Cake_The Newlyweds

by J. Bengtsson

  “Okay. Maybe I was being too ambitious with you. Clearly we need to take baby steps here. Start small… and with fully dressed females.”

  “Like you’re such a closer, Kyle,” Kenzie jumped in to the conversation. “I fell for you the first day we met. I followed you around with these honkin’ lovesick eyes of mine, and you had no clue.”

  “Right, but in my defense, you smelled pretty bad.”

  Kenzie laughed, poking Kyle in the side. “You’re such a dick.”

  “I guess that just leaves us with Jake,” I said. “Do you have any swagger you’d like to share with my brother?”

  “Yes, Jake,” Luke leaned in, interested in his answer. “Please teach me how to objectify women.”

  “The only time in my entire life that I’ve ever pursued a woman was your sister. Would you like to hear how I objectified her?”

  “No,” Luke threw his hand up to stop Jake. “I’d rather die alone. But thank you anyway.”

  “Who wants to go for ice cream?” Luke called out.

  His two intended targets, Sydney and Riley, shot up and ran for the door, screaming, “I do! I do!”

  “Anyone?” he joked. Again the kids shrieked. “If only there was more enthusiasm. Hey, do you two want to come?”

  “No, thanks,” I answered, eyeing Jake with interest. He’d better say no. We hadn’t been alone in nearly a month, and Luke had just opened up a window of opportunity.

  Catching my vibe, Jake scanned me with a knowing smile before answering, “No, I’m good.”

  Luke glanced between us, no doubt sensing the smoldering tension, before his face dropped in disgust. “Ew. I’ll be sure to get a double scoop.”

  Once the three had left, I snuck up to the door and peeked out the peephole.

  “Are they gone?” Jake asked, his voice full of hope.

  I turned around and, using the same high-pitched voice Luke had employed to entice the kids for ice cream, I asked, “Who wants to objectify his wife?”

  Jake shot up and ran for the door. “I do!”

  Tucked against Jake’s sturdy frame, his arms tight around me, I smiled at the memory of our quick and feverish lovemaking session.

  Before he’d even finished his sentence, I was in his arms, legs wrapped around his waist, and was pressing impassioned kisses onto his lips. Together we toured the room in a tangle of arms and legs before Jake dropped on top of me on the bed, and we were off. There was no foreplay or sexy banter, just the quick, frenzied sex that came from having no extended alone time together. And then it was over, and here I was, panting in his arms. I giggled at the absurdity of it all.

  “What?” he asked, and I could feel his smile against my cheek.

  “Nothing. I was just thinking that this is how sex will be once we have our own kids.”

  “You mean fast? Yeah, sorry. My bad.”

  “No,” I said, turning around to face him. “Not fast. Frantic.”

  “Shit, I know. That was like a quickie on crack. I keep thinking the kids are going to walk in on us.”

  “And that’s why I have you check the lock…”

  “Three times, I know,” Jake groaned, rolling onto his back. I turned too, propping myself on an elbow just to soak in his handsome face. “Is it weird that I’m going to miss them?” He added.

  My chest burst with love for this man. Even though the whole babysitting thing had been pushed on him, he hadn’t shied away. He’d gotten in there and done the job. Yes there were times he seemed way out of his league, but he’d surprised me on more occasions than not. Even with that potty mouth of his, or maybe because of it, Jake was a big hit with Syd and Ri. He might not realize it himself, but my husband was a natural at fatherhood.

  Gliding my fingers over his face, I kissed him and whispered, “You’re such a good man. Do you know that?”

  The smile that forced its way across his lips was not lost on me. It was so subtle, but I knew what to look for.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  He played dumb. “Huh.”

  “That smile. Why are you fake-smiling?”

  “I’m not faking anything,” he protested. “That’s the way I smile.”

  I stubbornly stared in his eyes, trying to get him to admit his deception. He stared back defiantly. At an impasse, I asked, “Why do you do that? Why do you doubt that you’re a good person?”

  Surprisingly, he let the tension roll off his shoulders and answered me truthfully. “Maybe because I’m not, Casey. Has that thought ever occurred to you?”

