Loving Kate (Acceptance #3)

by D. Kelly

  Jess, Misty, and April are all here. April is positively glowing and I squeal as I pull her into a big, squeezy hug. “You have to fill us in on everything.”

  “Well, can you do it at the spa or at least at a decibel that won’t have all the neighborhood cats perching on our doorstop looking for a mate?” Daniel says as he comes back in with a wide awake baby.

  “He grew in the two weeks I was gone!” April reaches out for Daniel to pass him to her “Now listen up, Mr. Luke, you have to stop growing. The bigger you get, the older I get, and it’s really not nice to make Auntie April feel old.”

  Lucas babbles at her and smiles while he shakes his favorite rattle. Well, I say it’s his favorite because Vanessa bought it for him. Anything that comes from her hits favorite status immediately.

  “Alright, hand back the baby before you miss your appointments. We’ll see you at the house when you’re done. Give mommy kisses, Lucas.”

  Daniel lifts Lucas to my face and I kiss him, “Muah.” Hailey is definitely rubbing off on me.

  Daniel hands Lucas to Misty and pulls me into the bathroom. “I needed to give you a real kiss without the prying eyes.”

  His lips meet mine and they part immediately, welcoming him into my mouth. His hands are laced in my hair, holding me by the back of my head as he claims me. I run my nails down his back and cry out into his mouth. When he pulls away, I feel lost without him. It takes me a minute to catch my breath.

  “What was that?” I want to know what has gotten into him.

  “That was me showing you how much I’m going to miss you. And this,” he says, guiding my hand to his erection, “is what is waiting for you tonight when we get back to our room alone.”

  A thrill goes through me just thinking about it. Lucas is staying with Daniel’s parents tonight so we have all night to do whatever we want to. I can’t wait.

  They rented us another limo again and Jess pops the champagne the second we get inside. It’s early, but one glass won’t hurt. April fills us in on her romantic honeymoon on the way to the spa. “We didn’t leave the room except to eat, occasionally, when we didn’t order room service. I didn’t see any of the island but I got my exercise in,” she tells us with a sly smile.

  “Is Jake still on the baby train?” Jess asks curiously.

  “He is, but I’m actually on it now, too. I stopped taking my pill while we were gone. It could still take years to get pregnant, so I figured why not? You all gave me baby fever. I was fine until Lucas showed up and then I waivered a bit. But the first time I heard ‘Auntie April’ I was a lost cause.”

  Misty blushes and offers a very sympathetic, “I’m sorry.” She pauses and then continues, “If it makes you feel any better, Mike wants five and says he’ll settle for three.”

  Jess snorts champagne out of her nose. “You guys are having more kids already?”

  Misty shakes her head vehemently. “No, I’m on the pill and I’m staying on the pill. Mike and I are good but we’re just getting started. I want it to be the three of us for at least another year. But I don’t know if I want to wait too much longer than that. I want Hailey and her siblings to be close in age.”

  “What about you, Kate? Are you and Daniel talking babies yet?” April asks the million dollar question

  “He is but I’m not.” Jess pats my hand.

  “You’re not ready yet?” Misty probes.

  “It’s complicated. The part of me that feels my biological clock ticking wants a baby. But the other part of me, the one that gets up with Lucas at three am and changes diapers, thinks it would be nice to get him out of diapers before we have another one in diapers. But the biggest part of me wants to wait because I feel like we owe this time to Vanessa and Lucas to just be the parents she wanted us to be and make Lucas the center of our world for a while. Besides, I’m not getting knocked up again until I’m married, and Daniel is still nursing his wounds. I think because I still haven’t gotten my ring back yet.”

  They all exchange a sad look. “Well I think it’s great you’re honoring Vanessa by giving Lucas your full attention. Not a lot of people would do that,” Misty replies sweetly.

  “Thanks.”

  The car is silent for a little bit and then Misty starts talking, “Can I ask you guys something?” We all nod. “The night of the bachelor party, Mike said he was…”

  “Sucking on a stripper’s boobies?” Jess offers up.

