Carry You Home (Carry Your Heart #2) (16 page)

At that, Isabelle sprung to life. "Wait a minute. Caleb, I don't understand what's happening here."

"We'll talk about it later," I told her. "But I don't want you on your dad's insurance anymore. I can pay for it. I
should
be paying for it."

Her eyes widened and then they flashed with that fire I knew a little too well. "Excuse me, but I don't think this is the kind of decision you should be making without talking to me first."

"Like I said, Iz, we'll talk about this later. Right now, Mr. Martin," I gestured towards the envelope still on the table. "I would really appreciate it if you took the money. Isabelle and the baby are my responsibility and any doctor bills she has should be paid by me, not you."

Samuel eyed me warily and squinted at me a little like he was trying to figure me out. His gaze shifted to the envelope again and then he tapped it with his fingers.

"So how will you be paying her doctor bills then?"

I cleared my throat, having mentally prepared myself for this question already. "Isabelle can get insurance through the shop. It's not great 'cuz she's just part-time, but it's something until we get married and until she can get on my insurance after we get married."

"Your insurance through the club, you mean?" he cocked an eyebrow at me.

"The shop," I clarified tightly.

I was technically full-time at the shop and so, just by default, my insurance was better than Isabelle's would be anyway. At least that was the way my mom explained it. As shameful as it was, I hadn't really paid much attention to things like health insurance and Medicaid and monthly payments before. My mom just always handled everything for me. The bills were always paid and that was pretty much because she'd set it up so it came out of my bank account without me having to do anything.

Now it was time for me to start footing the work and the accountability and all that shit. Be a family man and everything that went along with it. I was burning through my money too fast, but what else was I supposed to do? Let someone else take care of my family?

"And you'll be paying her monthly payments and everything?" Samuel asked and the question seemed like it was more of a formality now than anything.

"Yeah," I nodded. "And anything else she needs. Anything she wants. Like I said, she's my responsibility."

I could feel the steam practically pouring out of Isabelle's ears, but whatever. I'd expected that and then some.

"And you can afford to do that?"

I huffed out a laugh. I hoped he didn't know how right his assumptions about my bank account probably were at this point. "Well, I could afford this house, couldn't I? I'll worry about that. So, will you just take the money and we can call it even?"

Now, Samuel was looking to Isabelle, whose jaw was clenched so tightly I was a little worried it might break right off.

"And given the way he makes his money," he told her. "You're okay with him paying for your insurance, your house, your tuition, anything else with that money?"

Even though she was red all the way to the top of her ears, to her credit, Isabelle nodded as calmly as she could probably manage. That seemed to be all her dad needed to see and then with one last heavy sigh, he tugged the envelope toward him again so he could slip it into his pocket.

"I should probably get going," he was saying now as he stood up from the table. "I think we've all probably said everything we needed to say today anyway. Thank you for inviting me over. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that."

Isabelle stood to walk him out the door and I scrambled out of my chair to trail after them. We followed him out the door, walking with him down our little walkway towards where his car was parked in our driveway. Isabelle waved a little to her dad and he shot her a quick, grateful smile and even though it had stung, even though the whole thing had been pretty painful for me, if it made her happy, if it helped her stay relaxed and calm, I couldn't really complain.

Just as long as her dad didn't make a habit of stopping by our house whenever he felt like it.

As we turned back to head inside the house, I wrapped my arms around her, despite the fact that she was probably madder than all hell at me right now and let my hands drift from her stomach to her back and all the way up to her hair once I knew her dad was out of sight and down the street.

"We need to talk," she muttered harshly into my ear.

"I know."

"You should've told me about all that insurance stuff
before
my dad came over."

"I know."

"You can't keep making decisions like this without talking to me first. That's a really shitty habit."

"I know."

"Will you stop saying I know? It's really pissing me off."

Just as I was about to say
I know
, I caught myself and changed tactics. "I'm sorry, Iz."

"Yeah, well, sorry isn't really good enough right now. Look, I get what you're saying about the insurance. I understand why you don't want my dad paying for anything for the baby. I really do. But I just...I just can't believe you just..."

I sighed and tugged a hand through my hair as I pulled her against my chest with the other. "You weren't gonna talk me out of it. And, honestly, I just didn't want to upset you. I knew you'd be mad at me about this before and after we talked to your dad and I just wanted to try to minimize that as much as I could. You're havin' my kid, Iz. The only person who should be footin' that bill is me."

She shot me a wary look, but still leaned against my shoulder. "I guess I see your point. But babies are expensive, Caleb. I don't think either one of us really gets that right now. And we have the house. I'm trying to plan the wedding. Maybe we should—"

"Iz, I'm gonna stop you right there. You're not staying on your dad's insurance until we get married. I don't need any charity."

My wife. My kid. My family. My responsibility.

She gripped the front of my T-shirt and pulled me down to her level a little more. "The next time something like this comes up you need to talk to me about it first. I understand why you did what you did, but we need to make these kind of decisions together."

Fair enough.

She had a point, but I knew mine was pretty damn valid too.

"I will. This was the last time, okay? I promise. You know I just wanna take care of you, right? I just wanna make sure both of you have everything you need."

Her resolve to be pissed at me crumbled a little and her entire body seemed to soften under my hands. "I know. You're lucky you're so cute, you know? Man, if you were ugly..."

"You wouldn't be living in my house, having my kid, and wearing my ring and my ink."

