It was another beautiful day in Hidden Springs, residence began to wake up for the day and to begin their morning routines. Well almost everyone.
I grabbed my stomach, trying to hold off yet another round of vomiting.
The night before I had convinced myself that it was Kyle's questionable chili that had made me so sick. Now I was certain there was another reason. I would buy a test first, before alerting Kale. I wanted to be absolutely sure before I got his hopes up. We both wanted a family, with lots of children, and I didn't want to get him excited for nothing.
After completing a positive test I called work to take off my maternity leave and then hurried downstairs to tell Kale. He felt my slightly bulgy stomach in wonder. Kale was so happy he was speechless....for all of five seconds.
He cooed to the baby. "Don't worry, I'm going to make sure mommy eats enough food." He gave me a sharp look. "Now, I am going to say something I have never said but always thought you understood." I looked at him puzzled. "I love you for you Holly. I don't care if you have scars, you do understand that?" I nodded. "I love you even if you gain weight, no let me restate that. I will be extremely happy if you gain some weight during this pregnancy." I sighed. I had a feeling he was going to say something along those lines. I have always been a string bean and knew it would be a challenge."I will try my best." Kale nodded. "Maybe Lyddia can spend time with you during the day, to make sure you eat right."
Lyddia and I were starting to become closer. She was a bit odd, not that I can talk...I say all of the wrong things at the wrong times. I was genuinely starting to enjoy her company. She worked at the Hologram nights, so it was ideal for her to spend time with me while Kale was at work. As my pregnancy progressed, she began to become my best friend. We enjoyed most of the same shops and diners and spent most of our days exploring our new town. Some days, when I was feeling especially sick, we stayed home and watched movies in our own home theater. Which is how I learned about the one genre we could never ever watch together.
I had flipped through the channels and found a romance, and squealed. I am not usually so girly but I did just have my own wedding a few weeks ago. Lyddia sighed, "Do we really have to watch this?" I shushed her and leaned back in my chair to get comfortable.
"You do realize these kind of movies are totally predictable and almost always have gender stereotypes? I really don't see why people watch these...I mean, any movie that you can predict the outcome to in less than five minutes really isn't worth watching," I turned to Lyddia. "Shhhh!"
"Well what do you know, the groom turned out to be abusive! Didn't I just call it? And watch, she's going to take him back...I bet you within the next twenty minutes she's.." I tried to ignore her and pay attention to the movie. "Lyddia, I get it! Its predictable, now please! Be quiet!"
Lyddia: *sobbing softly*
Me: *fighting to stay awake* Is it over?
Lyddia: *blows her nose loudly* Yep, and we just knew she was going to take him back! Because...because she loves him! That takes dedication to stay with a man who breaks your ribs...on the anniversary of your kitten's death! *more sobbing*
Never. Ever. Again.
He talked about me, his loving wife all the time, and even brought a picture of me to work, hoping they would back off. It had the opposite effect. Now they were interested because he was a dedicated family man. To make matters worse, the only other guy at the station was his boss who hated Kale because he was getting all the girls' attention. For the first time ever Kale was seriously considering quitting his job as a firefighter. True, he loved helping others, but had more than enough in savings and really didn't need the job. He decided to wait and see what happened.
My morning sickness seemed to be getting worse and worse. And there was less and less to watch on television. And I wasn't gaining weight although I ate as much as a horse practically every meal. After a day of watching nothing but animal documentaries Lyddia turned to me. "So are you sure you don't want to watch a romance?"
Saved by the Kale. I jumped up and threw my arms around him. "How was work today?" Kale stared at the ceiling. "Let's see: Jennifer and Candace both insisted on helping me maintain the fire engine and then Jessica ran over with wrench and dropped it in the engine. Took an hour to get it out, and Anderson was furious." I joked, trying to make him feel better. "So it was a typical tuesday?" Kale glanced at the screen. "What are you watching?" I rolled my eyes. "A documentary on Mad Cow Disease."
Kale couldn't help saying, "So no romance movies on today?" Lyddia piped up. "That's what I said! We need to see whats on the Foyermark movie channel. Oh! Or Livetime! They have great romance movies. " If looks could kill, Kale would have been dead right then. "Honey, aren't you going to watch a movie with us?" Kale couldn't keep the smile from tugging the corner of his mouth. "Sorry, dear, but I need to shower." He kissed me unrepentant. "Enjoy your movie, I will see you after." I didn't talk to Kale the rest of the night.
The next day, I was surprised to find Kale downstairs on a work day....and wearing JEANS! I hadn't seen him in jeans since one of our first dates. He kissed me square on the lips. "I'm sorry for last night, Holly, I really couldn't resist." I looked at him skeptically, "Why are you at home today?"
"I am home to make up for last night. I thought today we could go over to that spa everyone in town keeps talking about." I looked down. Kale enticed. "You can get whatever spa package you want." I jumped up and down. I kissed Kale. "AND?" He sighed. "And I will watch a romance the next time Lyddia makes you sit through one with her." I laughed. "You really can be quite charming when you want to be."
We spent the entire day at the spa, I had never been so relaxed in my entire life. Just seeing Kale in jeans for once made my day. I shouldn't have allowed myself to get so comfortable and let my guard down. But with our new life, new surroundings it was easy to forget what we had been through. The next day Kale was brought abruptly back to reality.
Kale picked up the phone and listened intently as Jazlyn spoke. She hadn't talked to him in quite awhile and he was beginning to worry about her and the kids. He was relieved to hear, that Ethan and Desiree were fine but was startled by her other news. Shortly after Kanoa had gone to prison she found out she was pregnant. She bawled about not wanting the baby, that she hadn't told Kanoa, and she was terrified of him and what he would do knowing he had another child. "Have you thought of adoption?" Kale interjected, trying not to get emotional. He would not be drawn back in. Jazlyn wept. "Why do you think I called you?"
End of Part 15
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