by Fifi Flowers
Thank God she...they were alive. My family. My life... The loves of my life.
Beside her bed, I stroked her arm and prayed that they were going to be alright. Then I launched into telling her about the first time that I saw her walking through the lobby of the Santa Barbara hotel. The beautiful grounds and beach paled in comparison to her. When I saw her later in a bright orange dress with matching shoes she captured my undivided attention and I missed a conversation directed at me. The hotel manager probably found me rude but it was all Saffron’s fault and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Holding her in my arms hours later on the dance floor was one of the best moments of the entire wedding.
Speaking about the life-changing event, London and Savannah walked in and introduced themselves. I had already seen photos of them with Saffron so I was fully aware of who they were and which was which. But I was surprised that they were the first people to arrive for my girl. I expected to be meeting her mother and father.
“Didn’t you call her parents?” I hoped my tone was friendly after I finished asking.
“They’ve been gone for a while,” Savannah answered matter-of-factly, walking over to the opposite side of Saffron.
“I thought they were alive...married for a million years and still happy.” I was confused. Saffron had never mentioned that they’d passed away.
“She meant they’re gone on vacation. Savannah has a way with words that don’t always come out right.” London shook her head and moved closer to the bed, bending to place a gentle kiss on Saffron’s forehead to the side of a scraped and bruised bump.
“Sorry.” Savannah apologized and then began to explain what she meant. “They have a remote place in Costa Rica and there’s no way to get a hold of them. Saffron hates when they go...tells them to get carrier pigeons. They might come in handy now...”
“They’re back in a few weeks I think she said...” London let out a little sob as she touched another bruise on the side of Saffron’s face before continuing, “Please tell me she’s going to be okay. They would be devastated if they...” Her words trailed off.
“The nurses and doctor have assured me that she should make a full recovery. A concussion is their only finding. Thank God. She’s a little confused but they said with a little rest she should regain her memory—”
“Amnesia?” Savannah blurted out. “Did she know you?”
“Saffron hasn’t spoken to me. They said she mumbled ‘baby’ and ‘wedding’ when she first came in, but when they asked her questions about where she was or her name she couldn’t answer...or she didn’t...just looked at them with a blank stare.”
“Oh God! Please tell me the baby is okay?” I could see the panic in London’s eyes as she waited for me to answer.
“The baby is good too. Strong heartbeat.” I smiled with my announcement.
Both of Saffron’s best friends blew out sighs of relief and hugged each other. I could see the love they had for her. Figuring they wouldn’t let Saffron down, I outlined all of the details about the wedding to take place the next day. I was not about to leave my family’s side until I could take them home. It had been a good thing that I had butted into Saffron’s wedding planning business after all. I had only done it in hopes of spending time with her. Little did I know that my bridal knowledge would be a saving grace for her business.
I hated the reason why it was so vital.
Chapter Twenty-one
Saffron
It was real! When the fog cleared inside of my head, Laird was asleep not far from me in a chair. While his muscular body looked terribly uncomfortable and his hair was rumpled and out of place, he still looked extremely gorgeous. How long was I out? He had stayed at my side through it all...or at least most of it. I heard him constantly talking to me. How did he find me? I couldn’t remember contacting anyone. He wasn’t even in my contacts list. Only the hotel...the wedding planner...
“Did I miss the wedding?” I asked somewhat quietly, looking for my phone.
It appeared that I was wired up to some kind of alarm or sensor because within moments of my stirring around in the hospital bed, a nurse appeared. Seconds later, a sleepy Laird jumped up and rushed to my side and began to touch me.
I winced when his hand stroked my left arm and was a bit shocked by his words.
“Forgive me. Marry me. I love you.”
Not that I didn’t love his declaration of love, but he only hit a tender spot. Those three short sentences that practically ran together seemed a tad bit drastic. I didn’t quite know how to respond to him and just stared up at him hovering over me until the nurse asked him to move back. I welcomed her intrusion that kept me from saying something stupid back to Laird.
She was asking me silly questions: Do you know what happened to you? Do you know where you are? What year is it? What is your name? I was pretty sure I got them all correct since her response continued to be the same, “good.”
“You and the baby are both doing great. Would you like to try to eat something?”
“The baby...” I looked to Laird and felt my eyes immediately fill with tears.
“The doctor said she’s going to be fine,” Laird answered, moving back to my side, taking my hand in his strong grip, before the nurse could chime in.
“She?” I was sure I looked goofy wearing a smile on my face while tears streamed down my sore cheeks.
“Yes…” He smiled at me and then froze. “I’m sorry. That was so stupid of me. Maybe I should’ve kept my big mouth shut. I shouldn’t have told you...in case you wanted to be surprised when the baby arrived.” I swear Laird sounded a bit choked up and if I wasn’t mistaken, he was casually wiping away a few tears with his free hand. “Saffron, I was so afraid you wouldn’t come back to me. I’m never letting you go. Marry me.”
“Babies can survive without their parents being married.” I had no desire to have a man propose marriage to me simply because he knocked me up.
