Our Favorite Days (My Favorite Mistake #3) (24 page)

I had to turn in early and hated myself a little for it.

“We’re going to be middle-aged long before we’re actually middle-aged,” I whined as Hunter stripped out of his clothes and joined me in bed. It wasn’t even ten yet.

“We’re still going to be cool. We can be cool and have kids. Celebrities do it all the time. David Beckham has, like, four kids. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have, like, a dozen or something. No one would accuse them of being uncool.” It was a valid point, but I definitely wasn’t Angelina Jolie and probably never would be.

“My boobs are gonna get huge, you know.” They’d already started to get a little tender and I wasn’t looking forward to them swelling later in the pregnancy.

“Oh, I know,” Hunter said with a leer before he rolled over on top of me and shoved his face right in my chest.

“Ugh, get off me!” I said, giving him a half-hearted shove.

“Hey, I’m going to have to share them, so I’m going to enjoy them while I can.” He slid down so he had his chin on my stomach.

“Hello, babies,” he said and then kissed my belly.

“Aw, Hunter. That’s really sweet.” I was getting choked up again. Damn hormones, making me all emotional.

“I don’t even know if they have ears or the ability to hear yet, but I’m going to assume that they do. Hello in there,” Hunter said the last part to Spawns.

“Are you going to sing to them?” I asked, stroking the top of his head.

“Of course. I want them to know my voice before they come out. I want them to know that their daddy is here for them and he’s not going anywhere.” I did start crying then.

“I’m sorry. It’s the hormones,” I said as Hunter passed me a tissue to blot my eyes.

“It’s okay,” he said, kissing my belly again before softly starting to sing “Honey Come Home.”

I fell asleep listening to Hunter singing to our babies.

“T
wins?” Dad said, nearly choking on a piece of steak. We were at one of the nicer restaurants in Waterville. Me, Hunter and Dad. I’d just dropped the bomb on him and his eyes were bulging.

“Yup,” I said, sliding the sonogram over to him. He took it with shaking hands.

“Two babies?” he said again, his eyes filling with tears.

“Yeah. Two babies,” I said. His emotion was getting to me. Other people crying was now a trigger for me to sympathy cry, apparently.

“Oh, Taylor.” He set the picture down, got up and came over to hug me.

“Congratulations, that is so wonderful. Oh, that is so exciting!” He wiped his eyes and cleared his throat. A few people in the restaurant were staring, but I didn’t care.

“Yeah, it threw us for a minute there, but now we’re full steam ahead,” I said, holding Hunter’s hand under the table. He smiled at me and squeezed. We’d covered a lot of ground this week. Between the botched wedding attempt and the Spawns, things had been exciting to say the least. I was crossing my fingers they were going to calm down for a little while so I could catch my breath.

“Is there anything you guys need? I want to help any way I can,” Dad said, resuming eating his steak.

“Um, right now, no. We’re going to find out what we’re having before we go crazy buying everything. Two of everything,” I said with a laugh.

“Right now we’re looking for a good family car,” Hunter said. When he’d come to me and told me that he wanted to get something that would carry all of us, I’d been sure he was joking.

“You mean a mom-mobile?” I’d asked.

“Well, a dad-mobile, but yeah. Maybe an SUV or something. I refuse to drive a fucking minivan.” So he
did
have a line he wouldn’t cross. No minivans. Got it.

“That’s wise,” Dad said. “Then you can try out car seats to make sure they fit properly. I remember when Taylor was little they weren’t nearly as complicated as they are now. I think some of them are parent proof.” The three of us laughed.

Car seats. We were talking about car seats. A lot of other girls my age were all about going out dancing and finding an eligible dude to hook up with. And I was talking about car seats.

The baby talk shoved aside any awkwardness that might have been present. Dad was just so happy about the babies that he kept the conversation moving. He and Hunter got in a deep conversation about crib safety and I just watched and shook my head.

“So I want to come up and see you, see how you’re growing and changing. At least once a month?” Dad looked so hopeful, I agreed. He was just so enthusiastic that it rubbed off on me.

“That was nice,” Hunter said as we drove back up to school. We’d stopped briefly and saw Mom. She’d nearly fallen over when we’d told her about the twins, but was just as happy as Dad. Everyone was happy, which did surprise me a little. I’d expected some resistance with Hunter and me being so young.

“So, I’m going to look for cars tomorrow with Mase. Do you want to come?” Hunter asked. I didn’t really care what he got, as long as I got to keep Sassy. I’d already figured out that you could fit two car seats in there no problem. So she was staying.

