Our Favorite Days (My Favorite Mistake #3)

by Chelsea M. Cameron

  “I don’t want you to feel obligated to marry me, Taylor. Especially now. No one should get married just because of having a baby because that’s not a good enough reason.” Taylor snorted.

  “Obviously, or there probably wouldn’t be so many divorces. I can’t explain why I’m so reluctant. I know I’m being crazy and I know that it’s extra weird now that we’re having a kid, but I just… would it be possible for us to not do a wedding? Just go down to the courthouse in the middle of the week, not tell anyone and just do it? I don’t want to sit down and plan this whole big thing and then have to worry about who to invite and who is going to be offended and how much it’s going to cost. Thinking about any of that makes me want to throw up, and not just because of Spawn.” I smiled a little at her chosen nickname for our future child.

  “Taylor—” I started to say, but she cut me off.

  “No, listen. I need to say this to you. I just… I can’t do the wedding thing. Maybe sometime down the road, but I can’t do it now, okay? I can’t.” Tears poured down her cheeks and I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. Fuck, I wished she would have told me all this sooner. I wouldn’t have pushed if I knew this was why she was being so reluctant. It wasn’t the marriage it was the wedding that she objected to. That was a very important distinction

  “Okay, so we don’t have a wedding. We can get in the car and head to the airport and go to Vegas right now, baby,” I said and she laughed.

  “You’re fucking kidding me,” she said, but I stood up.

  “Come on. We can take the red eye.” I was completely and totally serious.

  “No way.” She still didn’t believe me so I ran upstairs, grabbed a suitcase from our closet and started throwing shit in it. Taylor came up just as I was putting our toothbrushes in bags.

  “You have got to be kidding me.” She shook her head at me.

  “Why not? Why not now?” It made all the sense in the world to me. Sure, our families might be pissed after the fact, but at least they wouldn’t have to pay for an elaborate wedding and we could always have a party later on.

  Taylor stared at me and then she started laughing.

  “You are out of your mind, but fortunately I am too.” She yanked open the drawer of our dresser and started cramming socks and bras and underwear in the suitcase. One of us started laughing and then we were both laughing and shoving whatever stuff we could get our hands on in the suitcase regardless of whether we needed it or not. I zipped it shut and hauled it down the stairs, a giggling Taylor on my heels.

  It was just so completely over the top insane that I knew it was exactly what we were supposed to do. I consulted my inner compass and it pointed toward Vegas and Hunter.

  “Hurry!” I yelled as we threw the suitcase in Sassy’s trunk and got in.

  “Why do we have to hurry?” Hunter asked, turning the car on.

  “I don’t know, we just do!” He laughed and peeled away from the house, heading toward the airport.

  We had to stop for gas so we grabbed snacks to fuel up on as well. I didn’t really need them, though. I was buzzing on pure happiness.

  “Your parents are getting married, Spawn,” I said, tilting my chin down so I could sort of talk to the baby.

  “I really wish you would come up with a better nickname, Missy. Spawn just makes me think of aliens or something,” Hunter said, cracking open a Red Bull. We were only a few minutes away from the airport and I was getting more antsy by the second. I wasn’t scared about flying this time. All I wanted to do was get to Vegas and get married. I didn’t care about anything else.

  “You can come up with whatever nickname you want, but I’m calling it Spawn until we know what it is. How soon could we find out?” I hadn’t cracked the pregnancy books yet. Mostly because they scared the daylights out of me. I didn’t really want to know what was happening to my body. Experiencing it was more than enough. I mean, I would have to know eventually, but for right now ignorance was almost bliss.

  “I think it’s somewhere around twenty weeks. We won’t know at the first ultrasound.” It was almost disturbing how much information about pregnancy Hunter had absorbed. Sometimes it felt like he knew more than Renee, who was enjoying this a little too much. Like I was her own personal lab rat that she got to monitor and poke and prod whenever she wanted to. I was sick of it already and I was barely pregnant. My appointment for the first ultrasound was next week and I was both nervous and excited.

