If I were a betting woman...

It was nice to spend the rest of Thursday with Brody, since he'd been gone for a few days.  After dinner he went into his office to do some work, but didn't stay there long.  We both went to bed early, and while I slept restlessly--waking up often--I slept nightmare free and much better than I had the night before.

On Friday morning I got a call from my therapist letting me know that she'd had an afternoon cancelation and could fit me in today if I was free.  I took her up on it, and after breakfast I went into town.  I went to the gym, then had lunch with Kinsley, then went to my appointment, then to the grocery store.  I absolutely loved having all my Fridays off.  It was so nice to be able to get errands done while most people were at work and places weren't as busy.

When I got home, I worked on wedding stuff a little more.  I set up appointments to meet with two officiants next Friday afternoon.  We were getting down to the wire and needed to find someone.  I figured if Brody couldn't go, I'd ask Thalia to come with me.  I spent a good portion of the late afternoon emailing back and forth with Leigh, the event coordinator at the restaurant.  I was having a hard time with the "details" (like linen color and table set up, place cards and table numbers, etc) because I deemed them unimportant.  She'd been kind enough to put some ideas together to give me some choices so I didn't have to start from scratch, and now I was ruling out the things I didn't like.  This was much easier.

I got most things narrowed down and saved everything to show Brody later.  I got up and started dinner, and Ken came home while I was cooking.  I invited him to join us, and he agreed and offered to help.  I politely turned down his offer to help, but was glad that he seemed to be feeling more comfortable in the house and around me.

Brody got home right as I was finishing up dinner.  "What wonderful timing you have," I teased him, laughing.  "Just in time to eat and not help, as usual."

"He did that all the time when we were growing up.  It's like he has an uncanny ability to sense when all the work is done and the food is ready, and he just appears," Ken said.

"It's a great ability to have," Brody said, grinning at us.  "It's okay to be jealous."  He grabbed some plates out of the cabinet and we sat down to eat.

"My apartment complex called today," Ken said, while we were eating.  "They said I can move in next weekend.  I'd much rather move on a weekend than a Tuesday, so I'm going to do it.  I'll be out of your hair in a week."

"That actually went really fast," I said.  "You've been an excellent guest."  Brody agreed.

He chuckled.  "Well I'm glad to hear it.  I've tried.  I didn't want to piss you guys off right when you decided to maybe give me a chance.  I really appreciate you both letting me stay here this month."

After we finished eating, Brody and Ken cleaned up, and I happily let them.  I filled Brody in on the appointments I'd made for next Friday, and he told me he'd take the afternoon off so we could go together.  It made it a little easier to not get as frustrated when I asked for his opinion on some of the ideas that Leigh had sent me.  "Whatever you want," he said, shrugging.

"But I want to know what you want," I insisted.

"I don't really care that much," he admitted.

"There are a few things that I'm having a hard time deciding, will you at least look at those?" I negotiated.  He agreed, but still wasn't very helpful.  I reminded myself that he had been pretty great so far and was taking off work next Friday to do wedding stuff, and I decided to ask Lauren for her opinion on Monday instead of trying to get Brody to decide.

The rest of the weekend was fairly low-key.  Brody worked all day Saturday, and I went out for a girl's night with Lauren, Kinsley, and Kendra.  We hadn't done that in ages, and it was nice to get out without our guys for awhile.  Brody was nervous about me going out after my recent run-ins with Jordan and we almost got into a fight about it minutes before I walked out the door.  It was only when I pointed out that his protectiveness was bordering on controlling that he realized how unreasonable he was being.

"I'm sorry," he said sincerely, rubbing his forehead.  "I just want you to be safe."

"I am going to be safe," I said.  "At this point, I'm reasonably certain that the only thing he wants to do is scare me and push your buttons.  And the chances of us running into him tonight are small.  It's going to be fine.  You're worrying too much."  

I considered spending the night with Lauren or Kinsley so we could take a cab and all drink, but decided I'd rather sleep at home, so I drove.  I sent Brody a text a couple hours in because I knew he'd be worried, but other than that I didn't think too much about our argument and just enjoyed myself.  I was home by 1 am, because apparently we're all getting too old to drink and dance like we used to.

The next week went by quickly and on Friday Brody came home from work around 1:30, and we headed down to Colorado Springs to meet with the two officiants I had scheduled.  Brody had worked long days the rest of the week to make up for being gone most of last week and leaving early today.  I'd told him that we could try to reschedule the appointments or that I'd go without him but he wanted to go and made it work.  I was grateful for that.

Luckily, we really liked the second officiant that we met with, and we booked her on the spot.  I was so relieved to have all the major things booked and out of the way finally...with just a little over a month to spare!