“No, I trust you. I have a ton of homework to do.” I yawned. The semester was almost at an end and in just a few weeks we’d be on winter break for nearly a month. I was very much looking forward to just having work and the clinic on my schedule for a while. And human-growing, of course. I never got a break from that.

“Okay. I’ll drop you off, grab Mase and then go,” Hunter said.

“Sounds good.”

“Y
ou tired, babe?” Renee said, stroking my hair. Crap. I’d fallen asleep on my textbook. Again. That had happened a lot these days. I’d been falling asleep in class too. Pregnancy rocked.

“Little bit,” I mumbled, shutting my book.

“Have you decided what you’re going to do about next year?” Ugh, I didn’t want to talk about it, but I needed to ask someone other than Hunter. He just kept telling me to do whatever I was comfortable with, which wasn’t a good answer when I needed his opinion.

“No. I really don’t think I’m going to be ready to go full-force with school next fall. The twins will probably come early, and I just can’t imagine leaving them every single day for hours when they’re barely a few months old. They’ll still be so small. I’m gonna be way too attached.” I knew that already. I’d bonded with the little suckers.

“I totally get that. Even though we’d all agree to babysit. I just think you’d be distracted worrying about them. Better to wait until they’re older and you’re ready to leave them. I mean, you could always double up.” I shook my head.

“No way. I’ll just do an extra semester. And it won’t be that bad because I can do summer courses and then I’ll only have two or three classes.” I’d already done the math, I just needed to make a definite decision. It wasn’t my initial plan when I’d come to college, but so what? Plans changed. Stupid boys came into your life. Twins happened.

“That all sounds good. Are you okay with that?” Renee had really been a fantastic support lately. Everyone had, but her especially. I didn’t know what I’d do without her.

I shrugged.

“It is what it is. An extra semester isn’t gonna kill me. Plus it will give Hunter time to find a teaching position and me a chance to find a job.” For right now, the plan was to stay in this area, in this house. Hopefully we’d have good job luck so we didn’t have to move. That was my worst fear. Moving away from the support system I was already relying on.

“True. Hey, do you want me to rub your feet?” I gave her a look, but nodded.

“I’ll just be careful not to hit any pressure points. You have to do a special kind of massage during pregnancy because if you hit certain spots, you can bring on labor.” She was a fountain of medical information. Sometimes it was good and then sometimes she was telling me all the gross things that were going to happen to my body that I definitely didn’t want to know about ahead of time.

“You take such good care of me,” I said, sighing and closing my eyes again.

“Someone should. I mean, besides Hunter, who is doing a great job, by the way. That asshole.” I snorted.

“Yeah, he’s the worst.” The best. The absolute best. Christ, he was out right now buying a damn car just to tote our kids around in.

“You picked yourself a good one,” Renee said.

“That I did.”

It didn’t feel like I had picked him, or he had picked me. We’d picked each other. Equally. For reasons we didn’t even understand at the time.

I thought about that first night when we’d flipped the recliner. I’d known that night that I could trust him. I could always trust him. With me and with Spawns. He was going to take care of us.

O
ver the next few days, I was completely wrapped up in school, work, the clinic and human-growing. My grades had started to slip a little, and the only thing I could think to do about it was cut back my hours at work, which I did. Hunter told me he could pick up the financial slack. We still had a pile of his money that we could always use, but I wanted to save as much of it as we could for the babies. It was still a relief to know it was there.

The whole Vegas disaster kept bugging me. I was totally guilty of bailing on Hunter and I just couldn’t figure out what my problem was. There was absolutely no reason I couldn’t suck things up and marry him. None. So why did I keep holding back?

It was Pinterest that finally gave me the idea. Well, Pinterest and Hunter. He mentioned us maybe going away for an actual non-eloping getaway and suggested the Norumbega Inn. My head exploded and I got online as soon as I can to start looking up ideas. I spent hours of time I didn’t have looking things up. It really was a sickness.

I called Hope about it the next day.

“So I have kind of a crazy idea,” I told her.

“Oh, I love those kind. Do tell.” I laughed and filled her in.

“Do you think it’s doable? I mean, by this summer?” I asked.

“Honey, you are talking to the queen of planning. If you asked me to, I could have this whole shindig ready for you next weekend.” That was probably true.

“Right, but it might be a little cold.”

“True, true.” We hatched some more plans and she hung up after promising she would start getting things together.

Next, I hunted down Jos. I had to let her in on the secret as well because I needed her musical expertise.