Forever - Chapter 30
Thursday – Thanksgiving Day
Brooklyn
Matt pounded on the door. “Brooklyn?!”
“I’m fine,” I groaned as I leaned over the toilet bowl again. God, I hated throwing up.
He jiggled the handle, but I’d locked the door. “Brooklyn, what’s going on?!” he yelled.
“I’m fine,” I said again and coughed.
But instead of listening to me, he kicked the door in. The wood splintered and the door hit the wall and almost fell off its hinges.
I stared over at Matt standing in the doorway with a bewildered expression on his face. And I couldn’t help but laugh. And then I leaned over the toilet and threw up again.
“Jesus.” He knelt down beside me on the floor and pulled my hair back for me. “What’s going on? Is it the baby? Do you feel okay? Should I call the doctor?” He put his hand on my stomach.
“It’s just morning sickness, Matt.” I laughed again, but again it made my stomach turn over.
My cheeks puffed up, but I didn’t throw up anymore.
I was pretty sure there was nothing left in my stomach.
I took a deep breath and stared at him. “I can’t believe you just broke down the door because of a very normal pregnancy symptom. ”
“I didn’t know what was going on.” He moved his hand from my stomach to my back and slowly ran his hand up and down my spine.
“I’m okay, I promise. I just need some paper towels.”
He grabbed some paper towels off the vanity for me. “Are you sure that’s what it is? Morning sickness?”
I tore off a paper towel and wiped my face. “Positive.” I took another deep breath and my stomach didn’t roll over this time. I sat back on my heels and Matt kept rubbing my back. “I’m okay. And so is the baby. It’s actually a good sign.”
“Throwing up is a good sign?” He shook his head. “Tell that to our door.”
I laughed. “You’re a barbarian.”
He kissed my cheek.
I slid away from him on the floor. “Don’t get anywhere near me. I need to brush my teeth and wash my face.”
He caught my wrist so I couldn’t hide from him. “I’m not going anywhere.”
If I wasn’t already on the floor, I probably would have melted onto it. This was probably the grossest thing I’d ever done in front of him. But he was still staring at me with stars in his eyes. And he’d broken down a freaking door to get to me.
He pushed some hair off my face. “You scared me. No more locking the bathroom door.”
“Is that a house rule?” I raised my eyebrows at him.
“Yes.” He smiled.
“I didn’t think we had any rules in this house. We’re kind of lawless.”
His smile grew. “As much as I like the sound of being lawless with you…no locking the door.”
I looked at the broken door. “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.”
“I’ll fix it.”
I glanced over his shoulder.
“What are you looking at?” He turned around, but there was nothing there to see.
I shook my head and laughed. “I just kind of thought Nigel would pop up and say ‘No, I’ll fix it,’ before you got a chance to do it yourself.”
Matt laughed. “He probably would have, but he’s busy getting everything ready.” The smile on Matt’s face grew. “Our rehearsal dinner is tonight.”
I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face either. “It is. And I can’t wait to go to town on some turkey. I’m pretty sure Thanksgiving was made for pregnant women.”
He chuckled. “I’m sure it was.”
“And hopefully I don’t throw up again tonight.”
“I thought it was morning sickness?”
“I got sick more than just in the mornings with Jacob.”
“Interesting.” Matt helped me to my feet. “Is there anything I can get you that will help with that?”
“Actually a cup of tea might be nice.”
He nodded. “A cup of tea. Got it. I need to order some books about all this baby stuff. So I don’t break any more doors.”
“You do that. While I freshen up.” I pushed him out of the bathroom. I would have closed the door, but it was hanging off its hinges.
He chuckled and walked away.
I pressed my hands against the vanity and stared in the mirror.
My days fluctuated between thinking about the baby constantly to trying not to think about the baby at all.
Just in case. But this really was a good sign.
A great sign. I smiled. The baby was healthy.
I removed one of my hands from the vanity and ran it over my stomach.
This Thanksgiving was going to be perfect. It was going to erase the Thanksgiving 16 years ago from my head.
I was glad we’d decided to do our rehearsal dinner tonight and our wedding tomorrow.
It felt like we were fixing a wrong from our past. I didn’t regret what I’d done in my time apart from Matt.
But I wanted to fix this wrong for him. I wanted to erase the last words he spoke to me back then.
I wanted to erase all the hurt. I wanted to move forward.
All four of us. I couldn’t stop smiling.
