A Life Unplanned (28 page)

Chapter 34 – Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy

My mother and Meredith helped me dress. My mother didn't ask what had happened, but I think they both knew Maylene had nearly ruined our wedding. I hadn't stuttered at all, when I had told Maylene to sit in the back and stay out of sight, so I was pleased that Meredith and my mother had taken that to heart.

"Could you take the kids to Waco with you after the wedding and watch them for us?" I asked my mother.

Her eyes darted to Meredith before she answered. Maylene was supposed to have watched the kids, while Trent and I went away for a week. "Yes, of course, honey. Meredith, do you mind helping me pack up the kids' things?"

"I'd be happy to get them out of this nuthouse," Meredith said sympathetically and left the room.

My mother helped me put on my necklace. "It's bad, isn't it?" she asked.

"Yeah, Trent's furious. I'm glad I was able to find him and talk with him. Just…he doesn't want to talk to either of them, and I don't blame him. I'd really rather not speak to either of them right now myself, but I don't want him to regret them not being here, if we do ever reconcile with them."

"If…?" my mother asked worriedly.

"If," I said with a sigh.

My mom leaned down and kissed my cheek and squeezed my hand. "Now's not the time to discuss upsetting things. Now is the time to dream about honeymoon vacations and getting tipsy at your reception. You're going to have a wonderfully perfect rest of the day, and you're going to thank me and your father for it by giving us more grandbabies."

"I already gave you two!" I giggled.

"Yeah, and they're the most adorable grandchildren ever. How can you not make more? I've seen Trent without his shirt on, Clara, don't even try and tell me it'd be a hardship to make more babies with him."

I burst out laughing. "Don't perv on my man, Mom."

"I wasn't perving, just making an observation. The timing would be good. Katie and the new baby wouldn't be spaced too far apart."

"Mom," I whined.

"Fine…two's good," she pouted a little, and I laughed.

"I didn't say we were only having two kids. We just want things to be settled a little more before we have another."

"So, you've talked about it?" my mother asked excitedly.

"Yes, Mom, we've talked about it," I conceded. We had, sort of. We both knew we wanted more kids, we had just never said when.

My mother squealed a little and then settled herself down. "That's all I ask. If it's something you both want, just know you have mine and your dad's full support."

"I know, Mom. I love you guys." She helped me out of the chair and gave me a hug.

Meredith stepped into the room, carrying the kids' little suitcases. "Can I have your car keys, Karen, so I can put these in your trunk?"

My mother looked over at me before she passed them to Meredith. I knew she was dying to find out what had happened, but wisely, she didn't want to change the focus of the day.

I didn't know what Meredith had done, but she had made it so I didn't even see Maylene and Roger as I left the house. I sort of wondered if my feisty sister-in-law had locked them in the basement. I think I would've been okay with it if she had.

She and my mother snuck me into the bride's room at the church, and Meredith went to make sure everything was ready for us. Emily came running into the room, excited to show me her dress. She twirled for me, and my heart broke a little. She wanted so much to be a part of our family, but I doubted we'd ever see her much.

Tyler came charging in and roared at me, "I'm a bear, Mom! I'm a big ring bear! RAWR!" He was too cute to correct, so I didn't. My little Katie was trying to get her hands on the makeup on the dressing table. I'd only brought a few items, but now that Katie could walk, she was always trying to climb things. I patted her little ruffled bottom and handed her to Emily. "Are my flower girls ready?" I asked with a smile. My mother took a few pictures of us, as we made our way to the door.

My mom poked her head out of the waiting room. "Are they ready?" my mom asked my dad.

"Almost, Meredith asked us to hold on for a second," he informed us. I hadn't realized she'd slipped out.

She hurried back into the foyer from a little hallway on the opposite side of the chapel. "Okay, we're all set!" she said with a huge smile.

"So, Trent made it?" I asked. A flash of worry crossed my parents' faces.

"Yup, he's anxiously waiting, so let's get this show on the road!" Meredith nearly cheered.

I hadn't even fully realized I had been worried he wouldn't show until that moment. Even still, I held my breath until the doors opened, and I saw Trent dressed in a tux at the end of the aisle. He was there, and he was smiling, happy to see me…happy to marry me.

The rest of the day and evening were perfect. My mother shared the mother-and-son dance with Trent instead of Maylene. She did it so naturally that I doubted people really noticed, and when my dad took over dancing with her and passed me to Trent, Trent told me a few of the funny stories she'd shared with him while they had danced. Of course, he also mentioned that she asked him to give her more grandbabies as well.

I only worried about Maylene and Roger's whereabouts once. It was when I had noticed Emily sitting with Meredith and Trevor. When I spoke to Meredith, she let me know that Emily would be going back to Waco to spend the week with them. I decided not to dwell on it, and I'd ask Meredith about it after my honeymoon.

We left our reception amidst a shower of birdseed and catcalls. We had just made it down the building steps, when Trent scooped me up and dove into the back of the limo with me. "Get us to the hotel fast, driver!" he shouted chuckling. I was pretty sure he was buzzed.

He was up my dress instantly, and I was glad someone had had mind enough to shut the limo door, so we could get out of there with minimum exposure. My man was determined and got right to the good stuff. Our driver must have been experienced, because he conveniently didn't arrive at our hotel until after we were done with round one and had thoroughly consummated the marriage.

We were both a rumpled mess, when the driver knocked lightly on the door window. Trent double checked both of our clothes before he opened it, and the driver held it for us, acting like nothing had happened. Trent slipped him a nice tip with a grin. We'd have to find the guy online and give him glowing reviews for his professionalism.

