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Chapter Thirty-One
Our drive to the Hamptons the day before Thanksgiving was uneventful, apart from Colby talking incessantly about the living arrangements for our extending family. By the time we’d arrived he had rearranged two of the guest bedrooms for our new additions and talked me into letting him help with the decoration.
I hadn’t planned on decorating them myself and figured with the fumes and whatnot I’d have someone do it on a weekend when we were all at our house by the beach. According to Colby dads always decorated nurseries for their new babies themselves.
“We’re going to tell everyone about the babies at Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, sweetheart, so remember to try and not let the news slip,” Billie coaxed her son, as we drove into the courtyard at the back of the house.
I had barely parked the car before Milly, Belle, and Brock burst through the back entrance door and scurried over to the back door where Colby sat.
“We thought you’d never get here. Belle’s been up since 4:30 a.m. asking where you were. My mom said if she gets up early again, she’s going to take Belle to the Brooklyn Flea Market and sell her to the first stall holder she can find.” Billie chuckled at Milly’s comment, it was so like Tammy to come up with absurd ideas to keep her kids in check.
The moment Colby got out of the car the girls were on him like bees on honey, and he was ushered into the house, leaving Brock, Billie, and I to close the car doors and take all our gear inside. Brock, bless him, volunteered to help, so Billie pulled the handle up on Colby’s camouflage suitcase and he proudly wheeled it inside.
The cacophony of pleasant chatter and greetings as we walked toward the main hallway left us in little doubt the family had been as pleased and excited to see us as the children were. Billie looked up at me and grinned, and I sensed her excitement about our not so little secret as well. As far as I was concerned Thanksgiving couldn’t have come quick enough. Keeping something this big to ourselves for so long had been killing me.
On four separate occasions someone offered Billie wine, cocktails, and spritzers. The first two times she refused, but on the third my father insisted because we weren’t driving anywhere and made her a mojito along with Tammy, Caitlin, and Lorna.
Billie toyed with the glass, holding it up to her lips and pretending to take sips until a moment when no one was looking, and I threw it down in one. It mixed horribly in my belly with the malt whiskey I’d already drunk. As the evening progressed no one appeared any the wiser and fortunately no one noticed when Billie’s champagne was swapped out for clear lemonade.
“I love how Belle follows Colby around, isn’t it sweet?” Tammy murmured close to my ear, while we watched the kids playing through the doors of the great room that led to the hallway.
“You won’t be saying that in ten years time when they’re curled up on a couch sharing earphones and making playlists for one another,” I said through a chuckle.
Tammy elbowed me in the ribs. “Sawyer, they’re cousins,” she mumbled, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
“By marriage, Tammy, not blood,” I replied.
“Good God is that even legal?” she asked, confused by my reply and I chuckled again.
Most of the evening went without a hitch, apart from when my mom, Tammy, and Caitlin were talking to Billie and Caitlin suddenly narrowed her eyes at Billie when she was pressed by my mom and relayed her version of being admitted to hospital with food poisoning.
I was quietly celebrating making it to bedtime when Billie got in beside me and burst into tears.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” I urged, immediately sitting up beside her when I heard the sob that tore from her throat. When she didn’t reply, I slid my arms around her body and pulled her tight to me. “What’s going on, darlin’?” I asked, wracking my brain when she still hadn’t answered.
“Your mom and sisters are going to think I’m a bald-faced liar tomorrow,” she sniffed, and I couldn’t hold back the little laugh that bubbled in my throat.
“Why? Because we wanted to save our news so that everyone could learn about the babies together? James and Lorna weren’t here tonight, would you have rather they’d found out second hand?”
“Well … no,” she squeaked in a tiny voice, as she sniffed.
“These fucking hormones have a lot to answer for,” I mumbled, leaned forward and kissed the side of her head. She chuckled softly and I knew she had seen reason in my explanation for waiting.
“How come you are so frustratingly amazing?” she asked, her voice gave off a mock tone of annoyance.
“Because I have the perfect woman to be a better man for,” I replied in a smarmy tone. Pulling back to look at me she shook her head.
“I don’t deserve you, Sawyer Michael Wild, not really. You should be with a woman who is your equal, someone vibrant and funny and…louder, someone who’s not afraid to disappoint people.”
“Jesus, seriously, Billie? My equal? I could live to be a hundred and not match up to you. Thank God, I don’t have my equal because now I have you, I could never settle for less. Now, if you’re done demeaning yourself I’m too tired to listen to you spouting shit from that beautiful mouth of yours, and I can think of far better uses for it.”
Slowly she shook her head and my heart ached that every now and again her confidence took a knock for no reason, but I guessed living in the shadows of everyone else as she had all her life until she met me, I could accept she wasn’t conditioned to change overnight. But I vowed I’d do everything humanly possible to help her accept the incredibly beautiful warmhearted person she was.
Lowering her gently onto her side, I lay down beside her and slowly stroked her hair. “Mrs. Wild, you are my everything and I never want you to forget this,” I whispered. “It took me almost thirty years to find you and I never knew what was missing from my life until the day I met you. Don’t doubt what we are for a minute because I am right where I want to be, and no matter what’s gone on in your past, you need to believe you are worthy of me, of us,” I said, pressing my palm to her abdomen. “Unlike the man from your past I’m going to love you for the rest of my life.”
Seeing her eyes shine with fresh tears I quickly bent forward and kissed her. Those tears still fell and mingled with our lips, but somehow it only made what I said all the more touching. “No more doubts, tomorrow we’re going to blow my family away when we tell them what next year is going to bring.”
Chuckling, she nodded. “Indeed,” she said, quietly, and pressed her lips again to mine. “Indeed, we are.” Snuggling down close to me, she sighed and I held her safe in my arms as she settled. Thanks to feeling contented, plus the alcohol I had consumed, I fell asleep in no time.
