49

Lauren Hart
Four days to the wedding; all the arrangements were done. The venue, my dress, Sean and Ryan’s suits, theme, cake, everything was done. Sean had been supervising preparations to make it my dream wedding. The gang, Christy, grandma, and my sister helped us with the preparations. I had been freaking out as well because I too had been running here and there to shop, for other work and office work, and not to forget Ryan. Sean and I had to look after him as well since we couldn’t leave him alone, we took him everywhere we went.
Now when almost everything was done, Sean ordered me to rest since I had been exerting myself too much; exhaustion was visible on my face. So, I had been sitting on my bed scrolling through the laptop, reading an official document secretly because if Sean saw me working he would get mad. Ryan was sitting beside me crossed-legged playing with his cardboard puzzle. I kept myself engaged with him by having small talks but all I received was short answers. Initially, I ignored but when he began to give me one-word answers I couldn’t help but get worried about his behavior.
I placed my laptop aside and crossed my legs. “Ryan?” I called him. He ceased his game and craned his neck up to look at me.
“Yes, mom?”
“Why are you so quiet, buddy?” I asked.
As if he didn’t get the actual meaning behind the question, he frowned. “Because my concentration is on the game.”
I sighed. “I have told you many times, buddy, don’t just play puzzles. You need to be more active, speak more.” I said. Kids of his age are curious and ask tons of questions about everything but he doesn’t.
He dropped the puzzle piece on the bed and pouted. “Who do I play with, mom? You and dad remain busy with work most of the time and puzzle is the only game I can play alone.”
That hit me…hard. God, we were equally responsible for his silence. Damn, how could we forget that he had no one to play with if we remained busy. I needed to talk to Sean urgently.
And as if Sean heard my mental voice which was calling for him, he entered the room. My eyes switched to Ryan who had gone back to his game. I sprung out of the bed and stood before Sean.
“You seem worried, what happened?” Sean asked quietly. Frowning, I looked at him.
“Sean, I feel horrible. We got so busy with work and wedding preparations that we forgot about Ryan. He doesn’t say a word but he’s feeling lonely. I am worried.”
Sean’s face dripped and he looked over to my shoulder; I followed his gaze as well. “He said that he has no one to play with when I asked him. We have to do something, Sean. We have to make him more active.” I whispered in concern.
“Yeah, you are right.” He sighed. Our gaze locked again. “What can we do? Grandma would be so mad if she gets to know this.” I said.
“All we can do is make more time for him.” He said. “We will have to cut time from work to be with him.” He proposed. I nodded my head absent-mindedly.
“By the way, I have one more idea to make him active and he won’t be lonely anymore.”
As he said that my eye lit up and a smile made its way to my lips. “What is it?” I asked in excitement.
To my surprise, he pulled me to him by my waist. “We can give him someone to play with.” He mumbled, his eyes beaming.
“Oh, okay?” I muttered, not understanding him completely. “And that ‘someone’ is…?” I raised my eyebrows.
He smirked and inched his face forward taking it to my left ear. “A sibling.” He whispered.
A small gasp escaped my throat, my heartbeat picked up the pace. A sibling… means…a child.
My senses came to alert mode and my mind immediately went to weird things happening to me; too much exhaustion, a little bit of dizziness but the most important being my missing period.
Could it be-? But I hadn’t experienced morning sickness which made me unsure of my suspicion.
Licking my lips, I cleared my throat as I withdrew myself from his hold. I couldn’t deny it; I would love to have kids with him, but were we ready?
“Are we ready for a child, Sean?” I asked in concern. “I mean, we are unable to give our time to Ryan, how would we manage with the baby? Besides, Ryan came into our lives as a grown-up, it’s a bit easy to look after him but…” I sighed. “I am just concerned.”
He gently cupped my face and smiled. “Exactly, Ryan came into our lives as a grown-up, and honestly Lauren, I too want to experience the feel of holding our tiny baby in my arms, I want to see our baby grow up. I want to see our baby learn to walk and eat up almost everything while he’s teething.” He chuckled. “My happiness can’t be measured with having Ryan in my life but I want to experience the pleasure of having one more. And I am pretty sure, together, we can manage everything.”
My lips stretched in a shy smile. He was right, the happiness of having Ryan with us could not be compared with anything but having a baby would add joy to our lives. He was ready, so was I.
“So, when do we start?” He wiggled his eyebrows as he again pulled me closer to him. Only if he knew I suspected having a life growing inside me. I needed to see a doctor before telling him about my suspicion.
For now, I gave him a tight-lipped smile and pushed him away. “We’ll discuss this later, for now, you need to think about Ryan. Come up with something to encourage him to be more active. I want to see him laugh all time.”
“Consider it done.” He beamed and walked past me to Ryan, and whispered something in his ear which made him jump in his arms.
“Yay, dad, we will ” He was silenced by Sean.
“Shh, we don’t want others to hear about our plan, now do we?” Sean said while looking at me with peripheral vision.
“What? Are you two not gonna include me in your plan?” I frowned, keeping my hands on both sides of my waist. Both father and son grinned and gave each other a knowing look then faced me while showing their teeth.
“Nope!”
What? They did not just-!
“Fine!” I raised my hands in the air showing fake anger. “Do whatever you want. I better do my work.” I narrowed my eyes at them and marched to the bed. I picked up my laptop and made my way out of the room.
“I told you not to work, Lauren. Rest for a while, will you?” Sean’s voice halted me in middle. Huffing, I turned.
“What else would I do when you both planned something full of fun and excluded me?” I then pointed a finger at him.
“And you Mr. Peterson, forget about touching me for two weeks!” I glared at him before walking out of the room.
“Hey, how would we make a baby if you won’t allow me to touch you. Besides, we are marrying in four days.” I heard him shout but I completely ignored him.
