“That’s awesome!” Caroline said with such enthusiasm that Rhetta couldn’t help but snuggle closer to her. “Does it have to be a black suit?”
Amy smiled. “Nope, it can be anything. As long as it’s something that you wore on the day, that’ll do. We use a lot of ties for people who want pink and white for little girls or blue for boys. All that we ask is that the fabric is nothing too rough, so unless you’re planning to get married in a sack, there won’t be a problem.”
“What kind of bears do you make?” Caroline asked, her childlike wonder making Rhetta go weak at the knees.
Amy picked up the iPad off of the stall and held it up for Caroline to take. “Here’s what we offer as standard, but if there’s something that you really want to see, we can discuss design and a price. Usually couples start off with one bear that they save for their firstborn and then if they have any more children, they send us back what’s left of the wedding outfits and we get to work making more! We’ve only run out of material once so far!”
“How many kids did they have?” Rhetta asked, feeling a little sick at the thought of someone having enough babies in such a short amount of time that they ran out of material.
“Nine. Three sets of twins and one lot of triplets.”
Rhetta’s uterus twinged at the thought. “How much for a bear?”
“Our packages start at $500 excluding post and packaging. You’ll want to insure your items both on their way in and their way out from us too. If you’re in the DC area, it usually comes to about $700 a bear.”
Rhetta’s eyes widened. They said their goodbyes to Amy and moved on. After they had visited a few more stalls, Rhetta decided it was time to let Caroline down gently.
“$700 is a lot to pay for a bear, Caro,” Rhetta broached. “I can’t really rationalise spending that much. Now when babies need so many expensive things.”
Caroline deflated. “I guess you’re right.”
“I’m sorry, baby.”
“It’s okay, you don’t have to be sorry.”
“Could you go and grab me my handcream from up in our room?” Rhetta asked as nonchalantly as possible. “The soap here has really dried out my hands.”
Caroline smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Of course, Princess. I won’t be long.”
Rhetta watched as Caroline wove her way between the stalls until she disappeared out of the hall and up towards their room. As soon as she was out of sight, Rhetta jumped to her feet and hurried over to the Wedding Bears stall.
“Hi!” Amy said brightly. “You ready to buy a bear?”
“Yes, but I don’t want my fiancée to know. I want it to be a surprise,” Rhetta said quickly, wanting to get this all done before Caroline got back. “You said that you did custom orders?”
* * *
When Rhetta woke up on the plane, it took her a moment to work out where she was. The last few days had been a whirlwind and she had woken up with her heart pounding in her chest and every nerve on alert. She pressed her palm to chest and calmed when she felt her engagement ring hanging there on its chain, kept safe from prying eyes and the dangers of party after party after party.
She turned her head to the side and saw Caroline stretched out in the two seats closest the window, her sock-covered feet propped up on Rhetta’s lap. At some point during the journey, little Zoe had fallen asleep on Caroline’s chest. Rhetta smiled at the sight and pulled out her phone to snap a photo.
2015 had been pretty good to her so far, but she had a feeling that 2016 would be even better. Especially if the brochure from the fertility clinic in her bag was anything to go by.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
It starts with dinner. Both of their families and close friends crowded around a large, round table.
Fairy lights dance in the trees around them and the air is filled with the calming sounds of the ocean and crickets chirping in the twilight.
To her right, she could see Peri and Sam talking and laughing – the most unlikely of friends. Across from her, she could see their moms deep in conversation, talking about something that would probably make both of their daughters blush.
“You think we should tell them about the clinic?” Rhetta whispered in Caroline’s ear, a curl of blonde hair tickling her nose.
Caroline’s eyes widened and she gulped before shaking her head.
Rhetta smiled and pressed a soft, slow kiss to her jaw. “Me neither. I like it being our secret. Just you and me. Just like it’s supposed to be.”
There’s a ring of metal against glass and Rhetta just manages to catch the edge of Caroline’s lips twitching up in a smile before her attention is drawn across the table to her brother.
