"What happened?" Josh asked, walking into the kitchen, halfway dressed.
"Just grabbed the stove instead of the oven door. What time are your parents getting here?" I grabbed a tray with a loaf of French bread on it and slid it into the oven.
He shrugged his shoulders as he reached for my hand and kissed my fingers. "Better?"
"You know it." I glanced out the window and saw a car pull up. "Baby, you should go finish getting dressed."
"Why?" he whined.
"’Cause I think your mom or dad just got here, and you can’t open the door looking like that." I lightly smacked his butt, shooing him upstairs. "I’ll get the door, go get ready!" He jogged toward the stairs and second later, the doorbell rang. "Coming!" I called out.
I opened the door. "Hi Holly!" Josh’s mom greeted me.
"Hi Molly, come on in!" She gave me a quick hug, then I showed her to the living room. We sat down on the couch. "So, how’s everything been going? I haven't seen you in forever!"
"Yeah, it’s been a while. Work’s going kind of slow, but that kinda thing comes and goes."
I heard Josh come down the stairs. "Sweetie, your mom’s here!" I called to him.
The doorbell rang at that instant. "I’ll get it!" Josh said. I heard some mumbling after he opened the door. Molly and I peered around the corner, trying to see who was at the door. Josh and the visitors finally came around the corner. "The family’s here!" Josh announced. His dad, step mom, brothers, and sister followed him.
Daniel looked in Molly’s direction. "Molly? Didn’t know you would be here."
"Well, Dad what kind of family get-together would it be without Mom?" Josh interrupted.
"Jess, Danny’s waiting for you upstairs; he’s been waiting for you all day!" I said.
"Oh, thanks!" She gave Molly a quick hug, then ran toward the stairs.
Jake and Joe quickly greeted their mother while Daniel and Sandra took a seat on the couch. Josh told his brothers about the game room upstairs and they were out of the living room like a bolt of lightning.
As Sandra, Molly, and Daniel conversed, Josh and I whispered to each other.
"When are your parents getting here?" he asked.
"Their flight was due in an hour ago, so they’re probably almost here."
"Is anyone else coming over?"
"No, not today. Justin’s in town for the weekend, so I think him, Lor, Jayce, and Hannah are coming over tomorrow."
"Thank God! This is going to be a very interesting day."
"That it is." I heard the front door open. "My parents are here." I left him and walked into the foyer to find only my mother standing there. "Mom? Where’s Dad? You look like you’ve been crying."
"I’m fine; just a little argument. Your father’s parking the car…" She brushed past me and walked into the living room.
I quickly followed her. "Mom, this is Josh’s family: his dad, Daniel, mom, Molly, and stepmother, Sandra. His brothers and sister are upstairs. Everyone, this is my mother, Linda."
"Nice to meet you all. James will be in any minute now," my mom explained.
My dad came in a minute later and everyone sat around talking.
I felt someone’s hands brushing against my cheek as I slept. I slowly opened my eyes to see a blurry Josh standing above me.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
He put my glasses on the nightstand. "You fell asleep reading. I didn’t want you to break your glasses or anything. Go back to sleep," he said and kissed my forehead.
He turned to leave the room. "Where are you going?" I asked, squinting to see the clock, then looking back at him. "It’s time for sleep, come back!"
"I’m gonna go make sure Danny’s asleep and not bugging Jess too much. I’ll be right back. Go back to sleep!" he hissed.
I rolled over and closed my eyes, trying to get back to sleep, but not able to. Even when Josh came and lay down, and I was wrapped up in his arms, I couldn’t get back to sleep.
My parents had fought all day long. Not in an outloud sense, but they hadn't said more than maybe two words to each other since they arrived at the house. It was bugging me. I pulled my mom aside before I had gone upstairs to lie down, and I asked her what was going on, and she said ‘Nothing at all, Hun. Don’t you worry.’ Well, I was worried. My parents rarely fought, so this was strange.
About an hour after Josh had fallen asleep, I heard some noise in the hallway. I brushed it off at first. Probably just someone getting up to go to the bathroom or maybe Jess couldn’t sleep in the same room with Danny, seeing as how he snored louder than anyone I had ever heard.
But the person went downstairs. I untangled myself from Josh’s arms and walked out into the hall and down the stairs. I saw my dad lying down on the couch, facing the back window. I decided to leave him alone, but I became even more worried.
The next morning, I finished getting dressed and grabbed my jewelry out of my jewelry box before going downstairs. I had conveniently forgotten to put any jewelry on the previous day, so as not to ruin the surprise that I wanted to save until Justin, Lor, Hannah, and Jayce were there too.
Everyone had already arrived; Justin even already had Danny in the pool, and they were playing Marco Polo with Laura, Hannah, and Jess.
Tobey, our little puppy, followed me outside and onto the deck, where I sat in Josh’s lap, and Tobey sat next to us.
