by Jessa York
“Where does the movie shoot?” Ivy asked, pulling tissues out of a box and distributing them amongst us.
“Here, in L.A.,” Holly said, a half-smirk lifting the side of her mouth.
“You’re moving back? No more England?” I asked, excited at the prospect of having my friend only ninety minutes away instead of a fifteen hour airplane ride.
She nodded quickly, blowing her nose. “For now, anyway. Who knows? They may hate me and send me packing the first day.”
“Like that would ever happen,” Alex said, smoothing his hair down. “You, my dear, are a natural born star.”
It was true. Holly may have come from a meager start but once she’d found the stage it was like watching a fish take to water. She’d sent us clips of some of her performances and it always amazed me to see her in her element.
“Enough,” Alex said, pulling my arm and forcing me to sit down. “I’m fixing up the momma to be now. You two go get some snacks before people start arriving—namely Mr. Hot Groom. Scoot on out of here.” His hands immediately dove into my hair, working his magic as our other two friends disappeared.
“Listen to me, Momma,” Alex said, his finger in my face. “Absolutely, positively, no wardrobe malfunctions today. Do you hear me?”
We were all dressed up in our bridesmaid dresses except for Alex who wore a special bridesman suit. His shirt was the same light pink as our dresses. “Why are you pointing at me?”
Looking up to the sky as though he was asking for deliverance, he said, “Why am I asking you? How many times have you had wardrobe malfunctions around your man?”
I closed my mouth, looking at the floor. “I couldn’t exactly help that the fire alarm went off in the club where we met.”
“Mmm hmmm, and what about the exploding booty in that tight, little, red dress at Holly’s engagement supper?” His eyebrows rose as did his accusatory tone.
“That was the baby’s fault,” I said as Holly snorted and Ivy burst out laughing.
“Do not blame anything on that sweet baby. This is all you. How about when you fell off the bathroom counter at the hot professor’s house and lost your towel?” Alex added as he did up the buttons on his tux.
“I fell. How could I help it if my towel flew the other direction?”
“Mmm hmm, how convenient. All I’m saying is you need to behave today of all days. Our Holly is tying the knot and your clothes need to stay on and dry. Understand?”
Rolling my eyes, I held out the edges of my dress for him to see. “Look, I could fit two more of me in this.” The beautiful silk felt marvelous on my skin and was mercifully forgiving. Holly had chosen an A-line style. The designers modified one especially for me and my ever-increasing form.
Alex looked me over, his fingers scratched his chin. “Still, be careful. No eating or drinking until the ceremony is over.” At that, he ushered us out into the hall where he was in deep conversation with a tall brunette. She carried a clipboard like it contained state secrets.
Talking into her headset for a second, she looked up at us with a brilliant smile. “Showtime.”
“Don’t fidget,” Alex whispered to me without moving his lips. The officiant was speaking. About what I had no idea. All I knew was that my nose was getting more and more itchy as the service went on.
Rubbing it again, I whispered back, “I’m just scratching my nose.” Unfortunately, instead of abating the desire to sneeze, it made it worse. Much worse. The smell of the flowers in my bouquet had rubbed off on my fingers, which was now deposited directly under my nostrils.
Oh no. The itch intensified by a hundred times. I tried my best to hold my breath. It soon became apparent nothing was going to work. Inhaling deeply, I let out a sneeze with all the power of a gale force wind.
Alex’s head snapped to me in utter disbelief, his jaw dropped open.
I swear I’d felt something pop. Putting my hand on my belly I soon felt a warm liquid begin to drip down my leg. Oh no, no, no, no. Standing there in shock, I couldn’t move. Holly and Evan hadn’t even begun to say their vows yet. Any hopes of being able to run out of here soon were dashed.
The officiant stopped mid-sentence, gazing at me over the top of his glasses. Another sneeze was brewing and there wasn’t a darn thing I could do about it. Again, I sneezed. This time doubling over with it.
