Pass it Down

Happy Sunday, readers!  As promised on Friday (if you didn't check back on Friday to see my Kinsley bonus, make sure you don't miss it!), I've got some Kinsley bonuses up my sleeve so that we can wrap this part of her story up and hear from Lauren.  I had a request for a post from Damien's perspective, so I'm working on that too!  I love when you guys give me an awesome, challenging request.  Those end up being some of my favorite posts to write.  

The plan for this week is: Today's post, below.  Tomorrow (Monday), a Kinsley post.  Wednesday and Friday will be a Kinsley post and a main storyline post--not sure yet which will be which.  Ideally, I'd like Wednesday to be main storyline and Friday to be Kinsley, but the Kinsley post is written and the next main storyline post is not, so that might mean that Kinsley happens on Wednesday and main storyline on Friday.  Either way, there will be posts today, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  

One last thing:  I'm loving all the discussion on the Kinsley storyline, and I'm glad that you're all enjoying her posts so much.  Kinsley has a special place in my heart, so I love that you all love her too.
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Lauren skipped out on Thursday's happy hour, and Brody was stuck at work late, so it ended up being me, Alex, Kendra, and Christian.  According to Alex, Lauren had claimed that she wasn't feeling well.  It was sort of a weird evening, and ended up being mostly Kendra and I talking wedding while Alex and Christian talked about...whatever they talked about.

I left after a little over an hour and stopped to drop off some food to Brody.  Arlene was still parked at the desk and barely looked at me as she waved me back.  I knocked lightly on Brody's office door, which was ajar.  "Yeah?" he said.  He looked up as I pushed the door open a little more and slipped in.  "Oh! Hi, baby," he said, smiling.  "Sorry, I thought you were Pete."

"Nope, definitely not!" I replied.

"You're a lot prettier than Pete," Brody said, laughing.  He stood and kissed me.  "And you brought food.  You're far superior to Pete in every way."

"That was in order of importance, right?" I joked.

"Absolutely," he said with a grin.  Then he yawned.  I looked at the clock and saw it was a little after 8.  Judging by what time his alarm went off this morning, I estimated he'd already been at work for 14 hours today.

"Do you have much left?" I asked sympathetically, reaching up to rub his neck.

He frowned.  "Unfortunately, yes.  I'll probably be here a couple more hours.  I'd like to finish tonight so I can sleep in and come in a little later tomorrow morning and still be done by a reasonable time."

"Okay, I'll go so you can get back to work then," I said.

"I'll give you an update when there's an end in sight," he promised, kissing me.  I turned to go, and he caught my hand and pulled me back.  "One more kiss," he said, tugging me close to him.  I laughed and kissed him, gripping his arms and then sliding my hands up to his face.  "Mmm," he said, finally pulling away.  "Maybe that will motivate me to get shit done so I can get home."

"If that's the case, then how about one more?" I asked, smirking and standing on my toes to kiss him again.  He wrapped his arm around my lower back and pulled me against him, then buried his other hand in my hair, gently gripping a handful.

"Ummm," a male voice said, clearing his throat.  "Sorry, I'll...come back."

Brody and I broke apart sheepishly, and Brody called, "No, Pete, it's okay.  Sorry."

Pete turned and came back in, looking embarrassed.  "I knocked..." he said, shrugging.  "The door was open.  I can wait though..."

"No, I was just leaving," I said hastily, my face hot.  Brody offered to walk me out but I waved him off and left, hurrying past Pete without making eye contact.  I wasn't sure if it was for his benefit or mine.

When I got to my car, before I set off for home, I sent a quick text to Lauren that said, "Hope you feel better.  I miss you.  Call me when you get a chance."  I was a little frustrated with the whole situation and hoped that Lauren would actually call me.  At this point, I didn't even know if we were on for Monday.

When I got home I washed the couple of dishes that were in the sink, wiped down the counters, and then decided to soak in the bath for awhile.  I dumped some lavender bath salt in while the tub filled up and grabbed a glass of wine and my Kindle.  I laid in the tub reading for almost an hour before I got out.  I dried off and got dressed and grabbed my phone--I had a text from Brody saying, "Don't wait up.  Midnight maybe?  Sorry :("   I decided to just head to bed, and I was glad I didn't have to work the next day.