“I know, I know. You’re all shocked and surprised that I’m the one giving a speech,” Sam sassed, making the whole dinner table laugh. “But this whole shebang isn’t about me. It’s about my little sisters. It’s about the kind of love that gives me and everyone else around this table hope.”
He paused and smiled as everyone nodded in agreement. “When my baby sister first Skyped to tell me that she had been on an amazing date, I knew, this time, it was special. I could see it in her eyes that she was already in love, something that was very out of character for the careful, considered R that I knew. But seeing her with Caroline has taught me that despite how close R and I was, there was a whole other side to her that I didn’t know. Thanks to Caroline, I got to know a sister who loves fearlessly and completely. Someone who has hopes and dreams outside of soccer. Most importantly, someone who believes that she will achieve her dreams 100% because someone looks at her like she’s their whole world.”
“That’s because she is,” Caroline interrupted and was rewarded with a kiss to her cheek and a hand resting easily on her thigh.
Sam smiled his Morsten smile and shook his head at how adorable and in love the brides to be were. “I’m also thankful that R had led me to Caroline. I wouldn’t have thought that it was possible to have a little sister as great as R, but Caroline has proved me wrong. As close as R and I are, Caroline understands me in ways that no one else ever has. I’ve worked through more thinks on a deck or rooftop with Caroline at night than I ever have in a therapist’s office, and unlike them, Caroline has never expected anything in return. I’ve never met anyone with a heart as big and selfless as Caroline’s and I don’t mind admitting that I’m just the teensiest bit jealous that my sister was the one that snapped her up.”
Another laugh rippled around the table and Rhetta gave Sam a faux warning glare.
“Seriously, though, I don’t think that there is one person around this table that doesn’t wish that they had someone in their lives who loves and is loved by them as much as R and Caroline love each other. Which brings me to the toast. Apparently it’s bad luck to raise a toast with water, so I’m going to pass it over to my far less eloquent dad whose going to do the job for me.”
With that, Kevin got to his feet and raised his glass of red wine. “A toast: to R and Caroline.”
The whole table raised their glasses and chorused, “To R and Caroline.”
“May their lives be long and filled with love for each other and the family they make together,” Kevin concluded.
Tears were stinging in Rhetta’s eyes and she had to dab at them with her napkin to stop them from ruining her makeup. “Thanks, Daddy. And you, Sam. Thank you so much!”
Caroline nodded her agreement, doing her best to swallow down her own tears.
“We want to thank all of you, really,” Caroline said. “For being here. For helping us to make tomorrow special. It means a lot that we have so many people who love and support us. It never stops amazing me that we have such an amazing family. And I’m counting you guys in that too.” Caroline gestured to their friends, a small mix of ‘home’ friends and their closest teammates. “Thanks for being our family.”
Tears were running down Rhetta’s cheeks beside her and Caroline had resisted the urge to kiss them away, settling instead
for brushing them with the pad of her thumb. But when Rhetta’s eyes met hers, she found that she was crying too.
* * *
“How long do we have?” Caroline asked as she walked into the bridal suite bathroom, discarding her cufflinks on the marble vanity and lazily stepping out of her jeans. When she got no reply, she turned to the roll top bathtub, watching Rhetta relax into the hot, bubbly, petal-strewn water.
“Three and a half hours,” Rhetta murmured, watching appreciatively as Caroline unbuttoned her stone-grey shirt and shrugged it off onto the floor. Her bra followed it a moment later. “I want you out of here before 11.45.”
“You’re just going to use me and chuck me out afterwards. Ouch!” Caroline smirked, clad only in her boxers.
Rhetta rolled her eyes. “I’m naked in a bath and you’re sassing me? Shut up and get in.”
A throaty chuckle bubbled up from Caroline as she shook her head in amusement. Rhetta couldn’t help but smile as she watched Caroline draw her hair up into a messy topknot before finally making her way across the bathroom towards her. She knew that meant that Caroline wanted Rhetta to hold her, something that Rhetta was all too happy to do.
