Always Yours

by Shelly Jones

  “That’s nuts, I was a basket case!”

  “Yeah I know I slept with you that night.”

  I get the twins and put them in my room in their bassinet. Rachel is sleeping in my bed with me. “Alright girls, I’m off to bed!” I hug them each.

  I crawl into bed “I’m so happy for you,” Rachel says.

  “Thank you, I just can’t believe this is happening. Now I’m getting nervous. That’s if I go to sleep, I’m worried I’m going to wake up and this has all been a dream.”

  “Not happening. This is as real as it comes.”

  “Promise?”

  “Oh I promise...”

  It’s seven in the morning and Ava has woken me up “Mama! Get up. You got to get your pretty on,” she says to me. She calls my wedding dress “my pretty.”

  “Good morning Ava,” I open my eyes.

  “Up! You put pretty on mom,” she gets a little louder.

  “Ava, mommy doesn’t have to put that on yet. It’s too early.”

  “No! Now mommy! Now,” she shouts.

  “Ok, Ava Lilly, you need to be quiet so you don’t wake up Haylee and Ryder,” I tell her sitting up. “Tell Auntie Rachel to get up.” I laugh as she runs over to Rachel and wakes her up.

  It’s eleven and we’re headed out. We check like ten times to make sure we have everything. Once we know we’re ready we hit the road. I start getting in my truck when a BMW pulls in.

  “Who the fuck is that?” Rachel snaps.

  “Steve’s mother,” I growl. I start walking over there by here, “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “I mean no harm, Katie. I just wanted to come by and congratulate you.”

  I throw my head back and laugh, “I don’t need congratulates from you.”

  “I’m sorry for what my son has done to you, I’m happy you’re finally happy. You and Ava deserve all the happiness in the world.”

  “Yes we do and we have it. Today should have happened a long time ago, but thanks to your fucked up son, it didn’t. So get the fuck off my property so I can finally get my happy ending.”

  “Katie you don’t have to be so harsh. Steve loved you, you know.”

  I walk closer to her and get about as close as I can, “What your son felt for me was not love, it was possession. Your son was so messed up in the head and you all knew it but did nothing about it! Now again, get the fuck off my property before I remove you!”

  “Fine, I’ll leave. Oh and thanks for not getting the courts involved.”

  I start laughing, “Yeah, and in a couple of weeks, you will have no ties to Ava or me. Eric is adopting Ava. So now get the fuck out of here,” I shout. Lucy just stares at me for a while and then decides to get in her car and leave. I watch her leave and I release the breath I’ve been holding it. “What the fuck?!” I scream.

  “That was fucked up, even for her!”

  “No shit. To come here on my wedding day, that whole family is fucked up!”

  “Come on sis, let’s get out of here and get you married,” Rachel says and wraps her arms around me.

  My dad has the twins and Ava and is following us out there. “Marry You” by Bruno Mars comes on for our drive out.

  When I pull into the drive way, I fall in love with this place all over again. Before heading off to get ready, I take a look at the decorations.

  The wedding itself is outside. There are white metal chairs lined up, with our sign, “Two families become one. Pick a seat not a side.” Eric and I both saw that sign and agreed that it had to part of the wedding. There’s a white arch by the willow tree decorated in sunflowers and daisies. “This is perfect,” I say wiping a tear from my eyes.

  “Let’s go see inside,” Rachel says as she and Maddie grab my arms and we walk into the reception and dinner area. It’s perfect. Dana, Evan and Eric’s mom came out here early this morning to get this set up. Every table has a bouquet of mixed flowers, Daisies, lilies, sunflowers and wildflowers. The DJ is setting up his stuff.

  “How is everything,” one of the staff asks.

  “Perfect,” I say with a big smile.

  The girls take me upstairs where we get ready. Eric’s cousin Kayla has helped me get ready. My blonde hair is curled and cascading down my back. We kept my make-up minimal as usual. The girls’ hair is up in ponytails with a piece of hair curled along the face. Ava’s hair is curled and she’s wearing a sparkle headband. The girls come out in their cream color strapless chiffon dresses that hit just at the knee. They’ve got their brown cowboy boots on. “Oh my god! You guys are gorgeous,” I tell them.

