Suddenly a Bride

by Ruth Ann Nordin

  Andy’s eyebrows rose. “Or maybe not. I guess Caitlyn felt her biological clock ticking and decided it was time to act on it.”

  “I don’t understand what you mean.”

  “What? By a biological clock or the fact that she settled for you to have children? One thing she regretted when Randy died was not having a child with him. She probably decided even if she couldn’t have Randy’s child, yours was better than nothing.”

  “That’s not how it happened.”

  “Oh? Then how did it happen?”

  “Well, I—” Chris stopped and thought over what he was about to say. He couldn’t tell Andy he was from another planet and came here for the life mate the agency chose for him.

  “Look, I’ve known Caitlyn ever since we were little kids. Randy was her true love. I just don’t see how anyone else will ever come close to her like he was, especially since she’s only known you for…how long?”

  “I don’t see what length of time has to do with anything.”

  Andy shrugged. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” He patted Chris on the shoulder. “Congratulations. Again.”

  Chris watched as Andy headed toward the patio. With another look at the pictures, he noted Caitlyn and members of her family on the wall. His gaze fell on her wedding picture with Randy, and he recalled what she had told him when he saw the picture with her and Randy in her apartment. Just because someone dies, it doesn’t mean you don’t cherish their memory.

  But she’d taken down that picture, which meant she was moving forward with her new life—the one she was sharing with him. Randy might have been an important part of her past, but he was an important part of her present and future. Nodding, he decided it was time to go back to Caitlyn.

  Chapter Twelve

  Caitlyn rolled her eyes and fought the urge to groan. “It’s nothing, Mom. They’re just rings. They don’t mean anything.”

  Her mother gasped and inspected Caitlyn’s hand. “Nothing.” She turned to Lexie. “Let’s see your engagement ring again.”

  “No, Mom,” Lexie argued. “This isn’t fair. You can’t compare Chris to Nick.”

  “This is outrageous, Caitlyn,” her mother said with a shake of her head. “A man who doesn’t fork over a significant portion of his wages doesn’t love you as much as one who does. At least Randy gave you something, even if it was a small diamond.”

  Caitlyn rubbed her forehead. She needed a pain killer or a dose of chocolate in the worst possible way.

  “Oh, Chris,” Lexie said.

  Caitlyn looked up from the picnic table where her mother practically held her hostage and breathed a sigh of relief. Good! Standing up, she hurried over to him and smiled. “I heard you wiped the floor with everyone at pool.”

  Chris frowned. “Wiped the floor?”

  Ignoring her mother’s curious expression, she laughed and slipped her arm around his. “Yeah. You know. You won every game.” Her mother opened her mouth to speak, so she added, “Well, it’s been fun, everyone, but Chris and I have to go. We have a house to look at in about a half hour.”

  “You made plans to look at a house during my barbeque?” her mother asked.

  “Oh, let them look at houses,” Caitlyn’s father said, sitting next to her mother. “They’ll have fun. Knowing Chris, he’ll be able to cut a good deal on a place.”

  “Not like the kind the doctor’s getting for Lexie,” her mom said under her breath. “The doctor’s going to live right on the beach.”

  Lexie groaned.

  “Apples to oranges, Rachel,” her dad told her mom.

  Caitlyn sighed. And her mother wondered why she intentionally made an appointment with the realtor during this get-together? Caitlyn didn’t know why she thought coming while others were here would stop her mom from getting too much in her business. “I’ll see you later.” Much, much later.

  “Before you leave,” her mother began as she got up, “you might as well pick up your wedding present.”

  “You didn’t have to get us anything,” Caitlyn said.

  “Nonsense. When people get married, you’re supposed to get them a gift.”

  “It’s custom to give gifts and congratulate couples when they get married?” Chris asked.

  “Well, it’s custom for the wife to pick out the gift, but the husband gets full credit for it,” Caitlyn’s dad joked.

  “Really?” Chris asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

  Her dad nodded. “Trust me on this one. Nothing a man will pick will ever meet up to the expectations of the bride.”

  “Oh,” Chris replied.

  By the look on Chris’ face, she could tell Chris was cataloging this in his brain, just like he catalogued everything else. In many ways, she thought it was cute.

  “I got you something too,” Sandy said as she approached them with a soda in her hand. “But wait until tonight to open it,” she whispered with a wink.

  Now that was something Chris was going to love.

  “We chipped in and got you all something too,” Lexie added, motioning to Blake and her.

  Blake sighed from where he and Andy were setting out the remaining hamburgers and hot dogs to save for leftovers. “I tried to get you a grill, but Lexie wouldn’t have it.”

  “That’s because Caitlyn’s been talking about needing a microwave,” Lexie replied.

  “But a grill makes everything taste better,” Blake argued.

  “A microwave is much better,” Caitlyn said. “I don’t have to put charcoal in it to get it started.” Making a show of checking her watch, she added, “Well, we better go. Thanks for the gifts, but I meant it when I said you didn’t have to get them.”

  Sandy smiled. “We wanted to. I’ll join you guys on the way out. I have to get to work soon anyway.”