  Hunter got giddy every time he talked about it. Dork.

  Our Vegas plan hit a snag when we realized you couldn’t just go to the airport and hop right on a plane. The earliest available flight to Vegas was at five thirty in the morning, so we had quite a few hours to wait. Instead of sleeping in the airport, we headed to the hotel next door.

  “Well, that kind of slowed things down,” Hunter said as I flopped on the bed in the hotel room. It was nearly midnight and I was finally hitting my wall and ready to crash for a few hours before we left.

  “Little bit,” I said. “It’s not like the movies, I guess, where they can just get on the plane and are in Vegas like an hour later.” He sat down next to me and patted my stomach.

  “How’s our little bean?”

  “Fine. Same as always.” I closed my eyes and sighed.

  “Do you want anything?” I shook my head. Hunter got off the bed and then I felt my shoes being gently pulled off my feet, along with my socks. Once that was done, I scooted all the way onto the bed and he joined me.

  “Hey,” he said, touching my hand.

  “Hey,” I said back.

  “We’re getting married.”

  “I know.” It was still hard to believe, but I didn’t want to turn around and go home. This was exactly where we needed to be. Well, not exactly. We hadn’t made it to Vegas yet, but we were on our way.

  It took us almost an entire day of travel and two layovers to finally get to Vegas. But since they were three hours behind Maine time, it was like we had time traveled, so we didn’t lose as much time as we might have.

  Still, when we emerged from the airport, bleary-eyed and exhausted, I was energized and ready to do this thing.

  We caught a cab and had them take us to the Hard Rock hotel. Hunter had made a reservation on his phone on our way down. I didn’t even want to think how much this little trip was costing us. It would still be massively cheaper than a traditional wedding.

  Good thing Hunter and I weren’t really traditional people.

  The first thing I wanted to do when finally arrived was go to our room and take a shower. I ignored the lights and the people and the smoke. I needed a freaking shower.

  Hunter, of course, had booked one of the suites, so it was just ridiculous. I didn’t want to breathe on anything because it was so fancy.

  I wanted to soak in the giant tub, but I settled for a quick but luxurious shower. Of course I was soon joined by a naked man named Hunter Zaccadelli.

  “I’m just saving water,” he said, giving me an innocent look as he closed the clear partition behind himself.

  “Yeah, yeah, Shower with a friend. I know the drill,” I said, rolling my eyes. He just wrapped his arms around me and buried his face in my dripping hair.

  “We’re getting married.” It was like he had to keep saying it to convince himself that it was true. That I wasn’t backing out. That this was real and it was happening.

  “We’re getting married.” I pulled back so I could kiss him and he slowly, gently fucked me up against the wall of the shower. It was sweet and as we climaxed together, I thanked whoever or whatever had decided that Hunter and I were supposed to find each other.

  “Uh oh. It seems our absence has been noted,” Hunter said as I finished drying my hair. We were heading right to dinner and then out to find one of the many little white chapels that Vegas was famous for.

  “Yeah?” I asked, putting the hairdryer away and walking back into the little living room that was separated by a partial wall from the b
edroom.

  “Yeah, I guess Mase is back at the house and wondering where the fuck we are. Do you want me to say anything?” I didn’t want anyone to know about this until we got back.

  “No. Just tell him that we decided to go and stay with my mom or something. Or that we got the urge to go stay in Camden.” Thinking about that reminded me of the time we’d pretended to be engaged so we could tour all around the Norumbega Inn. In the back of my mind, I’d always thought about maybe going back there someday and actually getting married.

  We could still do that, if we wanted. There was no rule that we could only have one wedding. It would be nice to do something a little formal after the fact. Then there would be no pressure. Maybe after the baby was born. Later next summer, or in the fall. That would be perfect.

  “Got it. I don’t really want to tell them either. Because you know if we tell Mase, then he’s going to call Hope and she’s going to get upset.” God, I didn’t want to think about that.

