Never Judge a Book By Its Cover
Chapter 35
---5 months later---
I walked out the back door of Nick and Erika's, walked past the pool, past the lawn chairs, and towards the Gulf. Nick's pool jutted out over the water. This was my favorite place to sit. Right on the edge. I balanced myself, walking towards the center until I got to the best place to watch the sunset. I settled down, my feet dangling over the edge and the cool Gulf breeze hitting my face. I couldn't look down thanks to my relentless fear of heights, but I loved to look out and onward towards the horizon. I filled me with happiness. No matter what was going on in my life, I had the sunset to remind me that there were good things out there. I leaned back on my arms and closed my eyes, inhaling the sweet scent of the air as it wrapped itself around me.
"Hey." I heard from behind me, nearly forcing me to fall over the edge. I turned around and saw Brian standing on the opposite side of the pool, far away from the ledge. He was more scared of heights then I was, he refused to even walk out there most times, but that day I guess was an exception. I smiled at him and gestured for him to join me but he replied shaking his head no. I laughed a little smiled at him. "Come over here baby," he said, "I have a surprise for you." I smiled and stood up, balancing myself on the side as I made my way back around the side of the pool and to Brian's side.
"What is it?" I asked, smiling. He leaned down and kissed me softly and pulled away and smiled.
"That was it, you can go back out to Crazy Land now," he said smiling.
"Come out there with me Brian, it's gorgeous."
"I'm sure it is, but there is no way in hell you're getting me on a half foot wide ledge. You've got to be crazy. You're lucky I'm standing here."
"I know, you're so valiant," I teased. He smiled and wrapped his arms around me.
"Hey, I know I'm no Superman, but if you really needed me to go out there, I would."
"I really need you to go out there with me Brian," I said smiling. He smiled back and shook his head.
"No thank you," he grinned, "Come with me downstairs, we'll go out on the beach under the house and watch the sunset from there...on the ground...where it's safe." I nodded laughing a little and took his hand as he lead me through the house and down the spiral staircase in Nick and Erika's bedroom down through the laundry room, through the dining room and living room and out the massive sliding glass doors that lead right onto the beach. He grabbed a towel out of the cabinet just outside the doors and we headed down the beach, finding the perfect spot. Finally, we found a place with no rocks or weeds and he laid the towel down, helped me sit, then sat next to me, taking me into his arms.
"I can't wait until tomorrow for the ultrasound," he whispered into my ear.
"Me either," I said leaning my head on his chest. "Do you think it'll be a boy or a girl?" I asked, placing my hand over Brian's resting on my swollen stomach.
"I don't know. I would really like to have a girl though."
"Me too. One little you is plenty for me," I grinned and turned around.
"You meanie!" he said pouting. I giggled and kissed his cheek. "Ok, you're not so mean anymore," he smiled.
"I talked to Jamie yesterday. He's having a blast with your parents," I said, snuggling back into his arms.
"Yeah, I talked to him earlier, they're spoiling him rotten."
"You're just like your parents, huh?" I asked smiling. Brian wrapped his arm tighter around me.
"I just want him to be happy, you know that."
"I know," I said, watching the sun slowly sink behind the clouds. There was nothing in the world like a Florida sunset. Especially a Florida sunset with Brian. I shut my eyes with my head still on his chest, listening to his heart beat.
"You ready to go back inside?" he asked, running his fingers through my hair. I shook my head.
"Let's stay out here for a little while longer. This feels really nice."
"Yeah it does. I've missed this sort of thing." I opened my eyes and stared at the sand beyond Brian. Hearing him say that he still missed me although we had spent at least every other day together since we were separated together. He was right though, I missed things like that too. Being able to just sit, not having to say anything, but wanting to know everything we possibly could about each other. It was exactly like it had been when we first started being 'us'. Just comfortable with each other, not needing anything in the world but each other. Things were still like that, but it was more complicated now. Things had changed and they would never be exactly as they had been, that was for sure, but I knew we would overcome it....I knew in my heart that I already had. I stood up, brushed the sand off my butt and looked down at Brian.
"I'm getting tired," I said. I hadn't noticed how long we had actually been out there. I had been busy thinking about things that I shouldn't have been thinking about and almost and hour and a half had flown by without me even knowing. We didn't talk for those 90 minutes, I had a lot on my mind, and I guess he did too.
"So am I," he said standing up also. He picked up the towel, shook the sand off of it, and folded it up, slinging it over his shoulder. He took my hand and we walked back up the beach. He placed the towel back in the cabinet and we headed back through the massive sliding glass doors, through the living room and dining room, through the laundry room, back up the spiral staircase into Nick and Erika's bedroom and back out onto the pool deck.