"Tobey!" Danny called. The dog immediately ran and stood by the edge of the pool.
As we sat there talking, I inconspicuously took Josh’s hand in mine, making my ring sparkle in the sunlight.
"Sweetie," my mom said. "What’s that on your finger?"
"Nice one," Josh whispered in my ear.
"I thought so," I replied. "It’s a ring, Mom."
"I can see that; but a diamond on your left hand? A very large diamond at that."
Everyone was staring at Josh and me now. "Well, that’s actually why everyone is here." Everyone looked thoroughly confused. "Josh and I are getting married," I explained, a huge smile on my face.
"You’re not pregnant, are you?" my mom asked.
"Mother!" I was completely appalled. "No, I’m not pregnant!"
"I was just making sure."
"Right."
"Anyway!" Justin interrupted. I smiled gratefully at him. "Congratulations, you two!" He got out of the pool and ran over to hug. He picked me up and spun me around.
"Justin!" I squealed. "You’re all wet!" He just hugged me tighter.
"Just! Let her go," Laura scolded as she pulled him away from me.
There were hugs all around, including an extra long one from Hannah, and an extra short one from my own mother.
The phone rang shrilly, waking both Josh and myself up. I glanced at the clock: 3:14 a.m. I sighed and rolled over, reaching for the cordless.
"Go back to sleep," I mumbled to Josh. He had to get up early to go to the airport; he had a few meetings out in LA. "Hello?" I grumbled into the phone.
I heard a few sniffles, and then, "Your father left."
"Mom? What are you talking about? He left?" I was so confused. I sat up, and so did Josh. I looked over at him. "Go back to sleep!" I whispered. "Mother! Are you there?" I got up and left the room, walked down the hall, and went into a guestroom. "Mom? Where’s Daddy?" I was getting very worried.
"He’s gone!" she yelled. "I told you already!"
"Where did he go?" I asked, trying to stay calm.
"How am I supposed to know?" she practically wailed. "I got home from work earlier, and he was gone, but I thought he had just gone to see some friends. Then, I was getting ready for bed, and I found a note saying he was leaving me." She began crying uncontrollably.
"Oh my God…" I whispered. I heard Josh walking down the hall. I rolled my eyes at his inability to do what I asked him to every once in a while. "Mom, I’m going to fly up there, ok? As soon as I can, I will be up there; tomorrow at the very latest. Go try and get some sleep, or something. I love you." She didn’t say anything, just hung up.
"What was that about?" Josh asked, rubbing his eyes sleepily. "Where are you going?" I moved backward on the bed and curled up, my head buried in a pillow. "Hey…" He moved up next to me and lay down behind me, stroking my hair.
"I don’t want to talk about it," I replied coldly, before he could even ask.
His hand stopped. "Please-"
"I thought I told you to go to sleep! You have to get up in a few hours. You have meet-"
"Screw the meetings! I can get out of them." He continued to stroke my hair. "Please…don’t shut me out. Where do you have to go?"
"I have to go see my mom. I have to go tomorrow. I have to take Danny somewhere…" I thought outloud, suddenly frantic.
"I’ll call my agent, tell him to reschedule the meeting, and I’ll go with-"
"No! You can’t cancel the day before the meeting! And I have to go by myself."
"Says who?" he demanded.
"Says me!" I tried to move out of his arms’ reach, but he wouldn’t let me go. "Josh, please…" I begged, trying not to cry. "I just want to be alone…"
I knew he was upset. He simply sighed, rolled off the bed, and walked out of the room, without another word. That action just made the lump in my throat grow.
I woke up the next morning to find that Josh had already left. Of course.
I rushed around, trying to pack my things and Danny’s, while calling the airport to get tickets, and calling Hannah and begging her to watch Danny for a while. I luckily got through that conversation without much explanation, because she was still half-asleep.
I dropped Danny off at Hannah’s before rushing to the airport. I had to get to my mother.
"Why would Daddy want to leave you?" I asked for what must’ve been the millionth time in the past fifteen minutes. My mom just sat on the couch, staring straight ahead. Divorce papers were sitting on the table in front of us.
I stared intently at my mother, trying to get some sort of answer out of her. She simply shrugged her shoulders.
"Mother!" I said loudly.
"What?!" she yelled back.
"There are divorce papers sitting in front of us! So obviously, something went wrong, something neither of you bothered to tell me, that you still won’t bother to tell me!"
"We fought!" she shouted. "All the time! We’ve been sleeping in separate rooms for months."
"I saw Daddy go downstairs when you were at the house…" I said sadly.
"I’m sorry," she whispered.
"No, I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do?"
She shook her head. "No…this has been building up for a while. I’m too tired to fight anymore. He gave up the fight a long time ago. I knew this was coming."
I hugged her tighter than I ever had before, and she cried into my shoulder.