  “Girl you done good picking out the dresses,” Madison says.

  “Your turn,” Rachel announces.

  I step into my dress and the girls help me zip it up. Before looking at myself, they help me put on my cowboy boots. Looking at myself in the mirror, I don’t even look like me. My dress is an A shaped lace dress, with a sweetheart neckline. There’s a silver belt around the natural waist. Ava and Haylee are dressed in teal blue sundresses while Ryder is in a pair of khaki shorts and a blue t-shirt.

  “Katie you are stunning,” I hear Rachel say.

  “Thank you!”

  “Shit, can one of you guys go give this to Eric,” I ask and hand them a note.

  “Yeah I’ll do it,” Madison says.

  “What is that?”

  “Just a cute little note and season tickets for this year’s Green Bay Packers.”

  “What the fuck!”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “What can I say, I love him.”

  Madison comes back with a box and a note. ‘I love you more! Eric’ is all it says. I open the box and its airline tickets for Florida and Disney World. Underneath is another set of tickets, ‘For our one year anniversary’ and its tickets to Hawaii.

  “Holy shit,” I say out loud.

  “You two and the ‘I love you more’ crap, it’s cute but gag-worthy. His gifts kick your gifts’ ass though,” Madison says.

  “Yeah it does,” I reply.

  “Are we ready,” Nikki asks handing me my bouquet of daisies, sunflowers, lilies and wild flowers. The same flowers Eric brought me the night I asked him for dinner.

  There’s a knock on the door and my dad appears.

  “We’ll take the kids down stairs, give you guys a moment,” Rachel says as she grabs the twins and Ava and walks out.

  “Damn it Katie, you’re as beautiful as your mother was on our wedding day.”

  “Dad come on, don’t make me cry!”

  “Sorry kid, but it’s the truth. Did Eric tell you about your ring?”

  “What about my ring?”

  “That center stone is mommy’s from her engagement ring.” Holy shit, I have my mom’s diamond.

  “Daddy...” I say breathless. “I had no idea.” I wrap my arms around him. “Thank you.” I kiss him on the cheek.

  “Anything for my daddy’s girl,” he says and winks at me. Ronnie was there the whole time taking pictures of our special moment. I love my dad so much. I can’t wait to see these pictures. “You ready?”

  “Yeah I am,” I say with a smile.

  The girls have walked down the aisle. Ava did perfect as the flower girl. I had Deacon, Madison’s oldest son take the twins down the aisle with a sign that says “Daddy, here comes Mommy.”

  “You ok,” dad asks.

  “Yeah, let’s do this...”

  Everyone stands and looks at me. I see Eric and fuck he’s handsome. The guys are wearing beige linen pants and white button down shirts except for Eric, he’s wearing that but with a jacket. They all look so good.

  The wedding march begins and I am not looking at anyone but my best friend, the love of my life. Our eyes are locked on each other. His eyes took a quick scope of my dress and he mouthed “Wow”. When I get to him, I see Eric’s parents and give them a smile.

  My dad hands me over to the love of my life and we exchange our vows. “I now pronounce you husband and wife,” and before he could say we
could kiss everyone shouts, ‘It’s about time!’ I start to laugh, “Guess they’ve been waiting for some time,” the pastor says.

  “Something like that,” I giggle.

  “Eric, you can kiss your bride now,” he says.

  “Finally,” he says and pulls me in and lifts me to give me the sweetest, sexiest kiss. It was wedding proper, but I knew what it meant and I can’t wait for tonight.

  After all the pictures and dinner, it was time for our first song. We chose an older song, “When You Say Nothing At All” by Alison Krause. After that song, I had a little surprise for him. “Well, before we get this party started, I would like to sing my new husband a song I heard that was pretty fitting, and since he surprised me with my engagement, I figured I’d surprise him on our wedding day. So Eric baby, this one is for you. I love you with all my heart and soul.” I sang, “I Do” by Jessie James Decker. The song is about as perfect as a song can get. Eric had tears in his eyes, which made me start crying.

