Love You Moore Page 18

  Nothing more about grandchildren was brought up again, until Jimmy’s parents arrived the next day. The two future grandmothers had everything planned out, from the color of the nursery to the timing of the birth. Mrs. Applebee would give suggestions on good places to register for baby gifts. Abby and Jimmy would just roll their eyes and let them go. They had talked about having kids but not for awhile. Abby had been on birth control since she was fourteen to help regulate her cycle then she became sexually active and always took it.

  Everything went off without a hitch, their first Thanksgiving was a success. Everyone loved the food and even though the conversation would head in the direction of babies every now and again. Abby, Jimmy or Holly would try to take it in a different direction, bringing up Cliff and school, work or gossip from home, whatever could refocus the attention somewhere else. As the parents were all getting ready to leave they all made suggestions to get together at Christmas, Jimmy said he was trying to work in all visits for the holiday but he didn’t want to spend his first Christmas with Abby on an airplane, but did promise they would see them soon.

  Abby’s mom got in one last “Maybe some news by Christmas?”

  “Bye Mom, have a safe flight.” And Abby kissed her mother and father good-bye and shut the car door. The limo headed out of the driveway.

  “That was interesting.” Jimmy concluded.

  “I’m sorry my mother was so pushy on the baby subject.”

  “Your mother? My mother practically had the birth announcement made up.” Jimmy laughed.

  “I do want to have babies, someday, I am still only eighteen. I think we have plenty of time.” Abby gave Jimmy a hug and they all walked in to the house.

  The days past quickly and turned into weeks. Soon it was Christmastime. Abby was given carte blanche with Jimmy’s credit card. She didn’t go overboard but she did splurge more than she normally would have. She got her parents a year’s worth of the Wine of the Month Club. Her parents loved trying out the different types of wine. Their dream vacation was a trip to the vineyards of Italy. His parents received a giant gift basket from the Stonewall Kitchen in Camden Maine; it included an assortment jams and pancake mixes it also includes a cornflower blue Stonewall Kitchen cotton tea towel and 10’’ balloon whisk. Jimmy said his parents would love it. Abby took Holly shopping for a new wardrobe down on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles for her Christmas present. Abby knew Holly didn’t care about having $100.00 blouses but for the experience alone she knew Holly would enjoy it. Window shopping was ok but actually buying clothes from those shops was an ego boost. They went into Lisa Kline, Kitson, Chanel and had lunch at the Ivy. Holly was outfitted in true LA style and had an outfit for any occasion, with shoes to match. This was a gift Holly deserved and Abby was glad to be able to give it to her. She was stuck on what to give Jimmy though, she had already given him a scrapbook, she did that last Christmas, she had added pages to the book chronicling this last year to keep it up to date. What did he need and wouldn’t buying him something with his credit card be like he was buying it for himself? Jimmy walked in to the room interrupting her thoughts, he was carrying the mail, several colored envelopes holding Holiday wishes from people she didn’t even know. He looked them over before handing a blue envelope over to Abby.

  “Maine State Prison, Abby you have a fan in the prison system?” Jimmy joked passing the envelope over to Abby.

  Abby froze, her blood ran ice cold and she became very pale. She didn’t do very well hiding the horrified look on her face. She gingerly took the envelope.

  “Abby, you ok?” Jimmy became very concerned.

  Abby couldn’t speak, how did a letter get to her here?

  “Ah yeah I’m fine.” She shook her head and tried to gather her thoughts. Holly who was reading a book in the oversized chair popped up.

  “Abby, are you still a pen pal with that guy? We started an outreach program in high school and wrote letters to some of the inmates, you know try to cheer them up during the holidays, this must have been forwarded from home.” Holly quickly grabbed the letter. “We’ll have to write or call to get your name off the list.”

  “Well if it cheers some poor soul up for Christmas I don’t see the harm in it, as long as he doesn’t come looking for you.” Jimmy laughed and kissed Abby on the top of her head as he walked out of the room.

  “That’s great Holly, another lie on top of all the other ones…this is getting out of control.”