  “Do you honestly believe that?”

  Jake regarded me a moment, behind the hair that fell over his eyes before unexpectedly sitting up. “I don’t want to do this right now. Please, just let it go.”

  I reached for him, but he stood up and moved away from the bed. I watched him grab for his boxers and slide them on.

  “I mean, everyone has done something they’re not proud of, right?”

  “Casey.” Jake shook his head. Clearly he was frustrated with me, and couldn’t seem to decide what to add to his sentence, so he just stopped at my name.

  And now I had a choice: keep pushing for an answer and watch him walk away, or give up on bedside counseling for the sake of peace. I chose the latter simply because I was cold.

  “Hey,” I said, patting the sheets. “Come on. Don’t be pissed. Lie back down with me.”

  He contemplated his options, clearly hesitant to trust my intentions.

  “I promise I won’t bring it up. Just come back and warm me up.”

  Jake relented and crawled back under the covers with me. Pulling him into my arms, I gently placed a kiss on the tip of his nose. A moment passed while we looked intently into each other’s eyes.

  “Sorry,” he mumbled. “I don’t know why I did that.”

  I traced my fingers along his chest, contemplating how I wanted to reply. “Someday, Jake… someday you’ll trust me with all your secrets.”

  He seemed to be considering my words as his body slowly relaxed under my touch.

  “Maybe someday, Case. But not today.”

  19

  Jake: Go Big

  Kyle waited with me in the dressing room before the show. Pacing back and forth, he was making me nervous, and I wasn’t even the one proposing.

  “Dude, relax.”

  “Sorry. I feel like I’m going to hurl.”

  “Stop stressing. It’s not like she’ll say no.”

  “Really? Because I’m not so sure about that. I don’t have a whole lot to offer her.”

  “How do you figure?”

  Kyle motioned toward his entire self. “I think this speaks for itself.”

  Maybe a few years ago I would have agreed with his self-deprecating assessment, but Kyle was not the same lazy doofus he’d once been. Of course, what kind of brother would I be if I didn’t bust his balls? And this really was the perfect opportunity. “No one said she had taste.”

  “No.” He acknowledged with a chuckle. “Thankfully, Kenzie doesn’t have a sophisticated palate.”

  “Yeah, well, you picked a girl who has her priorities straight. She’s not after money and power.”

  “Thank god, or I’d be screwed.”

  “For sure. Anyway, as I was about to say… you give Kenzie something no one else can give her.”

  “Obviously,” Kyle said, jokingly pointing towards his shaft and boys. “But I wasn’t talking about sex.”

  “Neither was I.” I laughed as well. “Shit, if that was the criteria, I’d be scared right now too.”

  Kyle flipped me off, the grin on his face dying off as he gave more thought to his impending proposal. I remembered the feeling well and had been as nervous as my brother was now. I imagine there would be nothing quite like getting turned down by the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. Still, Kyle had nothing to worry about. Kenzie was his Casey.

  “What if I get out there and get so nervous that I crap my pants?”

  I w
inced at the mental picture.

  “You’re not helping, Jake.”

  “You’ll be fine,” I placated him. “Just focus on her face… and breathe.”

  “Okay, yeah, you’re right,” he said, dipping down into a crouched position as he took long, ragged breaths. Looking up at me, he asked, “What can I give her?”

  “Huh?”

  “You said I could give her something no one else could. What is it?”

  “You make her happy, idiot. And trust me when I tell you – that’s all that matters.”

  The plot was in place, and Casey and I were its supporting characters. It actually came as a surprise to me when Kyle told me he was going with the grand romantic gesture for his proposal and not something more laid back, like laying an engagement ring in the middle of a pepperoni pizza and yelling, ‘Surprise!’ You know the whole rallying cry – ‘Go Big or Go Home’? Well, Kyle was the guy that gladly went home… and took a nice, long nap once he got there.