  When the song was done he came up to me and wrapped me in his arms. “Have I told you how much I love you lately,” he asks as he grabs me.

  “Not in the last twenty minutes,” I smile.

  “Beautiful Soul” by Jesse McCarthy came on and the girls grabbed me and had me on the dance floor. Ava was dancing and having a great time. Eric and I were taking turns dancing with Ryder and Haylee.

  Before the night ended, everyone went outside because our parents had a surprise for us. “The four us would like to thank everyone for coming out and witnessing our families become one. We knew it was bound to happen and we are unbelievably happy it finally has. We would like you all to grab these Chinese lanterns and write something on it, or not, it’s up to you. Each one of these lanterns symbolizes Eric and Katie’s love for each other, so let’s light up the sky with their love,” my dad says.

  “Oh my god! Your dad is romantic,” Rachel says to me.

  Eric and I grab our lantern and everyone starts lighting theirs behind us. As we light ours together, I lean in and kiss him, “I’m always yours babe.”

  “And I’m always yours baby, now and forever and ever.”

  In the background “Compass” by Lady Antebellum is playing. I smile and watch the sky light up, “This is the perfect song, to the perfect ending,” I say to myself.

  Epilogue

  Eric

  1 year later....

  It’s been a year since Katie and I got married and our life has been perfect. Haylee and Ryder are fifteen months old, and Miss Ava is four and officially my daughter. It was two weeks after we got married, that we went to the court house for me to adopt her. It was something I wanted to do the moment I met her. She is and will always be my daughter.

  Rachel and Brady had their baby, a little boy they named Colton Reed McNally born on August 12th. They asked Katie and me to be his god parents. I’m pretty honored that “Colt” as I call him, has our last name as his middle name.

  I wouldn’t change my life for anything. Well I take that back. I would change one thing; my mom would be here celebrating our one year anniversary with us. My mom died almost two months to the day after our wedding. Katie and the kids were over at Rachel’s and I was at work.

  Katie was helping Rachel with Colton who was sick or something when her step brother Evan called her and said to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. I’ll never forget the tone in Katie’s voice...

  “Eric, baby. You need to get to the hospital right now. Your mom, oh my god, your mom,” she said crying.

  “Katie, what? What’s wrong?”

  “Eric I don’t know. All Evan said was to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. Baby hurry,” she shouted.

  “Guys I gotta go. It’s my mom...” I said to whoever was in the room with me.

  I sped to the hospital. I didn’t fucking care “Mom, please wait for me,” I said a little prayer as I drove.

  I ran through the doors and found someone working behind the desk. “I need to see my mom. Claire Reed. She was brought here,” I shout.

  “You’re Eric?”

  “Yes I am,” I snapped.

  “We’ll take you back,” the nurse said.

  She took me down a hallway and another and another until I saw my beautiful bride sitting in a chair crying and I lost it. Tears were flooding out of my eyes when I got to her and dropped to my knees. “No...” I said.

  “You should go in there Eric. It doesn’t look good,” Katie tells me.

  “Come with me,” I tell her, holding out my hand.

  “No baby, you need to do this alone,” Katie whispers.

  “Katie I need you,” I snapped at her. She stood up, grabbed my hand, and we walked in there.

  Mom did not look the same at all. She was pale; she didn’t look this bad two days ago when I saw her. “Mom,” I say walking up to her. My dad turns and looks at me. Fuck he’s been crying. Dad never cry’s, fuck this is bad. Katie takes a step back and nudges me towards mom. “Mom...” I say trying to hold back the tears.

  “Eric, my sweet boy,” she whispers and pats the bed for me to sit.

  I turn and see dad holding Katie. “Mom, no...” I start and shake my head.

  “Yes Eric, it’s time. But you know I love you and I’m so proud of you. You’ve done me proud. You know that right?”

  “NO, I should have been here. I need more time mom. I failed you. You can’t go,” and I start sobbing.

  “Eric, you could never fail me. You gave me the best two years of my life. Two years my doctors told me I didn’t have. It’s because of you.”