  “No what this did is buy you more time. So now if a blue envelope shows up, he’ll think it’s from your pen pal.”

  Abby felt sick. She knew someday this was all going to blow up in her face.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 21

  Christmas morning, Abby awoke early to get the coffee on, she didn’t want Margret to have to get up early, but true to form Margret was already up and getting breakfast ready.

  “Margret, you should have slept in, you didn’t need to get up and make us breakfast.” Abby gave Margret a hug. “Merry Christmas.”

  “What’s a better day to get up and make a real breakfast feast than on Christmas morning?”

  “I was hoping to surprise you and have at least the coffee made.” Abby admitted.

  “Nonsense, Ms Abby I enjoy taking care of you, Mr. Jimmy and Miss Holly, you’re like my own. I never had any children so I chose to dote on you.” She squeezed Abby’s cheeks.

  “Well come into the living room, there are presents for everyone.”

  “Miss Abby, I don’t need anything, you shouldn’t spend your money on me and I have all I need.”

  “I can’t hear you. I’ll see you in the living room.” Abby walked out of the kitchen.

  Abby went into the living room to turn on the Christmas tree lights, Jimmy was already there. The lights were turned on and he looked like a kid ready to pounce.

  “Babe, you’re up early.” She went over to give him a kiss and a hug. He pulled her to his lap.

  “Merry Christmas Mrs. Riley.”

  She hugged him again. She could stay in his arms forever. Holly came bounding down the stairs.

  “Merry Christmas.” She grabbed Abby and Jimmy into a group hug.

  “Shall we get to it?” Jimmy clapped his hands together and knelt onto the floor.

  “We need to wait for Margret and Charles.” Abby stated

  “I’ll go get them.” Holly announced and pranced into the kitchen. Shortly after, she came back in the room dragging Margret and Charles behind her. They looked embarrassed at all the attention. They sat on the couch. Jimmy handed each of them a gift.

  “This is from all of us.” Jimmy announced.

  They both opened their presents. Margret opened a small box with a heart shaped gold locket encrusted with diamonds. On the inside was a picture of Holly, Abby and Jimmy. The inscription read:

  Thank you for taking such great care of us.

  Love, Jimmy, Abby and Holly

  “I have never seen anything so beautiful. Thank you so much.” Margret wiped a tear away from her eye. All three of them bound at once and gave her a big hug. She hugged them back, gathered up her paper and excused herself to the kitchen to finish breakfast.

  They then turned their attention to Charles who proceeded to open his box. His eyes got wide and stared in amazement. He held up a Men's Stainless Steel Silver String Dial Beadset Bezel Rolex Datejust Watch.

  “Oh my Mr. Jimmy, I cannot accept such an extravagant gift.”

  “You can, I need to make sure you are where I need you to be on time. This is guaranteed to ensure that.” Jimmy was grinning ear to ear. “Just so you know, my father got the same thing for Father’s Day.”

  This made Charles wipe his eyes. He stood up and cleared his throat.

  “Well thank you very much. I will not let you down Sir.”

  “You never do Charles.” Abby gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Merry Christmas.”

  “Same to you Ma’am.” Charles also excused himself to the kitchen
to see if Margret needed any assistance with breakfast.

  Abby, Holly and Jimmy then dug into the tree opening presents from their parents and gifts sent from friends and business acquaintances. When all was said and done, the living room looked like a show room at Macys, everything from kitchenware to outdoor figurines. Abby stood up and announced she had one last surprise for Jimmy. The pajamas and shaving kit was just space filler although he was excited to get them. Abby went behind the entertainment center and pulled out a flat box. She handed it to him with the widest grin on her face Jimmy couldn’t help being excited.

  “What is it?” he shook the box

  “Open it.” Abby urged.

  Jimmy slowly tore the paper, untapped the box and took off the cover. He unfolded the tissue paper, looked at the contents and put his hand to his mouth.

  “How did you do this?” Jimmy whispered.

  “Karma helped me, do you like it?”

  Jimmy held up the original score to Star Wars signed by the composer John Williams.