  After they said good-bye, Caitlyn joined Chris and Sandy as they walked to the living room to pick up the gifts. As they passed through the hallway, Caitlyn caught sight of the wedding picture of her and Randy and nearly tripped.

  “It’s a good thing you don’t do that at work,” Sandy joked.

  She stopped and glanced at the patio doors where her parents were talking at the picnic table.

  “Is something wrong?” Chris asked.

  “I forgot to tell my parents something,” Caitlyn said. “Chris, why don’t you wait for me in the car, okay?”

  “Come on, Chris,” Sandy began. “I’ll help you carry your gifts to the car.”

  Caitlyn waited until they left the hallway before she pulled the picture off the wall and headed back to the patio. She approached her mom and showed her the wedding picture of her and Randy. “Why is this still hanging up on the wall?”

  Her mom turned from her dad and looked at the picture. “Because it’s the only wedding picture I have of you. If you’d had a wedding with Chris, I would have one of you and him up there.”

  Caitlyn had dealt with as much as she could handle. “You want to know why I didn’t want to have a wedding or bring Chris over right away? It’s because of things like this.” She pointed to the picture. “How do you think Chris would feel if he saw this up on the wall?”

  “Did he see it?” her dad asked.

  “No. Thankfully, I saw it before he did,” she replied.

  He held his hand out. “Good. I’ll put that away in storage.”

  She handed it to him.

  Her mother sighed. “Seriously, Caity. I don’t see what the big deal is. Randy was your husband at one time, and it’s nice to have a formal picture of you in the wedding dress. It’s the only one I’ll ever have of you as a bride.”

  “Mom, I’m not going to have a formal wedding. I have other things to worry about.” Like buying a house and having a baby. Oh, how she was dreading telling her mother about the baby! “I’ll tell you what. Chris and I will dress up in nice clothes and get a professional photo taken. Then you can hang that up.”

  “That’s a great idea, Caitlyn,” her dad said. “Your mom will be happy to have a picture of our n
ew son-in-law.”

  Her mother sighed. “Very well.”

  Relieved, Caitlyn smiled at her dad and returned to the house so she could help Sandy and Chris carry the last gift out to her car. She found Sandy in the living room. “Where’s Chris?”

  “Putting the microwave in the car. I figure he could carry the heavy item. Lexie and Blake got a pretty fancy one for you.” Sandy handed Caitlyn the last wrapped present sitting on the coffee table. “This one is from me.”

  Caitlyn laughed. “I’m sure Chris will love it.”

  “So, your mom gave you a lot of grief today,” Sandy said with a wince. “It was painful to watch, especially with Lexie marrying the doctor.”

  “I expected it. You know how she is.”

  “Yeah, but an engineer isn’t shabby. Your dad was impressed. Are you going to quit your job?”

  “Yeah. I want to stay home with the baby.”

  “Speaking of which, you should have told your mom about the baby and gotten it over with while she was grilling you about marrying again without her blessing.”

  Caitlyn gagged. “No way. I can only handle so much grief in one day. I’ll just email her that news, but I’m not doing that until next month.” Chris walked through the front door, so Caitlyn gave her friend a hug. “Thanks for coming and taking my mom’s focus off of me and Chris.”

  “It didn’t work very well,” Sandy replied.

  “It was better than it would have been,” Caitlyn assured her before she turned to Chris. “Are you ready to check out a couple of houses?”

  He nodded. “I got everything in the car. We’ll have to get something for your sister when she gets married, but you will have to pick it out since women know more about buying gifts than men do.”

  With a chuckle, she took his hand. “I’ll see you at work tomorrow, Sandy.” As she and Chris left the house, she breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness that was over. “Oh, before I forget, I told my mom that we would get a professional picture taken.”

  “You want a picture of me?” he asked, looking pleased.

  “Yeah. It’s something I should have thought about sooner,” she admitted as they stopped in front of the minivan, “but I got caught up in house hunting. I still can’t believe it’s happening! I’ve wanted to have a house for ages. It’s like a dream come true.”

  “I’m glad I can make you happy.”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. “I am, especially now that we can get out of here. Hop on in and we’ll go check out another house. Maybe this will be the one.”

  Once they got into the car, she started it and backed out of the driveway. With any luck, she wouldn’t have to see her mom again until Lexie’s wedding rehearsal.

  She glanced at Chris as she shifted the minivan to drive. “So, what did you think? Did they scare you off?”

  He laughed. “They weren’t scary.”

  He obviously didn’t spend enough time with her mother. Lucky him. He got to run off and play pool with the men.

  Reaching out, he took her hand and smiled. “I thought it went fine. Next time we’ll tell them about the baby, right?”

  “I’ll send an email after the first doctor visit,” she promised. “Then they’ll know by the time we see them again.”

  “Doctor visit? Don’t you use doctors when you feel sick on this world?”

  “Yes, but we also see them when we’re pregnant. At least, that’s a fun reason to see them.”

  His eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t understand why you need to see them. What can they do to the baby growing inside of you?”

  “When it comes time for the baby to be born, the doctor will deliver the baby.”

  “But the baby is inside of you. Doesn’t delivery mean someone gives you something you don’t already have?”