A groan escaped Caroline’s lips as she slipped into the hot water and the ever-present aches in her muscles dulled.
“Mmmmmmm,” Rhetta smiled as Caroline leant back against her, cradled between Rhetta’s parted thighs. “You feel so damn good, baby.”
She snaked her arms around Caroline’s waist and nuzzled into the warmth of Caroline’s neck. “Have I told you how much I love you today?”
Caroline chuckled and Rhetta thought that she saw the faint blooming of a blush on Caroline’s cheeks. “You might have mentioned it once or twice.”
“Good,” Rhetta promised, “because I do.” She deep breath, sure that this was the moment. “And because I have something to tell you.”
The muscles in Caroline’s stomach tensed beneath Rhetta’s fingertips and Rhetta took the time to smooth them out again.
“O – okay,” Caroline muttered, her heart beating so hard that Rhetta could feel it.
“I don’t want to change my name to Morsten-Williams…” Rhetta began softly, though, for Caroline, it did nothing to cushion the blow.
“Oh,” Caroline stammered, sitting forward out of Rhetta’s arms before she could continue. “That’s – that’s okay. I mean you - you don’t have to. I – I didn’t mean to force you to-”
“Caro,” Rhetta interrupted in the tone that always calmed Caroline, no matter what. “Turn around, please. I want to see you.”
Reluctantly, Caroline turned to face Rhetta, her knees pulled up to her chest and her eyes downturned. A few strands of hair had fallen loose from her bun and despite how hurt she knew that Caroline was, Rhetta couldn’t help but smile at how adorable she looked.
“Caro, I’m not saying that I don’t want to take your name,” Rhetta explained slowly, her heart breaking that Caroline still expected the worst. She was going to spend the rest of her life teaching Caroline just how worthy she was. “I’m saying that I do. I don’t want to be a Morsten- Williams. I just want to be a Williams. How would you feel about that?”
Caroline finally looked up, her expression caught somewhere between hope and confusion as she met Rhetta’s eyes.
“You – you want to be…” Her voice trailed off.
“Mrs Rhetta Williams,” Rhetta finished for her, reaching out to take Caroline’s hand from her knee. She brought it to her lips and kissed her palm. “It sounds pretty good, don’t you think?”
And then Caroline was kissing her and Rhetta was laughing and crying into it, her heart pounding in her chest.
“You mean it?” Caroline panted against her lips. “You really mean it?”
“Of course,” Rhetta said softly, drawing apart Caroline’s knees and guiding her closer until Caroline was half sat in her lap.
“Why?” Caroline breathed shakily.
“Morsten-Williams is too much of a mouthful for one,” Rhetta began, finishing with a nose-crinkling giggle that Caroline easily matched. Then, shyly and honestly she said, “And the thought of taking your name gives me the good kind of shivers.”
She stopped to give Caroline a soft, soulful kiss. “It feels so right, Caro.”
“But your family?” Caroline asked, and Rhetta could tell that she was having trouble believing that this wasn’t just a dream.
“I talked to my Mom and Dad about it and they understood. My Mom more than anyone. She said that she always knew that was what I was going to choose. My Dad didn’t really get it at first, but he does now. Sam was harder to convince, as usual. He was convinced I was stuck on some kind of 1950s butch-femme bullshit, but I’m not. That’s not who we are, you and me, and he knows it. But I am going to be your wife and we’re going to have a family. I want us all to have one name. I want you to carry around an ultrasound photo in your wallet with ‘Baby Williams’ printed on the top. I don’t know how to explain it. It just makes me feel closer to you and that’s what’s important, you know? Not what anyone else thinks. Just what we think.”
There were tears running down Caroline’s cheeks for the second time that night and Rhetta leant up to kiss them away. “Say something, baby.”
“I’d be honoured if you took my name,” Caroline whispered through dry lips. “I love you so much, R.”
“Then that’s all that matters,” Rhetta giggled. “Because I love you too.”
