Party of Four

Nica’s Gift - Riley

In the days leading up to Mother’s Day, the idea that Nica was actually willing to “marry” us in any way still didn’t seem real. Her first marriage had been hell. Her ex was emotionally and financially abusive. She’d been put on antidepressants and anxiety medication because of him.

He was always accusing her of cheating, no matter where she was or what she was doing. The moment she was clocking out of work, he would already be calling, wanting to know where she was. Even going to the gym, he’d make it hell and make it hard for her to finish her workouts. She gave up so much of herself and got nothing in return.

Sure, she’d had some rough patches after she’d left, like when she broke her leg in her car accident, but she was a different woman now. She’d found herself again. She’d bought her dream car and made a sanctuary out of her apartment at Magnolia Pointe.

The weight of her willingness to give all of it up wasn’t lost on me. She’d already talked about trading in her Volkswagen, but I hoped that with her moving in with us, we’d be able to find a different solution. I hoped Stonehaven would create a new sanctuary, that she would just see it as an upgrade. The neighborhood had all the same amenities, and then some.

She’d have her own room too. Sure, it was likely that the three of us would spend our nights in the same room anyways, but at least she’d have her own space still to get away whenever she needed to be alone. And we’d be a family…the three of us, with our baby.

I wasn’t sure what had inspired her idea for a commitment ceremony, but I wasn’t mad about it. Not in the slightest. She proudly wore the ring Cole and I gave her on Valentine’s Day as an engagement ring.

The only thing I worried about was if the October wedding date would be too soon after the baby being born. She would barely be a month postpartum, and that was assuming the baby was on time. What if that wasn’t enough time for her to recover?

Even with all these thoughts in my head, even as she discussed color schemes and flowers and the things we absolutely wanted for the ceremony, it still didn’t strike me as actually happening until I watched my mom pull the wedding planner binder out of the gift bag.

I focused on the jokes and the teasing, not wanting to let my anxiety ruin my night. I didn’t have it as bad as Cole, but we were brothers after all…

Besides, my anxiety wasn’t a question of whether or not I could handle the massive life-changing decisions. It was more out of concern that Nica wouldn’t one day regret her decisions. I never wanted her to feel the way she had with her ex. I never wanted her to feel controlled or trapped. I definitely didn’t want her to feel how Cole had when he came back from Oklahoma.

I worried about him too. He’d come a long way in the last few months with how he handled his anxiety and coped with his trauma. He still had struggles. At least he knew he wasn’t alone though. Nica was nothing like Amber either. She’d never do him -either of us, really- the way Amber had.

I focused on my food while mom talked venues and themes and whether we should have the wedding inside or outside. I had never really put much thought into what kind of wedding I would have…or if I’d ever get married for that matter. So I didn’t really have much to contribute as far as ideas went. I just wanted Nica to be happy, and she was only concerned about my mom’s joy in this, apparently.

She had told us, when we asked if she was sure about handing over the reigns to our mom, that she didn’t even have a wedding the first go around. They had eloped at the local library, then took pictures at the lake before going out to eat. She had wanted a gothic romantic wedding like something out of Dracula or Phantom of the Opera, only to be told by her ex that he wasn’t wasting time or money on a wedding “no one would go to.” Handing the creative process over to my mom felt like it was her way of protecting herself from disappointment again without actually saying as much.

Dinner wrapped up and we made our way outside, hugging each other by the cars. I wrapped my mom in a tight embrace, leaning down to whisper in her ear, “Try not to plan too much until I get to talk to you privately.”

Her brows pulled together as she leaned back to look at me. “You’re not changing your mind already, are you?” she asked quietly.

I shook my head then glanced at Nica. Her back was to us as she hugged my dad. “Just wait, please.”

She nodded and smiled as she released me from our hug. “Of course.”

The next day, I was cut early. Cole was a double and Nica was on the line. I went ahead and left with plans to come back and pick up Cole after his second shift. Until then, I needed to actually focus on moving. Mom and dad were already settled in. We only had carried over our nonessentials to the new house. We had less than a month before Nica planned to start moving her stuff in, and we had a buyer for our house lined up. It was crunch time.

I went home first and changed, then I started loading boxes into the back of my Sportage. I tried to fit as much as I could, everything out of my room except my work clothes -and some pajamas- and furniture. We planned on renting a U-Haul on the final day to move all the furniture at once instead of breaking stuff down and making multiple trips.

We also needed to finish packing up the living room and the kitchen, but at least I was finally making some solid progress.

Security let me through the gate at Stonehaven and I nodded and smiled at the guard in the booth as I drove past. I wasn’t sure I would ever get used to living somewhere that was not only gated, but had actual security guards as well. Most “gated communities” were like Nica’s. There was a gate, but it was more of an idea. Anyone could walk around the gate, and if you waited long enough, you could follow someone through. Not here.

I made my way through the subdivision, past the tennis court and the playground until I got to my new house. The fact that we’d already owned it for a few weeks, and yet I hadn’t spent more than an hour here at any given time felt strange. I took a deep breath as I parked. I was going to have to find a way to process this reality.