I tossed and turned for awhile before settling into a restless sleep.  I never slept well here when Brody was gone.  Finally, I heard footsteps coming up the stairs.  Brody came in, headed for the bathroom, and emerged a few minutes later.  I rolled over as he climbed into bed.  "Hi," I said sleepily.

"Hi," he replied, settling next to me and wrapping his arm around me.  "Sorry I woke you."

"You didn't, really," I said, finding his hand and weaving my fingers between his.  "I'm sorry your day sucked."

"It's better now," he said, pressing his face against my neck.  "I'm going to work from home tomorrow, I think.  It's been a long week."

"I like that idea," I said.  There was no chance of him getting stuck late in town if he didn't leave the house.

I finally fell asleep, not waking until Brody's alarm went off in the morning.  Next to me, he groaned and I felt his arm lift off my body as he rolled over to silence his phone.  He grumbled something unintelligible as he rolled back towards me, wrapping his arm back around me and nestling his face between my neck and shoulder.

I had just drifted back to sleep when his alarm went off again.  Once again he groaned, rolled over, silenced it, and rolled back towards me.  Figuring he must have actually shut it off this time, I shut my eyes again.  When the alarm went off a third time, I rolled away from him and said, "If you don't either shut that fucking thing off or get up, you can go sleep in the other room and listen to it repeatedly by yourself."

"It's off," he said chuckling.  "Come back, please?"    Grumbling to myself, I rolled back over onto my side and let him snuggle up against my back again.  But now I couldn't get comfortable enough to fall back asleep.  "Sorry," Brody said, his breath tickling my neck.  "I can try to help you fall back asleep if you want..."  When I didn't grumble at him, he pressed his lips against the back of my neck.  Getting no negative response, he moved them a little and sucked gently.  Despite my grumpiness at having been woken up three times, I couldn't help but sigh contentedly and press my hips back against his.

He kept kissing and sucking on the back of my neck while one hand slipped up my tank top and brushed lightly across my breasts.  Then he pushed my shorts down over my hips and I wiggled out of them, kicking them off.  His hand found its way between my legs and began moving gently against me until I was moaning and pressing my hips against his hand.  Then he eased himself into me and rocked his hips slowly against mine, keeping his fingers pressed against my skin.

He got me close, then paused the movement of his fingers and his hips, nipping gently at my shoulder as I moved my hips desperately against his.  Then he resumed, and this time he didn't stop.  I cried out and gripped his forearm tightly as I came, locking my leg around his.  His fingers continued moving against me as he thrust harder and I soon had a second orgasm.  He finished shortly after and we stayed pressed together, breathless.

We shifted around so Brody was laying on his back and I had my head on his chest.  Brody pushed my hair behind my ear, then dragged his fingers lightly down my jaw.  Up, around my ear, down my jaw, over and over.  I yawned and my eyelids drooped shut, and I soon fell back asleep.

I woke again about an hour later, and I could tell from the slow, steady rise and fall of Brody's chest that he was still sleeping.  I carefully slipped out of bed without waking him, found my shorts, and crept downstairs.   By the time Brody came downstairs, I was almost finished making eggs, pancakes, and sausage.

"You're making me breakfast?  That's new!" Brody teased me as he came into the kitchen, pushing his hand through his already tousled hair.

"Weird, huh?" I replied, laughing.  "Don't get used to it."  We sat and ate together, then cleaned up together.  After that, Brody disappeared into his office to work.  I spent my Friday going to the gym, getting groceries and running a couple errands, doing some laundry, and doing some more wedding stuff.  We had gotten just about all the addresses we needed (having a short guest list helped!) and I needed to compile them into one list to send to Lauren's mom.  Then I made lists of questions to ask the people we were meeting with tomorrow (a couple photographers, a couple DJs, and an officiant), and started looking for florists in Colorado Springs.

I was still Googling when Brody wandered in.  I showed him a few things I was looking at, then gladly shut the laptop so we could make dinner together.  We ate out on the deck and spent a good portion of the evening out there, splitting a bottle of wine and talking.

We went to bed early, and we were up early on Saturday to head down to Colorado Springs.  We played bad 90s and early 2000s music the whole ride down, singing along to boy bands and Britney Spears.  It was a long day of running around and asking questions and taking notes and being inundated with information, and by the end of our appointments we were both a little crabby.  I really, really wanted to just go home, but we were having dinner with Brody's mom.

"We have some time, do you mind if we make one more stop?" Brody asked.

I frowned.  "Can that stop be preceded by one more for some caffeine?"

