Brian’s wife watched Abby take it all in. Leighanne had walked a fine line, knowing that Abby said she didn’t want any fuss, but wanting to make the day special. Leighanne’s wedding day had been the best day of her life until the arrival of her son. She wanted Nick and Abby to feel the same way.
“It’s wonderful,” said Abby and she burst into tears. Leighanne hugged her and handed her a tissue. “Sorry,” continued Abby, as she dabbed at her eyes. “They’ve been threatening to spill out all morning.”
“’S okay,” said Nick, taking a tissue from the box and swiping at his own eyes. There was a lot of throat clearing from the others.
“Mrs. Littrell?” A woman in a black uniform appeared in the doorway.
Leighanne nodded at her. “We’re ready.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The lunch was great. They laughed and told stories and made toasts. Abby felt badly that the security guys didn’t participate but none of the others seemed to expect it, so she said nothing. She was in Nick’s world now.
“Mrs. Carter?”
Abby blinked and looked at Nick. He was grinning from ear to ear. “I love saying that,” he said. “Mrs. Carter.”
Abby smiled back. “Maybe we should call you Mr. Fremont.” She wrinkled her nose. “Nah.”
“What are you going to do about that?” asked Kristin. “Your name, I mean.”
“Yeah,” said Howie, “Are you going to be Abby Carter or Abby Fremont-Carter?”
Abby shrugged. She hadn’t really thought about it.
“We kind of need to know,” said AJ.
“Why?” asked Abby.
Nick left the room for a moment and came back in carrying a wrapped parcel. It was a flat box about eighteen inches square.
“This is my wedding gift to you,” he said.
Abby looked around the table. Obviously, she was the only one here who didn’t know what was in the box. The others were all grinning.
“Open it,” said Kevin.
Abby stood up. Nick placed the box in front of her. She carefully untied the ribbon and then lifted the lid from the box. She stared down at the contents, saying nothing.
“What is it?” she asked finally, lifting the object from the box. It was a water color painting in a silver frame.
“It’s the cover,” said Nick, “of your book.”
Abby looked down at the painting. The title said Why Me?, and in smaller letters underneath A Princess Penelope Story. And there she was sitting on her throne, crown askew, leaning her chin on her hands and looking confused. Along the bottom ran the words ‘by Abby Fremont-Carter’ and below that ‘with illustrations by Nick Carter’.
Abby looked at Nick. “I don’t understand,” she said.
“We all love your stories and Kevin knows someone in publishing…” began Nick.
AJ laughed. “Kevin knows someone in everything.”
“I showed them to a friend of mine,” said Kevin. “He wants to publish them. All of them.”
Abby shook her head in disbelief. It couldn’t be.
“My wife, the author,” said Nick, kissing her softly. “But I didn’t know about the name, if you’d want Abigail or…”
“No. Abby. Abby is good.”
“And I don’t have to do the illustrations for the real book.”
“Yes,” said Abby. “Yes, you do.” She ran her fingers over the glass-covered princess. “You’re the one who knows what she looks like.” She raised her head and seemed to come out of her trance. “And besides, it will be nice to know that you have something to fall back on if the music thing doesn’t work out.” She moved to the drawer of the sideboard. She pulled out a small box. “All I got you was a keychain.” She tossed the box to Nick.
He tore the ribbon off and lifted the lid. “You did, too,” he laughed. He pulled out the keychain. It was a circle of gold with two waves of gold across it. Imbedded in the top wave was a row of tiny diamonds. “Like the ring,” he whispered, looking at her. She nodded back at him.
“What are they for?” asked Brian, pointing at the two keys hanging from the ring.
Nick held up the first one to show them all.
“That’s the key to the apartment in Chicago…our home,” said Abby. Leighanne sniffled. She couldn’t hold back the emotion any longer.
“And this one?” Nick knew what it was, but he asked anyway.
“That’s the key to my car,” said Abby. “I’m going to let you drive it.”
“Hell, yeah,” said Nick. “Now that I’ve been endowed with your worldly goods…”
Everyone laughed. Nick and Abby stepped into each other’s arms and kissed. Then they both sighed at the same time.
“If you will all excuse us for a moment,” said Abby.
“We have some calls to make,” finished Nick.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~“Hello, Mother, it’s Abby.”
Abby held tight to Nick’s hand.
“I’m fine…yes, he’s fine…Mother…”
Abby listened for another moment. She rolled her eyes at Nick and then finally blurted it out. “That’s not going to be necessary, Mother. We got married this morning.”
Abby moved the receiver away from her ear, as the wall of sound erupted. Nick squeezed her hand tighter. Abby put the phone back to her ear. “Mother…no, it’s all…it’s what we wanted…” She sighed and listened for another moment. Then, “Hi, Daddy…yes, it’s true…because we didn’t want the big circus…aw, thanks Daddy, I knew you’d understand.” She listened, nodding her head and smiling. “No, we’re just going to call them now…no, the announcement will come from the Boys this time…I love you too, Daddy.” She handed the receiver to Nick. “He wants to speak with you.”
