FG 3 - The Wedding Blitz Read online

  “Feels good, huh?” his lip curled up with the question.

  “You have no idea,” I groaned.

  Five minutes later, he gently released my foot back onto the bed and said, “Well I’m glad that you liked your surprise.”

  “What about my other foot?” I cried, lifting my head off the bed.

  “That’s another cracker,” he shrugged like the rules are the rules.

  “Fine,” I practically growled as I took a cracker from the package and began to nibble on it. “What?” I asked when he didn’t start to work on the next swollen foot.

  “This isn’t a half off clearance sale. When you finish the cracker, you get your foot massaged.”

  “Unbelievable,” I huffed, pretending to be overly bothered by his demands. Once I had finally swallowed it, I stuck out my tongue to show him the evidence. Hawkins then made good on his promise and I fell back onto the pillow in ecstasy again.

  “Another cracker for a favor?” he asked when he was done with the other foot.

  “I don’t know if you can top that,” I sat up on my elbows and examined him skeptically.

  “Trust me, you’re going want eat another cracker,” he glanced down at the package.

  A lot of dirty thoughts were running through my mind as I gladly opened my mouth and popped the cracker inside. What I didn’t fully understand was that he had something completely different in mind. He grabbed a balled up sheet in his hand and began to stroke it up and down the side of my leg where the patch of poison ivy was; causing a rug burn sensation along my itchy skin that felt deliriously good. Without being asked, I grabbed up another cracker from the plastic package and shoved it in my mouth and then another until we were both laughing hard.

  “I’m serious mister, keep going,” I insisted until my skin felt warm to the touch. “God—

  you have no idea how good that felt.”

  “Why don’t you try showing me?” he winked.

  “First, you’re going to have to eat a cracker, I run a tight shop mister. Now open up,” I held one up to his lips. “Trust me, you’re going to want eat this cracker.” I waggled my eyebrows until he dropped open his mouth and I fed him the cracker.

  An hour later we were all out of crackers but Hawkins had this brilliant plan to drag me over his shoulder in the direction of the kitchen to raid the cabinets for another box. Halfway down the aisle with my butt in the air and my hands busy snapping the waist band of Hawkins’ boxers to get him to put me down, he came to an abrupt stop when we heard a scream.

  “Mom?!”

  Oh hell.

  Hawkins quickly set me down so I could straighten out his button down shirt. I couldn’t even look in her direction as she braced her chest like she had the fright of her life and sat down next to Riley in the front of the bus.

  “What are you doing here mom?” Hawkins asked.

  “I thought I’d pay you a surprise visit. I’ll never make that mistake again,” she huffed.

  I nodded at the ceiling thinking, I had to face her eventually but when I turned toward the front of the bus I stepped on one of Warren’s empty beer cans and would have fallen if Hawkins hadn’t been there to steady me.

  “So this is how you live on the road?” his mother droned with a glance down at the pile of littered beer cans.

  “Joie why don’t you go get changed?” Hawkins offered.

  “No,” his mom stopped me. “I think we’re all good, good friends now. There’s really no point.”

  I felt my face burn with embarrassment and if it wasn’t bad enough, Warren, decided that now was the time to rip back the curtain to Lizzie’s bunk bed on his way to make a dive to the bathroom to visit the porcelain god.

  “Oh my and I thought it couldn’t get any more interesting,” his mother sighed overtop of the heaving sound in the background. “Do you have anything fascinating you’d like to add to this conversation?” she turned to Riley next.

  “No ma’am,” Riley, who looked like he was about to eat his fist to stop himself from laughing, suddenly cleared his throat and went back to doodling on his notepad.

  “Where’s dad?”

  “Back at home in bed, thank goodness—

  “Okay mom, you’ve made your point.” he came to sit down across from her. “What’s up?”

  “I came to talk to you about the Campbell’s property,” she explained. “You know Lauren, down the street. You used to date her in high school.”

  “Yeah, I know Lauren,” Hawkins nodded.

