Key To My Heart: Stay (17 page)

“
You assumed that you know
that something is going on. We tend to make a lot of assumptions of
the people close to us that often don’t have a basis in
fact.”

“
You sound as if I’m the one
that did something wrong. I would have gone to Demi’s house, but
the last thing I wanted to see was Gavin fawning all over
her.”

“
Your sister is happy and
Gavin is very good with little Nicole.”

Acasia sighed. “I know. I’m happy for
her. I really am. And I’m glad that Nikki and Jay worked things
out. It just seems as if the three of us can never all be happy at
the same time.”

“
You are happy with Garett
darling. I’m sure that if you just talk to him that you will be
able to work all of this out.”

“
But what if we can’t Mom?
What if I’m right and he’s messing around with Renee?”

“
You’ll never know the truth
unless you talk to him Acasia.”

“
Why do you have to be so
damned logical? Why can’t you just let me have a pity
party?”

“
Pity parties don’t do
anyone any good, especially when the someone that wants to have one
is pregnant and overly emotional.”

“
I worry. That’s normal
isn’t it?”

“
Becoming a parent is a
scary thing Acasia. And no matter how good your intentions are, no
matter how much you love your child, you are going to have to learn
to accept the fact that you are going to make mistakes. But it
doesn’t mean that your child will be harmed or that they’re going
to grow up and hate you.” She reached for Acasia’s hand and gave it
a gentle squeeze. “You’re going to make a fine mother honey. You
need to stop worrying so much. Even Demi has been able to let go of
some of her anxiety and she’s doing so much better.”

“
I know. But being a mother
seems to come so naturally for both Nikki and Demi. What if it
doesn’t come naturally for me?”

“
Let me tell you a secret
Casia. When I was pregnant with you, I was scared to death. Your
father and I were very happy to be having you, but it didn’t mean
that we were sure that we were going to know what to do with you
once you arrived. So I worried and I fretted over it until I drove
Daddy so crazy that he sat me down and had a talk with me much like
the one I just had with you. He told me that he knew that neither
of us were going to be perfect parents, because perfect parents
simply don’t exist. But he also told me that worrying about not
being a good mother certainly wasn’t going to do anything towards
making me a good mother. He told me that it was going to do quite
the opposite in fact and then he explained why he thought so.
Worrying keeps you from trying, worrying keeps you from enjoying
things. You can’t let yourself get so worried that you aren’t going
to be a good parent that you end up creating your own
problems.”

“
I love you Mom. Thank
you.”

“
I love you too
honey.”

The house phone rang. Acasia had a
feeling that it was Garett calling. Enough time had passed that he
had probably already tried to call Demi and possibly even Nikki and
had now decided to move on to her mother.

Her mother gave her a look as she
headed towards the stairs. “I’ll be right back. Dinner should be
almost ready. And when it is, you’re going to come upstairs and eat
something.”

“
Yes Mother.”

Heather Brown shook her head as she
mounted the stairs, leaving Acasia’s bedroom door open. She
imagined her mother’s conversation with Garett, and wondered how
long it was going to be before he showed up with plans to take her
home.

Garett

Garett tried not to panic when Acasia
refused to answer his call for the fourth time in a row, but it was
really hard not to. It was obvious that she had seen him and Renee
together and he knew now more than ever that he should have talked
to her about his ex in the first place. It just hadn’t seemed
important and he hadn’t wanted to worry her over something that
seemed so insignificant, especially since she seemed to worry more
often than not lately as it was.

He was scared about becoming a parent
too, and was sure that he would screw up a million little things
and probably some big ones too, because every parent did. Caring
for Sammi had certainly been eye opening. Changing diapers could
get pretty messy, and feeding an infant sometimes seemed to do no
good when they spit everything back at you, and teething-he
certainly didn’t feel ready to deal with that on a fulltime basis.
But he felt ready to embrace every part of being a father, the good
and the bad, and he knew that though he would inevitably make
mistakes, he was going to do the best job that he could with a lot
of learning along the way. And he knew that Acasia would as well.
He wasn’t sure why she couldn’t see it the way he did.

She was already a good mother in his
eyes. She didn’t make a move without the baby in mind, and the
doctor had assured them that their daughter was growing big and
strong, preparing herself to enter the world. She would be born
before they knew it, and it made his heart sink even further to
think that he had screwed up and lost the woman he loved, the
mother of his child; over something that seemed so
stupid.

He wondered if he should call Acasia’s
mother, figuring that if she hadn’t gone there that Heather Brown
would probably know where she was. But he decided to put off
calling the woman he still hoped would one day be his mother-in-law
and decided on what felt like a safer route instead, and dialed her
sister.

It wasn’t Demi that picked up her
phone, but his brother’s voice that said “Why are you calling my
fiancé? Kidding Gar. What’s up?”

“
Um, have you seen Acasia
lately Gav?”

“
Not today. Why?”

“
Do you know if Demi has
talked to her?”

“
Not that I know of. We’ve
been home all day, trying to take it easy. Nicole has been a little
under the weather and we didn’t want to take her out unless we had
to.”

“
Is she okay?”

“
I think it’s just a cold.
She doesn’t have a fever or anything like that and the doctor said
to watch her to make sure she doesn’t get worse, but not to worry
too much. Bro, why are you asking me where your fiancé
is?”

“
I screwed up
Gav.”

“
What do you mean you
screwed up?”

“
I didn’t cheat on her. I’d
never cheat on her. Cheating never made any sense to me. Finish
what you started before you start something else you know? But
anyway, uh you know that Renee is back in town right?”

“
That woman is a bitch. She
was a bitch in high school. I don’t know why you ever dated her.
What does Renee being back in town have to do with
anything?”

