“Can I? Hey Kelly!” Jenny snapped her fingers in front of me.
I looked up blankly. “Can you....”
“Borrow Harmony to be the flower girl?” Jenny repeated her question.
“Oh! Oh, yeah. Absolutely!” I exclaimed.
“JC, I can use Alleck, right?” Chris asked.
“No,” Briley said, fighting back a smile.
“Okay,” Chris sadly replied.
“Chris, I was just kidding. Yes, Alleck can be in it,” Briley told him. Chris smiled.
“Good,” Jenny said. “Speaking of Alleck and Harmony, where are they?” She looked around.
“They went in to watch TV awhile ago,” Lance answered.
With that, we got up and went inside. It was starting to get late, and we all were being eaten alive by mosquitoes. The ten of us went to the living room, JC and Briley to collect Alleck and so everyone could leave. Upon entering the room, we found Harmony using the dog, Lansten, as a pillow. Alleck had his head on her stomach. Both were asleep.
“That is so cute!” I said in a whisper.
“How adorable!” Briley replied.
“I think I’m gonna cry,” I continued. The ten of us gathered around the children.
“Oh my God! Lance, after this one’s born, be careful... you know how sensitive she gets!” Justin exclaimed.
“Don’t forget the mood swings either,” I said, glaring at Justin. Alex laughed, getting a hurt look from Justin.
“It was funny. Besides, Kelly is the queen of mood swings,” Alex said with a shrug.
“Alex, you aren’t always a piece of cake. Especially not once every four weeks!” Justin informed her.
“No Justin, dude, you gotta trust me on this one. PMS has nothing on pregnancy!” JC told him.
“Amen!” Lance reaffirmed.
I smiled. I leaned down close to eye level with the dog. “Guess what Lansten?” The dog look up at me sleepily. “You get a roommate tonight!” I stood and looked at Lance. “Well, dear, it’s a good thing we bought that bigger doghouse, don’t you think?”
Justin began to laugh. “Dude!”
“It’s been awhile since you’ve slept on the couch. I think it’s about time again,” Alex said with a grin.
“Okay, I don’t have anywhere to send JC!” Briley exclaimed. JC looked at Chris and Jenny.
“Man, you can forget it! I know how these women stick together! I ain’t getting in the middle of it!” Chris said. “I would rather not have to sleep with the dog like Lance.” Chris paused. “I mean, Jenny’s bad enough.”
“It’s not like you have to,” Jenny pouted.
“No, I want to,” Chris said, kissing her.
“Okay, stop right there!” I exclaimed, holding up my hand. “I don’t wanna hear this!”
“At least there’s no physical evidence with them,” Baylee said. “God Kelly! You and Lance have two kids to show for your sex life!”
“Technically, there’s only one right now. Besides, we’re married... it’s expected more!” I said with a smile.
Baylee looked confused for a second. “You know what I mean!” She exclaimed as Joey laughed at her. “What are you laughing at?”
Joey looked at the ground. “Nothing dear.”
Briley, Alex, Jenny, and myself looked at Baylee impressed. She smiled. “Let’s just say I have my boy toy trained well.”
Alex looked at me with wide eyes and I knew she was thinking of a comment she had made about Lance when we all took a trip to Texas to visit her one year. He did something stupid and she told me I needed to learn to control my ‘boy toy.’
“Well folks, as much as I love this...” JC paused, searching for a word. “Arousing conversation, I must get home. I’m missing valuable shut eye time.” He leaned over and as he stood back up with Alleck in his arms, Justin began to talk.
“Shut eye time? Yeah, right!”
The other seven of us held in our laughter until JC grinned. “Man, shut up!”
Briley took a set of keys from JC’s jacket pocket, then, gave me a hug. “Take care of yourself.”
“I will,” I replied as she opened the door for JC who carried Alleck out.
Two by two, the rest of the guests left. As Justin and Alex walked out the door, I closed it and leaned against it with a sigh. “I’m getting too old for this,” I told Lance.
He gave me a smile. “Tired?” I sleepily nodded. “Too bad. Your not going to bed. I haven’t seen you for two weeks- your talking to me.” Lance picked Harmony up and carried her upstairs. Five minutes later, he returned to find me still leaning against the door. “You haven’t moved in ten minutes!”
“I know,” I laughed.
He took my hands and lead me to the couch, where we sat. He placed his arms around me, where we sat in silence until he turned one of my hands over and began tracing the lines on my palm with a fingertip. “I love these hands,” He mumbled.
“Thank you,” I answered as I turned and lightly kissed his cheek.
“I was talking about my hands,” Lance replied.
“Funny,” I said, straight faced. Seconds later, a smile broke across my face. Lance didn’t say anything, just placed his hands on top of mine. As he did this, a flash of silver caught my eye. I picked up his hand to see a small silver ring under his wedding band. I slowly turned the ring, finally able to read the words that went around it. True Love Waits.
I turned to look at him. Lance’s response was to say, “Told you I’d wear it.”
Lance then began to inspect the rings that I wore. On my left hand, ring finger, I wore my wedding ring. On my right hand, middle finger, I still wore my high school class ring. On my ring finger, my engagement ring and a thin silver ring. On the top were two small hearts, joined together, made by small diamonds.
Lance narrowed his eyes in confusion. “I know this is your engagement ring, but this-” I just looked at him in disbelief. “What?”
“You should recognize that one!”
Finally, he looked surprised. “Is that your promise ring?” I nodded. “You still wear it?”
“Of course! I’ve only taken it off once since you gave it to me!”
“When your parents made us break up,” Lance softly said.
“Yeah,” I whispered. “But, when we got back together and you gave it to me the second time, I put it on and it hasn’t come off since for six years.”
“Wow,” Lance said in amazement. We were both quiet for a couple of minutes. “Remember when I gave it to you?”
“How could I forget? I flew down a couple of days after Christmas to spend some of the holidays with you and your family.” I paused, then continued. “We went to Justin’s Christmas party, then back to your house...”
“We exchanged presents, I gave you the ring... then mom....” Lance stopped, looked me in the eye, causing us both to laugh.
“Caught us making out,” I finished for him, blushing at the memory. “Your family has a habit of interrupting moments like those.”
“Don’t you mean everyone has a habit of interrupting our moments like those?” Lance said with a smile.
“True... very true... but your family is the worst about it.” He shrugged, both of us laughing. “We should be glad they were far, far away during the honeymoon!”
“Okay, they aren’t that bad” Lance shrugged. “Okay, maybe they are, but they never saw anything on purpose!” I raised my eyebrows at him. “Okay, so I think dad put Stacy up to it a few times.” I stared at him. “And I think Chris was paid too...”
I just laughed. “At least those interruptions kept us from anything...” I coughed. “That we may have regretted.”
Lance nodded. “Good point.” He looked at my ring again. “I think that was one of my best Christmases ever.”
“Mine too,” I agreed.
We sat, the quiet echoing through the house. “Are you ready for bed?”
“Actually... yeah.”
Lance pulled himself off the couch, grasping my hands and pulling me up also. He went to the stairs and went up them. I slowly followed, turning off lights. I got to the lightswitch at the bottom of the sitars and debated whether to leave it on or turn it off. I stopped, my hand lingering on the switch. As I stood, all my years with Lance flew through my mind at lightning speed. After the memories, my mind was filled with wondering of what the future would hold.
Read the second story in the series, Truly, Madly, Deeply