  “Her uncle just put their house up for sale.”

  “The house across from the lake?” he asked.

  “Yes, and I was thinking that it would make a great place for you and your,” she struggled with the wording like it was literally stuck to her tongue, “future wife to settle down in. That is unless you plan to live on this tour bus for the rest of your life.”

  “The cabin with the really nice spread of land?” he looked interested but the thought of living so close to his mother horrified me.

  “I’m not exactly down with the kid lingo you guys use today but yes, it’s a nice spread.”

  Hawkins turned to look at me and shrugged, “I’m sure we can take a look at it sometime.”

  “The open house is tomorrow,” she got up to leave. “And I think you should know, for all intense and purposes, that you’ve already made a bid on it.”

  “But mom, we haven’t even talked about it yet,” he pointed from me to him.

  “If you don’t like it, you can just buy it for me. Your father will thank you,” she patted his shoulder. “It’s been…charming but I really must go,” she went to leave down the steps but Hawkins quickly got up and chased after her. “Mom wait, I need to talk to you—

  I sunk down beside Riley on the couch and groaned, “I can’t look, are they fighting over…a ring perhaps?”

  Riley glanced over his shoulder and murmured, “I can’t tell, does slapping him in the shoulder with her purse count?”

  “Yes, unfortunately” I threw my head back and then turned to look down at a drawing on his notepad. “Whatcha got there?”

  “I’m trying to incorporate these tall sticks of stained glass grass in your ceremony,” he retraced a part of the drawing that was filled with tall marsh like plants. “They’ll be at the opening of the lake when you…come…across…wait a minute, Hawkins lives by a lake?”

  “Oh no Riley,” I tried to quickly stop the wheels from turning in his head. “There’s got to be over a hundred lakes in Seattle. It’s practically surrounded by water so please any lake but that one.”

  “We can revisit this at less sensitive time,” he assured me.

  “I don’t think it’s ever going to be—

  “Is the wicked witch finally gone?” Lizzie stumbled forward looking like a hot mess with one fake eyelash plastered halfway down her cheek and her face a nice ashen color like she might puke herself.

  “I take it someone partied hard last night,” I smiled as she reached for the pot of coffee to pour herself a drink.

  “Not any harder than I normally do, thank you very much. Now Warren on the other hand,” she bellowed loud enough for him to overhear in the bathroom, where he still had his head hung in the toilet. “Must have had one hell of a good time,” she pulled the cup of coffee up to her lips when a sudden heaving sound in the back caused her to bark, “I can see that talk went in one ear and out the mouth!”

  “Lizzie, I told you that that was my last beer,” Warren ran the back of his hand over his mouth as he staggered down the aisle for the bunk bed again.

  “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

  “I’m finally done, I swear,” he confessed. “This isn’t any way to honor my sister’s life and I know that.”

  “I hope that you mean that,” Lizzie’s tone softened.

  “I do—now come back to bed with me.”

  “Well if you insist,” Lizzie smiled in our direction before taking another gulp of her coffee and walking
back over to Warren who swiftly pulled her into bed with him, causing her to giggle, as he yanked the curtain shut again. It was an awkward moment for both Riley and me because even though we couldn’t see them doing anything, we were forced to listen to them giggle and suck face. I stared up at the ceiling and whistled to myself and Riley went back to sketching on his notepad.

  “You know,” I finally broke our silence. “Harlow said what he did last night to protect you, right? He doesn’t really think you don’t have what it takes to do the job.”

  “I was thinking wine would make a great color for the bridesmaid dresses,” he quickly added as if he was prepared for the comment.

  “Riley,” I turned my head and stared at him.

  “What?” he asked a bit defensively as he scratched the side of his leg.

  “You can’t continue to throw yourself into this project just to avoid Harlow.”

