Authors: Jennifer Bryan Yarbrough
"Do you promise that you'll tell me yours?"
"I already said that I would. Come on, Cash. I want to know
what caused you to change your mind about everything."
"It was Vanessa."
"Vanessa?"
"She was in my dream, but it was way different than I've
ever dreamed before."
"Reeeally? Hmmm. Okay, tell me the dream."
"Wait a minute. Why did you say it like that?" He has a thoughtful look on his face. "When you opened the door,
you called me Derek, didn't you?" I nodded my head and
grinned.
"Okay, I guess my dream goes first then. Alright, it took
me forever to fall asleep when I got to my room, because I
actually had a special night planned and well, let's just
say there was champagne, roses, chocolate covered
strawberries, whip cream. I had a great night planned for
us, but the first thing I did was destroy everything, because I
was so pissed about how I found out about you being
pregnant and was worried about you." This makes me
wince.
"I'm sorry about that."
"No, don't apologize. I was an idiot and I don't blame you
for lying or the reason why. Just don't lie to me ever again,
okay?"
"I won't. I promise."
"Okay. So, back to my dream. I finally fall asleep and
well, this is kind of weird, but at some point I roll over
and reach for you and you're there beside me. Only it
wasn’t you, it was Vanessa in my bed!"
Okay. Jealously hits me at once, but I realize she was his
wife first and had every right to be there and honestly, it's
just a dream. I nod for him to continue after I compose
myself.
"She asked me how you were doing. She spoke to me and I
could hear her and even touch her. I'm not going to lie, I
held her and told her that I missed her and still loved her,
because I do. I always will." He is arching his brow, wondering if I'm okay with this.
"It's okay, Cash. I get it. What did she say?" And I do get it. I was just as excited to see Derek as he was Vanessa.
"I told her that I didn't want to talk about you, because it
seemed too weird and she said that she understood, but
knew that I loved you and that you and I were meant to be
together. She also said that I needed to straighten up and that just
because she died the way she did, didn't mean that you were
going to."
Wow! It's as if she and Derek had a talk in heaven about
us and both of them came down here to straighten the both of us out.
"She even went on to say that we were going to have the
most beautiful and healthy babies, and that you would
survive and that I needed to find you and grovel if I had to
in order to get you back, because I had broken your heart. I
really didn't know what she was talking about when she
said "find you", until I got to the hospital and read the Dear
John letter you addressed to me AND Claudia."
"Oh, Cash! That's pretty much what Derek said to me in
my dream!"
"What?"
"You heard me."
"So, do you think that...?”
"Yes I do. I don't know how, but I think they were truly
talking to us. I'm not saying that they weren't dreams, but for both of us to have a dream about our dead spouses
telling us to live and move on and to have them both tell us
that our babies were beautiful and that we were good for
each other? I don't think I've ever felt as alive as I am right
now."
"I don't know what to say, Liv."
"I do! Kiss me!"
And he did again and again, and we started laughing and
repeating the dreams to each other all through the night, because we were in shock that we of all people were given
a second chance at love and happiness after all of the
turmoil we had to go through to get there.
********************
I get woken up by sweet kisses from Cash. I stretch out on
the massive bed, and open my eyes and see that he's already
dressed and sitting on the edge of the bed, grinning from ear
to ear.
"Awwww. if this is my morning wakeup call, I think I like
it." I reach up and put my arms around his neck to pull him
down for a kiss.
I'm not going to lie, I was mad when he showed up early
this morning, but after our talk and sharing our dreams that
we had that were so similar, I really couldn't even remember
why I was mad at him in the first place.
"It might be if it were still morning. Liv, you've slept the
whole day. Its five o'clock and I've had a wonderful day
with your parents. Your dad's not too bad once you grovel
at his feet and tell him what a sorry piece of excuse you are
for being alive."
"What? It's 5 o'clock? Oh my God! You spent the day
with my parents? My Dad didn't hit you, did he?" I look at
him to see if there's any bruising to make sure and he starts
laughing.
"No, and you can thank your mother for that. I think she
loves me as much as you do. You remind me a lot of your mother, ya know. Not only is she a beauty like you, but she's
got a heart of gold as do you, my angel. Do you feel rested?"
"Actually, I do. I can't remember the last time I've felt so
rested. I can't believe I slept that long! Where are my
parents now?" He gets up and walks to the table and I see
shopping bags covering it.
"They are getting ready for dinner, because we are all going out to celebrate us. Your mother went shopping for you and if I'm not mistaken there's a dress in one of the bags that I cannot wait to see your gorgeous body in!"
"You won't be saying that a few months from now. I never
got huge with my pregnancies, but with twins I can only imagine how big I'm going to get."
He bends down onto his knees in front of me, while I'm
sitting on the edge of the bed. He pulls my tank top up to
bare my belly and kisses me and looks up at me with nothing but love in his eyes.
