Key To My Heart: Stay

by Misty Reigenborn

  “I don’t know if this is something that can be worked out.”

  “Almost everything can be worked out, even if it means walking away from the situation. I may have teased you girls about your crying when you were little, but I never did like to see you upset. You know that don’t you?”

  “Of course I do Mom.” She sighed. “Did you ever worry that Dad might cheat on you?”

  “I think that everyone worries at some point that their significant other might cheat on them. Sometimes it’s only our own insecurities seeing things that aren’t there though. Garett adores you. I hardly think that you need to worry about such a thing, especially now, so close to the wedding and the birth of your child.”

  “I saw him kissing another woman Mom. I came home from the grocery store, and the blinds in the living room had fallen down again. I saw him kissing Renee Neal.”

  Heather made a face like she had smelled something bad. “I never did like that girl. She was always so snippy to your sister when they went to school together, always criticizing her.”

  “A lot of girls were mean to Demi in high school just because they knew that she took everything so personally. It didn’t help that Garett was chasing after her and ignoring all of them either. Sometimes I wish that I could fall in love with a man who wasn’t handsome.”

  Heather shook her head, and Acasia could tell that she was hiding a smile. “If you love him darling, he’ll be handsome to you even if he isn’t handsome to anyone else. There are some women, and men too, that always seem to want something they can’t have. Renee has always struck me as that type. Even when she was dating Garett he wasn’t really hers, because you were always on his mind. I could see in his eyes how he felt about you every time he asked about you.”

  “If that’s true, then why did I come home to find him kissing her?”

  “What exactly was it that you saw honey? Do you think you could have misinterpreted it somehow?”

  Acasia snorted. “How could I misinterpret it? They were kissing.”

  “Have you talked to him? Or did you run away as soon as you saw what was going on?”

  “Mom.”

  “Yes?”

  “Do you really have to lecture me right now? I feel bad enough as it is.”

  “I’m sorry sweetheart. I’m just trying to think logically. It doesn’t seem logical that Garett would even want to kiss that woman.”

  “I know what I saw Mom.”

  “You still need to talk to him.”

  As if on cue her phone rang. She could tell that it was Garett from the sappy ringtone that she had newly assigned to him, their proposed wedding song; and she reached for the phone, pushing the button to ignore the call.

  “Acasia Marie.”

  “I have nothing to say to him.”

  “You have nothing to say to the man that you agreed to marry, the man whose child you’re carrying, a man that I know you love with all of your heart?”

  “What is there to say? I’m not going back there when I know that there’s obviously something going on between him and Renee.”

  “You assumed that you know that something is going on. We tend to make a lot of assumptions of the people close to us that often don’t have a basis in fact.”

  “You sound as if I’m the one that did something wrong. I would have gone to Demi’s house, but the last thing I wanted to see was Gavin fawning all over her.”

  “Your sister is happy and Gavin is very good with little Nicole.”

  Acasia sighed. “I know. I’m happy for her. I really am. And I’m glad that Nikki and Jay worked things out. It just seems as if the three of us can never all be happy at the same time.”

  “You are happy with Garett darling. I’m sure that if you just talk to him that you will be able to work all of this out.”

  “But what if we can’t Mom? What if I’m right and he’s messing around with Renee?”

  “You’ll never know the truth unless you talk to him Acasia.”

  “Why do you have to be so damned logical? Why can’t you just let me have a pity party?”

  “Pity parties don’t do anyone any good, especially when the someone that wants to have one is pregnant and overly emotional.”

  “I worry. That’s normal isn’t it?”

  “Becoming a parent is a scary thing Acasia. And no matter how good your intentions are, no matter how much you love your child, you are going to have to learn to accept the fact that you are going to make mistakes. But it doesn’t mean that your child will be harmed or that they’re going to grow up and hate you.” She reached for Acasia’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “You’re going to make a fine mother honey. You need to stop worrying so much. Even Demi has been able to let go of some of her anxiety and she’s doing so much better.”

  “I know. But being a mother seems to come so naturally for both Nikki and Demi. What if it doesn’t come naturally for me?”

  “Let me tell you a secret Casia. When I was pregnant with you, I was scared to death. Your father and I were very happy to be having you, but it didn’t mean that we were sure that we were going to know what to do with you once you arrived. So I worried and I fretted over it until I drove Daddy so crazy that he sat me down and had a talk with me much like the one I just had with you. He told me that he knew that neither of us were going to be perfect parents, because perfect parents simply don’t exist. But he also told me that worrying about not being a good mother certainly wasn’t going to do anything towards making me a good mother. He told me that it was going to do quite the opposite in fact and then he explained why he thought so. Worrying keeps you from trying, worrying keeps you from enjoying things. You can’t let yourself get so worried that you aren’t going to be a good parent that you end up creating your own problems.”

  “I love you Mom. Thank you.”

  “I love you too honey.”

  The house phone rang. Acasia had a feeling that it was Garett calling. Enough time had passed that he had probably already tried to call Demi and possibly even Nikki and had now decided to move on to her mother.