A gush of fluid splashed on the floor beneath me as everyone gasped.
In our childbirth classes we’d been told a story about a woman whose water broke in the grocery store. Thinking quickly, she’d grabbed a jar of pickles and dropped it on the floor to mask the unsightly mess.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a jar of anything nearby for me to fake it with.
“Her water just broke.” A woman’s voice gasped behind us as yet another sneeze crept up on me. More water escaped even though I clenched my thighs together.
“Are you okay?” Ivy asked, grabbing me around the shoulders. The only problem was that her bouquet shoved dangerously close to my face making me sneeze about a dozen more times in a row.
By now the guests were speaking in not quite hushed tones as they observed the spectacle I was making of myself. Before I knew it, Jake was at my side. “Did your—”
I nodded right before another attack took hold. The more I sneezed, the more mess I made. It was a disaster. Holly’s perfect wedding was turning into a circus. As I looked around, something hit me. “I’m going to have this baby and we won’t be married.” I held onto Jake’s suit, my fingers digging in tight as a horrible pain worse than any cramp I’d ever had ran through me. “Oh,” I said, leaning over on Jake’s chest.
“You said you didn’t want to get married until after the baby was born,” he said into my hair while I waited for the awful twisting in my stomach to end.
“I know but now I want to be married before the—” I could feel my belly tighten again, taking my breath away.
Jake’s hands held my back. “We need to get to the hospital, Paige. Your contractions are really close together.”
My eyes welled up with tears with the realization I was going to be an unwed mother. “We should have gotten married before. I didn’t want to look huge in my wedding dress, that’s why I wanted to wait,” I said, sniffling as I looked up at him, the pains stopping for now. “How stupid,” I cried. “The only important thing was being your wife. Not how I looked.”
Exasperation covered his face as he cupped my cheeks, holding me still. “I told you I’d marry you any day, any time.”
“I’ve wrecked everything,” I said, diving into his chest, squeezing his body just as hard as the next contraction gripped me.
“Let’s go have a baby,” he said into my ear, holding me until I could move.
“Is it time?” Holly asked, rubbing my shoulder, her eyes wet. She carefully avoided the puddle landmine behind me.
Turning my head to her, I wiped my eyes. “I’m sorry for ruining your wedding.”
“You didn’t,” she said, even though all the guests were now speaking freely, moving around the room.
“I’m here, to save the day,” Alex announced in a lyrical song, jogging in at a nice clip with a mop in hand as though he were competing in javelin. With all the excitement, I hadn’t even noticed him leave.
“Out of the way, people.” He body checked a few guests and he slapped others with the coarse, dirty strings of the mop. People gasped in horror as he made his way through the crowd. Once he was near, he said, “Okay, scoot, Mama. Let me mop this up.”
Jake moved us over just in time. “Oh my God, is he mopping during the wedding?” a woman said behind us, her voice sounding completely aghast at the sight.
Ivy’s eyes went wide as we watched Alex very ineptly clean the floor as I died slowly from mortification. “It’s too late to get married, now, sweetie,” she said, tearing her eyes away from the new, resident handyman.
Alex halted, mid-stroke. “What? Nonsense, I’ll have this baby mess cleaned up in no time. Then we ca
n restart the ceremony like nothing happened,” he said, wiping his sleeve over his forehead.
“No, I mean for Paige and Jake. She wants to get married before the baby comes,” Ivy said with sad eyes.
Alex’s jaw dropped to the floor along with the mop handle. “What? You said you wanted to wait until after the tiny one arrived, and you had a few months of Pilates under your belt?”
I sniffed, feeling even more like an idiot. “I changed my mind.”
Evan strode over, eyeing us all with an air of caution. “Everything all right? Paige, how are you?” His arm slid protectively over Holly’s shoulders.
“She wants to get married, that’s how she is,” Alex said, bending down to pick up the mop.
“Married?” Evan asked, twisting his gaze to Holly, his almost-wife.
