Chapter Six
Patience
“How’d it go?” Ms. Sheryl questioned as soon as she and the kids entered the hotel suite.
I’d been back from Aaron’s office for a few hours, but Ms. Sheryl and the kids had been out and about in the city. I was thankful for that. It’d given me some time to come to grips with my decision.
“Mommy, look! I got a new book!” Kennedy stated proudly, holding up her new book for me to see.
“That’s great, honey.”
“Kyle didn’t want a new book, so Ms. Sheryl got him a new toy.”
I glanced over at Kyle who was already playing with his new action figure on the circle coffee table in the middle of the living room.
“Did they have lunch yet?” I asked Ms. Sheryl.
“Yes, they did.”
I blew out a breath. “Good. So, I have to tell–” I was cut off by a knock at the door. “What now?” I mumbled. I went to the door again and saw a middle-aged woman through the peephole.
“Ms. Thiers? Or should I say, Mrs. Townsend? Good to get used to your new name before the big day, right?”
The woman pushed her way through the door and to my surprise she was followed by two more people—a young woman and a male who looked somewhere in between the two women, age wise.
“Who are you?”
The first woman turned and smiled. “I’m Janet Johnson, your wedding planner. These two are my assistants, Jacob and Stephanie. And they,” she turned dramatically to the living room, “must be Kyle and Kennedy. We have some lovely children’s suits and dresses that these two will look adorable in for their parents’ wedding.”
My stomach plummeted.
“Wedding?”
“Will I get to dress up?” Kennedy asked, eyes wide, jumping up and down.
“You sure will, doll.” Janet smiled at a laughing Kennedy.
I turned to Ms. Sheryl who looked to be in shock.
“So, about that custody thing…” I began.
****
Aaron
“You’re getting married?” my brother, Carter, shrieked, causing me to glower deeper than usual. “What unlucky woman agreed to holy matrimony with you?”
Snickers came from my other two nitwit brothers, while my mother and father simply looked on in stunned silence. I’d just announced at the family dinner at Townsend Manor that I was getting married.
“Carter, don’t be rude,” his wife, Michelle, admonished.
“We’re going to a wedding?” my new nephew, Diego, questioned.
“Looks like it, buddy,” my youngest brother, Tyler, answered. “So, who’s the lucky lady?”
“You mean unlucky,” Carter chimed in.
I snarled at my brother across the table. “You talk too damn much.”
He grinned. “And obviously you don’t talk enough since you’re getting married and we didn’t even know you were seeing someone seriously.”
“What’s her name?” Joshua asked, next to me.
I picked up my glass of seltzer water with lime and took a sip before answering.
“Patience Thiers.”
I sighed against the audible gasps around the table.
“Thiers’ daughter?” my father, at the head of the table, questioned.
I took a sip then took a bite of the lobster tail that’d been served for dinner.
“Care to share how this came about?” Joshua asked.
“No.” I took another bite.
“I just visited Thiers in the hospital and he never made mention of this,” my father queried.
I said nothing.
There was silence at the table until Carter finally spoke up again. “Patience is the daughter of one of my father’s business companions. But she’s been out of Williamsport for quite a few years now, last I heard.”
I glanced up to see Carter explaining all of this to Michelle.
“How long ago did she move from Williamsport? Five, six years?” Tyler asked.
Sixty-seven months. Exactly five years and seven months.
But I wasn’t revealing that.
“Anyone know why she left?”
My stomach muscles tightened.
“She’s a librarian, right?”
I looked up, realizing the table was waiting for my response.
“Mother, dinner was delicious.”
“Come on, Aaron. Give us something,” Tyler insisted.
Just then my phone buzzed. I pulled it out.
“Aaron, you know we do not allow work at the table.”
I stood. “My apologies, Mother. I need to take this.” I stood and moved from the table, opening the email I’d just received. It was nothing too pressing but I used the excuse to have a moment to myself to regroup. I didn’t intend to explain my relationship with Patience, even to my family but their probing questions were getting to me. After a few minutes, I went back to sit at the table.
“When’s the big day?” My father lifted an eyebrow at me.
“Two weeks.”
I rolled my eyes at the shocked noises that went around the table.
“Two weeks? That isn’t a little fast, Aaron?”
I shook my head. “No, Mother.”
“Why so abruptly, son?”
I inhaled, bracing myself for the onslaught that was on the way due to what I was about to reveal. “Because I want my children raised in a home with their mother and father.”
“Children?” Michelle blurted, then clamped a hand over her mouth.
I looked from her to my mother who’d gasped in surprise as well.
“Twins, a boy and girl. Kyle and Kennedy. They’re five. And no,” I looked to my three brothers and finally my father, “I will not be going into more detail about it,” I stated with finality.
After a moment or two, I watched as Carter picked up his fork and continued eating. Everyone else soon followed, knowing that once I made up my mind about something that was it. If I said I wasn’t going to discuss it, then it wasn’t up for discussion. End of story.
But in truth, I knew that wasn’t the end. It was just the beginning.