We were meeting Brody's mom and her mysterious (or not-so-mysterious, if my theory was correct) boyfriend for dinner, but we had over an hour to kill so we wandered around downtown, going in and out of shops and just meandering around the streets.  While we were wandering, my phone rang.  It was Nadine, my biological father's mom.  Brody and I found a bench to sit down on while I answered.

"We are just so excited for your wedding," she said, after we'd exchanged greetings.  "Our RSVP is in the mail!"

"That's great," I said.  "Thank you!  We're pretty excited too.  In fact, we just booked our officiant, so now we can actually get married at our wedding."

She laughed.  "Well, I know the timing is probably bad," she said, "but we're going to be in town to visit the kids' mother in two weeks.  We'd love to see you if you're not too crazy preparing.  I know it's just a few weeks until the wedding."

"I would love to see you guys," I said.  "I feel kind of terrible because I told Sarah that we'd try to plan a weekend for her to come visit before she went back to school, but things got so crazy in August.  Maybe she could come when she has a break from school or something."

"She would love that, I'm sure," Nadine replied.  "She had asked if she could spend one of the nights we're in town with you, but I told her you would probably be running around like crazy."

I considered this.  "Actually, I have most of the bigger stuff done and won't have a ton more to do until probably the week prior.  If she wants to stay one night that weekend, and you're okay with it, that would probably be fine.  I'd love to have her.  I'll just need to talk to Brody first."  Next to me, Brody tapped my arm and nodded, mouthing that it was fine.  "Never mind, he just said he's okay with it!"

"She'll be excited," Nadine said cheerfully.  "Is Saturday night okay?  I'm pulling them out of school at lunch on Friday, but we'll still probably not get there until after dinner time.  They'll be with their mom until about dinner time on Saturday.  Maybe we could all meet for dinner and you could bring her back with you?  Then we can pick her up Sunday on our way out of town?"

"That sounds perfect," I replied.

"Okay, we'll get in touch a little closer to make solid plans for dinner.  I hope you'll bring your fiancé as well.  We'd love to get to know him."  They'd only briefly met Brody the day they picked Sarah up when she had hopped a Greyhound into Denver without telling Nadine and Jon.

"Sure, I'll invite him," I answered.

We said goodbye and hung up and it was time to make our way to the restaurant where we were meeting Thalia and her mystery man.  "Should we take bets on whether or not it's Don?" Brody asked.

"No, because I'm confident that it is," I replied.  "You don't want to bet against that, do you?"

He laughed.  "Not really.  Though I do question it a little, because if it is Don, I'm surprised my mom didn't just tell me that.  At least before we met, because it's not like her to spring something like that on me."

I shrugged and considered this.  "You might be right," I said.  "I guess we'll find out soon."

As it turned out, Thalia was not dating Don.  The man she was standing just outside the restaurant with as we walked up looked considerably younger than Don.  I cringed a little internally, because he also looked much younger than Thalia.  Though Thalia looks quite a bit younger than she is and they didn't make a mismatched couple, I wondered how Brody was going to react.

"I know him," Brody muttered to me as we approached.  "But I can't place him..."  His brow was furrowed and he barely fixed his face in time for his mom to turn around and catch sight of us.  She waved, and we waved back as we closed the space between us and them.  The man looked vaguely familiar to me too, which was surprising.

"Hi," Thalia said with a smile as we approached.  "Brody, do you remember--"

"Tim!" Brody interrupted, suddenly realizing who it was.  I looked at him, still confused.  I had no idea who Tim was.

"Yes," Thalia said, chuckling.  "Tim."  Tim stuck his hand out to shake Brody's hand.  Then he turned towards me expectantly, but before I could introduce myself, Thalia took over.  "Tim, this is Brody's lovely fiancée, Olivia.  Olivia, this is Tim."  I shook his hand and greeted him, still trying to figure out why he looked familiar.  I didn't have to wrack my brain too much longer, because she continued, "You know Don, of course.  Tim is Don's youngest brother."  Ah!  That explains it.  He did look a bit like Don, which must have been where the familiarity came in.

"Of course," I replied, smiling.  I looked at Brody, whose face was neutral.  I couldn't tell what he was thinking, but he smiled back at me.  "Shall we go in?" I asked, nodding towards the door of the restaurant.  Thalia and Tim led the way and I looked at Brody again.  He just smiled back at me and put his arm around my shoulders as we followed them in.

By the end of dinner, Tim had won me over.  He was funny and cheerful and seemed kind.  He and Brody fought good-naturedly over who was going to pay, and Tim won only because the waitress set the bill down closer to him and he managed to snatch it out of Brody's reach.  Thalia smiled.  "I haven't had two handsome men fighting over me in ages," she said.  Brody scowled at her, which just made her laugh.