"I'm glad you stopped by tonight," I said stopping and facing him.
"So am I," he said smiling down at me. "I'll be here at noon tomorrow to pick you up." I nodded my head and he pulled me into a hug. "I love you," he said pulling away. I nodded my head and he started to walk back into the house.
"I love you, too," I called after him. He turned around and smiled at me.
"I know you do. I'll see you tomorrow noontime, babygirl." And with that he turned around, walked down the main stairs and out the front door to his car. I smiled and walked in the opposite direction of Nick and Erika's room, towards the guest room which was basically now my room. I slid back the sliding glass door and slipped in, closing it behind me. I quickly changed, brushed my teeth, and slipped into bed, not wanting Brian's voice or his face to leave my mind.
---Next Day-noon---
"Hey dude, come on in," said Nick opening the door. "Kate! The dork is here!" he called up the stairs. Brian laughed and hit his arm. "Ouchie," he said rubbing his arm.
"If that hurt, you'd better get in that little work out room of yours and start pumping some iron." Nick laughed and look back up the stairs.
"Erika! Tell Kate that Brian's here!" he yelled.
"She knows!" Erika yelled back. "My God, must he bellow across the house?" she asked laying on my bed and flipping through a magazine. I walked out the bathroom, laughing and brushing my hair.
"I know Nick! I know! I'm not ready though. Be patient!" I yelled out the door.
"There you go starting!" said Erika sitting up, tossing the magazine on the bed next to her as I sat down, leaning over to slip my shoes on.
"This is tough man," I said, trying to tie my shoe. It was hard to reach over my stomach. Erika laughed and slipped off the bed and sat in front of me, tying my shoes. "Thank you," I smiled. She smiled back.
"Now listen, the second you find out what it is, you'd better call me. Ok, maybe not the second, but how about right after you get back into Brian's car?" she asked. I nodded my head.
"Of course I'll call. We're coming back afterwards, ok?"
"Uh huh! Nick and I have something planned, so you'd better come back afterwards!" she said standing up and taking both my hands, helping me off the bed.
"We will. Thank you so much for everything Erika," I said, hugging her. She hugged me back and nodded her head.
"It's not a problem. Now go before this gets emotional," she said pointing to the door. I laughed and walked out, and down the stairs.
"Well, look who it is!" said Nick, sitting on a chair near the bottom of the stairs. "Why it takes girls four years to get ready will always be a mystery to me." I smiled at him and walked over to Brian, who was sitting in a chair across from Nick. I held my hands out to help him up. He took them, we said our good-bye's to Nick and Erika then headed out the door and to my light blue BMW Z3 with the black top.
"What made you decide to bring this?" I asked, as he opened the passenger door for me. This car had been at his house since Nick and Erika only had a 2 car garage. I wouldn't let this car out in the sun or rain for long periods of time, so Brian kept it at his house for me.
"I know how much you love this car, so I thought I'd bring it for you. Wanna drive?" he asked, dangling the keys in my face. I looked at them, then shook my head.
"I'd better not. The baby's been kicking all morning, and I'd hate for that to happen while I was driving, ya know? Especially in my baby," I said tapping the side of the car. He smiled and opened the door for me and helped me in. "Brian, I'm not handicapped, I'm pregnant!" I said as he reached over me to buckle my seat belt.
"I know, I know, I just thought I'd help ya out," he grinned, then kissed me softly. He pulled away, closed my door, and ran around the other side of the car to get in. Pretty soon we were at the building where my ultrasound was to take place. After hitting the button for the top to go back up, Brian ran around to my side of the car, opened the door, and helped me out, then ran back around and took the keys out.
"Stop being so nice!" I said giggling. He smiled and walked to my side, wrapping his arm around my waist and leading me into the building. After waiting in the waiting room for what seemed like an eternity, it was our turn. We walked in and were greeted by Stephanie, the same person I had gone to when I was pregnant with James. I laid down and she pulled my shirt up.
"It's good to see you two again," she said looking over the top of her glasses. "Number two right?" Brian and I nodded. "Last one?"
"We'll see," I said, taking Brian's hand in mine. She smiled at us.
"It's good to see the two of you are still together. The first time you two were in here I said to myself 'That's a couple that will see forever.' And here you are...it's been about what? 3, 4 years? That's almost forever...especially for kids your age," she smiled. The two of us laughed uncomfortably. She put that cold gooey stuff on my stomach and soon Brian and I were watching our second child on the monitor next to us. "Look, there's it's hand," she said pointing it out. Brian and I instinctively enhanced the grip we had on each other's hand. "There's the head....and the foot's here. It looks like you've got yourselves a very healthy baby girl," she said smiling at the two of us.
