Wedding Bells

Chapter 17

Carter looked so handsome as the lights from inside the house cast over him. Leaving me speechless as I stare at his cute green button eyes. A large as he could make them. He was watching me, so cautiously. Maybe he thought I was lying. Searching my face for the truth within, but I had told him the truth.

I really was pregnant.

As scared as I was for putting him in an awful spot. One where he would freak out and not listen to me. I was grateful that his mother was standing on the porch there with us. Even though she hadn't heard the news, it was like she knew something had happened.

"Oh honey, you look like you have seen a ghost," His mother smiles as she waves her hand in front of his face. He doesn't falter. Still staring at me as if I had killed a child right in front of him. I tried my best to smile, placing my hands on his shoulders to try and break him from his trance. He didn't move.

I chuckled lightly, nervously looking at his mom as she looked to me for answers.

"Come on babe, let's go in and eat. It's freezing out here," I tried to sound soothing. Finally Carter snapped out of his trance, shaking his head. He turned to his mother wrapping her up in a big warm bear hug.

"I guess everything is alright now," She chuckles once again shooting me a look of concern for her soon. I waived it off, following as she led us into the warmth of her home. Carter's childhood home. It was right next door to ours, for a few years, until my father decided to move closer to the shop. An hour drive in New York wasn't bad though.

The house was decorated with family photos, and small little trinkets of birds and different winged creatures. Carter's mother had always had a thing for those that could fly. I looked around taking in the lovely smell of pecans. I'm sure she made a pie considering that was Carter's favorite dessert. I followed him carefully trying not to overstep on my boundaries with his family.

There shouldn't have been any, they basically watched me grow up in this house, but with the bombshell Carter had just received I didn't want to startle him any further.

"Excuse me mom, I just need to talk to Erin real quick and we will be in to sit down,"

My heart dropped at the sound of Carters command. His mother nods placing another serving dish on the large dining room table.

"No worries, the pie with be a few minutes longer, but don't make us wait too long," She snickered, holding the heat pad in the air as she waived it at him. He nodded his head.

I knew she was making a pie.

Carter grabbed my arm pulling me towards the living room.

"What do you mean you are pregnant, and why do you think this was the best time to tell me?" Carter ran his hands through his hair as he kicked his foot at the ground. He was obviously nervous about this.

I didn't know how I expected him to react but so far this was better than the worst case scenarios that have been running through my head all day.

"I found out this morning, and unlike you, I don't keep secrets from one another," The words stung my own lips as they escaped and I suddenly wished I wouldn't have said them.

My lips tingle from anxiety. I wanted to just lean up and kiss him. Hopefully that would take the pain away but as I moved towards him he pulled away from me denying and sense of romance that I could provide to him.

"Erin, why didn't you tell me as soon as you found out? Did you tell anyone before me? How far along are you? What Gender? Do we know any of that? I don't really know how a pregnancy works, I wasn't ready for this." His last words threw me for a loop. He hadn't been acting too angry about it. So maybe it wasn't as bad as I had thought.

"I didn't tell you this any earlier because I didn't know where you were, I'm sorry my earlier comment was uncalled for, but I have no idea where you head off to all the time," I paused for a moment taking in a deep breath before starting to speak once more, "I wasn't ready for this news, it was kind of forced upon me when my mother made me take a pregnancy test at the hospital during her appointment. It was insane. I'm sorry I didn't mean to but Clara knows. We saw her at the shop where I thought you would be and it just spilled out. Of course we don't know the gender yet, the poor bun is only a month old."

"Oh shit, you mean this happened on our wedding night? The only night we weren't as careful as we should have been," I nodded my head to confirm his suspicion. It wasn't incorrect. We screwed up on our wedding night, caught up in all of the excitement of just being married.

"Yeah, so there's still eight months to go, this thing will be in my stomach almost as long as my mother is doing her cancer treatment. So we worked it out with the doctor that I will just go in for my appointments once a month with my mom, we will just lump me in on one of her appointments as to not take up too much time since I'll be there anyways." Carter smiled for a moment, the whole mood changing.

