-1-
Rhett
“What do you think of the world, princess ?”
“I think it’s bored her to sleep ,” Cody jokes, swinging an arm around my shoulder.
Seven months ago I couldn’t even conceive of having another kid and now I couldn’t conceive of not having one. I’d loved her the moment I set eyes on her. She looked unbelievably tiny and in her car seat, but she was handling her first time outside just fine.
Juliana was only 48 hours out from giving birth and the post partum was already kicking her ass. She’d been happy and exhausted after giving birth, but when I had to take the baby away to get her immunizations and a birth certificate Juliana had lost it. I was just glad I didn’t have to leave her alone. Mama, Savannah, Elisa and Rose had quickly closed ranks to comfort Juliana.
The couple in front of us in line at the San Costa courthouse is getting a marriage license and I smile at them as they walk away hand in hand. I had a newborn baby girl and had temporarily become one of those jackasses who smiled at strangers.
“Are you sure about this ?,” Cecelia Winston-Hills asks once I fill out the birth certificate form and slide it over to her to witness.
“Absolutely,” I tell her.
Cece bites her lips and signs the witness line of the form.
“Alright, Ms. Spencer Cecilia Clark, you officially exist in the world,” I say to the newborn in her obnoxiously bright pink carseat on my arm.
I give the clerk the birth certificate followed by Juliana’s annulment papers and our marriage certificate reapplication.
The clerk looks at the paperwork, frowning over how close together the annulment, marriage and birth dates were.
“You’ve had a busy month, Mr. Clark.” The clerk says.
“When I see one I like I move fast.”
She looks at me suspiciously and I’m afraid the clerk won’t sign the paperwork but she does.
“Shit’s about to get real, huh ?,” Cody says slapping my back as we walk out the courthouse.
I still couldn’t believe he was here. That something had actually gotten him out of Freeport for the first time in years.
“Shit’s been real, where you been ?”
“Yeah, but you gotta a little girl now. It's different. You really gotta protect her,” he says.
I had a freaking daughter.
That was going to take some getting used to.
“I know,” I tell him. I wasn’t
going to let the world shit on her like it did to Juliana. Over my dead body.
We drive back to Sawyer’s house in my rental car, Cecilia sits in the backseat with Spencer in case she wakes up. Sawyer’s small beach house was mayhem—it was a good thing it was off season and his neighbors were gone.
The entire UL crew was at the house along with my family. The women all seemed to get along great, Cody had been stand off-ish but kept up small talk. When we walk in I see Sawyer in the kitchen with Rocket—who’d tried to interview the kid hours after she was born. She said she wanted some cute baby noises.
“Rhett ?” Juliana calls as soon as she hears the door open. “Is she okay ? I want to see her.”
Juliana’s lying down in the bedroom, Savannah and Mason are under the covers with her. Elisa, Rosa and Mama are sitting in fold out chairs they’d dragged into the small bedroom.
“Shit, baby I thought you told me to leave her at the fire station.,” I say and Juliana does not look amused.
Raleigh punches me in the shoulder and Mama smacks my arm. Cecilia comes into the room behind me with Spencer in her arms.
I move Savannah and sit beside Juliana on the bed, she’s quiet and we mostly play hot potato with the baby and listen to Elisa and Savannah talking--the two of them for whatever reason seemed to get along.
I have to answer the non stop phone calls from my extended family and friends in Freeport and Alaska begging for an update. By the time night falls and the house starts to empty Juliana can recite Spencer’s entire birth story in two minutes.
Mason decides to sleep in the cottage’s second bedroom with Mama and Savannah that night and with the baby in a portable bassinet Mama had brought with her, Juliana and I are alone in bed for the first time since I’ve been in Florida.
She’s sits on the edge of the bed staring at Spencer in her bassinet, holding our new marriage license in her hand.
“It all feels like it’s going to
be okay, doesn’t it ?,” she says, leaning over the bassinet.
I'm not sure if she's talking to me, but I pretend like she is.
“I think having a new baby makes everything feel better than it actually is,” I tell her. “I know we still have our shit to work through.”
“That’s what marriage is,” she tells me, lying down still staring at the marriage certificate. “It’s work. Didn’t you listen in that marriage class ?”
I shake my head, laughing. Damn, that felt ages ago.
“I love you,” I tell her. And I did. I loved her so much it hurt. “I love our family and I know I’m not perfect but I want us to have a life together. I want to make it work.”
“We will.” she says, cuddling next to me. I want Mason and Spencer be happy...I want us to be happy...I don't ever want them to go through what I did or even…what you went through. I want them to have nice things and to not be afraid. I want them to have a good life.”
I kiss her and she wipes a small tear away.
***
-2-
Juliana
Three years ago I’d boarded a plane in Florida feeling abandoned and alone.
By everyone except Rhett Clark.
He’d always been in my thoughts
and now he had my heart. Forever.
But I’d been wrong to feel alone in the first place. I had people who cared about me. I’d abandoned them because running away was all I’d known.
But not anymore. I wasn't running again. And even when I couldn't be with all the people who loved me all the time I'd always carry them with me.
“There’s my family,” Rhett smiles opening the front door of Jocelyn’s house.
The Coast Guard had given him some more
time off, but he had to go on a mandatory conference call this morning so I’d taken Mason and Spencer to Jocelyn’s house so the house would be quiet. And so all of Jocelyn’s neighbors
could finally meet the baby.
“Ready to go ?,” Rhett asks me and I nod.
The suitcases and newborn supplies
had been packed in the car last night and Jocelyn follows behind me, reading off a
checklist as we put the two car seats in the backseat.
Rhett hugs and kisses his mom
goodbye and gets in the driver’s seat, starting the car. I open the trunk and
do a final check of Spencer’s bag to make sure her dress is still there, I’d made it from an old pattern of my Mom's. I wanted Spencer to be wearing it when she met Dad for the first time.
We were taking a short family road trip up North where we'd be staying in Connecticut for a month while Rhett went back to Alaska to finish up his last 4 weeks.
Then we’d all go back home together.
Wherever we decided that would be.
The End
---
A/N
Reverse April Fools ! There is no chapter 37 ! Chapter 37 is an epilogue , scroll to the bottom for the epilogue.
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