Brandy pondered on the long list of things that needed to be done before she was to become Mrs. Alexander McLean as she drove down the road in her beloved new car. She smiled as she thought how completely lucky she was. No woman on earth could have ever felt this happy and this whole. No single person on this earth had ever witnessed the love that she felt throbbing inside her heart.
Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted as her cell phone rang.
“Hey sweet,” she answered the phone, assured that it was AJ as he was the only one that ever called her on her cell phone.
“Brandy, it’s me, Kate.”
“Katy, what are you doing? Where are you?”
“I’m at Kevin’s house. Come get me. I need to talk to you, please.”
“Yea, ok, I’ll be right there. What’s the matter?” Brandy asked hesitantly, a bit worried of the answer.
“Just come get me.”
Brandy could tell from her tone that she was fighting back her tears.
“Ok give me five minutes.”
“Bye.”
“Katy, I love you.”
Katy hung up the phone without responding.
As soon as she pulled into the driveway Katy walked out to the car and got in. Brandy looked at her, concerned, as she started to back out.
“Where you wanna go?”
“It doesn’t matter. Just go.”
“You wanna tell me what’s up?”
They drove in silence as Brandy made her way down the express way. She got off at an exit in the next city and stopped at a restaurant. Both of them ordered food but neither of them really ate.
“Kevin came to the house the other day and demanded that I marry him.”
“Demanded? Are you sure he demanded? I thought that’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, Brandy, that’s what I wanted. Can I finish now?”
Brandy didn’t say anything but motioned for Katy to continue.
“Well he didn’t want to wait about it so we got married at the Justice of the Peace before we even left Savannah. After that we drove here and he basically gave me a grand tour of his house and left me there. I haven’t seen him in three days.”
Katy looked passed the point of sad. She looked passed miserable. She looked like she was hanging on by her last thread. Her small hand gripped the warm coffee cup in what seemed like a death gripped as she raised it to her lips and took a sip. Brandy observed the ring on her slender finger. It looked as though maybe it were his high-school class ring. It looked crude and overly large on Katy’s little fingers. It slipped from one side to the other as her hand moved up and down.
“Did he say where he was going?” Brandy asked, knowing the answer.
“Nope. He literally showed me where my room was and walked out the front door. No goodbye, no kiss my ass, nothing.”
“Katy, I’m so sorry. I wish there was something I could do, something I could say to make you feel better.” She looked down into her cup; the coffee that remained was beginning to be too cold to drink. “But somehow I don’t think I could do that.”
She and Katy looked at each other. Without saying anything at all Katy confirmed her assumption.
Brandy sat at the computer playing a silly little game that AJ had downloaded on the hard drive that consisted of little men shooting green monsters and eating little purple mushrooms. Her mind wasn’t totally on the game, as she had lost nine times in a row in the past half-hour. She was so worried about her sister that she could hardly eat. She wanted to tell AJ, but what would she say? “Oh AJ, Katy and Kevin got married and he left her. Call him and tell him to come back.”
“Baby, what’s wrong with you?” AJ startled her a little bit as he snuck up behind her. He tickled her side and rubbed the stubble of his facial hair on the curve of her neck. She turned around and gave her best attempt at a smile. “Nothing.”
Although AJ didn’t buy into a single bit of her charade he decided to let it ride. If Brandy wanted to talk about it she would say something.
“Come on, let’s go eat. I brought you McDonalds.”
Brandy laughed. “You make it sound like you went just for me.”
“But I did baby,” he teased.
They sat at the bar, AJ killing the last bite of his big burger and Brandy barely nibbling at her fries. She looked at him, searching for some way to explain to him the detail of what was going on but still not sound too pathetic.
“Have you talked to Kevin lately?” she asked, trying to sound non-chalant.
“No, why?” He asked, looking suspicious.
“I haven’t seen him lately. That’s all.”
“Ok…,” he urged her on. “That never bothered you before. What are you getting at?”
Brandy looked at him, slightly hurt, slightly frustrated. “I just wanted to know,” she half yelled.
