Tripped Up Love

by Farley, Julie

  “Have you heard anymore about the tweet?” asked Janie.

  “No, Peter said he put his guys in New York on it - his agent I guess. He said Aiden would text him with any info.”

  “Aiden? Who’s he?” asked Lauren.

  “She’s Peter’s assistant and probably the last person to be trusted passing on any information like that accurately,” said Janie.

  “She’s not my biggest fan.”

  “I’m sure she’s not. She’s been falling over Peter ever since she took the job, and he doesn’t even see it. She’s jealous of you,” said Janie.

  “It is hard to imagine anyone being jealous of me!” said Heather.

  “Really? You landed the most eligible bachelor in Richmond - maybe even in Virginia. And you just signed an agent to represent your manuscript!” said Janie. Lauren’s eyes bugged out of her head. In all the commotion over the last week, Heather had neglected to tell her about the book deal.

  “Were you going to mention the book deal?? Or was I going to have to wait to read about that on Facebook too?” asked Lauren. At the mention of book deal, the room silenced. Heather found all eyes on her waiting for an explanation.

  “It’s not a book deal. Peter’s agent has agreed to represent me.”

  “That’s a little modest. He read Heather’s memoir and loved it. As of Friday, he’s had several interested publishers. I’m sure we’ll hear more in the next few days.”

  Phil proposed a toast, “To finding happily ever after again.” Everyone clinked glasses. Heather clinked her ice water and started to cry. No one asked for an explanation, they just chalked it up to hormones and an overwhelming situation. Peter planted a kiss right on Heather’s lips causing more tears to flow. Hank would never have done that. The most she would have gotten would have been a kiss on the cheek. But it was Phil’s toast that really got her. There was no way Phil could know the importance of his words, happily ever after. The words struck Heather’s heart in songs and in storybooks because she thought her happily ever after had ended. For the first time in quite a while, she was starting to believe she might get another chance at one.

  Chapter 37

  The game was on and the chili served. Henry was all smiles having a ‘partay’ at his house. He sat between Peter and Phil on the couch and watched the game. Phil had a lot of questions for Peter about his books. Heather noticed everyone looked at him like they were a bit star struck. She had to admit she did too. Hayes showed Peter off to his friend Peyton. Peyton was more impressed with Lauren’s girls, as was Michael. Nothing like a couple of high school girls to keep middle school boys well-behaved.

  Heather couldn’t bear to eat the chili. The smell of the tomato sauce was making her sick. She had already lit three candles around the house to try and get rid of the smell. Chris brought her a plate of chicken curry in hopes she would eat something. Which she did, happily.

  “Do you have a due date yet, Heather?” asked Donna.

  “Sometime in July. I have an ultrasound next Monday, so I’ll know more then.”

  “That will be a perfect time for a baby, sweetie,” said Donna.

  “We’ll have a pool by then too since Mom is getting her book made,” reported Henry.

  “You’re a man with a plan,” said Peter. Peter secretly planned on having a pool put into the mill house as soon as it was feasible. He just needed to figure out how to convince Heather to move.

  “We’re going to Hawaii too, Papi,” said Henry.

  “You’re going to be one busy five-year-old,” said Phil.

  “I’m almost six. Just a few more months.”

  Everyone enjoyed the chili until Henry let Coco in, and she delivered a vole, almost dead, to the middle of the floor. Peter aptly took care of it, and Heather ordered Hayes to put Coco in her crate.

  “It wouldn’t be dinner at your house without some kind of dead animal,” said Heather’s mom, Diane.

  Heather was horrified. She knew how particular Janie was. Heather was sure it was already killing her to sit on Heather’s previously lice infested furniture. Now add dead animals in the family room to the list of her horrors. Chris laughed as if he was reading Heather’s mind and needed to lighten the mood.

  “You know, Janie was on the riding mower last week, and she ran over a nest of bunnies.”

  “You promised you wouldn’t tell!”

