Green Eyes, White Lies

Green Eyes, White Lies ~ Ch. 16

"Monica can you zip up this dress?" I asked as I stood up. She gently pulled the zipper up and I turned. My hair was longer now, falling to the middle of my back in tight ringlets. My dress was flowing and white with a sweetheart neckline and a fitted bodice. My heart tattoo showed proudly.

"You look beautiful," Monica declared and I turned to see her in the pale yellow spaghetti strap dress with her brown hair binned back. She turned to set down the bouquet in her hands and her baby bump became visible. Her daughter was due in late September. Jerry had been transferred to Los Angeles and we now lived only miles apart in the same outlying town.

We'd all flown back home for the March wedding. Monica was twenty four, I was almost twenty eight, and Daya was eight months old. "We've still got about fifteen minutes," Stephanie informed me with a smile as she stood there in her yellow dress.

"Thanks," I grinned, "E-li-si, can I hold her for a few minutes?" I pleaded.

My grandmother laughed, "She's your baby sweetheart, of course you can." I laughed too and gently took Daya from her arms. She was beautiful, with soft curls starting to form and skin like mine, except smooth and fresh. Everyone always said she looked like me, but I would answer 'except her eyes' and they would nod in agreement when they saw her beautiful green eyes, the same eyes her father has.

She'd turned my life upside down. The first time I held her in my arms, I knew I would do anything for her and that she was the most important thing in my life, right up there with Jack.

Jack. I smiled at the thought. After Daya was born, he'd been the perfect dad. I knew he'd never be my father; he would never leave us. When Daya was two months old, we'd gone on a picnic and he spent half the time watching Daya and the other half watching me with her, and all you could see in his eyes was love, as if he were watching his whole world. He'd gotten a job at a wildlife reserve and moved into the apartment with me. We saved up and moved into a house just before the wedding. It was like we were already married, it was just official now.

As Daya giggled while I held her, I pondered where we'd be with out her. I had grown so accustom to life with her that I couldn't imagine anything else. She was the light of our world and the most important thing either of us would ever have a hand in. Yes, more important than Jack's animals and more important than my clothing line. It was no contest.

"Ayita, it is time," E-li-si smiled with her hand on my shoulder. I gently passed Daya to her, E-li-si was going to hold her for the wedding and I was going to put her to sleep before the reception. We gathered in the back hallway of the same church that we'd stood in for Monica's wedding and when we got back there, Will took my arm.

I looked at the man with the peppered hair and the sweet smile as a tear trickled down his cheek. "Will, are you crying?"

He quickly wiped it away. "I'm just really happy for you sweetheart." I smiled and kissed his cheek. It was only right that Will was walking me down the aisle. He was the only true father figure I'd ever known. He was everything a father should be: caring, loving, concerned, supportive, and present. The day he walked into my mother's life, unbeknown to me, was one of the best days ever because it's the day allowed all of this to happen.

Jack told me that Will had pulled him aside for a talk before we went to Los Angeles two falls ago. Will had never had children of his own. He'd never been married until he met my mother. But that night he told Jack about how to treat a lady, what marriage meant, and what it meant to be a father. And though Will was not biologically my father, he knew what it felt like to sit in the hospital to see if your child would wake up, what it felt like to protect a child, and what it felt like to cry at the realization that your little girl is growing up. These were feelings my biological father had never felt and probably would never feel, where ever he was. That night, after Jack and I had gone back to his parent's house, we had lay down on the floor, in the silence, Jack resting his head on my stomach. "I can't hear anything," he's told me after a while. I'd laughed, "She's still small, forming, it's okay." He took my hand and continued to lie there, a look of complete and total peace crossing his face. "I hope," he said, "That I'm all the father that Will didn't have to be." I squeezed his hand, "You will be," I promised.

The doors to the church opened. Monica and David started down the aisle followed by Stephanie and Brian, my brother, then it was my turn. I was so nervous as Will and I entered the church but I looked forward and saw Jack's face aglow with happiness and suddenly all I could see was him. As we marched forward, gliding toward the others, my heart was leaping in my chest. When I got close enough, I stared into Jack's green eyes, so full of life and love. Then I took his hand and turned toward the preacher and the rest of our lives.

****

"Yes Stephanie, I'll be there!" I laughed as she told me about her upcoming marriage to Brian. Apparently they'd really clicked at the reception. "I have to go, we're at the playground."

"Okay, give everyone my love," she answered, "Bye!"

"Bye!" I said back before closing my phone and putting it back in my pocket. The playground was almost empty, just two little girls ran around, one with a mop of reddish brown curls, four years old, and the other almost three years old with straight dark brown hair. "They're having fun," I laughed.

"They always do," Monica pointed out. "Jenn sit down, you look like you're about to burst." She motioned to the bench and I obliged, carefully wrapping my arms around my basketball belly. One more week, I smiled, then little Daya would have a baby brother.

"Momma, catch me!" Daya yelled out.

"Honey, momma can't run right now," I explained, "Remember, the baby?"

Daya ran up, placing a hand and an ear on my round belly. "It's okay mommy," she said to me, then she turned to my stomach, "I love you baby Carter," then her eyes got huge just like every time before, "He moved momma, he moved!"

I couldn't help but laugh, "I know sweetheart." I ruffled her hair, "Come on, it's getting dark, time to go home."

"Is papa there?" she asked.

"Yes," I smiled, "And Uncle Jerry. They're watching little Maggie and grilling hamburgers for all of us." Maggie was our second child. At just a year old, she didn't do playgrounds very well yet, so the men had kept her at home. Monica teased that as the rate Jack and I were going, we would need a bigger house soon. We laughed, but she was right. We were actually already starting to look.

"Yay!," she smiled, "Momma, can I read Maggie a bed time story tonight?"

I smiled as I took her hand to head to the car, Monica and Caroline right behind us. Daya couldn't read yet, but she sure liked to pretend she could. "If there's time, yes." I buckled her into her car seat as Monica buckled in Caroline, smiling to myself as I remembered a dream from a few years back. Dreams don't come true, I told myself. This is so much better than a dream could ever be.

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That's the end. Sorry there's not more. Hope you liked the whole story. I'm working on a new story that I might start posting up next week, we shall see. It's different than this, but I'm enjoying writing it so far so I hope you'll check it out.

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