  Yet here he was ready to put himself out there in the biggest way possible – in front of a crowd of thousands. If she said no, there’d be no coming back from the humiliation. Not that it seemed likely Kenzie would refuse him, given the fact that she was fully expecting a proposal out of him. Two and a half years was a long time to date without some sort of long-term commitment. At some point, women get tired of waiting, as Keith could readily tell you.

  Step one of the plan was to keep Kenzie away from the concert… or at least until I’d had time to prep the audience. Thankfully, talking someone’s ear off was Casey’s specialty, so I had complete faith in her abilities to stall Kenzie’s arrival as well as to make up some excuse why Kenzie had to be looking camera ready. A fake party immediately after the concert had been the ploy.

  Step two was getting the audience to do what I’d ask them to do at the exact time requested. I waited until the end of the second song to address the crowd. After going through the standard greeting, I filled them in on Kyle’s proposal idea, and not only was the audience game to play along, but excitement buzzed from every corner of the stadium. After they’d participated on the television show Marooned together, Kyle and Kenzie’s love story was fairly well known, so getting the crowd enthusiastic for their proposal was no issue at all.

  And finally, step three was getting my little brother engaged. In my opinion, there was no one more deserving of a good woman and a great life than Kyle. He was loyal to a fault. If he deemed you deserving, even if sometimes you absolutely were not, there was nothing he wouldn’t do for you. I’d been on the receiving end of that devotion my whole life, so I could attest to Kyle’s exceptional character. It made me happy to see that my brother had found someone who could finally turn the spotlight on him.

  While performing, I kept an eye out for the cue from Casey. She loved being a part of this – not because she wanted her hand in everything but because Kenzie and Kyle meant so much to her and their love story was something we could both get behind. The go-ahead was delivered to me by way of a schoolyard chain of communication passed from one band member to the next until my guitarist leaned over and whispered, “It’s time.”

  I glanced toward where I knew Kyle was hiding with Sean on the opposite side of the stage. Even though I couldn’t see them, I trusted that my manager would get Kyle onto the stage even if he had to drag him out there himself, so I wrapped up the song I was performing and carried the microphone toward the front of the stage, clipping it in the stand before addressing the crowd.

  “Lights!” I called out, and like magic, the stadium went black. Seconds later, the glow from thousands of cell phone lights illuminated the darkness and the theme song from The Blue Lagoon, a throwback to their reality show days, began to play through the speakers. A spotlight clicked on, showcasing Kyle as he made his way to the center of the stage. Cheering him on, the crowd was electric.

  A second spotlight switched on, illuminating Kenzie, who appeared stunned as she stood on the sidelines with her hands clasped over her mouth and eyes opened wide.

  It really was a beautiful moment… until Kyle ruined it.

  “Kenzie, get your butt out here.”

  Oh, god, Dude! I’d had so much faith in him until then. You don’t start a proposal that way. But then again, maybe you did if you were Kyle since Kenzie appeared to eat that shit up, laughing her way across the stage to meet her man.

  Once she arrived, the song cut out, and Kyle said to his beloved possibly the most romantic thing I think I’d ever heard.

  “Thanks for coming.”

  Again, I cringed, Kenzie laughed, and the audience responded with riotous applause. Okay, so apparently Kyle was doing things his way, and it appeared to be working.

  Kenzie’s smile lit up the already bright stage. “You’re welcome.”

  Taking her hands in his, Kyle stared deeply into her eyes, and I knew this was the moment of truth. My stomach was tied up in knots for him. Kyle wasn’t just my younger brother, he was my best friend, and I wanted this to be perfect for him. So I hung on his every word, hoping he didn’t mess it up, until it occurred to me that Kyle wasn’t aiming for perfection. Unlike me, he’d never required it. He recognized life for what it was and lived it well. He accepted people for who they were and withheld judgment. So it made sense that a proposal from an unpretentious guy like Kyle should be no different. It wasn’t going to be polished, or even grammatically correct, but it was going to be heartfelt, loving, and full of humor. That was Kyle.