"I knew it!" said Brian, smiling. "Pay up," he joked. I laughed at him and smacked his out stretched hand. Stephanie smiled at us and handed Brian the instrument she used to glide over my belly to see our daughter.
"Here, I'll go get your picture," she said smiling. Brian took it from her hand and placed it back on my stomach, moving it around. Tears began to fall from both of our eyes.
"She's going to be gorgeous," said Brian, leaning over me and kissing my forehead. He kissed away my tears and smiled down at me.
"Brian, I want to move back into the house." His tears subsided for a second and he stared blankly down at me.
"Are you sure that's what you want?" he asked, tears welling up in his eyes again. I nodded my head, more tears falling. He smiled widely and pressed his lips against mine.
"I'll take that," said Stephanie, taking the instrument from Brian's hand, since the two of us were too caught up in our personal break through to notice anything going on around us. He pulled away and smiled down at me.
"You won't be disappointed, baby, I promise. I love you," he said, kissing the back of my hand. I smiled at him, wiping my tears away.
"Here you are," said Stephanie, handing me the ultrasound picture of our daughter. I smiled and Brian and I looked at it together, before breaking out into tears again.
Once the tears subsided, we thanked Stephanie and headed back out into the parking lot. Brian followed the same procedure he had before, then we were off. He leaned over and dialed his parents house on the car phone.
"Hello?" asked his mother.
"Hey momma!" said Brian taking my hand in his and smiling at me.
"Hi darling! How are you? How'd the ultrasound go?"
"Great! Are dad and Jamie around?"
"Yeah, they're right here. Your brother's here too."
"Can you put me on speaker phone?" There was some fumbling with the phone and Brian's mom's voice saying, 'How do you do this? Harold, how do you work this thing?'
"Hey Brian!" said his father and brother.
"Hey daddy!" said James.
"Hi guys! Kaitlyn's here too."
"Hi everyone!" I said leaning over Brian. Another round of hello's came from the other end of the line.
"First," said Brian, "Jamie, mommy's coming home." James 'yea'ed and giggled. Brian's family all gave us their congratulations. "Second momma, remember how you said you wanted Harry to give you a granddaughter? No one needs him, you've got one," he said looking over at me. More congratulations poured in from their side of the line and Brian and I just looked at each other smiling, while we stopped at a red light.
"That's awesome, bro! And people do need me!" Harold, Brian's brother, protested. Brian and I laughed. "Congratulations Ms. Kaitlyn."
"Thanks!"
"All right, we gotta go cause we're almost back to Nick's and we're in the car, but I'll call you guys back later on tonight, k?" Brian asked. 'I love you's' and 'good-bye's' came from all 6 people. We pulled into Nick and Erika's driveway and Brian turned off the engine and looked over at me. "You were serious about coming back right? You weren't just saying that?"
"I'm dead serious Brian. I can't believe I let it go this long. Last night when we were on the beach, I was so happy and then today at the ultrasound when we saw our daughter on the screen, I just...I just knew now was the time. It's been dragged out long enough and I want to come home." He smiled and leaned over and captured my lips with his.
"I love you so much Kaitlyn and I swear to you that I will never, ever do anything to hurt you ever again," he said and kissed my hand.
"I love you too, baby," I said smiling. "Now come on! I wanna tell Erika!" I said unbuckling my seat belt and opening the door. By the time I was out, Brian was on my side of the car, helping me. "Brian sweetie, I can get out of a car on my own," I smiled. He nodded his head and led me up to the front door. It was locked so we had to ring the doorbell, since I had forgotten my key. Erika threw open the door and threw her arms around me.
"TELL ME!" she screeched, jumping up and down. I laughed and shook my head.
"You'll find out with Nick."
"Well, come here!" she said, grabbing each of our hands and dragging us into the living room. The rest of the guys and their girlfriends/wives were all there. They all stopped talking when we walked in and looked at us expectantly.
"Go ahead," Brian whispered, nudging me.
"It's a...girl!" I said. They all jumped up and hugged and congratulated us. Erika then led us over to the couch and sat us down handing Brian a beer and me a soda. I refused to drink at all during pregnancy.
"Ok ok ok!" she said, sitting down on the floor on the other side of the coffee table. "Be quiet everyone!" Everyone calmed down and took seats around the room. She handed every couple in the room a book of baby names and told us all to look. She wanted us all to help decide on the baby's name. I had told her a while ago that I wanted something like this since we weren't prepared with a name for James, I wanted to be prepared for this one.