“
Well, she’s been bugging me
since she got back, trying to get me to take a look at her house,
and figure out what needs to be done so that she can sell it. I
answered the first few times and told her that there isn’t anything
that needs to be done before she can sell the house, but she won’t
leave me alone about it. She keeps calling and leaving messages.
The first few were so dirty that I didn’t bother to listen to any
of the rest of them. Then this afternoon she showed up on my
doorstep. I shouldn’t have let her in the house, but you know that
Mom and Dad always taught us that it was impolite not to ask a
visitor in.”

Gavin snorted. “A gentleman until the
end huh? So what happened?”

“
Well, you know that the
blinds in the living room are always falling down. They fell down
again when I opened the door and I didn’t put them back up right
away. And now Acasia won’t answer my calls. I don’t know for sure
exactly what happened or what she saw, but I think that she came
home while Renee was here, saw something she didn’t like and then
left.”

“
Did you talk to her about
the bullshit that Renee is trying to pull?”

Garett sighed. “No. I didn’t want to
worry her unnecessarily. She worries enough as it is.”

“
Yeah, I have noticed that
she’s gotten pretty damned emotional since she’s been pregnant. But
that’s normal. Pregnant women go through a roller coaster of
emotions. What might she have seen that she wouldn’t have
liked?”

“
Renee kissed me. I had
already told her to leave, told her in no uncertain terms that I
wanted nothing to do with her or her house, but she wouldn’t take
no for an answer. I was dumb and backed myself right into a corner.
And she took advantage of the situation.”

“
And Acasia saw you two
together and now you’re in a big mess because you didn’t tell her
what was going on with your ex. Damn little brother, I always
thought you were smarter than me.”

“
Ha ha Gavin. It’s not
funny.”

“
I agree that when a
pregnant woman is mad at you it’s hardly a laughing matter. Well,
she hasn’t stopped by our house. Have you tried her mom’s
place?”

“
Not yet. I was putting it
off, hoping that maybe she HAD gone to your place. I guess I’ll
have to call her huh?”

“
Kinda funny that we’re
supposed to be the bigger, stronger sex and we spend most of our
lives being afraid of women in one way or another huh?”

“
I’m not finding a lot of
humor in this situation Gav.”

“
If you would have told her
in the first place, you two could be laughing about this now
instead of you having to chase her down again.”

“
Yeah and if you would have
told Demi how you really felt about her all those years ago, she
wouldn’t have had another man’s child.”

“
That was truly a low blow
little brother. Nicole is my daughter, even if it’s not official
yet.”

“
I’m sorry Gav. I didn’t
mean that. I don’t know why I even said it. I knew the first time I
saw you hold her how much you loved her.” Garett sighed. “I’m going
to let you go before I say something else stupid and everyone ends
up pissed off at me.”

Gavin chuckled. “Apology accepted. Good
luck with Acasia.”

“
Thanks. I’ll talk to you
later.”

“
Okay. Bye Gar.”

“
Bye Gavin.”

Gavin disconnected the call and Garett
rubbed a hand over his face. He was not looking forward to the
conversation he was about to have with Acasia’s mother.

Acasia

Her mother refused to tell her what
Garett had said on the phone, saying that they would talk about it
after they had eaten dinner. Acasia was sure that Heather was just
trying to distract her, and had the feeling that Garett was on his
way to the house, probably having been invited to dinner by her
mother.

So she wasn’t too surprised when a
knock came at the door almost immediately after Heather had set the
food out on the table. Her heart beat fast as she watched her
mother cross the living room to the door. She tried to turn away to
delay facing him, but her eyes were drawn to him like always. His
eyes looked more apologetic than she thought she had ever seen them
look and tears sprang to her eyes again.

Her mother gave her a bright smile when
she returned to the kitchen. “Look who’s here sweetheart. I think
I’m going to take my dinner into the living room. My program is
coming on.”

Heather pulled out a plate for Garett,
handing it to him and telling him to help himself. She then took
her own plate and a TV tray out to the living room, turning the TV
set on at a volume that Acasia was sure was still low enough for
her to be able to eavesdrop.

Garett sat at the table across from
her. He hadn’t bothered to put any food on his plate. He started to
reach for her hand and then seemed to think better of it, pulling
his hand back.

“
I’m sorry Acasia. I can
never tell you how sorry I am. I don’t know exactly what you saw,
but I really wish I had told you what was going on with Renee in
the first place.”

“
And what exactly is going
on with Renee?”

“
She’s been calling me since
she got back to town, trying to convince me that there’s work that
needs to be done on her house. I’ve told her over and over that
there’s nothing that needs to be done before she sells the house.
Or tries to sell the house since this is Clinton and almost nobody
seems to want to buy a house here. Some of the messages that she
left me were pretty suggestive. I would have told you before, but
it seemed stupid to bring it up. I guess I was hoping that she
would eventually get the point and leave me alone. But then today
she showed up at the house. And she kissed me. I had already told
her to leave by that point, so I pretty much kicked her out right
after. I guess maybe that’s what you saw.” He sighed. “I’m so sorry
baby. I didn’t want to worry you over something that seemed so
stupid.”

Acasia let out a sigh of her own.
“Everyone seems to agree that I’m overly emotional. I wish you
would have told me.”

“
I’ve never made a better
choice in my life than asking you to marry me Acasia.” He reached
for her hand and she let him take it, twining their fingers
together. “We’re a family now. And families sometimes do stupid
things like not mentioning something that seems stupid but could
end up creating a problem. Please don’t ever think that I’ll leave
you. I know that you’re scared baby. There’s a lot to be scared of,
but I’ll always be by your side. I’d follow you anywhere. I love
you more than I ever knew it was possible to love someone. And
we’re having a baby. I’m nothing without you honey. You and the
baby are my life, my heart. Please don’t ever forget
that.”