FG 3 - The Wedding Blitz (5 page)

“I don’t want to come between you and your mom.”

“I know you don’t,” his eyes suddenly softened when he finally turned to look at me. Something about the way I must have looked caused him to squeeze my hand and say, “You poor thing, you were miserable tonight weren’t you?” 

“Henry, didn’t like dinner,” I laid a hand on my belly as he helped me into his black Saab. “Though I think Chuck would be a more suited name,” I gulped as I titled my head back.

“So
Chuck
didn’t like the dinner?” Hawkins reached across to place a hand on my belly.

“No, Chuck did not,” I stressed as our fingers intertwined with one another. When he started to coo silly little things to ‘Chuck’ I laughed because I barely had a bump and honestly it was a good release from all the previous tension with his mother.

I may have said that what happened with Hawkins’ mother didn’t bother me but I don’t think I had fooled Hawkins. In fact I think he blamed himself for what I had overheard because once we were alone again in the privacy of his
room,
I could tell he wanted to show me just how passionately he loved me judging by the way he pulled off all of my clothes then his in a matter of seconds. 
             
“I only want you Joie,” he murmured in between fierce kisses as our bodies moved together to the sweet up and down rhythm we were quickly perfecting. The physical release mixed with my own insecurities brought tears to my eyes again.

“Don’t stop,” I pleaded when his back curled to the ceiling but his face faltered for a second as he wiped away a tear with his thumb.

“I love every part of you, Joie.”

“Really?”
I sniffed. “Like what part?” I asked somberly. “Because I’m quickly discovering that no one thinks I’m good enough for you. At first I just thought it was the paparazzi…,” I drifted off, not even able to make eye contact with him.

“Ah well let’s see, like for starters, this stubborn head of yours,” he leaned in to softly kiss my cheek and then the other one. “It’s strong enough to knock out an NSA operative,” he smirked causing me to suddenly laugh through the tears.

“And these arms,” he let his fingertips softly explore their way down to the crook of my arm. “These arms are strong enough to hold on to a dangling guitar strap.” We locked eyes with each other at the mention of that horrific night. “And these legs,” he slid a hand down the back of my thigh. “These legs are fast enough to outrun a stalker in the middle of a campground.”

“Amen,” I whispered.

“And these lips,” he pressed his against mine for a kiss. “Were strong enough to put me in my place when I said a thing or two that I shouldn’t have,” his lip curled up causing me to snicker.

“And I know this baby,” he placed a hand on my stomach, “Is going to be strong enough to handle all kinds of things…fear, suffering, adversity…
life
.”

“So let me get this straight,” I stopped him. “You love me because I’m…
strong
?”

“You’re strong enough to handle me and all the craziness that comes along with being me. So
yeah
, being strong is just one of the many reasons why I love you.”

“One of the reasons why I will
always
love you,” he confessed and I knew he meant as in forever.

Chapter Three

I woke up the next morning to the sound of someone pounding on our bedroom door. I rolled over in bed too exhausted to get up but whoever it was couldn’t get a clue and continued to pound on the door.

“Hawkins someone’s knocking on the door for you,” I mumbled groggily wondering who would bother us this early in the morning. With another knock on the door, I reached my hand across to gently nudge him but my hand fell through a bunch of rumpled up empty sheets.

Confused, I sat up wondering where he might be at this hour. It was nine-thirty in the morning which meant that it was too early for it to be Riley or Lizzie. So I was astonished to see both of them standing there at the back of the bus completely dressed from head to toe when I finally opened the door.

“Hello sunshine,” Lizzie sang. “Finally decided to get up, ay?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I grumbled.

“How are you doing?” Riley asked, his honey colored eyes looked round and troubled.

Do you mean how’s my stomach doing or how am I doing now that I know Hawkins’ mom hates me?”

“What’s this?” Riley narrowed his eye clearly trying to appear like this was news to him but I didn’t see any shock in his expression either. Hawkins must have imagined that last night was going to go better than it did and thought to include Riley and Lizzie in his plans to celebrate. My heart dropped a fraction with the realization. I turned to Lizzie next who I knew would give it to me straight.

“What a bitch,” she quickly replied revealing the truth.

“You can’t call her a bitch, Lizzie,” I laughed.

“And why not?” she crossed her tan arms over her chest. “She obviously doesn’t think you’re good enough for her son.”

“Thanks Liz,” I added sarcastically as I back peddled to the edge of the bed to sit down since this conversation felt like it was literally sucking the life out of me. “You can’t call her a bitch, Lizzie,” I sighed. “Because she’s not Gwyneth; she’s my baby’s grandmother.”

“Yeah—but
she
doesn’t know that yet,” Lizzie added.

I was all out of one-liners to zing back at her and honestly I didn’t even want to try because I knew Lizzie’s heart was in the right place.  

“Okay so you knew things didn’t go well last night then why the early wakeup call?” 

“We umm…,” Lizzie turned to Riley for help.

“Wanted to visit Seattle while we’re here,” Riley shrugged innocently enough.

For a second I just stared at them in disbelief; waiting for the punch line because I had been trying to get them interested in doing something…
anything
but watch the band play night after night.

“Funny guys,” I smiled. “So what’s really going on?”

“The
Chihuly
Museum’s in Seattle,” Riley nodded until I realized he was being serious. “I’d like to see it.”

“You want to sightsee?” I asked in disbelief.
“Both of you?”
I turned to look at Lizzie again.

“Warren’s drunk and passed out on his bus,” Lizzie shrugged like why not.

“The
one
time I feel like crap and don’t want to go anywhere, you guys want to see the city?” I could only laugh at the irony of it all.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Lizzie quickly turned around for the front of the bus.