The service at the restaurant had been incredibly slow, and it was getting late by the time we walked out.  "If you'd like to stay with me, you're welcome to," Thalia said, raising her eyebrows at Brody in question.

"I'm helping Ken move tomorrow," he said.  "But I really don't feel like driving back tonight."

"If you want to head back, I can drive," I offered.  "But I don't mind staying either."

Brody debated silently for several more seconds, then decided we should stay and just get up and going right away in the morning.  We drove out to Thalia's house.  Tim joined us and we opened a bottle of wine and played cards until Brody and I were both yawning.  Tim stood up and said, "I guess I should get going."

"Mom, if your boyfriend wants to stay, it doesn't bother me," Brody said with a smirk, looking at Thalia.

Thalia regarded him coolly and said, "Thanks for your permission, though I don't much care if you're bothered by it or not."  I laughed at the look on Brody's face, and Thalia cracked a smile.  "He needs to be up early though," she continued, "And I'd rather not be.  So no, he can't stay."

"I'm right here," Tim joked.

We said goodbye to him and Thalia walked to him to the door.   When she returned to where Brody and I were picking up the cards and wine glasses, she stopped and said, "Well?"

Brody was silent for several seconds, then asked, "Are you happy?"

"I am," she said, nodding.  "Very happy."

"That's good enough for me, then," he replied.  He smiled and hugged her, and the relief on her face was clear.

"He, um, has a son," she said, after they'd parted.  "He's 12.  That's why he's getting up early tomorrow.  He's taking him fishing."

"Oh," Brody said.  His face was unreadable, but I saw a muscle in his jaw twitch.  "Well, that's good I guess."

She nodded.  "He's an excellent father, it seems like."  The muscle in Brody's jaw twitched again, but he just nodded in response.  Thalia recognized that she had pushed things far enough and shooed us off to bed.

Brody found us both toothbrushes in a drawer in the bathroom next to the bedroom we'd stayed in at Thanksgiving.  We both brushed our teeth silently, next to each other at the sink.  When Brody was done, he walked out of the bathroom, leaving me to wash my face.  When I got into the bedroom, he was already in bed, and I quickly stripped down to my tank top and underwear and got in bed next to him.  He pulled me towards him and settled next to him with my head on his chest, then reached up and pushed my fingers into hair, massaging his scalp.  "Are you okay?" I asked softly.

"Like I said, as long as she's happy, that's enough for me."  His tone was flat and a little cold.  I tried to push myself up on elbow to look at him, but he put gentle pressure on my shoulder, silently asking me to stay put.  I shifted and stayed where I was, respecting his silent request.  "I could have done without knowing about his son and that he's an 'excellent father', though.  I can wrap my head around my mom dating a guy that's probably at least 15 years younger than her.  I'm having a harder time with her being so flippantly cheerful about his parenting skills."

I didn't say anything, and he continued.  "I mean, I guess it's great that she chose someone better than my dad, right?  Because now she can be happy.  And I'm glad for his son's sake that he doesn't suck at being a dad.  Because it sucks to have a dad that does a shitty job of being a dad."  He stopped abruptly and took a deep breath, and I remained silent.  "He does seem like a decent guy, though," Brody admitted.  "And she did look happy."

"She did," I agreed quietly.

"Shit," Brody said, sighing.  "I don't know why I'm so worked up over this guy's kid.  I'm glad she picked a man that isn't anything like my dad.  It just wasn't something I was expecting to hear."

"Well, I imagine it's also hard to know that maybe your mom picked better this time around, because her first choice made aspects of your life really hard," I offered tentatively.

"Yeah," he agreed.  "Something like that."  He laughed drily.  "I'm almost 31 years old and I'm pissed because my mom is dating.  Aren't you impressed by me?"

"You're not pissed because your mom is dating," I said.  "She's been on her own for so long.  This is a big change, and it also happened to trigger some other stuff for you.  You acted perfectly appropriate all night.  It's not like you're throwing a 10 year old's tantrum over having to share your mom with a new guy."

Brody was silent for long enough that I thought maybe he was asleep.  Suddenly, he kissed my forehead and said, "I love you."

"I love you too," I replied.

"You make me feel normal when I'm convinced that I'm crazy.  It's an impressive talent that you have.  You did it for me when my dad died too."

"Normally I charge people to access that particular talent of mine.  For you, it's free."  I pushed myself up again, and this time he didn't try to stop me.  I kissed him, and his grip on my hip tightened slightly.

"What else can I get for free?" he asked, and even though I couldn't see his face well in the dark, I knew he was smirking at me.

I laughed.  "Ask nicely enough, and you can have just about anything you want."