  “John Williams was one of the men that inspired me to write music.” Jimmy admitted.

  “I know, I am now forever indebted to Karma but it was worth it, I am not 100% sure what she finally had to do to get it but I owe her.” Abby giggled.

  “You are amazing. Thank you so much. I’m speechless” Jimmy took her in his arms.

  “Now I have a surprise for you.” He took her by the hand and led her to the smaller room off the first floor office.

  Jimmy told her to close her eyes and not open them until he told her too. Holly was following behind, she was obviously in on the surprise. Jimmy opened the door to the smaller room and led her inside.

  “Ok open them.” Jimmy said excitedly

  Abby opened her eyes and her hands flew up to her mouth. She looked all around the room. It was filled with everything she would ever need for scrapbooking. A table was against the wall for working. A die cutting machine and all the accessories sat on another table, a Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 digital camera sat next to the die cutting machine. Every color of paper you could imagine textured to solid and printed. Stickers all organized by theme. Pens of every color and tip type. Brads and eyelets in hundreds of different shapes. Ribbons of every color. Abby turned wide eyed in a circle trying to take it all in. The walls were painted in a soft pink with the words: Inspire Create and Believe, scrolled across the top in a boarder of black script font.

  “When did you do all of this?” Abby asked astonished she had no idea this was done.

  “Holly and I went to the scrapbooking store, ordered all the supplies and they were delivered the day you and Holly went shopping. The room was painted before we moved in. I had the boarder installed awhile ago, I think the day you took Holly to buy bedroom furniture.”

  “How did you know I wouldn’t find out?” Abby asked still amazed.

  “You never go in there, we didn’t specifically furnish those two rooms so there was no worry” Jimmy felt very proud of himself for pulling this off.

  “I cannot believe you, this is the best gift ever.” She jumped into his arms and kissed him all over his face. Holly and Jimmy both laughed.

  “I told you.” Holly confirmed. “When Jimmy asked if there was anything in the entire world that you would want and never do for yourself what would it be? This is it.” Holly said with her arms wide.

  “You both are absolutely amazing. I love you guys so much.” Abby found it hard to hold back the tears.

  After a breakfast fit for a king, the trio tried to organize the gifts somewhat, so appropriate thank yous could be sent. Abby had made a point to keep all of the tags and cards with the respective gift. Besides once the thank you cards were sent she was going to scrapbook the cards and tags.

  Abby had just about finished picking up the last of the paper when a wave of nausea flooded over her. She quickly sat down. This quick motion was undetected by the other two. They were too busy admiring their new goodies. As soon as the wave swept away, Abby excused herself and went up stairs to take a shower.

  “I think I just ate too much>” Abby said to herself.

  After a really hot shower she did feel better. She got dressed in one of the new outfits jimmy had bought for her. A loose fitting pink blouse and a pair of cotton khaki pants. She wasn’t convinced by mid-January but by Valentine’s Day she was positive. She was pregnant. A million different thoughts swam through her head. It was so soon after the wedding, should she be overjoyed, upset or indifferent? How would Jimmy feel? He said he wanted kids but he also said he wanted to wait. How did the birth control fail? She had been on the pill for nearly six years and never had a pregnancy scare. She took it the same time every day. It was supposed to be up to 99% percent effective in preventing pregnancy. It figures she fell within the 1% population. She and Jimmy were going out to dinner that night to celebrate Valentine’s Day. He had told her earlier he had a big surprise planned for her, she bet hers was bigger.

  Jimmy came home from the studio in very good spirits. He was always in a good mood but today he was particularly cheery. Abby hoped her news wouldn’t change that.

  “You look beautiful.” Jimmy complimented as he kissed her hello. Abby had chosen a pink blouse and black pencil skirt to wear to the restaurant. “I’m going to take a quick shower and then we can go.”

  “Our reservations aren’t until seven o’clock and it’s not even five thirty, we have plenty of time.” Abby assured him. “Are you going reveal the big surprise before we go?”