Holly let out a puff of air, speaking in a hushed voice as she cocked her head toward me. “Paige wants to get married before the baby comes.”
His eyebrows raised before his eyes shot to mine. “You’re in labor now?”
I nodded, slouching over with another contraction seizing my lower back like a vice grip.
Evan lowered himself in front of me, giving my arm a tight squeeze. “Then we need to act fast.”
41
Paige
“Are you sure you don’t just want to go straight to the hospital?” Jake asked during a particularly horrible contraction.
Once I was able to breathe again, I glared at the man of my dreams. “Would you stop asking me that?”
“Why on Earth would you bring that disgusting thing into a limo?” Holly asked, lifting her feet up in the air, moving away from her seatmate in horror.
Alex shook his head. “Relax, blondie. It’s just a mop. Our girl is leaking—thus we need to take protective measures.”
“It’s gross,” Holly snapped at him, pushing his arm away from her. Alex was not prepared. Consequently, the mop flew out of his hand, landing in Ivy’s lap.
“Oh no,” Ivy shrieked as she went into a full body panic. The gray strips of yarn attacked her like an unforgiving, mutant octopus. After several brave attempts, she finally shoved the mop off as her stomach let out loud, dry heaving sounds.
Evan moved in the small space, controlling the runaway mop of mass destruction before it attacked anyone else. “I’ve got it, everything’s fine,” he said, trying unsuccessfully not to smirk.
“Ivy, stop that. Hearing you gag, makes me—” Alex said before he covered his mouth, dry heaving.
“Both of you, quit!” I shouted overtop of their awful noises. “You’re going to start a barf-o-rama in the back of this limo. Is that what you want?” My hands covered my ears in a useless attempt at drowning out their sounds.
Luckily, a minute later the vehicle came to a stop. “Out, out, out.” Ivy shoved her way to the door first.
This was an unmitigated disaster. Everyone else followed suit, including Alex and his trusty new cleaning device. “This is the worst,” I said, dropping my head into my hands. “Just the absolute, worst.” I heard the car door shut gently.
Evan had been so supportive of us getting married. He’d offered to let us use the marriage officiant they’d hired. The only problem was that we didn’t have a marriage license.
One of the wedding attendees spoke up, telling us he worked at the county clerk’s office and could help us out. He offered to meet us here and speed up the process.
Jake gathered me into his arms. “It’s not the worst. You’re having our baby and we’re getting married. I think that’s a pretty wonderful day.” He hugged me to his body, stroking my back in a rhythmical motion.
I let my hands fall to my lap. “I’m a human faucet, Alex has to follow me around with a damn mop, I’ve ruined a wedding and we nearly had a vomit disaster—in the limo,” I snapped at him even though he didn’t deserve it at all.
My head leaned on his chest in defeat. A few seconds later, my head bounced as Jake’s body began to shake. “Are you laughing?” I asked, sitting up, staring at him like he was crazy.
Unable to hold it in anymore, he let out a laugh that was so loud my ears hurt. “I-I-I’m sorry, I can’t help it.” Jake chuckled, wiping under his eyes.
“What is so funny? This is a disaster.”
He smiled his devastatingly handsome grin at me. “You are. We are. This is definitely the kind of wedding we would have.”
“Because I screw everything up?” I asked, feeling even more deflated.
“No way. Because it’s all a complete surprise. Just like the night we met, you showing up in my class, and of course the baby. Ending up in the back of a limo, in labor, on the way to get a marriage license is pretty much par for the course with us.”
I stared at him, considering his words. “Truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Do you really want to get married today? We can wait until after the baby, it was stupid of me to—”
Jake gripped my hands with his before cutting me off. “Paige Flores, I desperately want to marry you today. Not only because I’m head over heels in love with you, either.”
“Then why?”
“Getting married on the same day our kid is born guarantees I’ll never forget our anniversary.” He let out a loud chuckle, squeezing me tighter as I squirmed.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“Truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Do you want to marry me today?” he asked, the back of his fingers grazing my cheek.
