Forever Us

Chapter 9

BROOKS

Last night after Crystal told me she would marry me whenever I planned the wedding, I called Ray and asked for his and moms help. I told him what I was wanting to do and he said he would get with Marvin and Viola and talk to them about it. I wanted to surprise Crystal with a simple but nice wedding soon. I wanted us to get married before our baby comes. I wanted her to be able to officially put my last name on all her paperwork and even the birth certificate for our child. I don't care if anyone thinks this is too soon or they think I am only doing it because we have a baby on the way. The truth is I am doing this for her and I. I love her with every inch of my heart and soul and I want to spend the rest of our lives showing her how much she means to me. Crystal Lynn Martini is my everything! She is my whole world, well her and our unborn baby. She is my better place and I want to be hers. We are going to be annoucing the pregnancy tonight at dinner. I am so excited to be able to finally share the news. I can picture my mom's reaction already. Praying Marvin doesn't try to kill me though. Getting on his sh*t list for getting her pregnant after I just asked for his permission to marry his daughter is the last thing I want to do. I am trying to finish early here at the shop so I can run home and help Crystal with dinner. I don't want her doing all this by herself even though she told me she could handle it. I finally finished up with my last customer and headed home. When I got there, Crystal was starting on the meats. I went right into the kitchen and demanded she let me help her. She laughed at me but agreed to let me help. I watched as she went from one meat to the other and checked them. In between her checking the meats, I watched as my beautiful fiancé rubbed her growing stomach. Watching her touch her belly to bond with our unborn child had me falling even more in love with her and the idea of us being parents. I was snapped back to what was going on in the kitchen when Crystal said the meats were almost ready and we needed to start the side dishes. I went and got everything out of the fridge and helped her prepare them. Crystal asked if I could keep an eye on the food long enough for her to go and put the grandparents gifts in their bags and get uncle Jonah’s gift in his bag. I can’t wait for everyone to get here and open their gifts. After Crystal came back out of the bedroom, she hid the bags under the table by her chair. We finished everything up and got things on the trays. As we were putting the trays on the table, the doorbell rang. I opened the door to find Marvin and Viola standing there with mom, Ray and Jonah pulling up. I let everyone in and Crystal came into the living room to greet everyone. Once we had all said hello, we headed into the kitchen to sit down for dinner. Crystal explained it was a variety dinner and I think mom and Viola caught on to the theme by the way they looked at Crystal and I but they didn’t say anything. We were half way through dinner when Marvin asked what was up with the baby sized portions. Crystal told him she had gifts for everyone and Jonah looked around like he was guilty of something. Crystal and I handed the bags to everyone and counted to three. Tissue paper flew in the floor from mom and Viola and Ray and Marvin took their time digging into the bags. Everyone held up their shirts and my mom began to squeal. Ray looked up at me and smiled, Marvin looked like he wanted to kill me. Jonah smiled at his shirt and Viola was in tears. She hugged Crystal and thanked her for making her part of this special moment. After everyone put their shirts away, the ultrasound pictures were pulled out of the bags and I saw Marvin smile when he looked at them. Tears started to swell in his eyes and my eyes began to swell with tears as well. He wiped a stray tear and hugged Crystal. He kissed the top of her head and he got up from the table and walked up to me. I stood up and he pulled me in for a hug and whispered “take care of them both” in my ear. I nodded my head and he went to sit back down. After everyone hugged us and congratulated us we finished dinner and then headed out back to sit around the fire pit. After everyone went home, Crystal and I headed inside. I drew a bath for her and let her soak. When she got out, I had candles lit to relax her as she laid down for bed. I rubbed her feet and her legs for her because I know she had been on her feet pretty much all day getting ready for our dinner. I worked my way up her calves and stopped at her knee. Doing the same to the other leg. I did this a few more times before I heard her snoring. I relaxed her enough to help her fall asleep. I sat there for a few minutes just staring at her. Since finding out we were going to be parents her body hadn’t changed much but she did have a small baby bump starting to show and I was in awe at how beautiful it looked. She is growing a life in there. A life I helped create and I am over the moon happy that this is happening. I wouldn’t want to raise a child with anyone but her. I finally laid down and snuggled up to her. I was out not long after snuggling with her.