Mending the Soul (36 page)

Jenna was tickled that she was finally able to get off the couch and out of the house for a while. Though the food was good at dinner, the atmosphere and the people watching were much better. She felt so refreshed, rejuvenated, and carefree. She no longer felt like she was tied up in shackles, waiting for the warden to give her a reprieve. She never thought she would enjoy a dinner out with Nicholas as much as she was. Though she knew that being on bed rest was vital to the health of her unborn baby, she didn't think she would have been able to handle much more of it if the doctor hadn't set her free that day.

Jenna felt as though she floated through the night. But by the time Nicholas took her back to their house, she was definitely feeling the exhaustion sweeping over her floating body. Before her head even hit the down-filled pillow, Jenna was sound asleep and sawing logs.

Nicholas rolled on his side to face Jenna. As he watched her sleep, he thought back to when she was in the hospital, and a tear escaped from his eye. He never wanted to come that close to losing her again, and he would do everything he could to make sure she never hurt like that in the future. His love for Jenna ran deeper than he ever thought possible, and it would surely kill him to lose her. While he was studying her face, just before he drifted off to sleep himself, he could have swore that a smile was beginning to form on her lips. It was a smile that melted his heart, one that he hadn't gotten to see much of lately.

*****

Over the next couple of weeks, Jenna slowly regained her strength. Nicholas still wouldn't let Jenna do any work around the house, but secretly she didn't mind. She quite enjoyed having someone come in to clean, after having done it all herself since her teen years.

One Saturday afternoon, there was a knock on the door. Since the kids were gone to a birthday party, and Nicholas was putting in some overtime at the office, Jenna got up to answer it, wondering who it could be. When the door opened, she got a face full of flowers.

"Delivery for Jenna Chase." The man holding the flowers told her.

"That's me. Thanks!" She said as she grabbed the flowers and closed the door. "Well, this is a surprise." She said out loud, talking to herself as usual. She walked into the kitchen and put the large vase on the counter, searching out the card. She finally found it, buried behind some large irises. "Jenna, come to the Country Café. Sit down at the counter and order yourself a tall strawberry milkshake." She read the card out loud, again just to herself.

Her eyes narrowed as she looked at it questioningly, but grabbed her coat, her purse, and the keys to her new Toyota Highlander.

*****

Jenna walked into the Country Café and took a seat at the empty counter. "Excuse me, could I please get a strawberry milkshake?" She asked the passing waitress.

"Sure Jenna, I'll get it for you." The waitress said as she went to prepare the cold drink.

Jenna's eyes narrowed as she watched the woman walk away. She started wracking her brain, trying to figure out where she knew the woman from. Her face didn't look at all familiar, but she had to have known her since she knew Jenna's name. She got frustrated and cursed the damn pregnancy hormones for making her so forgetful.

The waitress walked back and set the frosty glass in front of Jenna. Before she could walk away again, Jenna decided to ask if she had met her before.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but I have been so forgetful lately. Can you tell me where we've met before?" Jenna asked her.

"We've never met." The woman said and walked away, leaving Jenna even more puzzled.

Instead of worrying about it even more, Jenna attacked the strawberry shake sitting in front of her, while looking around the café for Nicholas. She started to take a few slow sip, letting the flavor wash through her mouth, but soon that wasn't enough. A few slow sips turned into a few giant gulps, just narrowly avoiding a major case of brain freeze.

As soon as the milkshake was finished, the waitress walked back by Jenna and smoothly slid the bill on the table, face down. Jenna was annoyed by this…What if she wanted something to eat? What if Nicholas wanted something when he got there…if he ever got there.

Jenna turned the bill over, giving in and getting ready to pay. Instead of having her total, there was a poem. A cheesy, poor excuse for a poem, but cute anyways.

'The bill is paid, I've been delayed.

Meet me at the zoo, by the bird that asks, "Who?"'.

Jenna shook her head and left the café, with the poem in hand. Driving over to the zoo, Jenna couldn't help but laugh at how corny Nicholas was being. The sad part was, that Jenna was actually really excited to see the owl exhibit. A lot of people had been talking about it lately, and when the kids went to see it on a school field trip, they had talked about it non-stop for days.

She got out of her SUV and walked towards the owl habitat. As she got closer, she noticed a group of people surrounding a clown that was handing out balloons. She thought it was odd, she had never seen a clown at that zoo before. She approached hesitantly and watched the crowd of people walk off to the next exhibit. She leaned on the rail, watching the owls and was startled when she felt a tap on her shoulder. The clown had one balloon left and after handing it to Jenna, he walked away.

Jenna couldn't get over all the weird things that had happened that day. All she wanted to do now was find Nicholas and head home to relax. The wind started to pick up, and blew the balloon around in the air. As the balloon shook in the wind, Jenna heard and felt something rattling inside of it. She yanked the string down, and caught the balloon so that she could see what was rattling.

Looking inside the transparent balloon, Jenna saw a piece of paper, folded in the way that she used to fold notes in high school. She knew that she'd need to pop the balloon to get the note out, but didn't want to jump on it and scare the owls. Instead, she worked at getting the knot loose to let the air out. Thankful for her semi-long nails, she finally got the knot open. She let the air out slowly, then pried the note out.

She slowly walked back to her car as she read the note, careful not to bump into anything or anyone.

'I guess I wasn't there either, was I? How about I take you out to dinner to make it up to you. Meet me at Nulli's Restaurant and I'll apologize.'

Italian food did sound good to her, and even though she had just downed a big milkshake, the baby was still hungry. She got back into her SUV, for what seemed like the millionth time that day and headed to her favorite restaurant.