"Erin Rose, you are going to be the most wonderful mother this world has ever seen," His smile grew so wide and it shocked me how quickly things had switched on me. Soon he was picking me up spinning me around in his arms. "Can we please announce to my family tonight, I'm too excited to wait?" Carter held me tightly as his mother peeks around the corner to see if we were okay.

"Everything alright over there?" She mumbles, holding the pie in her hands, "All the food is ready and it's time to sit down to eat," She was so gentle as she spoke, her heart warm enough to unfreeze the icebergs of the world. She would be so eager to have a grandchild. I looked into Carter's greens eyes nodding my head before sticking my finger up in the air.

"You must preface it, that we found out today and It's still a little early to announce things, your supposed to wait till around week twelve or fifteen but I know you won't make it another five weeks," I paused for a moment, "Just please keep in mind that it's still very fragile and we could lose the fetus at anytime, and that will be quite common, but the doctor says it looks strong and healthy and we don't have much to worry about," I took Carter's hands holding them close to my chest as I kissed his fingers.

He was the most perfect man in every way. I just needed to figure out where he would sneak off to throughout the day.

He held my hand leading me back toward the kitchen as we took our seats together at the table. The family was all gathered around, the food piled so high on the table we could possibly feed a homeless shelter. My heart was was filled with so much love from both my husband and my second family. Everyone was so supportive of us it was kind of insane. The way they just went with whatever was happening in our lives.

His mother waited for a moment before bowing her head to say the blessing over the food. Carter smiled, if eve for a moment as he listened carefully to her words and as we all pulled away from bowing our heads, Carter begin to speak.

"Thank you so much guys for being the greatest family a man could ever ask for. I know I'm a struggle at times," He paused for a moment, really looking around the room before continuing. "But my sweet wife and I have some exciting news, that I must warn, we may be jumping the gun ever so slightly here so please do keep that in mind for what I'm about to say," I stopped grabbing my food, holding the rolls in front of me as I contemplate taking a second one. After making up my mind I passed it to the person next to me, which happened to be Carter's younger sister.

Carter looked down at me as if it made his next phrase even that more important.

"Guys, Erin is going to have a baby," The smile erupted from the room as people cheered us on. Laughing and clapping as if I had done something spectacular. Like we couldn't get pregnant and had lost all hope, but here we were, with a child.

"That was not what we were expecting to hear you say." His sister beamed giving the both of us a hug. She herself had a couple of children but they were at their father's house this weekend, making it easier for her to come home and visit family. She had gone through a nasty divorce a couple years back and they were just starting to get back onto her feet.

It sickened me that her ex husband could do that to her, taking care of her while filling his needs with other woman in their very own home. The concept of it nearly destroyed me.

"Thank you," I looked around the table at all the happy faces waiting for Carter to explain how early it was in the pregnancy. But he never did.

I finally cleared my throat to speak up myself.

"I just want to clarify so everyone is on the same page here. This is my first pregnancy which means my chances of losing it are higher, and we aren't quite at the time where you would start telling people. So I don't want to worry anyone but I don't really want to get anyone hopes up just yet. You can mark it on your calendar, and pray we have a safe pregnancy. But I'm only a month into this, there's still such a long journey to take with our precious baby,"

My heart was pounding in my chest. The whole family watching me as they take in every single dirty detail I spilled.

"We weren't expecting this so we aren't really prepared for an announcement to the family, I'm not sure what you guys want to know or need to know, I guess for my first term I've been experiencing a lot of morning sickness," I paused yet again looking around to see if I was grossing anyone out. This was my second family anyways.

"I was going ask how you found out, if you were experiencing anything that told you. If you just felt it or just knew that it was a thing?" Carter's mother leaned into her food, showing the most interest out of everyone else at the table. His father cutting his ham very carefully before placing a bite in his mouth.

"I didn't think I was pregnant at all. I really just thought I had caught something and it was just being pesky. I feel like crap all day long, I'm in the bathroom almost constantly at work. I haven't had the energy to do much, so I've been thankful for Carter."