  “Well this project is the closest thing I’ll ever get to a wedding, and I’m okay with avoiding Harlow because he’s more than okay with avoiding me.” He slapped his notebook shut and got up to leave. “And just so you know, life isn’t fair Joie. I have freaking poison ivy on my leg now and I’m pretty sure that you didn’t mean to do that either but I still got to deal with it whether it was with anyone’s best intentions or not.”

  I was just about to say that I was sorry to the back of Riley as he walked away when Hawkins reappeared on the bus. “Any luck?” I asked.

  “What are you talking about?” he pretended to be oblivious, which was another way of saying no.

  When it was time to get ready to leave for the concert, I asked Riley if he was coming but he made up some excuse about being too tired to go and that he was just going to go to bed. I felt bad that he was going through a difficult time with Harlow and I knew that life wasn’t fair but I wanted my best friend to be happy more than anything and it was killing me to see him suffering like this.

  “Where’s Riley?” Hawkins asked as I grabbed up the blanket Riley and I had huddled together in last night, for later.

  “He’s not coming, he’s tired,” I made sure to say it loud enough for Riley to overhear so he’d know I wasn’t going to rat him out for being too depressed about Harlow to go to the concert. Hell, I wasn’t sure if I would go either, if the tables were turned and it was Hawkins and I who were fighting.

  Once we were finally on our way to the stage, I said to Hawkins, “You know, I don’t need a particular ring or even a big celebration to be your wife. You’ve already earned my trust and that’s what matters to me.”

  “I know, it’s just,” he frowned. “I want my mother’s blessing. I want be able to tell her about the baby. I want her to be a part of it, not an outsider.”

  “I understand that,” I took his hand into mine until our fingers intertwined. “So when are we going to tell both of our moms?”

  “I don’t know? Maybe we should just spring it on them?” he half laughed. “I know my mom’s always talking about grandbabies.”

  “Yeah, when you were with Gwyneth, probably,” I smirked.

  “I don’t think she was as fooled by Gwyneth as she pretends to be,” he narrowed his eyes with amusement.

  “What does that mean?” I asked when a group of fans suddenly descended on us as we made our way down to the Gorge.

  “It means, hang in there,” he smiled before turning to sign his autograph.

  Chapter Six

  Hang in there I told myself as I staggered around still half asleep while looking for what clothes to put on this morning. But what I should have said was hang on to Hawkins because I was so light headed, from a lack of eating, that the room suddenly went fuzzy around me from getting up too soon. Once I finally regained my balance and the room suddenly reappeared, I unlatched myself from Hawkins’ arm.

  “Listen,” I began to say as I looked down in the general direction of the baby. “We’ve got to come to some kind of understanding. Now I know that you like when daddy feeds you saltine crackers, something that I have made a mental note of, but you can’t survive on just salt and bits of baked bread. You’re going to have to try to experience new and different things, okay?”

  Hawkins snickered, causing me to shrug, “Hey, I’ll try anything.”

  “I think it’s great. Now if he would only listen.”

  “He?”

  “I’d be happy no matter if it’s a he or a she just as long as you’re both healthy.

  “I’m beginning to think that the baby’s just as stubborn as I am,” I sighed as I continued to fish through the closet looking for something to hide my small bump from Hawkins’ parents.

  Riley, who was usually up before everyone, was still asleep when we walked out of the bedroom. I couldn’t help myself from sending Hawkins a silent message by pouting out my bottom lip as I nodded down at Riley on the low bunk bed because he was obviously still depressed about Harlow.

  “Riley’s a good guy, it sucks to see him down,” Hawkins agreed once we were outside and on the way to the car where we couldn’t be overheard.

  “Yeah” I agreed, as we took off for Hawkins’ parents’ house. I knew that it should have felt like a long two and half hour drive back to Seattle but the instant Hawkins got on the road, I fell asleep and those two and half hours felt more like two and half minutes.

  “You must have been exhausted,” Hawkins squeezed me knee after he had parked outside of his parents’ house.

  “I still am,” I croaked. “Did I snore too loudly?”

  “I know not to go there,” he cracked a grin as he went for the door.