She cruised through the parking lot when she got there, and didn't see Nicholas's SUV anywhere. If she had been paying attention to anything other than looking for his vehicle, she would have noticed a lot of other cars looked familiar.

When she walked into the restaurant, she was greeted by a maître d with a fake Italian accent. "Ah, Miss Jenna, we have been waiting for you." He said, taking her arm and leading her through the dining room.

With each table that passed, Jenna wondered when he was going to let her sit. Instead, he kept walking past all the tables and into another room. As soon as he opened the door to the dark room, Jenna saw the flicker of candles. "Surprise!" was yelled in unison by many different voices, and as soon as he eyes adjusted to the darkness, Jenna was able to make out the faces of all of her friends and soon to be family.

Jenna stood there in shock, her mouth wide open. She didn't move until Nicholas came up and gave her a hug. "They surprised me too, about 15 minutes before you." He whispered in her ear.

One by one, dim lights were turned on, revealing signs that said "Baby Shower" on one wall, and "Wedding Shower" on the other wall. Jenna looked around the room and saw both Vanessa and Zoey standing together, looking so proud of themselves.

"So you didn't send me flowers, or take me on the wild goose chase?" She asked, turning to Nicholas.

"I have no clue what you're talking about, so I'm going to assume that's a no." Nicholas told her with a smile, letting her know that this time, he was actually innocent. "It sounds like it'll be a great story when you tell me about it though."

"So, how did they get you here?" Jenna asked.

"Zoey said she had scheduled a client meeting, and this was the only time he could meet with me. I came here under the impression that I had work to do. I thought it was a little funny when she insisted that she had to come to the meeting too, and that I ride over there with her and leave my SUV at the office." Nicholas said with a smile.

"You do have work to do. This food isn't going to feed itself, and the presents won't open themselves, so get cracking!" Zoey said as she came up behind the couple and put one arm around each of their shoulders.

"This is so great Zoey, we can't thank you enough." Jenna said, knowing that she meant every word that came out of her mouth. She was glad that her and Zoey had overcome the small speed bump in the road, so to speak.

"That's what friends are for." Zoey said, giving Jenna a hug, then rubbing her belly that seemed to stick out further and further every day. "But I can't take all the credit, Vanessa helped me so much. We were equal partners in this."

"Ok, I just have to know, who did you force into the clown suit?" Jenna asked.

"Let's just say I need to be extra nice to Nathan for about the next two months or so." Vanessa said as she walked up to join the conversation. The three girls looked at each other and busted out laughing, leaving Nicholas to truly wonder…

The night was fabulous, and was meticulously planned. Zoey and Vanessa actually had offers from some of the guests to plan parties for them. Nicholas and Jenna received more gifts than they knew what to do with, and were very appreciative of all their generous friends.

But the best part didn't come until they got home. Nicholas crawled into bed, waiting for his fiancée to come out of the bathroom, where she had been for the past 15 minutes.

"Jenna, are you ok in there?" He called out to her.

"I'm fine. I'll be out in a minute, but you have to promise not to laugh." She called back through the closed door.

"Why would I laugh. Jenna, come on out." He called back, wondering what she was doing and why she was taking so long.

It wasn't long before his questions were put to rest. The door opened to reveal Jenna standing there, wearing a short black satin nightie.

"Wow! Baby, you better put something on over that or else I'm not going to be able to control my reaction." Nicholas told her.

"See, I knew you'd laugh." Jenna said, feeling a mixture of hurt and embarrassment.

"Jenna, that's not exactly the reaction I was talking about." He said as his eyes locked on hers, then led her eyes to the tent forming in his boxers. "This is the reaction I can't control."

"You don't have to control it. The doctor gave me the go ahead yesterday to resume sexual activity, as long as we were careful." She said as she crawled into the bed. "So you don't think I look hideous?" She asked after thinking for a minute.

"No, I think you look absolutely stunning, and I can't wait to get my hands on you." He told her as he enveloped her lips in a searing kiss. "What a perfect night."

"A perfect night indeed." Jenna said as they became tangled up in each other.

Jenna waddled through the kitchen, making lunch for the kids to bring to school. She was now in her ninth month of her pregnancy and felt as big as a house. She was constantly uncomfortable and was just praying that the baby would decide to make its entrance into the world soon. The baby inside her was becoming just as restless as she was, it was constantly kicking her and moving around, never giving it's mother a moment of comfort.

Everyone was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the baby. The kids talked about it non-stop, always fighting about whether they wanted a brother or sister. Every day when they woke up, the first words out of their mouths were "Is it time yet?"

Nicholas was also trying to be patient for the arrival of his son or daughter. He knew how uncomfortable Jenna was, and he wished that there was something he could do to help her out. He also wondered if they were going to have a boy or girl. They decided to let the sex be a surprise, just like the baby itself was. In a way, he hoped for a girl. Yes, it's true that every man wants a son, but Nicholas loved the idea of another little girl. Besides, the plans were already in the works for him to adopt Colby since Kyle had given up his parental rights, so he already had a son.

Jenna didn't care what they had, as long as it was healthy and was born soon!

Nicholas walked into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around Jenna's waist, or as much of it as he could. He kissed her cheek and watched as she made the kids' lunches. "You got up early this morning." He commented. Jenna had already been up and showered before Nicholas even thought about waking up.

"Sorry, I couldn't sleep. There's just so much to do." She started to list all of her plans for the day, making Nicholas tired just hearing about all she had planned.

"Well, my mom's coming to take the kids to school today since I have a meeting first thing on the other side of town. Why don't I ask her to come back by after she drops them off to help you out a little?" Nicholas suggested.