  “Jessica!” I hiss at her. She doesn’t need to spread his business but she just shrugs her shoulders. Jess doesn’t think strippers are a big deal but not everyone agrees.

  “Yes, that is what he said but I guess I just want to know…”

  “If he did anything else?” April fills in for her.

  “Yeah. I’m sorry if this is crossing a line. I know you guys are his friends and I trust him…for the most part.”

  “First rule of thumb…don’t trust a man around a stripper. Period.” Jess tells her vehemently and then continues, “ But to answer your question, no, he didn’t do anything else. When he saw Kate was watching what he was doing, I thought he was going to choke on that stripper’s tit! He was so embarrassed.”

  She’s totally cracking up but I have to admit it’s pretty funny. “Well, that’s my next question.”

  Maybe we should give Misty champagne more often; she’s really loosening up.

  “Mike is pretty out there with his sexual proclivities, so why would he be embarrassed about that? It’s pretty standard for strippers, right?”

  “This one’s on you, Kate,” Jess says, bowing out of the conversation.

  “Have you and Mike ever talked about our past sexual history?” She thinks about it for a second and shakes her head no. “Well, long story short, we were each other’s first for a lot of things. But there was a lot we never did. For lack of any better word, we were very vanilla in every way possible. So I think the part of him that associates me with sex or sexual things like stripper titties is still stuck in the very purest part of his heart. He was embarrassed I saw him like that and I was embarrassed to see it, too.”

  I’m trying to decide if I should continue with what I was going to say when Jess says, “Spill it. We know there’s more.”

  “Well, Daniel kind of redirected me and had me watch Jess and Connor with the stripper and that was fucking hot.”

  “We were totally hot,” Jess confirms.

  “They were exploring her together and sharing that experience. Mike was being a stupid drunk and he realized his mistake pretty quickly. I know Mike likes freaky things because I’ve heard stories, but the Mike I associate sex with would never do that. Do you kind of understand what I mean?”

  “Yeah, actually I do, and it kind of makes me feel better. You’ve both said there’s no going back for you guys but now I get how innocent your love was. It was the definition of young love.”

  She’s right; that’s exactly what it was. And she does look like she feels much better, too.

  “Kate, stop yawning. You’re making me sleepy,” Jess whines on the ride back to the Houstons’ house.

  “Sorry, Jess, but I’m so relaxed I just can’t help it.”

  We’ve had manicures and pedicures, hair and make-up done, and hot stone massages. We heard more about April’s honeymoon and once Misty got her questions out of the way this morning, she even started opening up more.

  When the limo pulls up at the house, everyone gets out and Daniel gets in.

  “Did you miss me that much already?” I’m joking with him but he looks so serious.

  “I always miss you that much but especially today. You look beautiful, by the way, I should have said that first.” He’s nervous and it’s starting to freak me out.

  “Thank you. So why especially today?”

  His lips brush against mine softly. “I love you, Kate”

  “I love you, too, Daniel.” As I’m saying the words, he drops down on bended knee between my legs.

  Oh my god

  “
Katherine Grace Moore, I’ve been in love with you since the first night we met. You are everything I never knew was missing from my life. Every morning, I wake up next to your beautiful face and thank my lucky stars for whatever I did to deserve to have you in my life. There are so many things I want to give to you, starting with my last name. We’ve wasted so much time and carried too much sadness. It’s time to change that. Let me give you more happiness and love than you could possibly imagine. Grow old with me, make babies with me, marry me.”

  Tears are streaming down my face and I’m nodding yes like a crazy person. “Yes, Yes, Yes.”

  And then I kiss him before he even puts the ring on my finger. I kiss him with all the love I have inside of me and he kisses me back with a passion like nothing I’ve ever felt. Everything has been building up to this; I should have known he was going to do it today. As he pulls back, he opens the ring box but it’s not my ring. Disappointment floods through me. This ring is gorgeous but it’s not my ring.