And Rob hadn’t even texted me once about the silly prank he said he was going to pull. So hopefully that meant he was ready to move forward too. There was no way I still owed him a favor from back when we were teenagers. There were time limits to that kind of thing. And this favor was expired.
I quickly washed my face and brushed my teeth. Matt had a cup of tea waiting for me downstairs on the kitchen counter. Jacob was sitting on the counter next to the cup.
“Mommy, Mommy!” he said. “We get to go to Abuelo’s castle!”
“Yes we do.” I tickled his side. I was very curious about Tanner’s apartment. He must have had very medieval decorations or something.
“We can still play football today, right?” he asked and looked up at me.
It was a family tradition. And I wanted to keep those traditions alive. But this Thanksgiving was a little different from most. “Tanner doesn’t have a yard to play in,” I said.
“Yes he does.”
I shook my head. “He lives in an apartment.”
“No, he lives in a castle.”
I smiled. “Okay, but…”
“We are going to play,” Matt said. “It’s tradition, after all. And we’re not leaving for a few hours. We’ll play right now.” He smiled over at me.
I’d told him about our tradition of playing football all morning, eating way too much turkey, and watching the football games.
“Just you and me though, kiddo. Your mommy needs to drink her tea.”
I laughed. “Oh, I’m playing too.” I took a quick sip of my tea and helped Jacob off the counter. “Race you to the back yard!”
Jacob started running, but Matt stopped me, pulling me into his arms.
“Shouldn’t you be resting?” he asked.
I shook my head. “And miss out on one of my favorite traditions? Never.”
“You sure?”
“I promise that I’m fine.” I stood on my tiptoes and kissed him. “Now you better bring your A-game. Because we take our Thanksgiving football very seriously.”
“Oh, game on.”
I patted his chest and spun around, making sure to sway my hips.
He groaned behind me.
I laughed and sprinted the rest of the way to the door.
***
“You look beautiful,” Matt said when I walked into the living room. He stood up from the couch. He was wearing a fitted black suit. We were dressed way too fancy for Thanksgiving dinner. But we’d agreed to go all out for the rehearsal dinner. And Matt looked so yummy.
“You said the same thing a few hours ago when I had leaves in my hair,” I said.
“Well you were beautiful then too. But this dress.” His eyes scanned down my body in that way that heated my skin.
Justin had convinced me to buy a white dress for tonight too. This one was short and made of a satiny material that made me feel all fancy. It flared out at my hips and when Matt grabbed my hand and twirled me around, the skirt lifted and fluttered.
I stopped when I saw all the books on the couch. “What are all of these?” I let go of his hand and lifted one of the books up that already had a bookmark.
“I told you I needed to buy some pregnancy books. They were delivered when you were in the shower.”
“I thought you meant like…next week. And I didn’t think you’d buy the whole bookstore.” I laughed.
He shrugged and looked a little embarrassed. “Well, you’ve done all this before. And I want to make sure I know what I can do to help out.”
He was the sweetest. I opened to the page he’d bookmarked. It was all about morning sickness. He’d highlighted a few things. I scanned down the highlights. “Wait, they make anti-nausea candy drops? I don’t remember them having anything like that when I was pregnant with Jacob.”
Matt smiled. “We should give those a try.”
I liked when he said we like that. “We definitely should.”
“Do you want me to order some now?” He pulled out his phone.
I laughed and grabbed his hand. “Stop torturing the delivery people on Thanksgiving. We’ll go shopping after the wedding.”
“After the wedding.” He smiled. “God I love the sound of that.”
Jacob came running into the room. He skidded across the floor in his socks.
“You all ready?” Matt ruffled his hair.
“Yessie. Just let me get my sword.” He picked up a stick off the floor. “Ready.”
“We can leave the sword here I think, kiddo.”
“But you need a sword in a castle, Coach. How else will we play knights? I’ll get one for you too.” He went over to his basket full of toys and pulled out a second stick. “And one for my abuelo!” He selected a third stick.
I shrugged. That made sense to me. “You definitely need swords to play knights,” I said.
Matt laughed. “Okay, you guys. Let’s get going.
” He helped Jacob into his coat and shoes.
I pulled on my coat too as I smiled at Matt lacing Jacob’s shoes.
Matt was always meant to be a dad. I felt tears welling in the corners of my eyes.
God, it was like I had no control over my emotions.
I blinked fast, getting rid of the tears.
Tonight was not for tears. We were celebrating.