by Magan Vernon
I put my hand on hers as the tears streamed down her face. "Hey. You're not failing. You brought life into this world and obviously she's doing great since she has one hell of a set of lungs on her."
Beth laughed and then sniffled. "I can't believe you're going to be doing this too in a few months. I would say congratulations, but right now I'm not sure if that's the best thing to say."
"It is. I'm happy, I really am. And we're going to have to figure out a way to get Luxx down the aisle with Blaine's nieces as one of my flower girls since Luxx's mama will be standing at my side as the matron of honor."
Beth smiled. "You still want me as your matron of honor, even though I've just bitched you out?"
"Of course I do. You're my sister. Even if you're complaining, you're just looking out for my best interest."
She laughed. "I try. Even though I'm not sure that I want to go to Louisiana when it's going to be hotter than hell in June."
"I'll make sure everyone gets hand fans like true Southern belles," I said.
"You'd better."
***
When Blaine and I left the hospital, I got a text from Kristi that she wanted Blaine and I to stop by her place the next day. Our flight wasn't until Sunday, but I wanted to spend as much time with my sister as possible. I think she needed it, especially since Luxx seemed to really like Blaine. Or she just liked the fact that he pushed her around in her little baby cart.
I don't know. We've been really busy and only have another day.
Kristi was quick to reply.
Please? Just for a few minutes.
I reluctantly agreed and Blaine and I drove over to her and Gabe's apartment in Wrigleyville.
"Baby, we don't have to do this. I can text Kristi and tell her that something happened with your sister and we can't make brunch."
I shook my head and got out of the car, peering up at their brownstone. "No. We should do this. Get it over with."
Blaine came around to my side of the car and took my hand. "Just say the word and I'll come up with an escape plan if we need it."
"Thanks. I hope we don't."
We walked up the cobblestone path until we were at the red door of their unit. I rang the doorbell and heard voices behind it that quickly silenced on the second ring. I thought Gabe would be out for his morning basketball league and was just expecting to leave with Kristi for brunch.
But when Kristi opened the door, she wasn't alone and the room was full of my sorority sisters, streamers, balloons, and everything in baby decor.
"Surprise!" everyone yelled.
I widened my eyes and stepped inside, looking around Kristi's small living room that had been transformed with different stuffed animals on every surface someone wasn't sitting on and a huge cake on the coffee table that read, "Congratulations Libby"
"What's all this?" I asked.
Kristi took me by the arm and pulled me into the apartment. "I wanted to make up for being such a bitch in New Orleans and I also wanted to throw you a baby and wedding shower before you left. It's kind of last minute but I hope you don't mind."
I felt the tears welling up in my eyes. "No. It's perfect. You didn't have to do any of this."
She squeezed my arm. "Yes. I did. That's what sisters are for."
A few minutes stop turned into a few hours with Blaine and I opening gift after gift of either kitchen appliances or gender neutral baby clothes and toys. Everyone was more than generous and I was starting to think of how much it was going to be to ship all of it home when it barely fit into my dad's SUV.
As Blaine loaded the last gift in the back, Kristi pulled me into a hug. "I'm so sorry I was such a bitch, Libby. I know a bunch of gifts won't make up for that, but I hope you can forgive me."
I let go of her and smiled. "Of course, Kristi. What are sisters and bridesmaids for?"
Chapter 12
Our trip to Chicago was a whirlwind and so was life back in Elsbury.
By the time my fourth month of pregnancy was approaching, my belly was starting to round and it was getting harder to wear my jeans without leaving them unbuttoned. People would constantly stare at my stomach when I was at school or working and wait for me to tell them that I wasn't just getting fat.
This also didn't help the fact that we didn't tell the priest we were expecting and now we had two weekends back-to-back of all day marriage classes.
I didn't really understand why we needed to go to classes, but it was what we had to do to get married in the church. So I rubberbanded my jeans closed, put on this biggest, flowiest top I could find and headed out with Blaine early on Saturday morning.