"Yeah, her mother actually find of forced her to take a pregnancy test, assuming she was pregnant. She knew before we did. They did it this morning at the hospital while her mother was at one of her follow up appointments. It's going to work out nicely for Erin since she will be able to just get the baby checked at the same time as her mother gets checked for her follow up reports, making her trips in there the same as they were before,"

"That's so nice the doctor will do that for you guys, it can be a pain to ask for that much time off at work. It must help that you own the business so you can take the time off that you need to, especially since you have such a wonderful team below you, like your mother and best friend. Plus Carter helps out there quite often. This is such exciting news, you'll finally be able to put your feet up and do nothing since you have an excuse whenever you want to," His mother teased before throwing a few green beans in her mouth.

We sat around that table for a few hours, the pile of food growing smaller and smaller as we ate. Carter had finished off his second plate and was heading back in for thirds before I nudged him whispering just between him and I.

"Geez leave some for the other people," I smiled, lightly kissing him on the cheek. He turned around to look at me before shaking his head.

"Nope, they can get their own." The smile grew across his face as he leaned forward and continued to grab more of his favorite items. The potatoes, the ham, and the cooked carrots. His mother had made truly a beautiful meal as she always did. I wondered why we didn't make the trek out here for often.

"Carter I do have dessert you know," His mother rolled her eyes looking at his once more full plate. She turned to look at me as if I was starving him. "You feed him at home right?" She chuckles throwing her head back.

"Oh boy, I try to but as you can see it takes a village to keep this man full," I lightly poke his stomach trying to make him slightly self conscious. But he was with his people. He didn't have a care in the world what they thought of him. Shoveling the food into his mouth he turned to look at his mother.

"Don't you dare count me out for dessert, I'm just making room on the table for it," He shot a wink in her direction before turning back to his plate. My head was spinning at the amount of food he had taken in. How could he possibly still be this hungry.

"My cooking is nowhere near as good as yours though Mrs Summers, so when we come over here he needs to stockpile it for a few days, that's what he is really doing," She laughed, her longer blonde hair swaying around her face.

"Oh, he is stockpiling his storage for winter time, or however long you guys are going to be gone for," The smile grew on her face. His father had stepped away from the table to answer a phone call, something that was quite common in the Summer household.

I watched carefully as he entered the kitchen, placing his hand on the lower back of his wife before kissing her. He whispered his apologies before heading to his office to get whatever work done he needed to. As he walked passed us he mumbled another congratulations, before disappearing for the rest of the night. Carter watched as he walked away before turning his head back to the table.

"What did you make for dessert anyways," He said basically licking the plate clean as he set it back down on the table. I jumped up from my seat grabbing both my plate and his and heading towards the sink. Rinsing them off, Carter's sister came running around the corner and using her hip she pushed me away from the sink.

"Nope you are pregnant, go sit down and let me take care of this for you," She smiled before taking over the scrubbing of the plates soaked in the bubbly water. I shook my head looking at her.

"At least let me help, I'm not that pregnant, I'm not a helpless person." I could tell this was going to get old real quick. The more I thought about people taking over things for me as soon as they found out I was pregnant. The more I didn't want to tell people. I understood more what my mother was feeling now.

I was only a month pregnant and already Carter's sister was treating me like I had exploded. At least wait till I looked like it as hard to breath, or sit down, or do anything.

I grabbed a rag and quickly went to work on drying the dishes as she sent them down on the counter. Carter's mother grabbed the pie placing it on the middle of the table with some smaller dessert dishes, and grabbing a box of vanilla ice cream out of the freezer. The smile on Carter's face was enough to make me fall in love with the man again, his heart so content with pecan pie and vanilla ice cream as a topper.

"I would like to warn you guys that you need to be careful, with what you eat and have around the house. No more fish for you missy, also the mood swings will hit you and good luck to the both of you with those. But, I highly recommend you start thinking of names now, since that will be the hardest thing you will have to do, is pick a name that is special enough and important enough for your perfect child. I know I struggled with the names for my kids." Carter's sister drones on as we continue to work on the dishes. I was zoning out as she spoke thinking of my own worries and thoughts.

I was sure the advice would only get worse as the pregnancy grew stronger.

But the more I thought about it and the longer I had the baby inside me, the more excited I was to have my own tiny little family.