Suddenly a Bride (16 page)

“Did he see it?” her dad asked.

“No.  Thankfully, I saw it before he did,” she replied.

He held his hand out.  “Go
od.  I’ll put that away in storage
.”

She handed it to him.

Her mother sighed.  “Seriously, Caity.  I don’t see what the big deal is.  Randy was your husband at one time, and it’s nice to have a formal picture of you in the wedding dress.  It’s the only one I’ll ever have of you as a bride.”

“Mom, I’m not going to have a formal wedding.  I have other things to worry about.” Like buying a house and having a baby.  Oh, how she was dreading telling her mother about the baby!  “I’ll tell you what.  Chris and I will dress up in nice clothes and get a professional photo taken.  Then you can hang that up.”

“That’s a great idea, Caitlyn,” her dad said.  “Your mom will be happy
to have a picture of our new son-in-law.”

Her mother sighed.  “Very well.”

Relieved, Caitlyn smiled at her dad and returned to the house so she could help Sandy and Chris carry the last gift out to her car.  She found Sandy in the living room.  “Where’s
Chris?”

“Putting the microwave in the car.  I figure he could carry the heavy item.  Lexie and Blake got a pretty fancy one for you.” Sandy handed Caitlyn the last wrapped present sitting on the coffee table.  “This one is from me.”

Caitlyn laughed.  “I’m sure Chris will love it.”

“So, your mom gave you a lot of grief today,” Sandy said with a wince.  “It was painful to watch,
especially with Lexie marrying
the doctor
.”

“I expected it.  You know how she is.”

“Yeah, but an engineer isn’t shabby.  Your dad was impressed.  Are you going to quit your job?”

“Yeah.  I want to stay home with the baby.”

“Speaking of which, you should have told your mom about the baby and gotten it over with while she was grilling you about marrying again without her blessing.”

Caitlyn gagged.  “No way.  I can only handle so much grief in one day.  I’ll just email her that news, but I’m not doing that until next month.” Chris walked through the front door, so Caitlyn gave her friend a hug.  “Thanks for coming and taking my mom’s
focus off of me and Chris.”

“It didn’t work very well,” Sandy replied.

“It was better than it would have been,” Caitlyn assured her before she turned to Chris.  “Are you ready to check out a couple
of
houses?”

He nodded.  “I got everything in the car.  We’ll have to get something for your sister when she gets married, but you will have to pick it out since women know more about buying gifts than men do.”

With a chuckle, she took his hand.  “I’ll see you at work tomorrow, Sandy.” As she and Chris left the house, she breathed a sigh of relief.  Thank goodness that was over.  “Oh, before I forget, I told my mom that we would get a professional picture taken.”

“You want a picture of me?” he asked, looking pleased.

“Yeah.  It’s something I should have thought about sooner,” she admitted as they stopped in front of the minivan, “but I got caught up in house hunting.  I still can’t believe it’s happening!  I’ve wanted to have a house for ages.  It’s like a dream come true.”

“I’m glad I can make you happy.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.  “I am, especially now that we can get out of here.  Hop on in and we’ll go check out another house.  Maybe this will be the one.”

Once they got into the car, she started it and backed out of the driveway.  With any luck, she wouldn’t hav
e to see her mom again until Lexie’s wedding rehearsal.

She glanced at Chris
as she shifted the minivan to drive.  “So, what did you think?  Did they scare you off?”

He laughed.  “They weren’t scary.”

He obviously didn’t spend enough time with her mother.  Lucky him.  He got to run off and play pool with t
he men.

Reaching out, he took her hand and smiled.  “I thought it went fine.  Next time we’ll tell them about the baby, right?”

“I’ll send an email after the first doctor visit,” she promised.  “Then they’ll know by the time we see them again.”

“Doctor visit?  Don’t you use doctors when you feel sick on this world?”

“Yes, but we
also see them when we’re pregnant.  At least, that’s
a fun reason to see them.”

His eyebrows furrowed.  “I don’t understand why you need to see them.  What can they do to the baby growing inside of you?”

“When it come
s
time
for the baby to be born, the doctor will deliver the baby.”

“But the baby is inside of you.  Doesn’t delivery mean someone gives you something you don’t already have?”

She forced aside the chuckle as she came to a stop at a red light.  “How were babies born on your world when women gave birth?”

“The records say women who carried children within their bodies had them at home.”

“You’re kidding?  With all the fancy technology you had on your world, the women did home births?”

Shrugging, h
e said, “Our homes were built
to accommodate everything required for the birth of the child.”

She recalled his comment about them not needing doctors on his world.  “So you don’t use doctors for anything?  Anything at all?”

“Why should we?  We have machines built into our homes to
take
care of anything that ails us.”

“Seriously?” The light turned green so she drove forward.  “You’re telling me if someone needed surgery, it was done at home?”

“Sure.  S
urgery didn’t require someone’s body to be cut into like your mother was talking about.”

She had to admit that sounded like a huge benefit to being on his world, even if women were extinct over there.  “Well, we still use doctors here, and this particular doctor will deliver our baby in about eight months.”

“Eight months?”

“It takes nine months to carry a baby to term.”