The hotel was only the first stop on our honeymoon. We'd spend the night in Houston and then fly out of their airport the next day. Of course, neither of us planned to get much sleep. It'd been a while since we'd had a night of us both at home with no children to interrupt us. We were both looking forward to some hot honeymoon hotel sex.

"I love you," he mumbled into my neck.

"I love you, too."

"You owe me pie," he said and bit my shoulder playfully.

"I do?"

"Yes, you're supposed to have my babies and make me apple pie," he whispered nibbling against my skin.

"I've had two of your babies, are we having more?"

"You're mom seems to think so. Now would space them perfectly," he chuckled and kissed me.

"Yeah, it would," I answered back, but we became too lost in our activities to discuss it any further.

After a long exhausting night, I woke to Trent on the phone. "So, would you mind doing it? I know you have rights at a hospital here in Houston."

I squinted against the sun and his smile, trying to figure out what he was doing.

"Excellent! Thanks, McKenna, we'll see you in two hours," he said excitedly and hung up. He pounced on me, grinning widely. "Did you hear who I was talking to?"

"McKenna? What were you calling her so early for?" I asked then looked at the clock. It was nearly noon. "We're going to have to pay for another day in the hotel, we've passed checkout."

"We have late check out at one thirty, beautiful. By then, we'll be on the way to the hospital."

"Hospital?" I sat up, a little more aware now. "Is someone hurt? What's going on?"

"No one is hurt. After our chat last night, I thought you'd want to get your IUD out, before we left for the rest of our honeymoon."

I stared at him wide-eyed. I did actually want it out, but I had never thought to call McKenna to get it done immediately. I guess there were perks to having an OB/GYN as a close friend.

"You did want to have more kids…didn't you?" Trent asked a little unsure.

I nodded. "Yes, yes I do. That's great…a honeymoon baby." I jumped on him and showed him my approval so thoroughly we almost missed the late checkout as well.

I self-consciously washed myself a second and third time, when I realized McKenna would be going down under into the mess that was Trent's playground. I knew I wouldn't come off as virginal, but I didn't want her to deal with a freshly fucked mess down there. She was doing us a favor. It was the least I could do for her in return.

She gave us both a hug and congratulated us on our decision. "So, baby number three! That's so exciting."

"Yeah, it feels like it's a good time to do it, doesn't it?" Trent asked.

I nodded. "It's always a good time to make babies with you." I covered my mouth, shocked. "Don't mind me; I'm just channeling my mother this morning for some reason."

"Afternoon, sweetheart, we were busy practicing all morning, remember?" Trent teased.

I smacked his arm embarrassed, and McKenna guffawed. "Okay, enough chitchat. Don't you two have a plane to catch?"

"Yes, let's get to it." Trent helped me up onto the exam table, and McKenna had the IUD out in seconds.

"Alright, you're good to go. Just take it easy on her for a couple of days if she starts spotting."

"I know. I've given the same speech. I'll be sure she's well taken care of."

"Alright, Romeo, I'll see you next week."

Our honeymoon was only a week. It seemed like a lot of time, until she said the words out loud, and then it suddenly didn't seem like it'd be long enough. We'd just have to make the most of the little time we had together.

Trent had rented a little beach bungalow in South Padre for our week-long retreat. When he asked where I wanted to go, I said somewhere with a beach and a change of scenery. If I was being honest with myself, the small-town’s lack of entertainment was getting to me, and I needed a break.

Of course, he made it very difficult to enjoy the sunlit private beach with his sexy sun-blocking presence. I wasn't really complaining, though, because he was blocking it with that sexy horny body of his, so I was accepting of it. I just accepted that I wouldn't actually be getting a tan or a burn. Either way, I wouldn't be getting any sun.

There were only a couple of days left of our honeymoon, and I sat pouting as I sipped my drink on the beach and watched the sun set. "What has you frowning?"

"I'm going to miss how open it is here. Livingston is so wooded, with walls of forest everywhere you look. It's enough to make a girl feel claustrophobic sometimes."

He picked me up out of the lounge chair, took my place and sat me on his lap. He was quiet for a moment, and then he finally asked, "Where do you want to live?" he asked, and I looked at him confused. "If you could move anywhere in the world, where would you live?" he pushed.

I let out a sigh. I knew I'd sound like a baby, but I didn't want to live too far from my mom and dad. They had always been my backbone, and I couldn't imagine not having them nearby. "I like being close to my family. I wouldn't want to live too far away from my parents."

He brushed my hair aside and kissed my neck. "Okay, we'll move to Waco. Will it have enough open spaces for you?"

I looked up at him shocked. "Really?"

"The only reason we were staying in Livingston was because I couldn't really practice medicine anywhere else with the likes of Hamilton coming after me, but that's not an issue anymore. I know it was hard for you to move away from your parents, so the kids could be with me."

"I wanted to be with you, too."

He smiled and kissed me lightly. "Yeah, but don't pretend it wasn't hard. I saw how you struggled, and I'm sorry for it. Thank you for doing it for me. Now, I think it's time we move back to Waco and let your parents fawn over their grandbabies."

I think the unsaid words lingered in both of our minds. We wanted to leave Livingston and leave the insanity that was his parents behind. That was something I was sure would take a lot of time to settle out.

We made our way back to our bungalow and saw a large gift basket sitting on the porch. And not just any sort of gift basket, either, but a very embarrassing erotic gift basket, with way too many toys, games and edible things nearly falling out of it. I was glad we hadn't had to face the person who had delivered it.

"Are you sure it's for us?" I was sure it was for someone else with extreme fetishes. Honestly, I didn't know anyone that dirty.

Trent was reading the card and started laughing. "They're such dirty bastards."

"Who's it from? It's not really for us, is it?"