  “She ran into the house screaming and crying. I thought she had run over Elizabeth. I’m sure she won’t ever mow the lawn again.”

  “You’re right about that,” said Janie. Peter called her bunny killer for the rest of the evening, and Janie rolled her eyes like any little sister would.

  Heather noticed Diane and Peter having a conversation at one point and made a mental note to ask him what her mom was grilling him about. Lauren cozied up next to Heather again and told her how lucky she was. Peter had won Lauren over easily. There were not many men that would go to these lengths to win over an extended family like this. The fact that he did it before he knew Heather was pregnant scored him even more points in Lauren’s mind. Donna was happy to see the girls sitting together. She knew as long as their relationship was cemented she would have a place as well. Heather wished she could offer some magic words to Donna to let her know she wasn’t going to kick them to the curb. But the old saying said actions speak louder than words, and Heather and Peter’s actions were screaming at their families.

  Everyone helped clean up after the Patriots won handily. Heather did as much as anyone would let her, which basically meant she put away the napkins. Peter had it all under control just like he had thrown dozens of dinner parties. As Heather noticed that, she realized she had no idea if Peter had thrown dinner parties before. She knew so much and so little about him. Now that his baby was growing in her stomach, she was determined to learn more.

  Good-byes were said, and Heather had the kids hit the showers. Tomorrow was a school day and she was anxious to have a little alone time with Peter. He had impressed her this evening, and she was determined to show him how much. That would need to wait until the kids were safely asleep. In the meantime, Heather checked out Facebook. Tanya, sweetly, posted on her wall, asking if there were any other announcements to be made as she saw all the cars at her house. Heather was glad she could keep everyone so busy and fascinated with her life. She had been uncharacteristically quiet on Facebook lately. She used to share stories about the kids or random quotes at least once a day. Lately, Heather had no desire to share her life, and the comments and questions seemed like an unwelcome intrusion. She wanted to wrap her family and her life with Peter up and keep it away from everyone else. Heather noticed she had a friend request from Janie already. Heather was shocked to see how different Janie and Peter were. Their outward appearances alone made her laugh. Janie was neat and tidy in her appearance with a blonde bob. She looked like she stepped right out of the Lilly Pulitzer catalog. Heather could not imagine what Janie would do if either of her kids OR her husband had tattoos like Peter did. Tattoos seemed taboo to a clean-cut girl like Janie. But her love and adoration for Peter were obvious, and Peter considered her a confidante. Heather thought it was probably a big deal for her to have asked Heather to be her Facebook friend. It was a stamp of approval Heather was happy to receive.

  Peter sat down next to Heather on the couch with his laptop. Heather knew all this time away from working was hard for him.

  “Janie asked me to be her friend on Facebook.”

  “Whoa, you must have charmed her. I guess I should ask you to be my friend too since you are carrying my child.”

  “I didn’t even know you had a Facebook page.”

  “I have several. Aiden maintains my fan page, and I have a personal page filled mostly with friends from college and high school. I hardly ever go on it. But I should change my status to “In a relationship with Heather Meadows.” That way we could announce it to the world on our own.”

  “No need. I’m afraid you’ll head for the hills soon any
way between me throwing up, the dog bringing in dead animals, and Henry keeping them in his drawers. We’re a regular freak show. Then you’ll post a new relationship status on Facebook, and I will be completely devastated.”

  “Heather, I am not heading for the hills. I’m not sure how else to prove it to you. I finally feel like a complete person. I turned 40 and looked at my life. I‘ve accomplished a lot, but I was always searching for more. I’ve found myself jealous of my friends from college and Janie and Chris. I knew I wanted a family someway somehow but thought it might not happen. Now it has, and like everything with us, I am thrown into it full throttle.”

  Heather didn’t know what Peter had to do to prove he wasn’t taking off. She was simply incredulous a guy like Peter would willingly take on the challenge of her life. Now that she was pregnant, she worried it might not be so willingly. Heather knew she had no choice but to suck it up and believe Peter.

