Brea had also insisted that Jonathan join us in said bathroom. Thankfully for me Jonathan didn’t even show up.
“Oh no I’m not, this is for Julian and Jemma, and I know where I am not wanted. Unlike some people I know.”
What Jonathan did not know is that there was no way I was taking this test without my best friend and she knew it. She might not be in the room with me watching me piss myself but she was close enough that if I flipped out she would be by my side in seconds.
Jonathan and Brea had been getting along great and by the time they got back from Puerto Rico Jonathan had an apartment lined up and was ready to start school with me during the upcoming semester. Not only that but he had asked Brea to marry him. She thought about it a few days but in the end she said yes.
Brandon called me a few days after the proposal to confirm with me that it was true. I am not really sure why he thought Brea would lie to him about it but Brandon rarely thought rationally where love was involved. Sadly, once the fact was confirmed Brandon vanished from both of our lives. Brea and I have both tried to call him but he refuses to answer the phone which is so unlike Brandon.
“Jemma open the gawd damn door, chica!”
I really wanted to open the door but at the same time I found it kind of funny listening to each of them sweat.
“Ouch, damn it Brea, don’t fucking pinch me!”
I heard through the door.
“Then be the Alpha, make your woman get her happy ass out here so I can find out if I am going to be an aunt!”
Giggling I opened the door a crack. “Julian, please Brea, only Julian” I said trying my best not to give anything away.
Brea pouted and let Julian join me in the bathroom understanding that this was not about her but about me and the man I would be giving my life to in a few short months, though no piece of paper could give him something that he already had.
“Well sweetheart, what does it say?”
“I kind of took all three.”
Thanks to Brea, I had the inside scoop on pregnancy test taking. She ended up having to buy three tests before she actually got a response. I figured, better safe than sorry!
I fanned the three tests out in front of Julian, making sure all three windows were showing.
“I don’t understand, what do two pink lines mean?”
I smiled as I heard Brea scream from the other side of the door where she was obviously listening in.
“IT MEANS SHE’S PREGNANT, STUPID!”
Julian looked at me for confirmation and I just bobbed my head up and down.
“Are you serious? I‘m going to be a daddy?”
“Uh huh!” Seeing the joy on his face brought tears to my eyes.
Julian threw his arms around my waist and softly kissed me on the lips, so softly you would have thought that I was made out of glass.
“Oh Skipper, you have made me the happiest man in the world! What do you say we put on those wings and go dancing?”
He pulled me closer and in the same delicate way he kissed me again. This time however, I did not allow him to pull away. Instead I ran my tongue over his lips and reached my hand down into his pants causing him jump.
“Not yet daddy, mommy is hungry. In fact I would say she is downright starved!”
Epilogue
“I look like a beached whale!” I declared. I had waited for this moment my entire life and here I was, four and a half months pregnant looking like I was ready to explode at any minute.
“You do not, you look incredible.” Brea said zipping me up into what felt like two tons of wedding gown hell.
“Oh shit, it’s too tight. It fucking hurts bitch, help me take it off!” I pulled and tucked at the waistline on the dress trying to get it to fit right but it was no use. Every day it seemed like I had added on another twenty pounds.
“Will you shut up and stop your whining! Jesus Jem, I’m several months further along than you are, my bladder hurts, I have hemorrhoids growing out of my ass and I swear, she has gotten so big that I am positive Jonathan stabbed her in the head with his dick last night.”
“TOO MUCH INFORMATION BREA! You are gonna to make me puke my breakfast all over the damn dress. And don’t you dare complain about your tiny freakin’ baby, if these little guys don’t get off of my bladder I am going to end up peeing myself up and down the aisle!”
Julian and I went in for our first visit with Dr. Wilkerson, eager to see our little peanut when we got the shock of a lifetime. We were not having one little peanut, we were having three little peanuts. A few months ago there was not a doubt in my mind that I did not want children and here I was happily in misery carrying three of them. I honestly blame Brea, she jinxed us, three tests, three babies. Not that I did not cherish each and everyone of the beautiful blessings that were proof of the love between myself and my soon to be husband.
“One more time, suck it in.”
“I am sucking it in, there is nothing to suck in I am as hard as a rock.” I shrieked back at her.
“That’s what Julian said right before he stuffed you good and full with his spawn.”
“Oh shut up!” I barked just before noticing my dad smiling from the doorway of the dressing room.