AJ sighed heavily. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to sound like I was accusing you of something.” He pulled her from her barstool and into his lap. “I know something’s bothering you, so tell me about it. Is it about Kevin?”
“Sort of. Well kind of.” She paused. He turned her around to face him. “Hey, just tell me.”
“Ok,” she sighed heavily. “I had lunch with Katy today. She’s living with Kevin.”
“That’s great. Isn’t that what you wanted, for them to be together?”
“Well she isn’t exactly living with Kevin, just living in his house.”
“Ok, where is Kevin living.”
Brandy rolled her eyes as if he should know. “I don’t know. She doesn’t either.”
AJ sighed heavily, obviously frustrated. “Brandy, just tell me. Quit beating around the bush. I can’t read your mind.”
“Katy and Kevin got married. They got married in Savannah at the Justice of the Peace and he took her to his house. After he showed her around he left her. She hasn’t seen him since three days ago, the day they were married.”
The two of them sat in silence for a few moments trying to make heads or tails of the situation. “She can come stay with us until they work things out,” AJ suggested.
“No, I told her she was welcome. She said she wanted to be there when he came home.”
“Baby, what can you do? Just give her moral support. Let her and Kevin work out the rest.”
“I know but there should be something else I can do, as her sister, to make her feel better.”
As Kevin walked in the front door he noticed that his house looked untouched. He hadn’t been home for a week and it was spotless. There was no sign of life in the house as far as he could tell. His heart sank as his worst nightmare became reality. Katy had left.
He threw is coat on the couch and trudged up the stairs slowly, without an ounce of hope left inside his body. He opened the door to his room and moped slowly toward the bed. Exhausted from his trip from Kentucky he really wanted to get some sleep, but every time he closed his eyes he always saw the same face.
His heart was breaking but it was hard to tell on the outside. He was trying real hard to be “adult” about the situation with Katy and the baby. He knew that whatever happened he would be a father to this child and he would support Katy in whatever she did. And a damn good father he was going to be too. It just all hit him so suddenly. When he found out that Katy was pregnant he knew it was his duty to take care of her. He rushed down to Savannah with every intention of marrying her right away, as he did. But what he didn’t plan on was the feeling it gave him to be her husband. He didn’t plan on getting all teary eyed when he said “I do”. And most of all he didn’t plan on falling in love with her all over again as soon as she opened the front door to her house.
He raised his tired but un-sleepy body off of the bed and trudged slowly down the hallway to Katy’s room. Katy’s room, his wife’s room, was separate from his own because he knew that there were some things they needed to work out. It was hard for him to concentrate on making the foundation for a lasting relationship when temptation in the form of a tall, blue eyed, auburn headed female was sleeping in his bed.
As he opened the door he saw Katy lying down on the bed. She hadn’t left, he thought. Thank you God. He knelt down over the curled up sleeping form of his wife’s body and kissed her ear softly. She rustled around on top of the blankets but didn’t fully wake. Much to Kevin’s liking she whispered his name. Her voice whispering his own name gave him chills up his spine. He picked her up and she almost naturally wrapped her arms around his neck, still between sleep and being awake. By the time he lay her down on his own bed she was coming out of her restful slumber and the reality of the situation was coming into fill view.
“Kevin, your home,” she exclaimed.
“Yea,” was his only explanation.
“Where were you?”
He hesitated before answering. “I went home to see my family.” Katy looked at him as to urge him on. He had her little body swallowed in his big arms, hugging her tightly to his chest as he told her where he was. “I had to go and get some answers. Just to get my head straight.”
“Did you find some answers,” Katy asked, innocently.
“I didn’t get to answer everything but I found my heart.”
“Your heart? You had to go all the way back to Kentucky to find your heart?”
“No but in the midst of trying to find meaning and truth in my life in Kentucky I figured out that all the answers were at my very own house; right here with you. It took going to Kentucky to find out how much my heart needed you near.”
“Kevin, I love you.”
“I love you too Katy.”