  “On paper, Kenzie, you and I are an odd pairing. You being the pasty white, big Bambi-eyed Northern Californian who says ‘Hella’ way too often. And me being the sun-kissed, devastatingly handsome Southern California boy who speaks in proper slang. But sometimes, you know, when the stars align, a girl like you gets lucky.”

  Finding Kyle’s opening insults wildly entertaining, Kenzie’s face was alive with excitement as she shook her head in amusement.

  “Who am I kidding? Of course I’m the lucky one. I’m actually not even sure how I managed to snag a woman like you but I can only assume it had something to do with starvation and disease carrying mosquitos. I’m convinced if we’d met anywhere other than a deserted island, you would’ve taken a pass on me. But we didn’t, and you didn’t, and here we are today. I keep waiting for you to come to your senses but thank god you never have because you’re my dream girl, Kenz. The day I woke up and realized I was in love with you was the best day of my life. There’s no one I’d rather grow old with than you… well, except Jake, but he’s taken already. Anyway, you know I’m not a flashy guy and big gestures are something I leave to others, but tonight I make an exception – for you.”

  Kyle dropped to his knee to a chorus of oohs and aahs from the crowd. He flipped open the ring box. “Tonight, I’m going big – Mackenzie Ann Williams, will you marry me?”

  She said yes.

  The time had come to say goodbye to the kids, and as much as I was happy to get back to normal, I was going to miss them; more than I thought I would. The thing about kids was, they didn’t care who you were. In their eyes, adults were nothing more than snack bitches. And in my spoiled world, it was a refreshing change of pace.

  “Where’s your bag?” I asked. Both the kids’ luggage had been sitting at the door moments ago, and now only Riley’s remained.

  Sydney crossed her arms. “I put it back. I’m not going.”

  My eyes widened. “You’re not?”

  “Nope. I’m staying with you guys.”

  I immediately sought out Casey, who appeared just as perplexed as I was.

  “No, sweetie, you are going back,” she said, stepping into the conversation. “You, me, Luke, and Riley are leaving for the airport in a few minutes. Go get your bag.”

  “You’re not listening,” she answered, stubbornly. “I’m not going.”

  “Me neither,” Riley said, standing by his big sister, even though he had no idea why.

  Casey, Luke, and I stared at one another. No one
knew how to tackle the situation, as all of us were pathetic newbies with no life skills when it came to defiant children.

  “Luke, would you take Riley for a short walk? I’ll text you when the car gets here.”

  Looking immensely relieved, Luke ducked out of the bus with a protesting Riley.

  Casey addressed Sydney. “Where’s this coming from? Why don’t you want to go home? You have so much to look forward to. You have horseback riding camp and swim lessons and play dates.”

  “I don’t care about any of that.” Sydney bowed her head, her shoulders trembling. “I don’t want to go back to that house.”

  “Your house?” Casey asked, glancing back at me as if I had some explanation for Sydney’s sudden emotion.

  I shrugged, as in the dark as her.

  “Mom and Dad’s house,” Sydney choked out the words. “I don’t like living in it anymore.”

  Then I understood. The memories were too much for her. The house symbolized all she’d lost. Dropping down to her level, I pulled her into my arms. Sydney shook miserably, and I could feel her heart breaking as she clung to me.

  I sought out Casey for help, but she too was overcome by emotion, leaning against the kitchen counter for support.

  “I get it Sydney, I do,” I said, speaking softly. “The house is filled with memories of your mom and dad. And everywhere you go inside reminds you of them.”

  She nodded into my shoulder, gripping me tighter, as she continued to cry. Although I’d never lost someone like she had, I knew what it felt like to go back to a home that was no longer mine. Everything looked the same, yet nothing felt familiar. I knew the lessons I’d learned from my own tragedy might be of comfort to her, but was there a way to reveal my past without scaring her?

  Treading lightly, I said, “When I was a little older than you, something bad happened to me too.”

  “I know,” she said, pushing back from my shoulders and wiping away her tears. “You were kidnapped.”

  Although we’d never discussed it with her, I wasn’t surprised that she’d heard of the kidnapping. Even though I thought of it as a secret, no one else apparently did. “Did your parents tell you that?”