"I'm sorry to disagree, but there is nothing sexier than a
pregnant woman with life growing inside of her belly,
especially knowing that you helped put that life there. I
don't think I'm going to be able to keep my hands off of
you."
I'm quite taken aback that he feels this way considering
how he felt about pregnancy a few days ago. He leans
forward and whispers in my ear.
"I could start now, ya know. I could show you exactly what
I mean about not being able to keep my hands off of you."
The light circles he's drawing with his fingers around my
lower back and my neck has my heart racing.
"What time is dinner? Do we have time for you to show
me?"
I've missed our intimate moments without worrying about
him figuring out that I was pregnant or me somehow
accidentally telling him. He's kissing me slowly all up and
down each side of my neck, which has me not caring if we
make it to dinner or not.
"Considering that you're a natural beauty and it only takes
you twenty minutes to get ready, we have plenty of time. So,
Liv? What will it be? Are you going to let me show you
now, or do you think you can wait? Whatever you want
from here on out, I'm yours to command."
The way he moaned the word command had me pulling him up on top of me and tossing the blankets out of the
way. The way he makes me feel drives me to distraction, to
where I just want to shut the whole world out. He starts
chuckling under his breath and starts kissing and licking me
from the top of my shorts and slowly works his way up to
my mouth.
"I guess that lets me know what your answer is. Just lay
back and relax, Honey, and let me do all the work."
*****************
Cash amazes me sometimes with his ability to be able to
pull strings that normal everyday people can't pull. I'm not
meaning because he's a multimillionaire and that he acts
like he should be treated like royalty, but it’s his charm and
how he uses it.
When we left our room to leave for dinner and met up with
my parents, you would have thought that he knew them all
of his life. Not only was he right about my mother already
loving him, but I could tell that he somehow had charmed
my dad as well.
"Hello, Sweetheart! I must say, you were right about Cash
here. He really is a great man and we couldn't be any
happier for you two. Did you get plenty of rest?" Dad pulls
me into his arms to give me a big bear hug.
"Yes I did, Dad, but I feel bad that you've been waiting all
day for me to wake up. I should have set an alarm, so I
wouldn't have slept the whole day away."
"Olivia, we haven't been waiting for you to wake up. Cash
has entertained us today, not that we have to be entertained,
but you needed your rest and we needed to get to know him
better and Honey, you did well! We love him already."
I look at him and he is actually blushing at what my mother
just said. I don't think I've ever seen him blush, because
nothing seems to embarrass him. He walks up to my
mother and kisses her hand.
"Mrs. Patterson, you're going to make me blush. You are
the one that I owe everything to for giving birth to such an
exquisite beauty that most definitely took after you in
beauty and brains." As I said, quite the charmer. Now my
mother is blushing and I'm laughing, while she shoos him
away.
"Down boy, she belongs to me and we've already told you
to call us Henry and Elizabeth. I appreciate your respect, but
stop with the Mr. and Mrs., okay son?" My Dad leans down
and gives my mom a kiss on her forehead.
Son? The only person my father has ever called son was
Derek. He really has accepted him. I don't think I could be
any happier than at this very moment.
"Yes, Sir." He winks at me and grabs my hand to lead me to
the front of the resort. I see a limo in front and I'm wondering if it’s for us, because he loves to be driven
around. I look back at him scrunching my brows, because
he stopped walking, and he laughs.
"That's not for us, I swear! That's our ride." I look over to
where he's pointing and it's a golf cart. We are going to
dinner in a golf cart? My parents start laughing and get into
the back to leave the front open for Cash and I.
"What are you up to, Cash?" He grabs my hand and leads
me to the front passenger side of the golf cart.
"Now what makes you think I'm up to something? Did you
not know that this place has a 5 star restaurant? We are
going to eat dinner. Geez! Where's the trust in this
relationship? If you want to ride in the limo we can, because
I KNOW how much you love limo rides, but I thought with
your parents around it wouldn't be appropriate."
Now I'm the one blushing and I look behind me to see if
my parents have paid any attention to our conversation, but it doesn't seem that they had.
"Um. The golf cart is fine, but I still think you're up to
something." He pulls my hand up to his lips and kisses it.
"Honey, the only thing I have planned is to have a
wonderful dinner with the woman I love and her parents."
A few minutes later we arrived at the restaurant that ended up being behind the golf course. I couldn't believe I didn't
pay attention to the resort having a restaurant but then again
I wasn't paying much attention to any of the sights and scenery
but it is absolutely gorgeous and is still lit up with
Christmas lights.
We walk in and the hostess' eyes light up as soon as she
sees Cash.
"Good evening, Mr. Kingston. We already have your table
already set up. If you all would follow me, I'll take you to
your table."