  The cool morning air slowly nudged me out of my sleepy haze as I stepped out of the car. Still that was nothing compared to the sound of Joshua being cooed across the yard, to jolt me awake faster than any espresso I’d ever had.

  “I’m glad you could make it, honey,” his mom pulled him in for a hug. “Now the realtor has the papers for you to sign over at the house.”

  “Mom.”

  “Oh—I’m only joking.”

  We all smiled and then laughed awkwardly.

  “I think they do those kinds of transactions back in their offices anyway,” she added as an afterthought. “Come and say hello to your father, he hasn’t been feeling well and seeing you might just do the trick,” she said as she led us into the house. “Jack,” she called up the stairs without pausing for a response, “Joshua’s here!”

  “Now you can clearly see the cabin across the lake from here,” she kept on walking like a heat seeking missile toward a wall of windows in the back that overlooked a serene deep blue lake with a touch of emerald green. Even I could imagine myself being rowed across it for my wedding as I began to fall under the spell.

  My gaze lifted to an A-framed cabin on the other side of the lake that was designed with floor to ceiling windows exactly like Hawkins’ parents’ house. I would have thought it was as beautiful and peaceful looking as that majestic lake, except for the fact that it was directly across from Hawkins’ mother’s house.

  “Of course you know that you’ll have the upmost privacy while living there, considering we own the fifty acres surrounding the land—

  Thud!

  We were all startled by the sudden loud sound overtop of us. Hawkins’ mom called out hesitantly, “Jack, honey? Are you okay?”

  “Dad?” Hawkins bellowed next but all we heard was a low groan in response. “Dad!” Hawkins yelled again as he took off for the nearby stairs with his mother and me close on his heels.

  “Jack! Are you okay?” his mother came to an abrupt stop at the doorway. She momentarily blocked my view of the bedroom, until she quickly entered the room and knelt down on her knees overtop of Hawkins’ dad, who was sprawled out on the floor dressed in navy blue pajamas.

  Hawkins checked for a pulse as he too kneeled on the other side of his father. “He’s passed out,” he locked eyes with his mom. “We need to call an ambulance.”

  Before we knew it the EMTs arrived and we were usher
ed out of the way. “What happened?” one of them asked as they carefully lowered him down the steps on a gurney. It was a scary sight to see his dad still passed out with an oxygen mask around his face.

  “He hasn’t been feeling well,” Hawkins’ mother explained as she followed the emergency responders while they whisked him out of the house and toward the ambulance.

  “We’ll be right behind you,” Hawkins called to his mother, who looked horrorstruck by the turn of events as she got into the back of the ambulance. We watched as they closed the door before turning on the sirens and speeding down the road.

  Within seconds we were following behind them. I’ve never seen Hawkins drive as fast before as we raced and weaved through Seattle traffic to the hospital.

  “God, I hope it’s not a stroke,” Hawkins muttered under his breath before getting out of the car in the visitor’s parking lot.

  We entered the busy hospital and were quickly redirected back to an emergency wing where they were keeping his father.

  “Oh thank goodness, you’re here Joshua,” his mother, who was sitting close by her husband and holding his hand, reached out her other hand to squeeze Hawkins’. “He’s coming around again.”

  “Dad?”

  “Where am…I?” his father gulped, making his oxygen mask fog up.

  “You’re in the emergency room, dear,” his mom explained.

  “Well this is a surprise,” he tried to laugh it off.

  “Yes, this is all rather very funny,” his mom rolled her eyes. “You scared the bejesus out of me.”

  “It’s got to be my turn every once in a while,” he patted her hand lovingly causing her to scoff. “Only you would try to make a joke out of this!”

  “Hello Mr. Hawkins,” a tall doctor dressed in light blue scrubs and a white lab coat entered the room; instantly silencing everyone as he proceeded to ask, “I’m Dr. Pohren, so what’s been going on? What brings you into the hospital today?” he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against a nearby counter.