“It only took women on my world six of your calendar months.”

“Six months?” she shrieked.

“Yes.  I thought it was the same for Earth females since you’re compatible with me.”

She turned left at the intersection and shook her head.  “You mean to tell me in six months, women on your world carried a full-term baby?  They were healthy and everything?”

He nodded.

“How big were these babies?” she asked, trying
to force the image of a twenty-
pound baby out of her mind.

“Exactly seven pounds.”

Breathing a sigh of relief on that count, she ventured to ask the next pressing question.  “And how fast do these babies grow up?  I mean, are they three years old by the time twelve Earth months pass?”

“No.  Twelve of your Earth months equal a year’s worth of growth.”

Thank goodness for small favors.  That must have been one of the things that the agency kept in mind when they assigned him to her planet.  A child that grew up at an abnormal rate wouldn’t fit well on Earth.  But then, she realized if she gave birth after six months of pregnancy instead of nine, then she was in for it from her mom.  She groaned as she imagined all the things her mother was bound to harp on her about.

He reached for her hand and squeezed it.  “Are you okay?”

She glanced at him and smiled.  Well, so she was going to put up with some grief.  Being with him was worth it.
She squeezed his hand.  “Yeah,
I’m fine.”

“Do you really want a picture of me?”

“Sure, I do.  You’re my husband.  It’ll be nice to have a picture of us in our new house.”

He beamed with pleasure.  “I’d like a picture of us too.”

“Then that settles it.  We’ll have to make an appointment with a photographer.”

And since she wanted to have the picture taken before she began showing, they were going to have to do it soon.  She wondered just when women started showing on his home world.
  Before she could ask him about it, she saw the s
treet they needed
.

“This is it.” She let go of his hand and picked up the piece of paper with the address of the first house they planned to look at that afternoon.  “Are you ready to see what might be our new home?”

“Yes.”

“Good because we’re almost there,” she said and turned down the street, her mind off of her pregnancy for the time being.  As the house came into view, she suppressed the urge to cheer.  “I think this is going to be it, Chris.  I have a good feeling about this one!” She pulled up into the drive and got ready to meet the realtor who was waiting for them in the driveway.  “It’s got a bay window.  I’ve always wanted a bay window!”

Chris laughed as she clapped her hands.  “This just might be the right one after all since you love it so much.”

With her hand on the door handle, she said, “You need to love it too.  I don’t want to get the house unless you like it.”

“You care about what I want?”

Now it was her turn to laugh.  “Of course, I do, silly.  Marriage is a partnership.  We do things for each other to make each other happy.” She reached over and squeezed his hand.  “So if there’s anything you don’t like about the house, you have to speak up.  I can’t read your mind.”

Squeezing her hand in return, he smiled.  “I’ll give you my honest opinion.”

“Good.”

As they got out of the car, the realtor walked up to them.  “Are you ready to take a look inside?”

Caitlyn took Chris’ hand and nodded.  “We sure are.”

The realtor grinned.  “I hope you don’t mind if I say you two are a good looking couple.”

“Oh, thanks,” Caitlyn replied before she and Chris followed her into the house.

Chapter Thirteen

T
he next day during the lunch rush, Caitlyn saw Travis and Richie enter the diner.  She suppressed a groan and glanced at Sandy who was collecting empty dishes from a vacant table.  Caitlyn sighed and took out her pad and pencil.  Well, if anyone was going to have to deal with the two men, it might as well be her.  At least she wouldn’t be working here much longer.  In a
month
,
she could quit and she’d never have to see Travis and Rich
ie again
.

When she approached their booth, Travis made it a point to scan her body.  “Hey there, gorgeous.  If you play your cards right, I might take you home with me.”

“It’s not a good idea to threaten the person in ch
arge of your food,” she replied
.  “Are you going to order or should I have Jack toss you out of here?”

“Oh, come on now, honey.  Why do you have to be so cruel?” he asked with a pout.

Richie sighed.  “Haven’t you been playing hard to get long enough, sweetheart?”

Groaning, she crossed her arms and glared at them.  “Listen up, you two.  I’ve had enough of this.”

Travis wiggled his eyebrows at her.  “The harder you protest,
the more you want it.”

“First of all,” she began, “I wouldn’t have sex with either of you two if my life depended on it.  Second, I’m married.” Really, how many times did she have to say that?

Richie shrugged.  “
Didn’t anyone ev
er tell you it’s polite to
share?”

Before she had time to back away, he reached out to touch her arm.  She felt the heat surge through her and strike at his hand.

He yelped in surprise and stared at his hand which was red.  “What the…?”  Looking from her to Travis, Richie showed him the burn mark.

Caitlyn stared at his hand in disbelief.  What just happened?

“All you did was touch her,” Travis said, glancing at her.

Caitlyn took a deep breath.  “No, he didn’t just touch me.  He was overstepping his boundaries.  I’m married, and that means he has no right to touch me in a sexual way.” She deducted that it had so
mething to do with her bond to
Chris.  He said on his world once a couple bonded, no one could interfere with their connection.  Lifting her pad and pencil, she asked, “So, do you want to order or what?”