  Her mother gave her a look as she headed towards the stairs. “I’ll be right back. Dinner should be almost ready. And when it is, you’re going to come upstairs and eat something.”

  “Yes Mother.”

  Heather Brown shook her head as she mounted the stairs, leaving Acasia’s bedroom door open. She imagined her mother’s conversation with Garett, and wondered how long it was going to be before he showed up with plans to take her home.

  Garett

  Garett tried not to panic when Acasia refused to answer his call for the fourth time in a row, but it was really hard not to. It was obvious that she had seen him and Renee together and he knew now more than ever that he should have talked to her about his ex in the first place. It just hadn’t seemed important and he hadn’t wanted to worry her over something that seemed so insignificant, especially since she seemed to worry more often than not lately as it was.

  He was scared about becoming a parent too, and was sure that he would screw up a million little things and probably some big ones too, because every parent did. Caring for Sammi had certainly been eye opening. Changing diapers could get pretty messy, and feeding an infant sometimes seemed to do no good when they spit everything back at you, and teething-he certainly didn’t feel ready to deal with that on a fulltime basis. But he felt ready to embrace every part of being a father, the good and the bad, and he knew that though he would inevitably make mistakes, he was going to do the best job that he could with a lot of learning along the way. And he knew that Acasia would as well. He wasn’t sure why she couldn’t see it the way he did.

  She was already a good mother in his eyes. She didn’t make a move without the baby in mind, and the doctor had assured them that their daughter was growing big and strong, preparing herself to enter the world. She would be born before they knew it, and it made his heart sink even further to think that he had screwed up and lost the woman he loved
, the mother of his child; over something that seemed so stupid.

  He wondered if he should call Acasia’s mother, figuring that if she hadn’t gone there that Heather Brown would probably know where she was. But he decided to put off calling the woman he still hoped would one day be his mother-in-law and decided on what felt like a safer route instead, and dialed her sister.

  It wasn’t Demi that picked up her phone, but his brother’s voice that said “Why are you calling my fiancé? Kidding Gar. What’s up?”

  “Um, have you seen Acasia lately Gav?”

  “Not today. Why?”

  “Do you know if Demi has talked to her?”

  “Not that I know of. We’ve been home all day, trying to take it easy. Nicole has been a little under the weather and we didn’t want to take her out unless we had to.”

  “Is she okay?”

  “I think it’s just a cold. She doesn’t have a fever or anything like that and the doctor said to watch her to make sure she doesn’t get worse, but not to worry too much. Bro, why are you asking me where your fiancé is?”

  “I screwed up Gav.”

  “What do you mean you screwed up?”

  “I didn’t cheat on her. I’d never cheat on her. Cheating never made any sense to me. Finish what you started before you start something else you know? But anyway, uh you know that Renee is back in town right?”

  “That woman is a bitch. She was a bitch in high school. I don’t know why you ever dated her. What does Renee being back in town have to do with anything?”

  “Well, she’s been bugging me since she got back, trying to get me to take a look at her house, and figure out what needs to be done so that she can sell it. I answered the first few times and told her that there isn’t anything that needs to be done before she can sell the house, but she won’t leave me alone about it. She keeps calling and leaving messages. The first few were so dirty that I didn’t bother to listen to any of the rest of them. Then this afternoon she showed up on my doorstep. I shouldn’t have let her in the house, but you know that Mom and Dad always taught us that it was impolite not to ask a visitor in.”

  Gavin snorted. “A gentleman until the end huh? So what happened?”

  “Well, you know that the blinds in the living room are always falling down. They fell down again when I opened the door and I didn’t put them back up right away. And now Acasia won’t answer my calls. I don’t know for sure exactly what happened or what she saw, but I think that she came home while Renee was here, saw something she didn’t like and then left.”

  “Did you talk to her about the bullshit that Renee is trying to pull?”

  Garett sighed. “No. I didn’t want to worry her unnecessarily. She worries enough as it is.”

  “Yeah, I have noticed that she’s gotten pretty damned emotional since she’s been pregnant. But that’s normal. Pregnant women go through a roller coaster of emotions. What might she have seen that she wouldn’t have liked?”

  “Renee kissed me. I had already told her to leave, told her in no uncertain terms that I wanted nothing to do with her or her house, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer. I was dumb and backed myself right into a corner. And she took advantage of the situation.”

  “And Acasia saw you two together and now you’re in a big mess because you didn’t tell her what was going on with your ex. Damn little brother, I always thought you were smarter than me.”

  “Ha ha Gavin. It’s not funny.”

  “I agree that when a pregnant woman is mad at you it’s hardly a laughing matter. Well, she hasn’t stopped by our house. Have you tried her mom’s place?”

  “Not yet. I was putting it off, hoping that maybe she HAD gone to your place. I guess I’ll have to call her huh?”

  “Kinda funny that we’re supposed to be the bigger, stronger sex and we spend most of our lives being afraid of women in one way or another huh?”

  “I’m not finding a lot of humor in this situation Gav.”

