She tried not to laugh at the
expressions on the faces of her mother and future mother-in-law
when they spied their children, but it was hard not to. Her mother
looked almost shocked, but she could see that Alisa was amused.
Nikki and Jay had both turned scarlet, and she could tell that
Garett was trying hard not to laugh as well.
Her mother shook her head and got back
in her car, muttering something under her breath. As soon as they
were back in the truck, Acasia burst out laughing, which made
Garett laugh. They laughed so long and so hard that they woke the
baby up, but luckily she calmed down and went back to sleep shortly
after.
They arrived back in Clinton a little
before 6 p.m. and Garett took Sammi to their house while she went
to the hospital with her mother. Nikki and Jay headed to the Blacks
with Alisa, not wanting to overwhelm Demi with too many visitors
all at once.
They had Demi’s room number, so they
headed straight to the second floor and almost interrupted what
Acasia could see had become a private moment between her sister and
Gavin. It looked as if he were going to kiss her until their mother
cleared her throat and said Demi’s name.
Her sister’s eyes flew open and Acasia
could see that a blush had risen to her cheeks. Gavin stood up from
the table where the two had obviously been sharing a meal, and
moved to a chair by the window, looking more than a little
uncomfortable.
Heather kissed Demi’s cheek. “I’m sorry
we weren’t here for you sweetheart.” She then turned to Gavin,
giving him a look that Acasia couldn’t read. “Thank you for taking
care of my little girl.”
Gavin nodded, and Acasia decided to
save him from saying anything.
“
Demi.”
She embraced her gently, conscious of
her own growing belly and the probable tenderness of her sister’s.
“I wish I could have been here with you.”
Demi let out a forced laugh. “I’m sure
that giving birth isn’t a pretty picture. Probably not something
you want to see when you’re so close to giving birth
yourself.”
Acasia rolled her eyes good naturedly
and turned to Gavin. “Thank you for taking care of her for us
Gavin.”
He shrugged. “I wanted to. Dem, I’m
gonna go get some fresh air okay? I’ll be back soon.”
All three women watched him leave the
room. Nikki was now in the arms of her grandmother who had settled
into the rocking chair.
“
Another beautiful Nikki.”
She smiled down at the little girl.
“
Mom,” Demi said.
“
Yes honey?”
“
Please don’t feel like you
need to chase Gavin out of here. He didn’t have to bring me here,
and he certainly didn’t have to stay with me.”
Heather sighed. “I know darling. But
even if he has changed, I’m still not convinced that Gavin Black is
the right man for you.”
“
Didn’t you tell me that
your parents were never convinced that Daddy was the right man for
you?”
“
Yes. But Demi, you’re so. .
.”
“
I’m so what Mom? I’m not a
little girl anymore. And now that I have a child of my own, I
definitely have to be able to stand on my own two feet, be my own
woman. And if Gavin is the man that I want to be with, you’re going
to have to learn to deal with it.”
Heather stayed silent. Demi’s words
didn’t exactly surprise Acasia, but she was proud that her sister
had spoken her mind. It made her feel more than a little guilty
that she hadn’t been supportive of her sister’s choices.
Gavin returned and saved Heather from
saying anything further. A look passed between him and Demi, and
Acasia was sure that her sister had come to the decision that Gavin
was the man that she wanted to be with. And she was going to do the
best she could to be supportive of that choice from now
on.
They had a nice visit, then Nikki and
Jay arrived to take their turn to visit with Demi and the baby, and
she returned home to help Garett care for Sammi.
Garett
Caring for his niece was certainly
interesting, and especially so without Acasia around to help. But
he knew that it was something that he would have to get used to. He
didn’t want to be the kind of father that the mother of his child
didn’t feel comfortable leaving their child alone with. He knew
that he couldn’t do everything that Acasia would since she planned
to breastfeed for the first six weeks until she went to work for
Black and Sons, but he felt as if he could do everything else. Or
at least he was willing to try.
Things did seem to run more smoothly
after Acasia returned home though. She seemed to intuitively know
what Sammi wanted, and he loved her even more for it. He hoped that
she was able to let go of her fears of not being a good mother, and
just enjoy being a mother after the baby was born. He knew that he
was certainly going to enjoy being a father.
The weekend passed quickly, and it was
soon time to hand Sammi back over to her parents. She was so
overjoyed to see them that it almost made Garett laugh. He didn’t
think that he and Acasia had done a bad job of caring for their
niece, but it was still plain to see that she was glad to go home
with Mom and Dad.
Demi’s daughter was beautiful. And
something had definitely happened between Gavin and Demi. His
brother wouldn’t tell him exactly what had gone on other than
driving her to the hospital while she was in labor and remaining
with her until their other family members arrived, but Garett knew
that something had changed. Acasia had also told him that it looked
as if they had interrupted a private moment between her sister and
his brother when they had arrived at the hospital.
He had a feeling that Gavin was not
going to be living with them too much longer, and almost as soon as
Demi got out of the hospital he discovered that he was right. Gavin
finally opened up to him on the day that he moved out and told him
that he had worked out a deal with Melda Gaines to purchase the
house, and that he and Demi were going to be together, to raise
little Nicole together. She hadn’t exactly accepted his proposal,
but it had been her idea for him to move in to the
house.
It made Garett feel good to see his
brother happy again. He had seemed more at peace since he’d come
home, but now that Demi had decided to give their love a chance,
his brother seemed to be walking on air. So all in all things
seemed to be going well for the Black/Brown families, and Garett
was hopeful that they would continue to go well into the
future.