  “Why?” It’s the only word I can choke out.

  When he smiles up at me it calms me down. “This is your engagement ring. You’ll get the other ring back when we get married…as your wedding band.”

  He holds the ring up to my face and that’s when I realize it’s got the same beautiful tiny diamond and emerald infinity band, but this one is just flanked with a huge round diamond. “There are a few conditions with the wedding, though. Will you hear me out?”

  Conditions? How can there be conditions on a wedding?

  “Yes, of course.”

  “I want to get married tonight, Kate. I don’t want to waste another second. Life is too short.”

  “Tonight? Like fly to Vegas?”

  “No, not Vegas, here, at this house, in…” he looks at his watch, “three hours.”

  Holy Mary, Mother of God.

  “Daniel we can’t, not tonight. There’s too much to do. We need a marriage license for starters.”

  “Done, next”

  “My dress that I brought for the party is not an appropriate dress, there’s no food, no cake, and what about a wedding party? Not that I care but they might!”

  “Done, done, done, and done. Come on, Kate, you don’t really think April is a bridezilla, do you?” he asks with a self-assured smirk.

  How long has he been planning this?

  “Two months. It started the night of your graduation,” he says, reading my mind again.

  As I think back to our trip to the bridal shop, we went over everything we possibly could for a wedding. “Jess wasn’t mad at Connor, she was texting you.” I’m completely blown away.

  “Every single detail.” There is absolutely no reason to put this off.

  “You planned a wedding.”

  “Well I had a lot of help, especially with the bachelorette party.”

  The second stripper. Holy hell.

  “You didn’t get a bachelor party.”

  He laughs loudly. “Kate, are you kidding me? You were my bachelor party. That gate was installed just for you and me. I’m like Jake, I don’t like strippers, but I will admit watching you get turned on watching Jess and Connor was hot.”

  “You really want to do this? You want to marry me? Today? In three hours?”

  “More than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.”

  “Okay, yes, let’s do it.”

  He pulls me into his lap and kisses me deeply. “There’s one more thing we have to agree on first and this one is non-negotiable.”

  I would do anything for this man, he just needs to ask.

  “I want you to adopt Lucas”

  Anything but that.

  I scramble off his lap in a frenzy. “I’m sorry, Daniel, but I can’t do that.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I’m not his mother, Vanessa is.” He nods like he understands and then says the cruelest thing possible. “Vanessa’s dead, Kate. Lucas’s mom is dead and she’s not coming back, not ever.”

  I curl up in the corner of the limo, shaking like a leaf, and then Daniel pulls a letter from his pocket. “This is what she wants, Kate. This letter was in with mine. It’s for both of us. Read it.”

  My hands are shaking so badly I can barely take the letter from him, let alone read it. So he pulls me into his lap and he reads it to me.

  Dear Kate and Daniel,

  This is the last time I pull the dead girl rank, I promise. You’re supposed to open this letter when you decide to get married. I hope you waited but if you opened it early, I forgive you. See, Kate, you’re rubbing off on me already; I’m being forgiving.

  If you’re getting married, and I hope to God that you are, I need you to do me a favor. Kate, you need to adopt Lucas. I’m sure you already consider him yours and you would never want to take away my place in his life and I appreciate that. But the fact of the matter is I’m dead. You’re his mom now except you’re hanging on to me in your heart and while I appreciate it, it’s only going to hurt him in the long run. Eventually, (probably sooner rather than later the way you two go at it) you’re going to have kids. The one thing that is going to separate Lucas from your kids is that he’s mine. He needs to be yours so he’ll be just like his brothers and sisters. I’m sure you’d never intentionally make him feel less than, but having been less than all my life, the feeling sucks. If this can eliminate him feeling that way, even one time, it’s worth it. Now I’m not saying don’t stick to the original plan, I still want him to know all about me. But when he’s old enough to know what adopted means, he’s going to realize not only did I give him to you but you picked him, too.

