Forever More
Part 2 - Faith
Chapter Twenty One
The alarm by Rebecca’s side of the bed went off at six a.m. She reached over and shut it off as Scott rolled over and settled back in again. Lying there a few more moments and felt as if she had to drag herself from the warm covers on that chilly December morning.
Sitting up she swung her feet around to the floor. Just then a wave of dizziness hit her head. She laid back down. Trying again she got up slowly this time and made her way in the dark to the kitchen. Flipping on the light she proceeded to get a pot of coffee going.
By the time she rousted two boys out of bed and got them sitting at the kitchen table with cereal and toast she knew she had to go lay back down again.
Crawling back into bed she shook Scott and told him that he had to get up and make sure the boys finished getting ready and take them to school.
He didn’t want to move either and asked what was wrong.
"I just don’t feel good." She said holding back the twinge of nausea that she was now starting to experience.
She laid there trying not to move at all as he got up, pulled some pants on and went out to do everything that she had asked.
Occasionally he or one of the boys stuck their head in asking for directions to papers that had to be sent back to school that day or the whereabouts of a certain shirt that Kyle was set on wearing that day.
Scott asked if he could get her anything but she just wanted to be left alone. She hadn’t been ill before and he wasn’t sure what to do for her.
Finally the back door shut and she heard the car pull down the driveway. It was only a few moments later that she found myself hunched over the toilet.
Oh, yeah, she knew what this was. She had her suspicions but hadn’t said anything to Scott. She had not been feeling the best but even being late didn’t mean that much since she was normally erratic in that area.
This was, however, the sign that she had been waiting for. She just wished that she had felt better so that she could enjoy it.
Rebecca was just coming out of the bathroom with a wash cloth held to her face when Scott came in the back door.
"You OK?" he inquired throwing the car keys down on the table and hanging his coat on the back of a chair.
She didn’t feel like talking still holding the cloth to her mouth but motioned that he come her way.
"Come on, I think I need to tell you something."
She crawled back into bed and he followed down the hallway.
"Sit down," She instructed.
He sat next to her and asked again if she wanted anything.
Still laying with her head on the pillow, "I’m pretty sure I’m pregnant."
She opened one eye to see his reaction.
His mouth was open and he seemed to be trying to think of what to say but there was a definite smile on those lips.
"Are you kidding?" he finally came up with.
"Does this look like I’m kidding?" She said burying her face into the pillow. "I’ve had a feeling the last few days."
"And you didn’t say anything?"
"I didn’t want to be wrong."
"So," he stopped and thought, "You don’t think your wrong?"
She didn’t answer. He wanted so much to be excited but as Becky lay trying to hold down another bout of nausea he only felt so sorry for her.
She had to make another run for the bathroom and coming back found him still sitting on the bed. She crawled back in and put a cold cloth on her head.
Motioning him away all she wanted to do was to lie in the dark and not move.
It was nearly noon before Rebecca emerged from the bedroom and attempted to sit up in the living room.
She noticed that Scott had done up the breakfast dishes and she could hear a load of laundry drying. He was watching "The Price is Right."
She sat on the sofa still in her bathrobe and could only imagine how bad she looked at that moment.
He didn’t seem to notice. He made her some hot tea that she requested and a piece of toast that luckily stayed down. Then sitting there she was finally able to look at him and smile. He was bursting inside.
"I can’t believe it," he said as he shook his head and grinned.
"I can. Just look at me."
"I think you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen." He meant that sincerely.
Rebecca leaned down and laid her head in his lap while he rubbed her shoulders.
Scott went with Rebecca to the doctor. It was official. She was pregnant. Being about seven weeks along he gave her a due date of July twenty-ninth.
Scott called his mother right away with the good news. She had accepted, though, didn’t understand why he had seemed to have broken up with Linda and moved in with this other woman and planned to be married all within such a short time. But then nothing that Scott had ever done surprised her anymore and the best way to have the relationship that she did have with her children was to just accept them no matter what.
Marion Taylor was a very wise woman. She was full of southern charm and loved to have her family home to her place in Alabama whenever possible. Her passion was cooking and baking and going home always meant good food and a fully belly. She was very easy going and laughed a lot.
Her daughter Marie lived in Montgomery so she saw her and her family regularly. Chris wasn’t far away, an hours drive. Mike and Scott, however, were all over. Mike’s job took him and his family to many different cities. Scott had been on his own for many years now but he always knew where home was.
The year before she had lost her husband, Walter, and since that time her children made more of an effort to stay close if only with a phone call every week or so.
Scott had a good relationship with his mother. Both his parents had been supportive of him all his life. No matter what he did or the mistakes that he made they were there knowing that it was his life that he had to live. They were very proud of their son.
The death of his father hit Scott and his brothers and sister very hard. He had not only been a father but a close friend.
Now as Scott dialed the phone to tell his mother the good news he knew that she would only be happy for them. When she heard the great joy in his voice as he announced the arrival of yet another grandchild for her she was indeed pleased and blessed.
That Christmas was extra special as Scott and Rebecca celebrated with Ethan and Kyle for the first time as a real family and with the anticipation of their upcoming wedding and the birth of a child.
Linda and Scott remained on friendly though somewhat strained terms as they separated in regard to material possessions. Though not married they had acquired many things together over the past few years. He was more than willing to just let her have what she wanted. He seemed eager to rid himself of his past life and start anew.