Brody chuckled.  "Absolutely.  There's actually a great coffee shop not to far away from where I want to go, will that work?"  I nodded, and a few minutes later Brody parked.  We walked into a coffee shop and I got a large iced mocha.  I might not sleep tonight, but at least I'd be awake for dinner.  "Up for a 5 minute walk?" Brody asked.  I agreed and he guided us down the sidewalk.

We stopped in front of a jewelry store.  "This is where I got your necklace and your ring," he explained.  "My mom has known the owner for a long time.  I thought you could meet him, and we could look at wedding bands if you want."  Looking at diamonds was always something I was okay with, so I happily followed him into the store.

We were greeted by an attractive woman who looked like she was in her mid-30s.  "Is Don here?" Brody asked her.  She nodded and said he was in the back, then excused herself to go get him.  I wandered around, looking at all the pretty things in the cases.

"Brody!" boomed an unfamiliar male voice.  I looked up and saw a tall, heavyset man approaching us.  "Hello, son!"  He shook Brody's hand vigorously, then his sparkling eyes turned to me.  "And you must be Olivia," he said, holding out his hand to me.

"Yes, that would be me," I said, smiling and shaking his outstretched hand.

"Let's see that beautiful ring on your hand there, dear," Don said, motioning to my left hand.  I held it out to him and he gently took my fingers and tilted the ring this way and that way, so the diamond caught the light and glittered.  "Perfect," he said.  "It looks even better on your hand than it did in my display case.  If you can part with it for a minute or two, Kathryn will clean it for you."  Perking up at the mention of her name, Kathryn scurried over, carefully taking the ring from me and walking towards the back of the store.  My hand felt weird without the ring.  "The necklace is stunning on you as well," he said.  Then he turned back to Brody.  "You did good, kid."

Brody grinned, then asked if we could look at wedding bands.  Don led us to a different section of the store as Kathryn returned with my ring.  I tried on several bands, but nothing was quite what I wanted.  The band I liked didn't fit right with my ring.  "We might just have customize something for you, my dear," Don said, after I'd tried on half the store.

I frowned.  "I'm sure I'll find something," I replied.  Brody tried on a few rings and found a couple that he liked.  We had to leave, but we assured Don that we'd be back, probably in a few weeks.  We said goodbye, and headed back towards the car, walking hand in hand.

Brody drove us to the restaurant we were meeting Thalia at, and we were a few minutes early.  We sat in the car and went over our notes from all of our meetings.  We had ended up really liking one of the photographers and signed a contract and put a deposit down.  Both the DJs were fine and we would have been okay with either one, but Brody really wanted to look at some live music options first.  The officiant wasn't our style at all, and that stressed me out the most, because if we didn't have someone to marry us, we wouldn't be able to have a wedding.  Brody assured me that it would be okay and we'd find someone, but his laid-back attitude just added to my stress. I wanted him to feel the same sense of urgency that I did, even though I logically knew that wouldn't happen.

I shoved my notes into the backseat and grabbed my purse and we headed to inside to meet his mom.  We waited for her inside, and she walked in just a couple minutes after we had.  She greeted us both cheerfully with a hug.  Once we were seated, she asked how the day of wedding planning had gone.  Brody smiled and said, "I think it went great," at the same time that I shrugged and said, "It was okay, I guess."  We looked at each other and laughed, then I clarified, "I think I'm feeling the time crunch a little bit more than he is."

"Brody's never been troubled by timelines," Thalia agreed, smiling.   "But please, let me know if you need any help.  I'd be happy to do whatever I can."

"Thank you," I said sincerely.  "I might take you up on that!"  I thought for a second and then said, "Actually, if you don't mind, I could really use someone to go meet with a florist with me when I pick one out.  I don't really know much about flowers, and Brody doesn't care.  It would be nice to have someone there that was a little more knowledgeable."  I knew that Thalia loved flowers and gardening, and Brody had given me a "do I have to?" look when I asked him about meeting with florists.

"I'd love to!" she said happily.  After a little discussion, we agreed that I'd try to set something up on one of the Fridays I was off.  Brody looked relieved that he wouldn't have to do anything flower-related with me.

"So, Mom," Brody started, once we were almost finished eating.  "Are we going to get to meet this man in your life before the wedding?"