“Not ours! I told my buddies at Perry and Makayla’s wedding that I was going to marry you. I watched you all day and night. I wanted you from the moment I saw you in the lobby—”
“You told me... I remember your words. You told me about being married to the wrong woman... You knew I was the right one. I wouldn’t ever do to you what she did.” I stopped and smiled watching the shocked look on Laird’s face.
“It’s true what they say. The unconscious can hear when you speak to them... When you speak the truth to them in hopes of bringing them back to you. I’ve never been more afraid of losing someone. I want to be with you. I want you to be with me. I want to spend every day watching your belly grow. I want to go to doctor appointments with you. I want to watch our baby girl come into the world.”
I felt every word he said in my gut...in my chest. I was sure he was sincere but I wanted to be sure that things between us were real. I wanted to believe that we could make it and wanted each other because of love. Not lust. Not the result of our lustful acts. I did feel more for him than merely wanting to have him take me up against a wall or every way in a bed. Things we had already acted upon. I wanted him to give me more and tell me more face to face...with my eyes open.
“We can date. Start from the beginning. You can be a part of our life—”
“That’s not enough. I want more.”
“You want to right a wrong...not wrong because I don’t feel that making a baby was wrong. It wasn’t planned but I’m not unhappy about being pregnant. I do think there could be something great between us...”
What the hell was I saying? Why was I not giving in? I did feel love for him.
“Move in with me. If you don’t want to stay in my bed. There’s another bedroom...there are two besides the nursery.”
I stared right into his sparkly light blue eyes. “You made a nursery in your house?”
“Yes, using everything that you had on your baby registry.”
“I don’t have a registry.” I had no idea what he was talking about. I had gone to a ba
by store with Savannah and London one day to look at things but I hadn’t written things down to give to the store or used one of those handheld scanning machines. Oh my gawd! Maybe I hadn’t put anything into the system but obviously my dearest friends had... Everything that Laird had sent to me... They were things that I had mentioned that I liked. “Show me.”
I had to see what he had done. Being in the hospital was not where I wanted to be. “Please let the doctor discharge me,” I silently pleaded. My left arm was a bit sore and I had a slight headache, most likely from the bump I felt on my forehead. Those damn airbags came out like an explosion—the front one when I got rear-ended and pushed out into oncoming traffic. The side one popped out when another car struck me and caused me to spin around. I remembered trying to cover my stomach at one point and then nothing until different voices began to speak to me.
The best voice came hours later. It was soothing and calming...loving. I wanted to hear all it had to say to me. Awake and alert, Laird’s words scared me...they were too real and I was afraid of being hurt. He had described how his wife told him everything he wanted to hear and married him when she was in love with his best friend. She had done something because she had accepted his proposal, following through for the wrong reasons. They ended badly, I didn’t want that.
Had I really listened to everything? He was being truthful. Pouring his heart out to me. Maybe I was being dumb but I needed proof. We barely knew each other. Strangers didn’t get married... Well, not true. There were arranged marriages in other countries between strangers...and drunk strangers who wound up married. I was so confused and it had absolutely nothing to do with my accident. I wanted to live that happily ever after life and believe that he loved me and wanted to spend forever with me regardless of our baby.
“Ready to go home, Mrs. Courbe?” A man who introduced himself as my doctor was checking me over: a flashlight in my eyes, waving a pen in front of my face, asking me the same silly questions as the nurse earlier. “Mr. Courbe, keep an eye on her and have her follow up with her doctor in the next few days...”
I didn’t hear the rest of his words. My mind was still focusing on the “Mrs. and Mr.” part of his instructions. “Mr. Courbe? He’s Mr. Hayes—”
“She didn’t take my last name. Courbe is her maiden name. Modern women.”
“I have one of those at home too,” the doctor laughed, “My wife is also a physician with her own name...”
I didn’t pay attention to the rest of their conversation. I just wanted them to wrap it up so I could get dressed and out of there. Thankfully, Laird appeared to be on the same page and quickly helped me get my clothes on so we could leave.
Wheelchair to the curb, a nurse waited with me while my driver went to get his car. Not the vehicle I expected. “Where’s the fancy sports-car?”
“I wanted you to see that I have a responsible car too. In fact, you can use it until we get you a new one.” I looked up at him as he walked me carefully—like I was fragile—a few steps before helping me up into a sport utility vehicle. “I was told your car was beyond repair by the paramedics.”
“I’m going to assume that you told everyone that you were my husband. Your access to my hospital room. Your access to accident information. Access to my medical status.” An invasion of my privacy. Laird had a thing for butting into my life—work and personal...
That was when it hit me. “The wedding? Oh my gawd! My first failure... Why aren’t you there? You knew everything. You could make it right. What time is it? We can still make it work—”
“Relax. London, Savannah, and my hotel staff have it all under control. You are not a failure... And I loved being your husband.” Laird set me straight and then started the car and drove in the direction of his house. “Time to take you home so you can get some rest and get used to your new house.”