Nick picked up the phone. “Hello, Sir…thank you, Sir…yes, Sir, I will…thank you, Sir, I’ll tell her.” He hung up the phone.
They looked at each other and exhaled, realizing at the same moment that they’d been holding their breath. “Phew! I’m glad that’s over,” said Abby.
“Your dad told me to take care of you,” said Nick, “and he said not to worry, he’d square it with your mom.”
“I’m glad I’m going on the road with you for a few days,” laughed Abby. “It will give him time to calm her down.” Then she nodded at the phone. “Your turn.”
“Which one should I call first?” he asked.
“What about Aaron?”
“Yeah. Good call, Wife!” He grinned at her. “But first, come here.” Nick pulled Abby into his arms and kissed her. He put his hands in the small of her back and ground his hips against her. She moaned and opened her mouth, inviting him in. They kissed and ran their hands over each other. Finally, Nick groaned and tipped his head back. “I haven’t had a chance to tell you how beautiful you look today.”
“I’m radiant,” said Abby, matter-of-factly. Then, “you cleaned up pretty good yourself, Husband.”
Nick kissed her again. This time, it was Abby who broke away after a long moment. “I could stand here and do this all day, but…” She nodded at the phone.
“What? You think I’m just kissing you to get out of phoning my parents…that I’m just…” He waved his hand in the air, inviting her to fill in the word.
“Procrastinating?” said Abby, with a grin.
“Yeah, that. Is that what you think?” Nick was grinning too.
Abby tipped her face up and accepted another kiss. Then she stepped firmly away from him. Nick sighed and picked up the phone. “It’s early in California. They might not even be up.” He punched in the first number.
“Aaron. Hey, Bro. It’s Nick. Did I wake you?...okay, good…no, no, everything’s fine. Better than fine, actually. Aaron, Abby and I got married this morning.” Nick listened and smiled. “Yeah, we didn’t want that whole show. We just wanted to be ‘us’. I wish you could have been here, though.”
Abby felt a twinge of guilt. Just because she didn’t have any brothers or sisters, that didn’t mean that Nick didn’t. She hadn’t even thought about them. She looked up. Nick was shaking his head at her. It was okay.
“No, I haven’t called them yet. I wanted to tell you first…yeah, cool, thanks…yeah, I will.” He turned to Abby. “Aaron sends you a hug,” he said as he disconnected. In California, Aaron stared at the phone and wondered why Nick had said that when what Aaron had said was that he sent his love.
“Next?” asked Abby.
“I’ll call my dad. I call him first and then I ask him if it’s okay if I let mom think I called her first. It works out better that way.” Nick punched in the number.
“Hi, Dad! Did I wake you? No? Good...Atlanta…no, there’s nothing wrong, the opposite, in fact…yeah! yeah, that’s exactly what we did, how did you guess?” Nick put his hand over the phone and whispered to Abby, “he asked if we eloped.”
Abby grinned and shook her head. Nick continued talking with his dad. Then he hung up. “He was cool,” he said. “He said he thought we did the right thing, keeping the mothers out of it.”
“Wise man, your dad,” said Abby, laughing. Then she stopped and picked up Nick’s hand. She kissed his fingers and then put the hand on the phone. “Do it,” she said. She slipped her arm around him and held him as he dialed the number. He put an arm around her for support.
“Hello, Mom.”
Abby held him close while she watched his mother break his heart. Jane Carter listened to her son tell her that he had gotten married that morning. She didn’t congratulate him or wish him well. First, she sounded hurt and said that she couldn’t believe he would do that without her there. And then she laughed and said that she bet Old Lady Fremont was totally pissed about this. Abby rubbed her husband’s back and thought seriously about having a contract put out on his mother. She wondered if Kevin knew any hitmen.
“Okay, Mom,” he said finally. “Yeah, I’ll call you soon. I’ll give your regards to Abby.” Jane hadn’t even mentioned her. He hung up the phone. He put both arms around Abby and held her. Then, with a sigh, he let her go. “There, that’s done!”
He moved to the door.
“Hey, Mr. Carter!”
“Yes, Mrs. Carter.”
Abby walked up to him. “Before you go, could you procrastinate me one more time?”
Nick spun her around and pinned her against the door. He kissed her so thoroughly she thought she might faint. He ran his hands over her and ground his body against hers. He moved his mouth to her throat and ran a trail of kisses around her collar. Abby ran her hand down his chest and over his belt buckle.
Nick stepped back and shook his finger at her. “I gotta go soon. I have a show to put on.”
“And after that?” she asked softly.
Nick took her face gently in both hands. “After that,” he whispered softly, “I really have a show to put on.”