  “Let’s just keep it off Facebook,” said Heather.

  “Kind of too late for that, but I guess it makes sense that we don’t encourage it.”

  “Have you heard anything from Aiden about the tweet?”

  “Not yet. I’ll call Richard tomorrow and see if he’s heard anything.”

  “Janie doesn’t trust Aiden.”

  “Janie doesn’t trust most people,” said Peter.

  “She’s protective of you.”

  “She’s protective of her little family mostly.”

  “I think it’s cute. The closest thing I had to siblings growing up was Lauren and Hank. Hank and I grew out of the sibling thing, but Lauren and I are pretty tight.”

  “I think Lauren would take me out if I screwed up. And now it looks like Janie may as well.”

  “My little posse. Jenny is definitely part of that group too.” Heather felt guilty she hadn’t spoken to Jenny this weekend other than a quick text to let her know they were home. She knew they would talk tomorrow but sleep was starting to hit Heather like a Mack truck.

  Chapter 38

  Peter set the alarm in the guest room to get up early enough to help get the kids ready for school. At least that’s what he thought. Henry beat the alarm and scared Peter awake. Henry was freshly showered and dressed for school.

  “Dude, you get up early.”

  “You’ve got to with this crowd. Especially if you want to watch Sports Center in peace.”

  Peter got up and followed Henry down to the family room to watch ESPN. Peter started a pot of coffee. As he stood at the counter waiting for it to brew, he looked over at Henry. Waking up and hanging out with a five-year-old was a little surreal for Peter. Waking up in a house full of kids and a pregnant girlfriend in another room was a lot surreal for Peter. Heather appeared a few minutes later while Peter was lost in his head. Heather startled him as she put her head on his chest.

  “Morning.”

  “Morning to you,” said Peter.

  “Henry wake you up?”

  “I woke up to find him leaning over me and staring at me about three inches from my head.”

  “He has boundary issues. Sorry. He’s my little alarm clock.”

  “Guess so. I set one, but it didn’t even have a chance to go off. How do you feel?”

  “Ok so far. I think I’ll make a cup of tea and some toast to try and head it off. What’s your plan for the day?”

  “Hang out with you for most of it. I do need to get some work done and talk to Richard about where we are with your book and the mysterious tweeter.”

  “I need to do some stuff like hit Kroger and Target. I’m going to try to convince these guys to buy lunch today because I’m not sure I can scrounge up enough food for them.”

  Peter grocery shopped by the meal, if he did at all. And Target, he ran in there a couple times, but having a list of things to get from Target was new to him. “Can you spare a few minutes for me to take you somewhere?”

  “Yeah I guess. Where?”

  “Not far. It will just take a little while.”

  Heather started fixing the Meadows Healthy Breakfast and checked the lunch menu.

  “Pizza dippers, Henry. Any interest?”

  “Sure.”

  Next job was her least favorite - waking up Gracie. Heather held herself together and finished the mountain of morning tasks with Peter’s help. He even made Hayes a PB&J sandwich. The kids got on the bus happily, and Peter and Heather had a moment of peace - finally. Heather sat on the couch for a minute to gather herself before heading for a shower. Peter sat down right next to her and picked her legs up and put them across his lap. His hands rubbed Heather’s thighs.

  “That’s quite a morning routine you have there.”

  “Yeah. Glad I haven’t felt sick yet today. It would be hard to do while throwing up.”

  “I’ll help.”

  “You have to manage your career too. I’m not going to be the downfall of the great Peter Adamson.”