Mom’s Kia was parked in the driveway, but dad’s car was missing. Good. I would have a chance to talk to her about the ceremony. First though, I needed to empty my car.

I took a small box first, something easy to carry under one arm, and went to unlock the door. My focus was on getting everything out of my car first, then I could take everything up to my room. Cole had liked my idea of us taking the rooms with the shared bathroom, and giving Nica the master bedroom across the hall. I’d claimed the far room -the one with an actual window- and he took the one opposite that had a skylight since it was enclosed in the center of the upper floor. Since he was an early riser anyways, he wasn’t worried about not being able to cover it, and I could hang blackout curtains over my window.

I didn’t bother to unpack anything yet. In fact, nothing had been unpacked yet. There were boxes stacked in both the living room and in the entryway that had been sitting there untouched since we closed. Until we had our furniture here, I didn’t see the point. I knew it was a risk, we were probably setting ourselves up for failure, creating a massive task that we didn’t have a proper amount of time for, but at least we’d be stuck handling it together.

Once I was done, I walked through to the glass door, and stepped out into the backyard. It was fenced in, with a gate on the side of the house that my parents could go through when they came and went. Not that we’d really mind them coming in and out of the house anyways. They already did before. If we were home, the back door was usually unlocked. I couldn’t imagine doing things differently here.

Mom had made herself comfortable at the pool, lounging in her old beach chair. Her hat cast a shadow over her face and her large sunglasses were dark enough that I wasn’t sure if she was sleeping or just relaxing.

“We’ll have to get proper deck furniture soon,” I called to her, not too loudly in case she was asleep.

“We will eventually,” she sighed. “Right now, there are more important things. Baby furniture, a wedding. We’ll have to put up a gate around the pool before she starts walking.”

I nodded in agreement as I sat on the ground next to her.

“Finally moving your stuff over?”

“I kind of have to, don’t I?” I tried to joke, a half smile lifting one side of my lips.

“You and Cole never did like moving. Remember when we moved into that old house in Memphis?”

“That one was haunted.”

“It was old and it creaked, and Cole let you watch House on Haunted Hill when your dad and I weren’t home.”

“Could you blame me? That skeleton scene was terrifying to a six year old.”

“My point is, Vincent Price wasn’t trying to scare you into a pit of acid. You were just a child with an overactive imagination and an older brother who was an asshole.”

“You said was instead of is,” I smirked.

She scowled at me and continued, “Then when we moved to Florida-“

“I was in middle school being forced to move hundreds of miles away from everything and everyone that mattered to me. Of course I gave you a hard time about moving,” I interrupted.

“And you balked every time we moved after we got here. That first apartment we stayed in.”

“It was cramped, Cole stunk up our bedroom with cigarettes, and there were crackheads outside at all hours of the day and night.”

“Everywhere we went, you had an excuse for why it was the worst. Remember, you didn’t want to leave that apartment either when we found that house in Naples. Then when we moved here, you complained. I think the only time you haven’t had any issues with moving was when you and Cole moved into this last house.”

A frown settled on my face as I looked out at the pool. I hated how right she was. Every time we moved, I made it harder than it needed to be. Even when we were leaving places I didn’t like.

“You’ve always been resistant to change, and that’s okay. Remember when we went to your first grade orientation to meet your new teacher, and you cried because it wasn’t your kindergarten teacher? You didn’t want a new classroom and new friends.”

I continued to frown. Was I really so stubborn?

“The point is, you get through it every time. This is a big change for you. You’re not just moving, you’re becoming a father. You’re creating a home for your family. This is a significant change.”

“I’m just worried that Nica will end up resenting us because she’s giving up so much.”

“That girl loves you. Both of you. Trust me, she wouldn’t be doing any of this if she didn’t want to.”

I took in a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. She was right. Deep down, I knew she was right. I just never wanted Nica to feel like she was forced into something she didn’t want.

“There’s something else weighing on you.” She didn’t even pretend to pose it as a question. She knew just by looking at me.

“I’m worried that October is rushing things.”

“You’re going to have a baby in September. It’s a little late to worry if you’ve rushed things.”

I sighed, rolling my eyes. “That’s not what I mean,” I clarified. “I mean…her having a baby in September, then us having a wedding in October. What if that’s not enough time for her to recover, and she’s not able to enjoy it?”

“You could talk to her about it…see if she’s willing to push it back.”

“She’s in love with the idea of an October wedding though,” I explained. “Actually, when she got married before…she didn’t get to have a wedding. This is what I wanted to talk to you about last night. She wanted this elaborate gothic romance, and her ex wouldn’t let her. She ended up eloping. No family, no wedding, nothing special.” Another heavy sigh left my lips as I pulled my knees up, resting my arms on them.

“You want to give her the dream wedding she didn’t get to have before?”

I nodded. “Since she’s left all the planning details up to you, I figured…maybe we could surprise her with the wedding she actually wanted.”

My mom smiled, “We can do that. Five months isn’t a lot of time to pull off something like this, but I can do it. If you can convince her to wait until next October though, that would help, but I can do it this year if that’s what her heart is set on.”