Thalia looked surprised, as if it hadn't occurred to her that Brody would want to meet him.  Or maybe that we'd invite him to the wedding (which we were, of course).  "Well, I guess, if you want to," she said, stuttering a little.

"I do," he confirmed.  I nodded.

She shrugged.  "Okay, well we can set something up for another time that you guys are down here doing wedding stuff, if you'd like.  Just let me know."  We promised to let her know the next time we'd be down.

Our server appeared at that moment, saving Thalia from any further discussion of her love life.  We debated if we wanted to get dessert, and finally selected something to share.  Once our server disappeared, Thalia turned to me.  Her eyes sparkled as she said, "Olivia, dear, I have something for you."

"For me?" I asked, surprised.  I looked at Brody, who looked just as surprised as I did.  I looked back at Thalia and she smiled as she reached into her purse and drew out a large velvet jewelry box.  I cocked my head and took it tentatively when she held it out to me.

"This was my grandmother's, then my mother's, then mine, and now I want it to be yours," she said.  "Consider it an engagement gift, but please don't feel pressure to wear it for your wedding if it doesn't go with your dress or if you have something else already.  I just want you to have it."

I glanced at Brody again before I opened it, and he just smiled at me.  I opened the box and gasped.  "Oh my god, Thalia, this is gorgeous," I breathed, looking down at an amazing diamond and pearl necklace with matching earrings.  "I can't possibly--"

"You can, and you will," she said simply and firmly.  "You don't have to wear it if you don't like it; all I ask is that if you and my son have children, you'll continue to pass it down."

"No, I love it," I said sincerely.  "And I will!  It's beautiful.  I...don't know what to say."  I looked up at her, blinking furiously because I felt tears welling up at the gesture.  "Thank you."  Brody slipped an arm around my shoulders and quickly kissed my cheek, then smiled at me.

"You're welcome, dear.  Welcome to our family."

That was enough to send me over the edge, and the tears I'd been trying to hold back spilled out.  Our server stopped by with our dessert, saw me crying, and hurriedly set the plate down and backed away.  "Hey," Brody said, laughing gently.  "Don't do that."  He tightened his arm around me and stroked my shoulder with his thumb.  Thalia reached across the table and patted my hand gently, and I laced my fingers with hers and squeezed them.  She squeezed back, and I stood and excused myself.

I hurried to the bathroom, where I managed to get a hold of myself.  I cursed myself for my tendency to cry at the drop of a hat, and quickly cleaned up my smudged eye makeup and took several deep breaths.  When I came out of the bathroom, I found Brody leaning against the wall.  He pulled me into a hug.  "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine.  I just got a little overwhelmed by the gesture and the thought behind it," I said, smiling at him.  "Thanks for coming to check on me."

He kissed my forehead, then brushed his lips gently against mine.  "Alright, I'm going to the bathroom then, I'll be back shortly."  I nodded and turned to head back to the table.

I felt my face get warm as I sat back down, and I smiled shyly at Thalia.  "Sorry," I said.  "Thank you, it means so much to me that you'd give me this beautiful heirloom.  And actually, if you don't mind, I'd love to wear it on our wedding day.  It will go perfectly with my dress."

Thalia's face lit up.  "Of course!" she said.  "It's yours, you can wear it when you want.  That means you've purchased a dress?"

"Yes, want to see it?" I asked.  She nodded excitedly.  I checked to make sure Brody wasn't coming back yet, and pulled my phone out.  I scrolled through my pictures until I found the one of me in the dress that Amy had taken and sent to me.  I handed her my phone, and her eyes got wide.

"Oh, Olivia, it's beautiful," she said.  "You look wonderful, and so happy.  And you're right, that jewelry will be perfect with it."  She smiled at me and handed the phone back, motioning with her head to the right.  I saw Brody coming, so I quickly clicked my screen off and shoved my phone back in my purse.  I had originally wanted to go dress shopping with him, but when I had found the perfect dress without him, I decided I wanted to keep it a surprise.

We ate our dessert and stayed for a bit longer.  I was so grateful to be marrying into Brody's family, even with the family-related bumps we'd had along the way.  Brody's mom and sister were wonderful enough to make up for the rocky start, and I was hopeful that our relationship with Ken would end up being neutral at worst.

Finally, we stood, freeing up our table for the next guests.  Outside the restaurant we both hugged Thalia, promising to let her know when we'd be down again.  We parted, and Brody and I walked to our car with my first family heirloom tucked safely into my purse.