The Marrying Man

Chapter 13

The baby monitor turned out to be a good investment. It seemed like almost every night Avery was having her nightmares, some worse than others. But with the monitor, I was able to be there and wake her up to calm her down before they got too bad. It meant less sleep for me, but in the long run, I was okay with that.

"You really need to stop doing this," Avery admonished me after one particularly bad dream had her screaming in terror.

"Avery, I'm not going to just sleep through you having these bad dreams. We'll beat them, and sooner or later you'll be able to sleep through the night. Until then, I'm here for you." It was heartbreaking to hear her sobbing, there was no way I was letting her do this alone.

"Thank you, Thomas." Her breathing had finally slowed, and I tucked her back in to her bed, her eyes were closed in seconds, and she moved to get comfortable. "I'm glad you're here, I don't think I could have done this alone."

"I'm glad I'm here too. Get more sleep Avery."

"You too."

By the time the weekend rolled around, we were both tired. Neither of us had slept well, and both my job and her internship had kept us busy enough that the weekend provided some much-needed rest. A trip to the store gave us the necessary cupcake ingredients, and we were ready to try out the mixer that had arrived during the week along with the cupcake pans. I was itching to try the pasta and sausage makers too, but cupcakes were the first priority.

We had decided on making mint chocolate chip cupcakes, since we both loved that flavor of ice cream, but also got some strawberries to make fruit filled ones if we felt ambitious later. It was a fun project. Avery was trying to be the baker, I was just her hands until she got the cast off, and our first batch came out pretty well. We had some of them larger than others because we weren't too precise when filling the cups, but the taste was there, which was all that mattered to us.

When we were done cooking them, and had let them cool on the new racks, we took them poolside to relax. I needed my daily heat bath, as being on my feet baking had caused a little additional pain in my belly, and Avery just loved to look at the kittens as they scampered about in the screened lanai. They had the illusion of being outdoors and were entranced by the lizards that were crawling on the outside of the screen. Watching them sniff at everything that they found exciting, pouncing on the screen to try playing with the lizards, or just lounging in the sun, they were a joy to have around. I'd have to text Robin later to thank her for them.

"I could get used to this," Avery sighed, smiling at the kittens, and taking a bite of her cupcake.

"Yeah, you look pretty relaxed. I'm happy to see that." Indeed, after all her nightmares, I was thrilled to see her as happy as she was. She really needed it.

"Can I ask a favor?" She bit her lip, looking down nervously.

"If it involves another cupcake as a bribe, then you can ask anything you like," I agreed.

She giggled, then pushed the plate of cupcakes over to my side of the pool edge. She had been very careful since the drunken night in the hot tub to not be too close, and I appreciated it. We didn't need to mess up this friendship. "I was thinking. I know this whole marriage thing is old hat to you, and I know it isn't more than a marriage of convenience, but it is my first time being married. I think I'm still adjusting to it. Could we maybe take a weekend after my cast is off and you have your surgery to take like a mini vacation? Not a real honeymoon, I don't expect the whole consummation and all, but at least something so I can say that I had one?"