Acasia
Two weeks later
The blinds in the front living room
window had fallen down again. They seemed to be forever falling
down, and it had driven Gavin crazy when he’d been staying with
them. But there was so much work that needed to be done on the
house that sometimes little details got left out and Acasia knew
that Garett couldn’t possibly address every issue all at once,
especially one that seemed to make little difference now that Gavin
had moved in with Demi.
Acasia was still a little unsure of how
she felt about the fact that Gavin had worked out a deal with Melda
Gaines to purchase what she still often thought of as only Demi’s
house. Her sister had taken to wearing the engagement ring that
Gavin had bought for her too, though no wedding date had been set
as of yet.
She sighed as she paused outside the
front window, trying to juggle the bags of groceries in her arms.
She was so tired all the time that it felt like she had little to
no energy and she was unsure of how much longer she would be able
to work during her pregnancy. The doctor had assured them that
everything was fine with the baby, and that she seemed to be
gaining weight right on target, but Acasia still sometimes worried.
She worried that if she was this exhausted while she was carrying
their child that there was no possible way she was going to be able
to keep her head and care for an infant.
Garett told her that she was being
ridiculous and teased her about taking on some of the anxiety that
Demi had seemed to have recently been able to let go of, but she
knew that he worried sometimes too. Their days of caring for Sammi
had certainly been interesting, and there had been times when she
had felt overwhelmed. Mothering seemed to come so naturally for her
sisters, and she worried that it wouldn’t be the same for
her.
She hoped that it was just her surging
hormones, and told herself that things would be different when she
actually held the baby in her arms, but sometimes she still felt as
if her emotions threatened to overwhelm her. Besides the fact that
she felt as if she had never worried so much in her life, she could
be brought to tears by almost nothing, and her hormones were
raging. She sometimes wondered how her fiancé managed to put up
with her.
As she turned to head towards the door,
she noticed movement in the living room. She expected Garett to be
home since his truck was parked in its usual place in the driveway,
but she caught a flash in her peripheral vision that caused her to
turn.
And she noticed for the first time that
Garett was not alone. He passed almost directly in front of the
window and she stepped back, pressing herself into the side of the
house, feeling like an idiot for spying on him. It wasn’t as if she
didn’t trust him. He’d never given her any reason not to trust him.
And the fact that he was in their house with another woman normally
wouldn’t have bothered her. People stopped by sometimes to ask him
about construction and remodeling projects they needed done since
he was more approachable than his father.
What bothered her was who the woman
was. Renee Neal was Garett’s ex-girlfriend, and had showed up in
town a few weeks before. She’d been in Garett and Demi’s class in
high school and Demi had never liked her, considering her to be
vain and bitchy and sometimes downright mean. Acasia hadn’t thought
about the girl much back then, having had little interaction with
her herself.
Garett and Renee had dated for a year
and a half while Acasia was in college. He had broken up with her
after she had cheated on him, and he hadn’t seemed especially
interested when she’d mentioned that Renee was back in town. So she
wondered now why it was that her fiancé’s ex was in their
house.
She moved slightly so that she could
get a better look into the window. What she saw caused tears to
sting her eyes. Her arms went slack as if she had instantly lost
her remaining reserves of energy, and food scattered all over the
ground as she dropped the plastic bags. She stepped back and felt a
tomato squash under her foot. It seemed appropriate since she
suddenly felt as if her heart had been stepped on.
She tried not to think about what she
had seen as she walked back to her car. She tried to ignore the
tears that spilled out of her eyes, clouding her vision. She drove
to her mother’s house on autopilot, hiding her car in the rarely
used garage, glad that her mother wasn’t at home as she used her
key to unlock the back door. Her feet felt like they were made out
of lead as she descended the basement stairs.
She pulled back the covers on her bed,
breathing in the fresh, familiar scent of the fabric softener that
her mother has used since they were children as she crawled into
bed. She shut her eyes as if to shut the world out and was soon
asleep.
Garett
Garett was less than thrilled when
Renee Neal showed up on his doorstep, especially since Acasia
hadn’t yet returned home from the grocery store. He had no interest
in talking to his ex, and it felt wrong for her to be in the house
that he shared with Acasia when she wasn’t home. The living room
blinds fell down as he opened the door, and he was tempted to fix
them immediately, just to delay having to deal with Renee, but he
didn’t. His parents had taught him quite well not to be rude to a
guest; whether you really wanted to visit with them or
not.
He hid a sigh as Renee stepped into the
house, shutting the door behind her. He wondered what in the hell
it was that she wanted this time. She had been bugging him since
she’d come back to Clinton, trying to convince him that there was
work that needed to be done on her parents’ house when he knew in
all reality that there was little to nothing wrong with the house
(he had been there many times when they were dating and had long
before began to notice potential construction and remodeling
opportunities).
Renee’s parents had died the year
before and left her the house, but she hadn’t bothered to return to
check on it even once since then until now. He got the
uncomfortable feeling that she had turned back up in town in an
attempt to ruin his happiness with Acasia since she was known for
being spiteful and had gotten quite pissed off at him when he had
broken up with her, and had left town shortly after. He had been
trying to ignore the issue, hoping that she would eventually get
the point and go away, or at least leave him alone, and stop
bugging him about issues that didn’t exist with her
house.
As he avoided Renee’s eyes, he realized
that he probably should have mentioned to Acasia that Renee had
approached him, and he hoped that she didn’t happen to come home
while the other woman was in their house. He knew that his fiancé
trusted him, and he certainly didn’t think that he’d ever given her
a reason not to, but all in all he knew that it would be more than
a little awkward if she happened to come home and find him with his
ex.