The church in Elsbury only had a few weddings over the summer so they combined with churches from four different towns to hold marriage classes in the town hall in Caimon, which was about twenty miles from Elsbury and in swamp country.
"Ready for one hell of a long day?" Blaine asked as we pulled into the parking lot.
I blew out a breath. "Yeah. What are we even supposed to be doing?"
Blaine looked at his phone and scrolled through a few things. "Ah, here it is. Nine to five with a break for lunch, St. Patrick's Church hall in Caimon, and..."
"And what?"
He put his phone down and his eyes met mine. "We're going to be talking about Christian sexuality."
"I beg your pardon?"
He laughed, shaking his head as he shoved his phone into his pocket. "Obviously we don't need knowledge of any of that."
"So...is this a 'don't have sex' seminar or something porny?"
Blaine laughed even harder as he opened his door and got out before circling the car to open my door. "I'm going to go with the first one."
I jumped out of the car and smiled. "Well, we definitely don't need that. Let's just hope it goes by quickly."
He put his arm around me, guiding me down the brick path to the double doors of the building. "We can only hope."
A guy with a military-style hair cut dressed in a polo and khakis opened the door for us. "Is that Blaine Crabtree?"
I stared at Blaine as he smiled at the guy. "Yes it is, and don't hate me, but I'm not recalling your name."
The guy shook Blaine's hand briskly. "Eli Chardon, I played second base for Caimon."
Blaine's eyes lit up. "Oh, hey, man. I didn't recognize you without the shaggy hair or me striking you out."
Eli patted Blaine's back as he let go of his hand. "Yeah, yeah. We all know you were the best at the game."
"Yeah, high school has been a few years though. I'm a little rusty."
Eli's green eyes caught mine and he nodded in my direction. "And don't tell me that you've been ditching baseball to spend time with this little lady. Is the school legend getting hitched?"
"Yep. This is my fiancée, Libby. She's from Chicago."
Eli shook my hand. "Damn glad to meet you, Libby. Wow. I can't believe we're both here."
"Are you getting hitched too?" Blaine asked as he followed him up the stairs to a large room with horrible fluorescent lighting and paneled walls. There were rows of folding tables with two folding chairs behind each one, set facing a standing white board.
Eli nodded. "Yeah, my girl didn't want to wait and since I'm bound to get deployed here soon, we decided it was best not to." He pointed at a girl with long, brown hair, standing in a circle with a pair of couples. "That's Mandy over there. She was on the spirit squad at Caimon. Hey, Mandy! Come see who is getting hitched!"
This was the last thing I wanted to do. I wasn't there to make new friends or rekindle old friendships that Blaine had. I just wanted to sit, do our thing, and leave. But the petite brunette walked over to us and Eli put his arm around her. "Mandy, I don't know if you remember, but Blaine Crabtree was the star pitcher at Elsbury and this is his fiancée, Libby. She's a Yankee, but you can still like her."
Mandy limply shook both of our hands. "It's nice to meet you both."
God things were awkward. I needed an out. That's when I spotted the table of pastr
ies and orange juice. "Excuse me, I'm just going to go grab something to eat before we start."
"I'll get something with you and let the boys chat before we start," Mandy said.
Awesome. More random small talk that I didn't want, but I grinned and followed her over to the table anyway.
Truth be told, I was starting to crave more salts than sweets and the donuts and cherry covered items didn't look that appealing to me, but I still put a bear claw on my plate so I'd have something to do.
"So, when are you due?" Mandy asked.
I blinked hard and dropped my donut on the floor.
"Oh my goodness, I'm sorry!" Mandy said and picked it up.
"No, it's fine," I said and threw away the donut in the trash and picked up another one, putting it on my plate.
"I'm sorry. I-I-I shouldn't have asked."
I shook my head. "No. It's fine. I just...I didn't think this was the place to tell people. How did you know?"