  She forced aside the chuckle as she came to a stop at a red light. “How were babies born on your world when women gave birth?”

  “The records say women who carried children within their bodies had them at home.”

  “You’re kidding? With all the fancy technology you had on your world, the women did home births?”

  Shrugging, he said, “Our homes were built to accommodate everything required for the birth of the child.”

  She recalled his comment about them not needing doctors on his world. “So you don’t use doctors for anything? Anything at all?”

  “Why should we? We have machines built into our homes to take care of anything that ails us.”

  “Seriously?” The light turned green so she drove forward. “You’re telling me if someone needed surgery, it was done at home?”

  “Sure. Surgery didn’t require someone’s body to be cut into like your mother was talking about.”

  She had to admit that sounded like a huge benefit to being on his world, even if women were extinct over there. “Well, we still use doctors here, and this particular doctor will deliver our baby in about eight months.”

  “Eight months?”

  “It takes nine months to carry a baby to term.”

  “It only took women on my world six of your calendar months.”

  “Six months?” she shrieked.

  “Yes. I thought it was the same for Earth females since you’re compatible with me.”

  She turned left at the intersection and shook her head. “You mean to tell me in six months, women on your world carried a full-term baby? They were healthy and everything?”

  He nodded.

  “How big were these babies?” she asked, trying to force the image of a twenty-pound baby out of her mind.

  “Exactly seven pounds.”

  Breathing a sigh of relief on that count, she ventured to ask the next pressing question. “And how fast do these babies grow up? I mean, are they three years old by the time twelve Earth months pass?”

  “No. Twelve of your Earth months equal a year’s worth of growth.”

  Thank goodness for small favors. That must have been one of the things that the agency kept in mind when they assigned him to her planet. A child that grew up at an abnormal rate wouldn’t fit well on Earth. But then, she realized if she gave birth after six months of pregnancy instead of nine, then she was in for it from her mom. She groaned as she imagined all the things her mother was bound to harp on her about.

  He reached for her hand and squeezed it. “Are you okay?”

  She glanced at him and smiled. Well, so she was going to put up with some grief. Being with him was worth it. She squeezed his hand. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “Do you really want a picture of me?”

  “Sure, I do. You’re my husband. It’ll be nice to have a picture of us in our new house.”

  He beamed with pleasure. “I’d like a picture of us too.”

  “Then that settles it. We’ll have to make an appointment with a photographer.”

  And since she wanted to have the picture taken before she began showing, they were going to have to do it soon. She wondered just when women started showing on his home world. Before she could ask him about it, she saw the street they needed.

  “This is it.” She let go of his hand and picked up the piece of paper with the address of the first house they planned to look at that afternoon. “Are you ready to see what might be our new home?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good because we’re almost there,” she said and turned down the street, her mind off of her pregnancy for the time being. As the house came into view, she suppressed the urge to cheer. “I think this is going to be it, Chris. I have a good feeling about this one!” She pulled up into the drive and got ready to meet the realtor who was waiting for them in the driveway. “It’s got a bay window. I’ve always wanted a bay window!”

  Chris laughed as she clapped her hands. “This just might be the right one after all since you love it so much.”

  With her hand on the door handle, she said, “You need to love it too. I don’t want to get the house unless you like it.”

  “Y
ou care about what I want?”

  Now it was her turn to laugh. “Of course, I do, silly. Marriage is a partnership. We do things for each other to make each other happy.” She reached over and squeezed his hand. “So if there’s anything you don’t like about the house, you have to speak up. I can’t read your mind.”

  Squeezing her hand in return, he smiled. “I’ll give you my honest opinion.”

  “Good.”

  As they got out of the car, the realtor walked up to them. “Are you ready to take a look inside?”

  Caitlyn took Chris’ hand and nodded. “We sure are.”

  The realtor grinned. “I hope you don’t mind if I say you two are a good looking couple.”

  “Oh, thanks,” Caitlyn replied before she and Chris followed her into the house.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The next day during the lunch rush, Caitlyn saw Travis and Richie enter the diner. She suppressed a groan and glanced at Sandy who was collecting empty dishes from a vacant table. Caitlyn sighed and took out her pad and pencil. Well, if anyone was going to have to deal with the two men, it might as well be her. At least she wouldn’t be working here much longer. In a month, she could quit and she’d never have to see Travis and Richie again.

  When she approached their booth, Travis made it a point to scan her body. “Hey there, gorgeous. If you play your cards right, I might take you home with me.”

  “It’s not a good idea to threaten the person in charge of your food,” she replied. “Are you going to order or should I have Jack toss you out of here?”

  “Oh, come on now, honey. Why do you have to be so cruel?” he asked with a pout.

  Richie sighed. “Haven’t you been playing hard to get long enough, sweetheart?”

  Groaning, she crossed her arms and glared at them. “Listen up, you two. I’ve had enough of this.”

  Travis wiggled his eyebrows at her. “The harder you protest, the more you want it.”

  “First of all,” she began, “I wouldn’t have sex with either of you two if my life depended on it. Second, I’m married.” Really, how many times did she have to say that?