“How about you let daddy give it the old Texas try, princess?”
Two days after Julian and I got the news that I was pregnant with triplets we finally got the call that we had all been waiting for. The president had granted my fathers pardon in full. A week later Julian and I drove my aunt down to Galveston to bring him home and he has pretty much been by my side ever since.
“Please, Daddy! Brea is trying to kill me with all of her pulling and tugging.” I begged.
“Waa, waa, waa. She has been doing nothing but whining since we started getting ready. PLEASE by all means zip her up so we can shut her up.”
My dad laughed at Brea. “OK girls, Brea when she sucks I will pull the back together, you zip.” Brea nodded at him in understanding. “On the count of three: one, two, three!”
It was zipped! We all cheered with excitement as if the “I do’s” had just taken place. I know a lot of people wait until after the baby is born to get married when faced with my kind of situation but there was no way we were waiting. The two of us had waited for one another far too long, it was time to become one and start down the road to forever together.
“You look absolutely stunning, sweetheart. That boy is going to drop dead the moment he sees you.”
Then Brea mumbled... “Oh, he is going to drop something alright and dead isn’t it.”
“BREA!” I snapped. “My dad is here!”
“Oh please, he’s not blind you know, he knows you aren’t a virgin.” She said patting my very pregnant stomach.
I looked to my dad who was not only beaming with pride at the daughter who he had unintentionally missed grow up, but he was blushing at the thought of his daughter being molested by the big bad wolf.
Brea adjusted my veil as my father reached to grab my hand.
“Ready, Princess?”
I nodded pausing for a second to ask my father a question that had been weighing on my mind since the day at the hospital months before.
“Daddy, how did you know? You told Julian that you always knew he was the one. How did you know who I was going to end up marrying, I was only a little girl.”
My dad smiled recalling my childhood.
“A father knows. Even though your brother was not always the best friend, that boy stuck it out and it wasn’t because of Nicolai. In all the time they were friends, he never once failed to find time with you. Even when you were a baby, he would stare at you while you slept, he watched every moment you were in your mother’s arms like he was waiting to catch you if she dropped you.”
I could feel the smile on my face listening to my father’s memories of the boy who knew me when. I couldn’t see my smile but I knew that it must have gone on forever.
“And on your fourth birthday he brought you these cheap purple fairy win
gs that his mother said he got from the Dollar Tree, he had insisted on buying them with his own money. I remember your face when you pulled them out of the bag, you looked like it was he greatest present you had ever gotten, when we told you they were from Julian...”
“Julian bought me those wings?” I did not remember that at all. I wonder if he remembered. If he did he sure has never let on.
“Um hmm, when we told you he bought them you put them on and didn’t take them off again until they got so worn out we had to throw them in the trash. You went so bat shit crazy when you couldn’t find them that your mother sent me out to find another pair. Thank God I had the mindset to buy every pair they had because we ended up having to replace them once every few months. We never told you they were a new, we just let you think they were the same wings. You never even noticed that the holes vanished in between pairs.”
The truth was that I chalked it up to the fact that they were magic and far as I am concerned, even now learning the truth, they still are.
“Anyway, I would sometimes catch Julian watching you while you danced all over the yard in the wings he bought you. That is when I recognized the look of total and complete awe. I knew that look well; I had the same look every time I looked at your mother. Like she was the only woman in the entire world.”
“Oh my gosh, how sweet!” I forgot Brea was even in the room.
I was so entranced by my father’s story that I even forgot I was standing before him in my wedding gown looking as if I had sucked in a yoga ball.
“I love you, daddy.” I said then took his hand. “I am ready for you to walk me down the aisle now.”
The doors opened to the chapel and before the music began to play I looked around at all of the people that I loved. I missed seeing Brandon’s face in the crowd but I knew how hard it would be for him to watch me marry another man, his heart might now be breaking for Brea but at one time, for the longest time his heart broke for me. I did not forgive him for not showing up, because there was nothing to forgive.
I found the faces of all of our college friends, extended family from both sides and in the front of the small church I found the empty row that we saved for the family who could not be here. In the pew sat their photographs in simple black frames where they would have been seated had they been here. On the end of the aisle sat a small plaque that read,
Reserved in memory:
Nicolai Wayne Hale
Elaine Marie Hale
Howard Reed Ackles
Victoria Maria Ackles
Though they may be gone,
They are not forgotten.