  “It has been killing you all day hasn’t it?” Jimmy laughed

  “It’s been torture.” Abby teased

  “Well you will just have to wait a little while longer and then I will tell you.” He promised

  Abby sat on the bed and waited for him to come out of the bathroom. She was contemplating telling him her news first but wasn’t sure it would ruin the night or not. Jimmy came out with just a towel on. “It’s no wonder I’m pregnant’ she thought. “Look at him. If it hadn’t taken me an hour to get ready I would jump him right now, although that may make taking the news he’s going to be a father an easier pill to swallow.”

  Jimmy noticed her mood, skepticism and curiosity were written all over her face. He attributed it to being kept in the dark over his news all day. He decided to end her torment and tell her what’s going on. He sat on the bed next to her and took her hands into his.

  “Abby, I have some exciting news. It’s been in the works for awhile and Doug was waiting for me to make a decision before arranging all the final plans.”

  “What is going on Jimmy?” Abby’s curiosity was getting the better of her.

  “We’re going on tour and not the college circuits either, a real live tour, stadiums and arenas. Thousands of people coming out to hear my music can you believe it?”

  Abby was stunned. “This is amazing.” She offered. “Congratulations. When are you leaving?”

  “Not me Abby, we. You and Holly are coming with us. I ordered a brand new bus for us, all custom made, perfect for you and Holly to hang out in and enjoy riding in. Happy Valentine’s Day Baby, are you surprised?”

  “More than I can explain.” Abby admitted. Jimmy pulled her off the bed and into his arms and swung her around.

  “This is going to be great, traveling across the country, seeing the sights together. This is going to be a trip to remember I can guarantee you that.” He set her back on the bed.

  “Jimmy.” She started quietly, “I have a surprise too but I am not sure you are going to be as excited.”

  “I am so on top of the world right now I am not sure how anything could spoil it.” Jimmy was lying on his back on the bed, still in only a towel.

  “Well,” Abby was shaking “I haven’t been sure until today, although I have suspected for awhile. I’m so sorry.”Abby started to cry.

  “Honey, what is it?” Jimmy asked sitting up.

  “This spoils everything, I didn’t mean for it to happen, I was always careful,
same time every day.”

  “Abby your rambling, what is wrong, it can’t be that bad.”

  “I’m pregnant.” She said barely in a whisper.

  Jimmy sat on the bed as still as a statue. His eyes glassed over and Abby thought he had gone into shock. This made the tears flow faster.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  Jimmy stood up and began pacing around the room, one hand over his mouth, the other ran through his hair. He was mumbling something Abby couldn’t make out.

  “This is bad.” She thought to herself, “This is really bad.”

  All of a sudden Jimmy stopped and looked at her. She couldn’t tell what the expression meant. He ran over to her and grabbed her and took her in his arms.

  “This is the best news I could have asked for.” He was kissing her all over her face and neck.

  Abby was still confused. “What about the tour?”

  “The tour can wait, we’re going to have a baby.” He shouted and swung her around. “Oh I’m sorry are you ok?” He placed a hand on her belly. “Hello in there, this is Daddy.”

  Abby was laughing now but still concerned “Jimmy what are you going to do about the tour?”

  “I am going to call Doug and tell him that we have to postpone for at least a year.”

  “Wont that hurt your career? I mean people tour to promote their records, what will you do about that?”

  “I don’t care Abby, yeah my music is a huge part of my life but this…this is the most important thing.” he was patting her belly.

  “I just don’t want to ruin anything for you.” Abby said softly

  “You never could Babe. Oh my gosh, we need to call the parents, who’s should we call first?” Jimmy reached for his phone.

  “I want to tell Holly first, if that’s ok.”

  “Of course, let’s go tell her.” Jimmy grabbed her hand to lead her out of the bedroom.

  “Um…Honey, would you like to get dressed first?” Jimmy was still in just the towel.

  “That’s why I married you….always thinking.” He took her in his arms again. “This is the best news, I am so happy, I love you Abby Riley.” Abby closed her eyes and rested her head on his bare chest. She breathed him in.