredith and I haven’t known each other very long and that we are really young but, uh… I love her… like really love her and I, uh… I want to ask her to be my wife. If that’s ok with you,” he choked out. That sounded stupid.

  Turning in his chair the old man looked up at the painting of his wife and said, “We knew each other for four days before we got married. Everyone said a thing done like that on a whim would never work… never last. I lost her two weeks shy of our fortieth wedding anniversary,” he said before taking a deep breath.

  “There’ll never be another one for me… she was my Meredith, Mr. Reynolds That picture is almost exactly how she looked when we met and I can hardly look at it without feeling her,” Judge Patterson finished.

  A silence filled the room that he was almost afraid to break but he had to know.

  “So that means I can ask her right?” he said, finally unable to take another second of not knowing.

  “Yes, on one condition… don’t take her far from me. She’s a little slice of my wife where Carla is a little slice of me,” the judge said.

  If he was nervous asking the judge’s permission, thinking of how to ask her was going to make him vomit. He’d stopped by and picked up the painting and everything was ready… now he just had to do it.

  Having been completely useless most of the day at the shop, Bobby had finally told him to get on with it and let him off work early. Lilly had hugged him with tears in her eyes after suffering several bouts of happy tears from talking with Dana and hearing about her and Tommy’s engagement.

  Pulling up on his bike outside the Johnson’s house he sucked in a deep breath and unstrapped the painting from the back of his bike, being careful not to tear the wrapping paper. Heading to the door he was met by Carla who eyed the gift wrapped package he held.

  “Got a little something for Meredith when we were in New York,” he said in answer to her unasked question.

  “She’s in the kitchen working on homework,” Carla said.

  Making his way into the kitchen he was saved from having to awkwardly get her to un-wrap the gift, when skipping ahead of him Ben yelled “Chuck got you a present Meredith!”

  Looking up she eyed the gift he held. God she was beautiful. Please say yes.

  Taking the gift from him she began to unwrap it with Carla, Matt and Ben watching on.

  “Oh my God… Chuck?” she whispered upon seeing the painting.

  It was an image of him in a black tuxedo holding out his hand. He had put a small string through the canvas in the palm of his hand and tied the diamond ring to it. The ring he had seen online and Tommy had picked it up while they were in New York. The words ‘marry me’ were printed in old style calligraphy in an arch above his palm.

  Her eyes were shining with tears but she didn’t say anything for a minute and then she was in his arms, “Yes… yes, Chuck… oh yes!” she choked out, hugging him tightly.

  “Oh, Thank God! If you had said no I would have felt real stupid having asked the judge for permission this morning,” he laughed against her neck.

  She kissed him and it felt like home to him… finally a real home.