I didn’t want to argue or protest about anything. I knew that my friends could handle the wedding as they had helped me orchestrate weddings in the past. I would, definitely, have to give them a special thank you. I, also, had a feeling that it would do me no good to insist on being taken to my condo. Something also told me that he would not allow me to be left alone. And did I really want to be alone or without Laird? The answer was no. I wanted to be with him forever, but I wasn’t about to tell him just yet. One day I would confess to feeling that he was special from the moment I saw him too and then I would tell him that I loved him.
At least that was my plan until I walked into the pale grey, white and yellow baby nursery that Laird had put together. It looked like a perfectly decorated showroom. The drapery and bedding on a grey and white crib and changing table matched in a grey and white chevron pattern with pale yellow ribbon ties. It was so precious. It all looked a lot better in the nursery than it did in the store. I loved the additions he had made—or someone else made—which included a light grey chair and ottoman piped in white. Accents in bright yellow made the room cheerful: an area rug, pillows, and artwork of a giant white and yellow flower.
Overwhelmed, I twirled around standing in the center of the room and looked up to a modern open basket-like white sphere with yellow on the inside. At a glance it had a star or flower pattern look about it.
“Not at all what I pictured.”
“We can change anything. I did yellow without knowing the sex of our baby. Changing the color to pink—”
I cut him off. “I love it as it is. The wooden animal figurines...and that rocking horse are amazing...the bookcase...the confetti gold dots on that wall...and the art...” My words trailed off as I moved to Laird standing just inside the doorway. “Please don’t change a thing. I love it...I love...you.”
It was easier to say than I had imagined and the payoff was even better when Laird took me into his arms gently and captured my lips. “Then you’ll marry me,” were the words he spoke after breaking our kiss.
“Not until we live together for a while.” I was willing to compromise. “My condo is only one bedroom...you have room for both of us.”
“Using me for an extra bedroom,” Laird laughed. “I’ll take you anyway I can get you. Rent out your condo until you’re certain... I don’t really mean that... I’m never letting you go. I’ll wear you down. You will marry me.”
“When I fit into the lace dress,” I whispered against his lips before silencing him.
Epilogue
Laird
From the moment I got Saffron to move all of her things into my house it officially became ours—it had never felt so right. She completed my journey and made me happy to call one place home. I worshipped her every available moment—night and day. Meeting her was like a domino effect in a positive way. Pure unexpected bliss turned into the best thing that had ever happened to me.
Not that she was responsible for everything taking place but they seemed to occur after her. My father changed his mind about moving to Florida and listened to my recommendation regarding one of our properties that could make a lot of money being sold off. It was close to a casino that didn’t have a hotel attached to it. Agreeing and getting the wheels in motion, he asked my brothers how they felt about each taking over their own hotels in the desert. He had been planning to go to Florida to downsize to running one property with my brothers and some other family members.
I had a feeling that my brothers weren’t quite as fond of being under the thumb of our father again and happily accepted the offer with their wives’ blessings. One of my brothers had a pretty high maintenance wife and she loved the idea that they could live on the property. Room service and never having to clean up anything suited her well while the two golf courses spoke volumes to him. Why they had children, I wasn’t sure, but it wasn’t my business to tell them how to raise kids—I was newer to that role.
My other brother, the total family man, ran things smoothly and delegated a lot so that he could make sporting and dancing events for his children. They opted for a family friendly home environment and the smallest property was best
for him. My father wasn’t about to give up his favorite resort that drew the biggest crowds and was its own little paradise—guests had everything at their fingertips. Which left me without a property of my own to manage or... I should say that it allowed me to pursue my dream of opening the boutique hotel with new additions which included a much needed pool.
The downtown boutique hotel had become an obsession and out of it came a new planning list for an expansion to other nearby downtown desert areas within driving distance. Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage were on my list for future hotels but becoming a father changed my ambition...and the downtown Palm Springs location was where Saffron worked. Being so close to the wedding shop, London used it for an annual bridal fair and Savannah made it her number one go-to hotel for parties. And while Saffron used several properties—churches, restaurants, gardens, homes, resorts, etcetera—she also directed brides and grooms-to-be to the boutique hotel.
The final fantastic domino fell when my mother packed up her things and left her old life behind in Florida to join the rest of the Hayes clan. Probably the most surprising part of her relocation was where she decided to reside—with our father. Apparently, Saffron had been instrumental in getting them to reconnect. When he dated her—still hate to hear or mention that part—he realized that he missed my mother watching Saffron’s parents’ natural interaction. He said it was so much easier to connect with someone you had history with and mutual interests in the same age bracket.
My mother’s romance with her professor had run its course and my father had been taking trips with her. The gossip reports of him being seen with a young woman shopping for baby clothes and other items had been for other people’s children or their grandchildren. My mother did look very fit and youthful. She liked hearing that her kids thought she was some tart hooking up with our father. Saffron was right about my father not being able to father children—another item I didn’t like hearing from her. She and my mother got along famously and our parents had started going on double dates.