This new start included plans to build a home in the area near where Rebecca had purchased the small home in which they now lived.
Scott loved the area. Grain and dairy seemed to be the major agricultural resources as opposed to fruit where they had lived before. Up in that particular part of Michigan there loomed acres and acres of open spaces and he loved the spans of golden corn stalks in the fall or the billowing lush green of the hay in the spring. This was indeed a peaceful place to call home for his new family.
The Maple River flowed directly across the road from their home and when looking for property to build he knew that he wanted to be near the river. Just as on his farm in southern Michigan, the river drew him like a polestar with its charm, quiet stillness and tranquil setting. Finally securing a wooded parcel of about twenty acres, he and Rebecca set out to choose plans for their new home.
This was all so new to her and though terribly excited at the prospect of being able to build such a beautiful home she never forgot how very lucky she and her children were. She had struggled all her life and to see and hear Scott talk to the realtors and his accountant and lawyer almost made her head swim. She soon learned that he was very acute in financial matters.
The plans seemed so large and extravagant to her since she had been used to living in such smaller surroundings. But Scott gave her free reign of any details inside the house that she wanted to add or change and as she became more sure of herself she was very much enjoying it.
Scott had his own plans when at last his farm was sold. The horses had to come up first, so even before a single brick was laid for their actual house they had a large barn built and the horses were brought to their new home.
Scott’s next sites were set on moving his studio but with the weather not cooperating things got moved back a bit on their home and his studio had to wait. He had gone down and packed it all up and had it put in storage until the day would come that he could move it all up to its new location.
Rebecca was in the kitchen washing up the breakfast dishes. As she stood looking out the window she focused on the light rain that was beginning to fall. The snow from a storm that February was nearly gone and right then she thought that it looked more like spring than winter.
The morning was a lazy one. She had taken the boys to school and come home to do a few minor household chores. Scott had slept late as she was now aware that he was a nocturnal animal and she was not. He came alive toward evening when she preferred to go to sleep. She might have been able to change her routine if it wasn’t for two small boys who needed to get up early and off to school.
Sometimes she would crawl back into bed and cuddle up under his arm but most of the time she let him sleep and used that time to do the never ending household tasks. Two boys could leave quite a mess in their wake and now sometimes she even wondered if she had three on her hands. Already she was picking up his clothes and flashing glares his way over the constant array of pop cans, newspapers and general messiness that surrounded a chair that he had staked out as his own in the living room. She thought back to his house on the farm. So perfect, so immaculate. Granted, they had a housekeeper. Then remembering what Scott had told her once about being on the messy side she need only to picture his studio and know that.
Though she would never admit to it, it sure felt good to have a man to pick up after. Maybe she had been alone too long.
That particular morning Scott had rolled around about ten o’clock. He had his required three cups of coffee so that he could focus clearly and had now retired back to the bedroom. As she stood gazing out the kitchen window she heard the now familiar cords that emanated from his touch on an autistic guitar. She loved to hear him play. She loved to hear him sing.
The faster rock songs that she had seen him perform excited her, she had to admit, but it was the ballads that he wrote and sung so beautifully that warmed her heart and gave her glimpses into his open soul, moving her so deeply.
She knew that it must be killing him to have his studio and equipment packed away somewhere just waiting in limbo for its new home.
But for right now he was reduced to one man and a guitar. Simplicity, back to basics he would tell her. Sometimes he could just think better with an acoustic under his grasp.
Rebecca gathered into her arms a load of warm fresh smelling clothes from the dryer and headed down the hallway to the bedroom. When she opened the bedroom door Scott was sitting on the edge of the bed, no shirt, barefoot, his soft long blond hair was slightly on the wild side as he had not yet pulled a comb through it. His jeans were unfastened and unzipped enough at the top to reveal the band on his underwear and the soft blond trail of hair that extended downward from his navel. Oh, how she loved to glide her fingertips along that line. There he sat, guitar in hand.
She set about folding the laundry and laying it in small piles, one for each of them, on the bed near him. He continued to strum and sing softly as words or melodies worked their way into his head, stopping occasionally to discuss trivial matters.
She was nearly finished with the laundry, stacking the last of some T-shirts in his drawer when he asked her sit down. She took a place next to him on the bed.
"I have something that I want you to hear, " he told her.
She was his most captive audience and he loved it. As he began to play Rebecca intently listened to every word that he sang so endearingly for her. It was a love song. The words fell sweetly and tenderly from his lips.
The words told of a man who had not gone looking for love but had found it. Love had sought him out. He wasn’t even aware that he needed it, but once he had found it, he knew.
The words also told of how he had learned to come to need her, how it seemed that they had gone through so much together and they would always be there for one another. He knew that as the years went by he would only grow to love her and need her more and come to count on her more each day.
Rebecca could feel the tears as they tugged at her lashes.
"What is it called?" she whispered when he had stilled his fingers on the strings.
He reached to tilt her chin up so that he cold look deep into her eyes. With a thumb he gently wiped a tear that had escaped its well to trickle down here cheek.
"Forever More" he answered. "Forever More."
With his words and his music Scott had spoken what was in his heart to her. She could but only sit and cry for love of him. He had given her his most precious gift.