“But you’re keeping your name for soccer.”
It wasn’t a question, but Rhetta nodded anyway.
“It’s easier and, honestly, I want to. It’s my brand on the field. It’s how people know me. And it creates a distinction between who I am on the field and who I am when with you and our family,” Rhetta reasoned. “It feels kind of freeing, actually.”
Caroline nodded, getting exactly where Rhetta was coming from. “It makes sense. Plus, I don’t think I’ll be able to break the habit of shouting ‘Morsten’ at you when we’re on the field.”
Rhetta smirked. “As long as that’s the only place you do it.”
Caroline laughed throatily. “Oh don’t worry, I won’t have any trouble calling you Mrs. Williams everywhere else.”
“Good,” Rhetta said slowly, her eyes darkening at the thought.
“You’re perfect,” Caroline murmured, brushing little, wet strands of hair back from Rhetta’s cheeks as she gazed down at her, appreciating the open lust in Rhetta’s eyes. The last straw came for Caroline when that gaze fell to her lips and lingered there. She broke, kissing Rhetta roughly.
“You think that the hotel will come and change the sheets if we get them all wet?” Rhetta asked mischievously, her thumbs rubbing circles on Caroline’s hips.
Caroline’s eyes opened slowly, her breaths coming deep and fast. “Why don’t we find out?”
* * *
Rhetta was pretty sure that she was going to have a heart attack. She had thought that her heartbeat had gotten as fast as it could go when she had collapsed, spent, the last time that she had run the beep test. But that had nothing on how fast it was beating as she stood in front of a full-length mirror in her wedding dress.
“Oh fuck,” she swore, shaking her hands to try to get them to stop trembling. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
She heard Sam’s laugh from behind her and felt his hands heavy on her shoulders.
“Nervous, B?” he smirked.
“Shut up.”
“Caroline’s going to lose it when she sees you,” Sam chuckled. “You look epic, baby sister.”
“Yeah?” Rhetta asked nervously, turning around to face him. “You think she’ll like it?”
Sam shook his head at the absurdity of Rhetta’s question. “Oh, she’ll like it alright. Your ass looks fantastic, so she probably won’t be able to tear her eyes away from that for starters.”
Rhetta swatted his arm. “Stop it!”
Sam held up his hands. “You can’t tell me a gem like how you
tailor your workouts to keep your butt looking banging for your soon-to-be Mrs and not expect me to use it against you.”
Rhetta pouted. “Meanie.”
Sam relented. “Seriously, though, you look amazing, R. Totally classy. Caroline’s going to love it.”
Rhetta turned back around and looked in the mirror. With surprisingly little deliberation, they had decided to go for the traditional look. So Rhetta had chosen a floor length white gown with an illusion neckline, the bodice covered in lace flowers that dripped down onto the A-line skirt. As soon as she had seen it, she had known that it was the one.
There was knock on the door and Rhetta turned so quickly that Sam had chastised her for risking her hair. He had spent over an hour blow-drying it and straightening it until it shone like silk before twisting it elaborately at the nape of her neck, just over to the right. A scattering of lace flowers finished off the look.
“Come in,” Rhetta called nervously. “Unless you’re Caroline, in which case please go away because I don’t want to jinx this now!”
Alana was laughing when she came in, but that all stopped the moment that she saw her daughter.
“Oh, R,” she gasped. Tears pooled at the corners of her eyes and her hand flew up to her mouth. “You look so beautiful.”
Rhetta blushed. “Thanks, Mom. You look don’t look so bad yourself.”
Alana waved away her compliment with a flick of her hand. “That makeup artist that you hired can work wonders.”
Alana’s outfit was a rich, dark pink to match the bridesmaid dresses. Only the flower girl’s dress was a gentler shade.
“Well, I’m not just here to trade compliments, as nice as that is,” Alana laughed. “I come bearing presents.”
Rhetta’s eyes widened and she clapped excitedly. “Presents!”
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