“That wasn’t a yes!” I called after her nearly on the edge of panic because I felt like crap most likely because I could barely keep anything down lately. Surely we could sightsee on a different day. When I heard the engine rev to life, I took off as fast as my body would allow
to stop
her from leaving the parking lot but Riley intercepted me halfway down the aisle.

“Joie, be careful you might fall.” Just as the words left Riley’s lips I suddenly felt the tires roll over what felt like a large speed bump though I didn’t remember seeing any along the dirt and gravel roads of the Gorge Amphitheater. Thank god, Riley was there to act as a buffer between the kitchen table and me when the motion threw me to the side. 

“It’s okay,” Lizzie announced. “That was nothing
important
.”

“I don’t know if I can do this for another two and half hours,” I suddenly groaned from the nauseous feeling building in the pit of my stomach. I knew Riley wanted to comfort me as he helped me over to the kitchen booth but we both knew that he had a weak stomach and I watched as the color quickly drained from his face. Unfortunately for him, all the bumping and jerking of the bus caused by Lizzie’s driving was wreaking havoc on my stomach.

“Riley run,” I groaned, as I pushed Riley out of the seat to get up and zigzag my way down the aisle in the direction of Hawkins’ bathroom.

“Joie be careful.” Riley seemed more concerned about the chances of me falling than listening to what I had to say.

“Riley
run
!”
I quickly covered my mouth as I began to sprint down the aisle but I only made it halfway before I spilled my guts. When I finally came up for air, I realized I wasn’t the only one making a powerful heaving,
wretching
sound like a frat guy on his twenty-first birthday.   

“Gross guys,” Lizzie called over her shoulder since she was the only one capable of speaking at the moment. Though I didn’t think she had any room to judge after all it was her driving skills or lack thereof that had caused us to vomit in the first place. Once I felt like the worst was behind me, I checked on Riley who had been smart enough to grab the garbage can from the cabinet below.

“You okay?” I asked realizing that he still looked a little bit peaked.

“You really meant
run
,” he smiled weakly.

“No, I meant stroll away at your own pace,” I cracked a grin. “Actually, anything would have been more effective than
tagging
behind me.” I ruffled his hair.

“Yeah, yeah,” he moaned looking like he could go for another round if provoked.

After I was done cleaning up the mess I had made on the floor, Riley offered to do my hair though I noticed his usual tan complexion hadn’t fully returned yet. Riley might be gay but he wasn’t flamboyant so I couldn’t remember another time when he had offered to do my hair. I knew that I looked pathetic but god so did he.

“You’ve got to feel just as weak as I do,” I pointed out.

“Joie, your hair’s not going to do itself unless you’re telling me that you actually plan on running a brush through it?”

“Does a hand count?” I was hopeful.

“No, that only seems to work for Hawkins.”

“I know, it’s sickening right?
He rolls out of bed looking gorgeous.”

“Like he’s had sex for hours,” Riley added with a knowing grin causing my face to blush a crimson red. Well that shut me up. Though shutting me up wasn’t really hard to do when I found myself dozing off with every strand of hair he straightened with Lizzie’s flat iron as we sat in the kitchen area.

“Is that what you plan on wearing?” Lizzie turned to hiss at me once we were finally ready to join her up front.

I glanced down at my white tank top and pink rolled up sweat pants and remembered how Hawkins had made a point to tell me how beautiful I looked in these clothes. “If it’s good enough for Hawkins, it’s sure as hell good enough for me,” I smiled as I took a seat next to Riley on the stairs leading down to the driver’s platform on the bus.

“But you threw up in those clothes,” Riley pointed out.

“I guess I could change—

“I like that emerald color dress you own,” Riley was quick to suggest and for a second I turned to look at him like whose side are you on anyway but he just shrugged.

             
“Honestly, I’m too exhausted to get up,” I admitted.

“I’ll go fetch it for you,” Riley nominated himself.

“Thanks,” I said halfheartedly.

“Someone has an image to keep up,” Lizzie sang.

“I told you, I don’t care about that anymore.”

Wow, did they really still care how I was perceived by the public because I knew Hawkins didn’t. Riley came back with the dress in his hands but when I went to argue he literally pointed out a soiled mark on my tank top. Well there was nothing like a little reality check to keep me motivated.

“How bad was it really, last night?” he asked as he helped tug the dress down around my shoulders. “All we know is that Hawkins couldn’t get the ring from his mother.”

“And he didn’t seem very happy about it either,” Lizzie ticked.

“It was the night from hell,” I groaned as I blew the hair out of my face and straightened out the dress. “It was little things like, she wondered why I wasn’t eating her food,” I sighed. “And what do I do
besides
write for Hawkins’ website.”

“Ouch,” Riley grimaced.

“Yeah—that’s not even the worst of it. I think she was just getting started if Hawkins hadn’t stopped her.” 

“You should have said I
do
your son,” Lizzie snorted.

“Oh yes that would have gone over really well,” I laughed.

“Well, it’s the truth. That’s what you do,” she smirked clearly pleased with her cleverness as she looked out at the road.

The drive was long and a bit scary with Lizzie behind the wheel but thankfully for whatever reason there seemed to be only one three lane highway that led from the Gorge straight to Seattle. I was beginning to realize that Washington State had a lot to offer a tourist like the flatlands with its large white wind power generators, which Lizzie called
windmills
, packed tight along the distant horizon the closer we drove east toward the Gorge. And the further we drove west away from the Gorge toward Seattle, the more mountains sprung up around us covered in green mossy trees. I could also make out Mt. Saint Helen in the distance and smell the saltwater of the Pacific Ocean in the air once we were closer to the city.