"How about...Jamie?" asked Kevin, flipping through the book.
"Nah, I don't like it...besides that's James' nickname," I said as Brian and I looked through our book.
"How about Nicole?" asked Nick, grinning. Everyone rolled their eyes.
"Why don't they just name their kid Kevina?" asked Howie, laughing. Kevin looked at him and smiled.
"Hey, I kinda like that one."
"Well, what about Alexandra?" asked AJ. "That's what I'm leaning towards."
"What? One kid named after your punk ass isn't enough?" ask Brian throwing a pillow at his head. AJ laughed and threw it back.
"Oooh how about Heaven?" asked Farrah, grabbing the book from Kevin's hands.
"Yeah Heaven seems like a saintly Brian name," Nick teased. Brian threw the pillow he had thrown at AJ at him.
"It's pretty, but it's too...I don't know," I said, flipping through my book.
"Too Brian?" asked AJ, laughing. I looked over at him and nodded my head.
"Yeah, I guess so," I said laughing. Brian looked at me and pouted.
"Man, I get no love around this place." I laughed and kissed his cheek.
"Well, why not something like that?" asked Jenn. "Nick and AJ are right, that kind of name is very Brian. How about something like Angel or...or Faith?"
"Faith? Hmm...I like that," Brian said looking over at me. "What do you think?"
"I like it too. But not as a first name. How about as her middle name?" Brian nodded in agreement.
"Look up 'B' maybe there's a good name," said Brian leaning over to look at the book with me. I smirked and flipped to the B section. "Oooh Brianna."
"Oh God!" said well...pretty much everyone, rolling their eyes.
"Dude, Brianna? What's wrong with Nicole?" asked Nick.
"Yeah or Alexandra," AJ added.
"Or Kevina," said Kevin laughing.
"Well, there's always Howina," said Howie also laughing. Everyone in the room was cracking up.
"Ok, ok, I get the point," said Brian.
"Maybe there's a different N name," said Nick, grabbing the book out of Erika's hands and flipping to the N section. "Let's see...Natalie, Natasha, Nicole, Nina, Nelly...N names suck!" he said handing the book back to Erika.
"I didn't think they were that bad, dork," said Erika hitting him over the head with it.
"How about A?" asked AJ. Jenn flipped to the A section and skimmed over the names.
"Alexandra, Alexandria, Alexis, Allison, Amanda, Anne, Annabelle. Anything you guys like?" she asked looking up at us. Brian and I looked at each other and shook our heads.
"Well, let's see about K then," said Kevin. Farrah handed him the book and he flipped to the K's. "Kristen, Kelly, Kendra, Kara......hmmm....there's more but none that seem like something you two would like," he said handing the book back to Farrah.
"My turn! H..." Howie said flipping to the H section "....here we go...Helen, Haley, Heidi..."
"Wait. What was the one before Heidi?" asked Brian.
"Uh.....Haley?" asked Howie. Brian grabbed the book and flipped to the H's.
"Here," he said, thrusting the book in my face. "Haley, but we'll spell it H-A-Y-L-E-Y. What do you think? Hayley Faith Littrell?"
"Awww! That's adorable!" cooed Erika.
"That is adorable. But what does Hayley mean? I don't want my kid's name to means something stupid." Brian looked down at the book and back up at me, taking my hand in his.
"It's perfect," he said smiling. I heard everyone thumbing through trying to find the meaning, then looking up at us questioningly. I looked down at the book and saw: "Haley- Hero." I looked up at him and pressed my lips against his.
"That's it! That's her name!" I said breaking away from him. "It's perfect!" I said, tears threatening to escape my eyes again.
"Uhh...I think I speak on behalf of everyone here when I say...What the hell are you talking about? Hero? How it that so perfect?" asked Nick, looking from the book back up to us.
"Today during the ultrasound I decided to move back in with Brian, so she's like our hero. She brought us back together," I said looking over at Brian. He smiled and leaned over, kissing me lightly.
"And we both had faith that we would make it through. So Faith is her middle name," said Brian. Everyone in the room was silent.
"That is so cute, I think I might be sick," said AJ holding his stomach. Farrah, Alexis, Erika, and Jenn all had tears in their eyes.
"Hayley Faith Littrell. It's gorgeous," said Kevin, smiling at us. "Go Howie!" he said laughing. Howie stood up and took a bow. We all laughed. The rest of the night was spent talking about decorating the baby room and wondering how James was going to deal with having another little kid around. He was excited that he was going to have someone to play with, but none of us really knew if he knew what having a baby sister really meant. Brian and I decided we'd worry about that when the time came. Until then we had a lot of things to get done.
-=Epilogue=-
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