  “If you would have told her in the first place, you two could be laughing about this now instead of you having to chase her down again.”

  “Yeah and if you would have told Demi how you really felt about her all those years ago, she wouldn’t have had another man’s child.”

  “That was truly a low blow little brother. Nicole is my daughter, even if it’s not official yet.”

  “I’m sorry Gav. I didn’t mean that. I don’t know why I even said it. I knew the first time I saw you hold her how much you loved her.” Garett sighed. “I’m going to let you go before I say something else stupid and everyone ends up pissed off at me.”

  Gavin chuckled. “Apology accepted. Good luck with Acasia.”

  “Thanks. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Okay. Bye Gar.”

  “Bye Gavin.”

  Gavin disconnected the call and Garett rubbed a hand over his face. He was not looking forward to the conversation he was about to have with Acasia’s mother.

  Acasia

  Her mother refused to tell her what Garett had said on the phone, saying that they would talk about it after they had eaten dinner. Acasia was sure that Heather was just trying to distract her, and had the feeling that Garett was on his way to the house, probably having been invited to dinner by her mother.

  So she wasn’t too surprised when a knock came at the door almost immediately after Heather had set the food out on the table. Her heart beat fast as she watched her mother cross the living room to the door. She tried to turn away to delay facing him, but her eyes were drawn to him like always. His eyes looked more apologetic than she thought she had ever seen them look and tears sprang to her eyes again.

  Her mother gave her a bright smile when she returned to the kitchen. “Look who’s here sweetheart. I think I’m going to take my dinner into the living room. My program is coming on.”

  Heather pulled out a plate for Garett, handing it to him and telling him to help himself. She then took her own plate and a TV tray out to the living room, turning the TV set on at a volume that Acasia was sure was still low enough for her to be able to eavesdrop.

  Garett sat at the table across from her. He hadn’t bothered to put any food on his plate. He started to reach for her hand and then seemed to think better of it, pulling his hand back.

  “I’m sorry Acasia. I can never tell you how sorry I am. I don’t know exactly what you saw, but I really wish I had told you what was going on with Renee in the first place.”

  “And what exactly is going on with Renee?”

  “She’s been calling me since she got back to town, trying to convince me that there’s work that needs to be done on her house. I’ve told her over and over that there’s nothing that needs to be done before she sells the house. Or tries to sell the house since this is Clinton and almost nobody seems to want to buy a house here. Some of the messages that she left me were pretty suggestive. I would have told you before, but it seemed stupid to bring it up. I guess I was hoping that she would eventually get the point and leave me alone. But then today she showed up at the house. And she kissed me. I had already told her to leave by that point, so I pretty much kicked her out right after. I guess maybe that’s what you saw.” He sighed. “I’m so sorry baby. I didn’t want to worry you over something that seemed so stupid.”

  Acasia let out a sigh of her own. “Everyone seems to agree that I’m overly emotional. I wish you would have told me.”

  “I’ve never made a better choice in my life than asking you to marry me Acasia.” He reached for her hand and she let him take it, twining their fingers together. “We’re a family now. And families sometimes do stupid things like not mentioning something that seems stupid but could end up creating a problem. Please don’t ever think that I’ll leave you. I know that you’re scared baby. There’s a lot to be scared of, but I’ll always be by your side. I’d follow you anywhere. I love you more than I ever knew it was possible to love someone. And we’re having a baby. I’m nothing without you honey. You and the
baby are my life, my heart. Please don’t ever forget that.”

  His words touched her, and she could see in his eyes that he meant them. Tears stung her eyes again, but this time they were tears of happiness. It hardly seemed possible that he could love her as much as she loved him, but it had become apparent that he did. She squeezed his hand.

  “I love you Garett.”

  “I love you Acasia.”

  Heather reentered the kitchen with her now empty plate, looking pointedly at Garett’s also empty plate. He gave her an apologetic grin and filled his plate with food. They finished dinner and then stayed to visit for a while longer.

  Then they went home and made love and everything was right with their world once again.

  Garett

  When he realized how much of a weight it took off of his shoulders when he told Acasia the truth about Renee, he knew even more that he should have told her the truth all along, and he made a promise both to himself and to her that in the future he would always talk to her, no matter what. And it was a promise that he meant to keep.

  As soon as they got home after dinner, he secured the blinds. Then they went upstairs and made love. And as it always seemed to do, making love to the woman he loved made everything all right with the world, or at least their world anyway.

  He was a little worried that Renee might still try to cause trouble, but as the days passed and he received no calls from his ex and neither did Acasia, he was able to put her out of his mind, and he hoped that his fiancé was as well.

  The house was coming along well, finally starting to feel as if it would be ready by the time the baby was born. So Garett decided that it was time he put some real thought into the actual setup of the wedding. He planned to build a gazebo specifically for the wedding, but also something that could remain in the yard as a reminder. He had a pretty good idea of what he thought he wanted to do, but he consulted with his father and Gavin, and together they came up with a plan of what they thought the best way to build what he wanted would be.