  Congratulations, you guys.

  All my love,

  Vanessa

  I’m hysterically sobbing and Daniel patiently holds me and soothes me while I cry it all out. This is what she wanted.

  “Okay.”

  “Okay to what, Kate? Be specific because I seriously thought I might have screwed this whole thing up.” He hugs onto me tighter and kisses my shoulder.

  “Okay to it all, the wedding, the adoption, let’s do it. But you’re going to have to find me new make-up.”

  He laughs. “And new hair. You’re kind of a mess right now but I was expecting it, so you have both in the house.”

  When Daniel opens the door he yells out, “She said yes!” and everyone comes rushing us from around the corner.

  I’m whisked away quicker than I can think into the house to get ready. Jess throws her arm around my shoulder and April comes up on the other side. “I can’t believe you actually bought the whole bridezilla thing!”

  “Why wouldn’t I? You were getting married and you were freaking out. There’s no way I could have ever guessed you were planning my wedding.”

  Jess snickers. “Yeah, that was pretty freaking genius.”

  “What if I would have said no?” They’re both cracking up now.

  “Like that was ever an option. You love that man more than you love me.”

  “No, I don’t. I love you the same, just in different ways,” I tell her diplomatically.

  Once we’re upstairs in the main house, Jess leads me to a large bedroom where everything is set up. However, the room is completely empty, except for Mike. Suddenly, I have a huge lump in my throat.

  “Hey, Katie Grace, can we talk privately for a few minutes?”

  The girls excuse themselves and it’s just the two of us and I’ve never been more scared. Tears start falling from my eyes. Before I even know what’s happening, I’m wrapped up in a massive Mike hug.

  “Shhh, Kate, it’s okay. You’re happy and I’m happy. Don’t taint that with something it’s not by thinking about things planned out so long ago in our past.” He lets me cry on his shoulder for a few more minutes and then leads me to a couch so we can both sit down.

  “Daniel called me the night of your graduation to ask me if he could marry you. I’ll admit, at first I was a little surprised and annoyed he woke me up at three in the morning. I gave him a hard time abou
t it but eventually gave him my blessing. Within a few days, we had all gotten together and devised this master plan. And for the most part, everything came together but one thing was still really bothering me, so I went and talked to Joseph.”

  That gets my attention more than anything. Mike hates my dad. Too many years of bad blood to count as water under the bridge, I guess.

  “Ultimately, this is your choice, Kate, but what I struggled with the most was today being about unconditional love, family, friendship, and new beginnings. I don’t know if you’ve ever really pictured your wedding. You never seemed like that kind of girl to me.”

  “No, I never really did.”

  “That’s what I thought, so when you picture someone walking you down the aisle now, what do you envision?”

  No one. How sad is that?

  “I don’t picture anyone.”

  Mike leans his head against mine “That’s what I thought you’d say, so I went and talked to Joseph. I know you guys have said you’ll start to work things out, but I know it hasn’t gotten too far since that initial talk.”

  I nod at him to keep going. “I’d like to be the one to give you away, Kate. I want to walk you down the aisle and Joseph agreed that if you want me to, the honor is mine.”

  “You want to walk me down the aisle?” I ask with a fresh batch of tears falling from my eyes.

  “Very much so, not quite the way I used to imagine it, but I’d be honored to be the person who gives you to my best friend.”

  When I look over at Mike he’s crying now, too, and I flash back in my mind to the little boy who came to my house and introduced himself for the first time. I couldn’t be more blessed than to have him be the one to give me away. It feels right; it feels perfect.

  “I would be honored if you would be the one to give me away. Thank you for talking to my dad. I know that couldn’t have been easy for you.”

  He places a kiss on my forehead. “Anything for you, Kate. And to prove it, I also brought you this.”

  It’s a diamond pendant on a silver chain; it’s simple and goes perfectly with my dress. It was also my mother’s.