“So much.”
“Then let’s go make an honest woman out of you, shall we?”
42
Jake
“Breathe, baby,” I said to Paige as she squeezed my hand tight. At least I thought it was tight. I’d lost feeling in it about a half hour ago.
We’d made it to the county clerk’s on time, Alex’s mop assisting. The drive to the hospital was less than fun. Paige’s contractions started back up, more painful, and longer lasting.
Everyone insisted on coming with us to the hospital. At the last minute, Evan and Holly decided we might as well make it a double wedding.
Now, in theory that might seem like a sweet, BFF thing to do. In reality, the logistics of it all were nearly impossible. Getting everyone here who mattered, on time, before hospital security stepped in was a challenge.
Not to mention the baby whose arrival was imminent.
“I blame this on you,” Evan’s mom sneered at his dad while they stood beside the sink.
“How can you possibly blame me for this?” he answered back, frowning.
“This is how children of divorce behave. If you hadn’t taken up with that hussy of yours, this wouldn’t be happening.” Her arms crossed forcefully over her chest.
“My mop!” Alex suddenly shouted. “I left it in the back of the limo.”
“Would you shut up already about that disgusting thing?” Ivy shivered, clearly still traumatized.
“I don’t think she’s going to get over being ambushed by a mop,” Holly said in a low voice to Paige as she held her hand.
The door flew open in a whoosh. “Am I too late?” George asked, moving her eyes around the room until she spotted Paige. “Sugar, look at you,” she said, swaying up to the bed. Holly let go of Paige’s hand and stepped away to make room.
I was envious as I watched Holly shake her arm out, massaging it back to life. Lucky, lucky girl.
“I can’t believe you’re getting married and having a baby,” George said, reaching around Paige for a makeshift hug.
Just then, the door swung open with the force of a thousand grandmothers. “Paige!” Maria shouted even though she was only ten feet away. She barreled toward the bed, tossing her purse to the side, causing it to bounce off the wall. “How are you feeling?”
“Thank God, we can start now,” Paige said. “Hey, you.” She pointed at the wedding officiant. “Let’s get this party started.”
The officiant looked more than a little shell shocke
d, nearly tiptoeing up to us. He opened up his book, not even getting a word out before Alex interrupted. “Look, we need the speedy version, okay? This kid is going to shoot out at any minute.”
He clapped his hands together, getting everyone’s attention. “Places people. Holly, over beside your beloved.” Alex pointed at her. “And you,” he said directly to Paige, “cross your legs for a minute until this is over.”
In lightning speed, we had two weddings for the price of one. There were many congratulations and even more tears before the nurses shooed everyone out—except for me.
“You, my dear, are crowning,” the nurse sputtered out, snapping her glove off in a rush. “No pushing until the doctor comes in,” she said, running out the door.
“The baby’s coming,” she said, eyes closed, panting. “I have to push.”
“Paige, look at me,” I said, kissing her tight fist.
It took a minute, but she finally turned her face to me. “What? I’m a little busy right now.”
“You are the most incredible person I’ve ever met. I feel so blessed to have found you.” My eyes grew wet as she stared at me.
“That’s nice.” Then she shut her eyes again, squeezing the daylights out of my hand.
Three minutes later—one minute after the doc raced in—Jonas arrived. Healthy, huge, and screaming for his first meal.
I’d never really known true love until Paige came into my life. When she told me I was going to be a father, that sense of protection at all costs clicked in. Watching my—my wife, grow a new life inside of her that we’d created stirred more feelings of love inside me.
But watching that bawling, fighting, mess of a baby on the warming table while the nurses checked him over, my heart nearly exploded. “Go make sure he’s all right, go,” Paige said, pushing my arm.
Somehow, I made it there, he—my son was kicking and punching to beat the band. “He’s a strong one,” the nurse said, smiling up at me. Congratulations, Daddy.”