Julian and I both agreed that there could be no wedding without the four of them and so we did the only thing that we could. I then looked over to my friend Brea who stood alone as my maid of honor. She was as beautiful as the day we met. And then my eyes found Julian. I had purposely saved the best for last. He stood in front of Jonathan who I barely noticed because I only had eyes for Julian.
Finally, he stood before me, probably the sexiest man ever to don a tuxedo, wearing a pair of bright blue fairy wings, the very wings I had given him so many years ago. He smiled lovingly in my direction after watching the silent laugh make its escape from my lips.
After guiding me to Julian’s side my father and I stopped, waiting for our cue from the pastor.
“Who gives this woman to be wed?” my father beamed with joy.
“I do!” He then turned me to face Julian. After which he gently removed my arm from his and gently placed my hand into Julian’s.
“She’s all yours son, take care of my family.” He said giving Julian a nod.
“Forever, I will take care of them with everything I have for as long as I live. That’s a promise sir!”
My dad smiled and stepped away. Then Julian leaned into me and whispered into my ear.
“I told you I would be your fairy King but you seem to have forgotten that you are to be my fairy queen.”
Julian motioned to Jonathan who pulled from the back of the front pew the most beautiful pair of fairy wings I had ever seen in my life. They were not only huge, but completely white to match my dress. Once Jonathan moved them closer I could see the faintest hint of purple sparkle. He handed the wings to Julian who then slipped them over my arms whispering once again into my ear.
“No more Dollar Tree wings for you my queen.”
I giggled and a tear slipped down my cheek. Everything about my life was perfect, I was happy and marrying the one person who had ever owned my heart. It was his yesterday, it is his now and it will be his every day for the rest of our lives.
Julian is my King, my true love, my best friend. He was my when, he was my yesterday, and he will be my tomorrow, forever, always and every second in between.
The End Beginning
Stay tuned for part 2 in the From Boys to Men trilogy,
The Boy who knew me best, Brea’s story.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to begin by thanking my husband and five beautiful children. Their patience and support during the writing process was one of the most valuable assets to getting the story of Julian and Jemma down on the page. It is not an easy task trying to write a full length novel while caring for a large family but together they made everything a breeze. I am beyond lucky to have been blessed with the beautiful thing that is being loved by them. So Tom, Griffin, Miriam, Georgia, Jemma & Sophia....THANK YOU FOR LOVING ME! And thank you to my awesome Heavenly father for seeing to it I had one incredible support system by my side.
I also want to thank my mother in law Joyce who offered me an ear whenever I felt like screaming and throwing in the towel. You do not know how much I appreciate and love everything you do for me.
And my greatest friend Olga, who always has such an enormous amount of faith in anything I aspire to do. You are truly one in a million, no matter how far apart we are, I cherish you.
Also to my amazing sister in law Michele who read and re-read this book over and over again until I am sure her eyes were bleeding. I could not have asked for a better editor!
My Grandmother for teaching me that beauty is so much more than a pretty face and for giving me the strength to survive.
And many more thanks to Kingsland Coffee Company who provided me a great stress free work zone full of killer coffee, to Grand Central Cafe who hosted any excuse to celebrate this process and always managed to cook me a perfect steak when times called for a perfect steak, to the Antlers Hotel , thank you so much for offering me a cozy place to write in peace.
To my Google plus and FB friends and family, thank you for supporting me and listening to my many rants and raves when my head was a giant mess.
And a BIG HUGE thank you to Julian, Jemma, Brandon, Jonathan & Nicolai who are so much more to me than names on a page.
Lastly, to my experiences. I have suffered the effects of Bi-Polar disorder since I was 13 years old. At that time it was called Manic depression. Mental illness has taken a huge toll on my life but thanks to so many supportive people I have been able to keep it under control keeping my incidents at a minimal level. There are days when I am bouncing off of the wall and days where I just want to cry but I always muscle through it. According to the US census approximately 57.7 million people suffer from some kind of mental illness, it is a horrible disease that can seriously take over your life if you do not seek help. If you suspect you need help or know someone who might need help please speak out. You have no idea how wonderful life can be if you treat the symptoms. You are not powerless, you are everything, you can beat it!
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The Boy Who Knew Me When (From Boys to men Trilogy) Page 20
