Love After Divorce

~Chapter Sixteen~

The end of March finally arrived and with it the week of Spring Break. Melanie was excited and a little nervous about meeting Mary Beth in person. As much as she loved getting to know her future mother-in-law via their weekly FaceTime calls, she knew that nothing beat  face to face interaction. Chris, Melanie, and the kids were leaving Wednesday morning for the trip to Georgia. They were going to make the four hour trip to Valdosta and stop at Wild Adventures for the day. Then they were going to stay at a hotel and make the other two hour trip to Cuthbert to stay with Mary Beth until Sunday. The plan was to be on the road early Sunday morning, like 2:00 in the morning early, so Melanie and the kids wouldn't be too late getting home for school on Monday.  The goal was for the kids and Melanie to sleep as much as possible on the trip home.

Tammy was thrilled that Melanie was going to meet Chris' mom.  Melanie had shared with her how much she enjoyed chatting with her and how kind she was to Thomas and Jessica. She even insisted that the kids call her Nana since Tammy was Grandma. Tammy was thrilled that the woman saw how awesome her grandkids were and was willing to concede that there was another grandparent and didn't want to step on any toes. To Tammy, it explained Chris' character perfectly, he was just raised properly.

The kids were staying with Tammy on Saturday for David's supervised visitation but Melanie agreed to let them stay with her until Monday. She knew that they needed that time together and not having the kids around freed Melanie up to pack and get all her school lessons organized for the month of April.  Chris was working the weekend before they left so she didn't get to see him much. Melanie and the kids met with him for breakfast on Saturday morning before he headed to bed and  they went to Tammy's. Melanie saw him again on Sunday for a quick breakfast and missed him terribly on Monday and Tuesday. The house was just too quite for her.

Monday Chris worked an 18 hour day and was utterly exhausted. Chris and Melanie chatted on the phone just long enough for Chris to tell Melanie he had a few surprises coming. Tuesday Chris worked only a half shift so he could catch some sleep before they left. Wednesday he arrived at Melanie's at 5:30 in the morning. His first big surprise was that he wasn't in his car but in a brand new white Chevrolet Suburban.

"Like it," Chris asked while he was showing Melanie all the bells and whistles it had. From the satellite navigation and the back up camera to the DVD player complete with headphones it had everything. More than that it was an eight passenger vehicle.

"It's beautiful," Melanie said. "But why did you get such a big one?"

"I wanted a family vehicle. And we need room for our four future Melanie's." Chris said grinning. Melanie just chuckled. She also grinned broadly when she saw that Chris had bought two new car seats. She just pointed to the seats and Chris grinned. "It's easier than constantly transferring their seats back and forth. It just made sense." He finished with a shrug. "But, this isn't my car."

"What?" Melanie exclaimed. "Did you rent it?"

"Nope," Chris grinned, "I bought it for you. That Explorer you've been driving is at least 12 years old Mel, you need a safer vehicle."

"I broke down one time," Melanie grumbled.

"Twice," Chris interjected with a grin knowing she was going to react this way.

"Chris, this is too much. I can't take this." Melanie began to protest.

"Sure you can Mel. We are getting married in what, two, two and a half months. We need a better family vehicle," Chris said with a grin placing his hand on her flat belly. "And hopefully a bigger one soon."