“Would you now tell me where you are taking me?” I asked the hundredth time. I had no idea what these boys had in their minds. Sean blindfolded me and dumping me in the car he drove us to I don’t know where. Throughout the drive, Ryan kept giggling on the backseat, and even after asking him numerous times he too didn’t open his mouth. All Sean said that it was something he had planned for Ryan- then why the fuck was I blindfolded? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
Sean helped me out of the car and circled his arm around my waist and pulled me closer. “Patience, Lauren, patience.”
I huffed. Where could have he brought me? Impatience almost killed me but somewhere inside I felt excited to see what he had planned.
Ryan came on my side and gripped my hand.
We walked and walked and walked and there came the moment when I started to feel extremely cold. I frowned. How could I feel freezing when the winter was yet to arrive? Something was definitely wrong.
“Sean, why am I feeling cold?” I asked skeptically as I clutched Ryan’s hand tighter to provide him warmth through my hand. Could this place be the reason he instructed us to dress up in warm clothes?
“You are feeling cold because… because…” He dragged and Ryan giggled. He suddenly came to stop making me stop as well. I felt him move his hands on my blindfold. He slowly untied it.
“Because we are here!” He exclaimed in excitement and I blinked several times to adjust my vision and when my vision cleared my eyes turned wide and my jaw dropped in my feet.
We were at a freaking indoor skating rink!
What the heck!
“Why are we here?” I asked him.
“To teach you ice skating,” Ryan exclaimed while grinning ear to ear.
“You heard your son.” Sean winked.
“No freaking way!” I screamed and ran out of the rink only to be caught by Sean.
“Sean, leave me! You know I don’t know how to skate still you brought me here. You want me injured?” I nudged him to push him away but he held me tightly.
“Nothing will happen to you.” He promised.
“No-”
He suddenly released me and turned me to face him. “Fine go, I won’t force you. But don’t forget how excited and happy Ryan was to skate with you. Weren’t you the one who wanted him to be happy and more active and now when he is you are taking a backseat?”
I bit my lips and moved my gaze to Ryan who had been looking at me with hopeful eyes. Suddenly, I saw him walk to me. He grasped my hand and squeezed it.
“Don’t be scared, Mom. Dad and I will hold you tightly. I don’t want my mom injured, I’ll take care of you.” He spoke cutely. Aww…my son.
“You can do ice skating?” I asked in surprise.
He grinned. “I have learned a bit. Grandma used to take me to the rink sometimes.”
I flicked my gaze back to Sean who gave me puppy dog eyes. I huffed. “Just for Ryan, not you.” I narrowed my eyes at him. He grinned and excitedly, he landed his lips on mine.
Dangerously thin ice skates were slipped on my feet, I gulped, fear of falling on my butt eating me alive. Then I was asked to stand up. I gaped at Sean, did he think I could stand without support?
As if he understood my struggle, he gave his hand to me. “Oh, sorry, here.”
With wobbly legs, I slowly stood up and almost fell but Sean caught me. “Careful.” He said and earned a glare from me. He grinned nervously and took his hand away to rub the back of his neck.
“God, Sean, give me your hand, or I will kill you!” I screamed in horror as I threw myself on him, clutching him by his shoulders. And instead of helping me, he found it important to tease me.
“Who will you marry if you kill me?”
I shot him a most blazing glare. “There are a lot of men waiting for me to marry them. I will choose anyone of them.” I said through gritted teeth.
He gasped in horror. “You did not just say that, Lauren.” His eyes grew darker in anger.
“I did! What will you do now?” I asked maddeningly.
He slid my hands from his shoulders, making me squeak, but he helped me balance on my feet by gripping my upper arms.
“I will tie you to me.” He grumbled which made me scoff.
“You can’t even tie your tie yourself and you are talking about tying me? How funny!”
“Annoying me is your best pass time, isn’t it?” He asked irritatingly.
“You lovingly asked for it!” I gave him an air kiss.
“I am ready!” Ryan gained our attention. “Come on, let’s teach you, mom.”
He rushed to me and held my left hand while Sean held my right then both of them slipped a bit forward and began pulling me forward. I didn’t care about the people around us and I screamed, complained, squeaked, and almost cried a lot of times but I wasn’t allowed to rest. They both made sure I didn’t fall and made me skate for almost an hour nonstop.
Whatever my condition was, I was immensely happy to see Ryan laugh and enjoy teaching me. This is all I wanted, isn’t it? I did it for him, for his happiness, and would do anything to make him more active because he deserved a lively childhood. I wanted him to grow up with joy, not gloomily.
We spent our day out and had our dinner outside. After we came back home, we both tucked Ryan in bed and went to our room and after changing into nightclothes we cuddled. We began discussing work that we didn’t do the whole day.
“Sean?” I mumbled when I remember something.
“Yes?”
“Ryan needs someone all the time, how will we manage?” I asked.
“I told you, together.” He muttered as he stroked my hair.
“I know but…our presence will be needed in the office and at home at the same time.”
He suddenly sat up, making me fall flat on the bed. He looked down at me. “If you are thinking I’ll as you to quit then you are completely wrong. I will not change my P. A. unless you willingly want to step down.”
I sat up. “I did not say that, Sean. I will also not allow another female near you besides, I know I am the best P. A. you will ever get.” I gave him a proud look. “It’s just…” I sighed. “Forget it, we’ll manage.” I smiled and hugged him.
“Yes, we will. We’ll work from home as much we can or sometimes will bring Ryan to the company after school if needed. We’ll do it together.” He kissed my hair.
I was lucky that my luck which used to always bad pushed me in his arms. I finally found my life partner. And I couldn’t wait to marry him. Just two days. Two.