  “And I can’t have my mom finding out. She’s probably going to kill you. Then again, she didn’t kill you for knocking me up, so it might be okay. I just don’t want anyone interfering or giving advice. This is about the two of us. And Spawn.” Hunter put his phone on the couch and got up.

  “You look amazing.”

  In our haste to get here, we’d sort of forgotten that we might need formal clothing for the ceremony, but somehow, in my mad dash to throw things in the suitcase, I’d tossed in a black dress with cutouts on the sides that showed part of my tattoo. Couldn’t do anything about my shoes which were pink Chucks. Somehow the outfit worked, though. Hunter had his sexiest, darkest jeans on with a light blue button up shirt and a black skinny tie that had somehow made it in there too.

  “So do you,” I said. I wanted to push him up against the windows and fuck the crap out of him. But alas. We had a wedding to attend.

  I kept flashing back to our time inside Norumbega. The look of joy on Taylor’s face when she saw the library had been so worth it.

  “Hey, you’re going to squeeze the blood out of my hand,” I said so only she could hear as Susan, our tour guide rambled on and on. But I wasn’t paying attention to her. I was paying attention to Taylor, who looked like all her dreams had come true at once. That look slammed into my heart and made it hard to breathe.

  “You can take it. Do you not see the books?”

  “Would you have your way with me right now?” I was only partially joking.

  “Why do you think Beauty picked the Beast? It was the library.”

  “I guess I’m the Beast in that situation.”

  She smirked.

  “Unless you want to be the Beauty.”

  “Nope, that’s all you.”

  We’d had such a good day. Right up until she’d gotten the phone call that the monster (I refused to even think his name; he didn’t deserve it, the piece of shit) who had attacked her and her sister was up for parole. Fucking scum.

  That was the night that had changed everything.

  Taylor snapped her fingers in front of my face.

  “Are you there?”

  “Yeah, just thinking.”

  I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was just so, so beautiful.

  “Getting cold feet?” she asked.

  “Never. Not when it comes to you,” I said, reaching forward and sweeping her into my arms.

  We were both far too nervous to eat dinner, and eager to get hitched, so we rushed out of the hotel and I called a car to come take us to the chapel. After looking online, we’d chosen one that had been performing weddings for over sixty years.

  It seemed like a good bet.

  “This is so tacky in the most wonderful way,” Taylor had said when we’d looked at pictures online. That had been good enough for me. I would have married her in a parking lot if that was what it took.

  The whole way to the chapel, I held Taylor’s hand in an iron grip. She stared out the window and I asked her if she was okay. She gave me a tight nod in response.

  Okay, that was a little different than earlier in the hotel room when she’d been completely and one hundred percent in favor of this.

  “We don’t have to do this,” I said to her, kissing the back of her hand to make sure she’d hear me.

  “Huh?” she turned toward me, eyes unfocused. As if she’d been somewhere far away.

  “I said that we don’t have to do this.” She swallowed and shook her head.

  “No. We’re doing this.” She squeezed my hand and gave me a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. I knew my girl well enough to know when she was really happy and when she was putting on a face to placate someone. In this case, me.

  “Taylor,” I said, but she ignored me and looked out the window again.

  Shit.

  By the time we actually made it to the little chapel, Taylor was twitching so much I thought I might need to take her to the hospital.

  “Missy, are you okay?” I helped her out of the car and her legs wobbled. No longer was her face lit up with excitement and joy. All I saw were fear and panic.

  Time to slam on the brakes.

  I told the driver to wait, which he wasn’t happy about, but I threw some cash at him and he shut up.

  Pulling Taylor away from the crowds on the sidewalk, I grabbed her face in both of my hands.

  “I want you to look at me.” Her eyes fluttered and then focused on me. I looked into their brown depths and tried to get her to listen.

  “We. Don’t. Have. To. Do. This.” I made sure there was a little pause between each word so she knew just how serious I was.