She smacked me on the shoulder and I knew we were back on track now. She was on board with this, even if she wouldn't admit it just yet.

"I love you," I whispered into her hair. "All this is for you. You know that, right?"

"I know," she relented and buried her face in my chest. "I love you too."

"That's all I needed to hear, Iz."

Isabelle

I clicked to the next page on the website and ran a hand over my face. The lace, the beading, the silk, the organza—I wanted them all. It really wasn't fair. Staring at something I couldn't have was a waste of time.

But they were just so
pretty.

So, because I was a glutton for punishment, I let my eyes roam all the way down to the bottom of the page and then everything blurred around me. That was it. That was the one...if I would ever be able to have it.

The airy skirt had just a touch of fullness, a beautiful, intricate sheer lace overlay from the shoulders down to the wrists, some crystals around the silk belt around the waist. Classy. Different. Unexpected. It was definitely not something I would've thought I wanted, but the second I saw it, I knew it was the one.

A pair of hands ghosted over my shoulders and I shivered a little under his touch.

"That's pretty," Caleb murmured in my ear, resting his chin on my shoulder as we stared back at the picture of the wedding dress together.

"Yeah, it is."

"Is that the one you're gonna get?"

"Probably not," I sighed.

"Why? I can totally see you in that dress. You should at least go try it on or something."

I glanced up at him warily. He had good intentions. He really did. But he could be such a guy sometimes. With a little wave of my hand, I gestured down towards my stomach.

"Well, let's just say that by the time we get married, that dress won't exactly come in my size, you know?"

His hand drifted down to rest over my stomach, which was just looking a little swollen now. All my jeans were getting too tight, so I'd resorted to wearing yoga pants until it was time to break down and start buying some maternity clothes. Right now, stretchy was good.

He leaned in more to press a gentle kiss into my neck. "Well, maybe they have something like that in, uh, your size. Did you check yet?"

Just to humor him, I clicked over to the maternity tab and scrolled down so he could see all the options.

"Jesus, that chick kinda looks like a whale in that dress," his eyes widened when he realized he'd said that out loud and shot me a quick look. "Uh, I mean, you wouldn't look like that, Iz. You'd rock that dress."

I cocked an eyebrow at him. "Nice try."

"Sorry."

I just shook my head and clicked on another tab I had open in my browser. While I had him here, I figured I might as well show him everything I'd found. "So, in between feeling all depressed about wedding dresses, I was looking through some sites for reception halls and I found this one on a farm outside of town. Lots of gardens and wooded areas. It kinda has a rustic feel to it, you know?"

He lifted his chin off my shoulder so he could lean in to get a better look at my screen. "That looks nice, babe. It's all outside?"

"Yeah, we could have the ceremony outside if the weather's okay. They have big tents and everything for the reception."

"Okay," he nodded. "Let's go take a look at it."

Another sigh pushed from my lungs and I just couldn't help it. "We could look at it, but they're booked solid pretty much through the end of the year."

He frowned down at me. "So...?"

"That means if we waited until November or early December, I'll be..." I gestured out about a foot in from of my stomach to illustrate just how pregnant I would be by then. "I just don't know if I want to be
that
pregnant at our wedding."

"Why did you show this to me then?"

That was a good question. I was wallowing a little in this pity party. That's what it was. Hormones. I was just going to blame it all on hormones right now.

"I don't know," I sighed and leaned forward to rest my chin into my hand. "This is just a headache, you know? Everything...the catering, the flowers, the dress, the reception, getting everything booked in enough time before the baby comes. Can't we just go get married at City Hall or something? I'm sick of this already and I just started."

Caleb brushed his lips against my cheek and reached forward to shut the laptop we'd borrowed from Eli. "Let's do it."

My mouth dropped open a little in surprise. "What?"

"Yeah," he shrugged and rested his hands over my shoulders again so he could knead the tight muscles there. "We go to City Hall, get married, have a little party at the clubhouse and then, maybe a couple months or so after our kid gets here, we do it the way you wanted to."

It was such an easy solution I almost couldn't believe he was the one who thought of it. But then again, I'd been learning a lot about him ever since the impending parenthood bomb dropped. He was pragmatic and logical about these kinds of things in a way I never would've expected from him...buying our house, all that business about the insurance, and now this. As much as his tendency to make these decisions without talking to me first drove me up the wall, he'd been right about pretty much everything. To be fair, it was almost a little
too
easy. There had to be some sort of catch.

"Everybody wins," Caleb went on, a broad smile spreading across his face. "I get to make you my wife like tomorrow. You get to have the wedding you always wanted. Compromise, Iz. That's what this is."

I shifted in my chair and arched an eyebrow at him. "If you're really promising to give me everything I want for our wedding, that's going to cost you a lot of money."

He just shot that crooked grin at me and shrugged. "I got it. Don't worry about the money."

I narrowed my eyes. "Tomorrow?"

"Okay," he laughed. "Maybe not tomorrow. Next weekend?"

"Hmm," I needed to chew on this for a little while.

It was pretty damned impulsive, but then again, two ceremonies and two celebrations, albeit on different scales, actually seemed like a pretty good idea the more I thought about it. And, most importantly, we'd be able to get married without all the stress and all the drama as soon as possible.

After that, I'd have as much time as I wanted to plan our all-out celebration, let alone lose the baby weight, without nearly as much pressure...which was probably all part of Caleb's master plan. Was he always this smart and I just never knew it?