She looked behind us at Eli then looked at me, nodding toward my stomach. "That shirt isn't really hiding much and you look like I did when we had Brenden."
I cocked an eyebrow. "You have a son? Eli didn't mention that."
She pursed her lips. "Yeah, this really isn't the place to talk about that. A Christian sexuality class for the heathens. I had him our senior year of high school and now that Eli's finally enlisted we figured we should get it over with and tie the knot, so Brenden and I could get the military benefits."
"Wow. Yeah, it sounds like that'll be a good thing."
Mandy laughed nervously. "Sorry I made things more awkward, but if you do need to talk about anything or you need baby stuff, I still have a ton."
I forced a smile. I wasn't sure what to think of her yet, but my first thought was that I kind of liked her. "Thanks. I appreciate it."
"Oh, looks like Mr. Costeu is here. I think he enjoys talking about sex and Catholics too much," Mandy said, nodding toward the doorway as an older man walked in. He was sporting a long, gray ponytail and a goatee like some hippie Jesus.
Mandy scooted off to Eli and they took a seat at one of the tables. I followed her lead and sat down next to Blaine at the table next to theirs.
"So this old dude is going to talk to us about sex?" Blaine whispered.
"I guess so," I muttered.
Mr. Costeu walked to the front of the room and wrote his name on the white board. "Hello, everybody, I'm Mr. Costeu. Some of you may recognize me from the congregation, here, in Caimon and wonder why the hell the guy with seven kids is here to talk to you about Christians and sexuality."
His accent was very thick and he projected his words out to all of us. No one knew if they should laugh so everyone just kind of stared at him.
He clasped his hands together. "Today we are going to talk about how Christian marriage plays into sexuality and family planning. Sex and children are an integral part of married life. This program explains and explores the traditional Christian vision of how God’s plan for marriage includes an approach to sex that is honest, faithful, and open to life."
Without even thinking about it, I rubbed my stomach. Like somehow he was talking to me directly and knew that Blaine and I were going to be raising a child soon.
"This day will consist of presentations about the nature of human sexuality, its right use in the context of Christian marriage, an introduction to modern methods of Natural Family Planning — highly effective, healthy, marriage-building, and morally sound ways of planning a family — as well as couple discussion and a question-and-answer period."
And that was where my thoughts of this class being for us ended. We didn't exactly need the Natural Family Planning method. We sort of had that part figured out.
"Now, before we begin, I want you to all do me a favor and instead of looking at me, face your partner," Mr. Costeu said.
I shifted in my chair, turning toward Blaine, biting at my bottom lip. This was one of the most uncomfortable situations I'd ever been in and I felt like I'd either throw up or pass out from embarrassment.
"Now, grab your partner's hands, look into their eye and repeat after me."
I did as he said and looked at Blaine, trying to block out the awkwardness.
"Now, repeat after me, 'I love you. I'm committed to you and to our future in a Christian marriage and to raise our children with the teachings of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior'."
Everyone repeated after him, but the words got caught in my throat and I found myself just staring at Blaine. Then he opened his mouth and his soft words came through. "I love you. I'm committed to you and our future in a Christian marriage and to raise our child in the teachings of Jesus Christ."
We may have just been repeating what the guy said, but when his eyes were on mine and the way he squeezed my hand, I knew it meant more to him. I knew that even though our situation wasn't ideal, we were going to do it, together. We had the support of everyone around us and just because we didn't do it in the order of marriage then baby, didn't mean anything was different. We still loved each other. We were still going to get married and raise a baby.
And maybe that's what we were supposed to get out of the whole day.
***
Getting ready for a baby, a wedding, and trying to find a new place was a lot more work than I thought it would be.
"Did you email me your part of the list?" I asked, sitting on Blaine's bed and resting my head against the pillows while he sat at the end of it, a controller in his hand as he played some sort of war video game.