  “Uh huh,” she said, her voice distant and a little robotic.

  “We’re not doing this, Taylor. I am not marching you down the aisle with a gun to your head. Sometimes an idea that seems good at the time turns out not to be. Right now we’re going to get in the car and go back to the hotel. And then we’ll figure out what to do tomorrow.” She kept blinking at me, but the words were beginning to sink in.

  A few tears escaped her eyes and trailed down her cheeks.

  “I’m sorry,” she said in a broken voice. “I thought I could do it.” I crushed her into a hug.

  “You never have to be sorry about that. Ever. Understand? I love you and nothing is ever going to change that.” She sobbed a little and I held her tight, rocking her back and forth as people passed by, not even giving us a glance. There were too many other things to look at. Flashing lights and showgirls and chaos.

  “I love you,” she mumbled and then pulled back. “I wish I could be different.

  I shook my head.

  “I don’t. I want you exactly the way you are.” At last, she gave me a genuine smile and slipped her hand into mine as we walked back toward the car. The driver had put on the radio and was humming to himself. I directed him to take us back to the hotel, and he made no editorial comments about how we hadn’t gone through with the wedding, for which I was grateful. If he had said anything, I did not want to be responsible for what would happen and I didn’t like the idea of getting arrested in Vegas.

  Taylor wilted against me as we headed back into the hotel and took the elevator up to our room.

  “I’m a terrible fiancée,” she said, dropping onto the couch. I sat next to her, gathering her up and pulling her into my lap.

  “If you’re terrible, then I’m terrible. We both suck.” She wrinkled her nose at me and then rested her head on my chest.

  “We’re going to be parents, but I can’t seem to wrap my head around marrying you.” I was about to say something when her phone rang.

  “Ugh, it’s my dad. I really don’t want to talk to him.” I knew she didn’t, but I thought she should. He’d really showed up during the hearing last year and I could tell that he was genuine about trying to rebuild their relationship. She still had a father and she was pushing him away.

  “Answer it,” I said, standing up. Indecision crossed her face, but then she raised the phone to her ear, win
cing as she answered.

  “Hey, Dad.”

  “Hey, Kid,” he said, and I could hear the shock in his voice that I’d picked up. There was also relief there, too.

  “I know it’s a little late to be calling, but I thought I’d give it a shot. I haven’t heard from you in ages.” Way to lay on the guilt, Dad.

  “Yeah, I know. Things have been… a little busy.” By the way, I got knocked up and I almost got married in Vegas today. How have you been? No. Not happening.

  “Oh, yeah? What’s been going on?” I could tell Mom hadn’t said anything about Spawn yet. I was kind of wishing she had because now I had to do it.

  “Well, I’m not really sure how to tell you this because there isn’t a good way, but you’re going to be a grandfather.” Across the room Hunter gave me a thumbs. I was waiting for Dad’s reaction.

  “Really?” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

  “Yeah. I have an appointment next week for the first ultrasound.” There was a weird sound on the other end and it took me a few seconds to realize that he was crying.

  “Dad?” I asked.

  “Sorry. I just needed a minute. That is so exciting, Taylor. I’m so happy for you and Hunter.” He was really choked up. It was making me choked up. I hadn’t known how he would react, but this was definitely a surprise.

  “Yeah?” I asked.

  “Absolutely. Oh, I can’t believe it. Do you think I could come up and visit so I could see you?” Whoa, let’s slow this roll a little. I wasn’t sure if I was up for that, but he was so excited, how could I deny him?

  “Um, yeah, sure. I think that would be okay. If you wait until next weekend I might have ultrasound pictures for you. I mean, it’s still so early that you can’t see much, but there will be something there.” Apparently Spawn was almost the size of a peppercorn now, so we were moving on up in size.

  “That would be wonderful. How about next Saturday?” I said that was fine and we made some tentative plans to meet at Mom’s. When he came up to visit, Mom let him stay in the guest room which I thought was totally weird, but it was her house and her rules.