  “I love you mom.”

  My mom starts to cry, “Oh Eric, I love you too, so much.” She takes a deep breath and starts to cough. I lean in and kiss her on her forehead. “It’s ok Eric. I’ll be fine and so will you. Just do me a favor?”

  “Anything mom.”

  “Take care of your dad for me.”

  “You know I will.”

  I only got a couple of hours with mom. I was there as she took her last breath. The last thing she said to us was “I love you always, but be good,” and that was it.

  She always used to tell me that when I was a kid, “I love you always, but be good.”

  When we laid my mom to rest, Katie got up to the podium...

  She wasn’t just my mother in-law; she was like a mom to me when my mom died. When I lost my first husband she was at the funeral, and she held me while I cried. Claire was an amazing, beautiful woman whose heart was bigger than the ocean. She loved life and she loved her son and she was madly crazy in love with her husband.

  Before Eric got to the hospital the day she passed, I got there before him. I held her hand, told her I loved her and she told me she loved me. But then she thanked me. I asked why she was thanking me and she said, “Because you never gave up. You’re a fighter and I learned how to fight this cancer from watching you. You never gave up on love or life. You’re a fighter and I admire that.”

  I shook my head, “Mom, you’re the fighter.” She shook her head no. Now I know to never argue with a Reed, you’ll never win, so I just nodded my head yes and smiled at her.

  Claire, Mama Reed, I love you so much and you are truly missed, but I know you’re in a better place and you’re with your best friend, my mom, who also lost her battle to cancer.” Katie took a deep breath and started to speak again. “I’m not sure how I’m going to do this, but she asked me to sing Amazing Grace for you all today. So in honor of Claire Louise Reed, this one is for you mama,” Katie said and looked up at the celling, smiled and started singing Amazing Grace, A Cappella style.

  It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. She honored my mom beautifully.

  Instead of us going away for our one year anniversary to Hawaii like we were supposed to, we gave the tickets to Katie’s dad and step mom and bought my dad a ticket to go with them. My dad needs a break and retirement isn’t doing him any good.

  For our one year anniversary, we are sending all
three kids to Auntie Madison’s for the night while we enjoy our night alone. Katie has gone to drop them off, and I’ve been getting things ready for the night; movies, grilled steaks, baked potatoes with grilled vegetables. Katie even made a mini copy of our wedding cake for us to enjoy.

  I talked to Katie’s dad about us taking a trip and he agreed to take the kids. I booked us a vacation/honeymoon to the Bahamas for next month.

  “Eric where are you?” Katie shouts.

  “Back here,” I tell her. She comes out to the back yard where I have things all set up. I turned our back yard into a drive-in movie theater. The back of my truck is loaded down with pillows and blankets, I got a screen and a projector and have all of her favorite movies lined up for tonight.

  “Holy shit,” she exclaims as she puts her hands over her mouth.

  “You like?”

  “Oh my god, I love this!” She comes up to me and I pick her up and kiss her. She looks around, “You surprise me every day.”

  “The night has just begun.” I kiss her on the cheek.

  We sit outside and eat our dinner, “I got you a little something,” I tell her giving her my cocky ass smile.

  “Eric, you didn’t have to. You turned our backyard into this romantic drive-in that was enough.”

  “Just shush and open the envelope!”

  She laughs at me and shakes her head, “Well fine!” She opens up the envelope, “Oh my god. Really, the Bahamas,” she squeals and just up and sits on my lap.

  “Yep, just you and me baby,” I say as I nuzzle her neck. Her face goes to either worried or disappointed. “What’s wrong Baby?”

  “I just hope I’m not so sick when we go.”

  “Sick, what do you mean sick?”

  She gets up and goes in the house and comes back out with a box. “Happy Anniversary,” she says looking down at the ground.

  I slowly open the box and thank god I was sitting down, there is a note that says, “Hi Daddy” and there’s an ultra sound picture in a frame.

  “We are?” I ask.

  “Yeah,” she says and makes her face go squishy. “There’s only one. I didn’t even know I was pregnant until I went in for a check-up. Are you upset?”