"Uh, maybe."
I rolled my eyes. "Seriously, we have to order these invitations, address them, and get them out by the beginning of May."
"Yeah and it's still only March."
I groaned. "Blaine!"
He paused the game and looked over at me. "Why don't you go downstairs and ask my mama for it? I'm sure she'll be more help than I am."
I scooted down toward the end of the bed. "Blaine, don't you think we should try and start doing some more on our own? We're having a baby. We're getting married. All of this in only a few months and we both haven't even lived on our own."
He smiled. "Which is why I think we should still have my mama do stuff for us while we can."
I rolled my eyes and stood up. "Fine, I'll go ask her."
"And see if she can make us some snacks while you're down there!" he yelled as I opened the door and headed down the stairs.
I expected to see Vicki in the kitchen, but when she wasn't there or the living room, I headed out to the front porch. It was my first Louisiana spring and it didn't disappoint with the warm sunshine and cool breeze that slightly rocked the porch swing.
Vicki was bent over in the front, a small shovel in her hand as she stabbed at the garden bed.
I walked down the small, wooden porch steps. "Um, hey, Vicki?"
She gasped and put her hand over her heart and sat up. "Oh, Libby, honey, you should never scare a woman with a trowel."
I winced. "Sorry."
She shook her head. "No problem at all. What can I help you with, dear?"
I bit my bottom lip and made a circle with my foot on the step. I don't know why it bothered me to ask her for things; maybe it was because I never really had to ask anyone for much. I'd always just got what I wanted, whether it was money from my parents or something new for my car. It wasn't until I moved to Louisiana that I had to actually work for things and asking for help was a whole new game.
"Well, I've been asking Blaine to help with his half of the wedding guest list so we can order invitations and he's been kind of procrastinating on it, so he thought I should ask you."
She smiled, pushing her blonde hair out of her eyes. "You should have asked me in the first place, honey. You know a man wouldn't be able to keep track of that."
She stood up and slowly walked past me toward the house. "Come on inside with me. I think I still have everything from Alicia's wedding."
I followed her into the house and down the small hall
way until we were in a room that was painted bright yellow and filled with toys. The only thing adult about it was a small, white desk with a recipe box on the shelving unit above it.
Vicki opened the box and scanned through it before handing it to me. "Most of these names should be up to date in here."
I looked at the contents and saw dozens of little note cards with Vicki's cursive scrawl across each one. "Thank you. This helps a lot."
"Are y'all planning on having a lot of people coming in from your side?"
I shrugged. "I don't think so. We want to keep it under 150 invites. Is that going to be too much for you to cook for?"
She laughed. "Honey, I think there were about four-hundred people at Meg's wedding and I didn't have your Aunt Dee's help. It was just me and Alicia and Meemaw, cooking all day down at the church and bringing tray after tray down to the country club. I swore when Billy's mama finally showed up at the reception and THEN asked if there was anything she could do to help, I wanted to pour the last of the gumbo all over her frilly dress."
"Oh geez, I hope you didn't!"
She shook her head. "No. I wouldn't do that. Though I've thought about it more than once."
I chewed at my bottom lip. "You know my mom isn't much of a cook and my sister just had a baby, so I'm not sure how much help they'll be."
Vicki smiled and put her arm around me. "I've already talked to your mom quite a few times. She emailed me not long after you and Blaine announced the baby and your nuptials. At first it was both of us kind of commiserating together, but then we both knew that you two were meant to be together. She knows that she has her talents and I have mine and we'll work together to make them happen."
I raised my eyebrows. I had no idea the two even talked.
Vicki squeezed my shoulder. "Now you'd better run along and get those in your computer or do whatever you need to do to order those invitations. Meemaw's been asking for hers just about every day and you don't want to see Meemaw when she's ornery."
I had never seen Meemaw without a scowl on her face but I smiled anyway. "Thanks, Vicki. I'll do that."