  “Quite the contrary, you only make me greater.” Peter kissed her lips and held one hand on the back of her head. Heather melted into his hands and thanked him for all he was doing to help her, just like she intended to do before she’d fallen asleep the night before. Peter liked the freedom of Heather being pregnant and not having to use a condom. The intensity he felt with her, and in her, was like nothing he had experienced before. Heather’s body displayed her pleasure very obviously as well. After their morning workout, Heather took Peter upstairs and showed him around the master bedroom. Until now, she was hesitant to have Peter in the room because it felt like a betrayal to Hank. But with Peter staying at the house and helping with so much, Heather was finally ok with sharing the rest of the house with him. At least when the kids weren’t there. She thought it might take time for them to share a bedroom.

  Heather’s intention to share the rest of the house with Peter wasn’t completely altruistic. She wanted to show him her bathroom and thought they could conserve some water and shower together. Heather intended to be a hot and sexy pregnant mama until she got too fat. Peter happily obliged.

  After they showered, Peter was ready to take Heather on his adventure. They took his car and pulled out of her neighborhood. They meandered on Robious Road for about a mile following the James River. They turned into a driveway with a set of gates that sat open.

  “Where are we going?”

  “There’s something I want to show you down here.”

  Heather had passed this driveway at least 1000 times but never gave much thought to what was down the road. The driveway was lined with magnolia trees, and a long row of Leyland Cyprus trees blocked the rest of the property from the road. They drove down the driveway, and Heather knew they had to be close to the river. At the end of the driveway stood a house. There was a mill wheel attached to a stone chimney. The house was massive.

  “Are we trespassing?”

  “Not really. We’re allowed to be here for the next hour or so.” Peter had arranged to show Heather the house without a realtor present. He stopped in the circular drive in front of the house and turned to Heather.

  “Are we visiting someone?”

  “No. I want you to keep an open mind. I want to buy this house, for you, for us. I want us to start our new family here.”

  “Buy it? This place is too big and would cost a freaking fortune!”

  “Luckily, I have a freaking fortune, and it’s not as expensive as you might think. Let’s take a look.”

  The front doors were painted some hue between Tiffany blue and turquoise. Peter opened them, and Heather could see impeccably shiny wood floors everywhere she looked. There was a room on either side of the front door and a hallway that looked like it might lead to a wall of windows. Peter began his tour. “The dining room on the left and the living room or game room on the right. Follow me, and I’ll show you the family room and kitchen.” They walked through the short hallway that looked to have a closet and maybe half bath in it. Heather gasped when she saw the family room. There was a wall of windows outlined b
y a stone that looked to match what she saw outside. There were exposed beams in several places that must have held the walls at one point. The kitchen had white cabinets and a gigantic island with a sink in it. The space was three times what Heather had right now. The family room had a fireplace next to the wall of windows. Through the windows, Heather could see a stone patio and fireplace.

  “I thought the pool could go right out there too.”

  “Peter, this place is huge. It’s much too big.”

  “Not really. I think it’s the perfect size for us. Let’s check out the bedrooms.” There was a staircase off the family room. At the top of the steps was a loft space and beyond it there were five bedrooms, each with their own bathroom. Each bedroom was larger than her current master bedroom. “The kids could each have their own room, and we could have a guest room.” Heather and Peter walked farther down the hallway to the master bedroom. The stone that was outside and downstairs lined one of the walls of the bedroom. A fireplace was built into the stone wall. There were two walk-in closets. Both had built-ins. One even had an island with drawers in it. Heather didn’t have nearly enough clothes to keep in this closet. Beyond the closets, was a bathroom. A huge gigantic stone bathroom filled with sunlight from the two skylights above it. An old-fashioned claw foot tub, big enough for two, sat under the window, and a shower large enough for the whole family was behind the sinks. The shower was unlike anything Heather had seen before; actually the whole house was the nicest house she had ever stepped into. From first look, the shower looked like a small opening in the wall. There were hooks and towel racks at the opening. When Heather peered in, she saw the walls were lined with showerheads and a bench, similar to Peter’s shower. With her new fondness for showers, Heather was hooked on the house. Seeing the twinkle in her eye, Peter knew he could move forward with the house.

  “Like it?”

  “What’s not to like? It’s amazing.”