Jodie's Choice, page 19
“I’ll have Gary call her to set up an appointment.”
“Fantastic.” He faced Jodie. “We can meet once a week. Then once a month, we can do a family session with you, Linda or whomever else we think needs to be invited for that session.”
“You just want to start those cooking lessons,” she teased.
Jodie watched the trees as Ashton drove them from Dr. Elders’ to the farm. With news of him chastising Linda returned her fears of his superman syndrome. Granted, she was thankful for whatever he’d said because he’d done the impossible and made Linda see how her choices affected the people she loved, but now that his cape was no longer needed, would he fly back to Denver.
“Are you feeling well?” Ashton asked.
“I have too much on my mind, but Mama made me proud today. I think we’ll make it.” She leaned her head back. “Clay, I know you said you have some sort of confidentiality thing, but please tell Ashton everything. I’m just too tired.”
“Sure.” He filled Ashton in.
“Wake up, Jodie.”
Jodie cracked her eyes open and saw Ashton standing beside her. He put her arms around his neck. “Hold tight.” He lifted her out of the seat of the SUV and carried her up the stairs.
“You are such a show off.”
He chuckled. “Clay, can you get the door for me.”
“Oh, sure.” Clay hurried up the stairs and held the door open for them.
One step into the living room caused Jodie to scream, “Oh,-my-God!” Blinking several times to see if the image before her changed, she walked from room to room. Someone had removed all the furniture and decorations Linda had picked and replaced it with the items Jodie had chosen while they were window-shopping.
“The painters will be here next week.”
She latched onto Ashton. “You tricked me. You said we were playing a game.” While she was at Dr. Elders’, Gary had told her he proposed to Linda and she’d accepted, so Linda would be moving in with him. Jodie had been so shocked that they were finally getting married, she hadn’t thought about the farm being all hers or decorating.
“I had to slip each sales associate a note without your noticing it. That was some game. Clay, we’re headed back into town. Did you want to come? It won’t take us nearly as long this time.”
“Thanks, but I have to type up my report.”
Still riding the high from her newly decorated home, Jodie didn’t even ask why they were going into town. She loved Ashton’s surprises and hoped they didn’t end any time soon. Their first stop was Dr. Elders’ old office space. They took the elevator up and walked along the hallway, but something had changed. The large glass doorway was no longer blank, but had been replaced by frosted glass and TLC Women’s Clinic was stenciled in large cursive letter.
“TLC?”
“I’m the ‘T’ and my partners are the ‘L’ and ‘C’. Tolliver, Long and Carrey.”
To ensure she wasn’t misinterpreting things, she turned to him and asked, “You’re opening an office here?”
“Yes, baby.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box.
She’d never seen such a cute box before. “How adorable. Is the key to the office in there?”
Chuckling, he gently kissed her lips. “I love you entirely too much.” He opened the box and displayed a diamond ring. “Will you save me by becoming my wife?”
“Yes, yes, yes.”
Prologue
One Year Later…
“Girl, I told you pushing a baby out is the same feeling as pushing out a dookie ball,” Cassidy said.
Jodie laughed. “I thought you were joking, but what I was doing wasn’t working, so I gave it a try and wha-lah.”
“Don’t pay Cassidy any never mind, she thought I was joking when I told her the same thing,” Lisa said. “Once she starts having babies, then she can talk.”
“Man in the room.” Evan shook his head. “Man in the room. You women are nuts.”
“Sorry, Dad.”
“See what happens when you don’t use condoms,” Lionel teased as he entered the hospital room. Everyone laughed.
“You are so wrong for that.” Jodie held her arms out for a hug. “I’ve missed you. Why do you always stay away too long?”
“It’s only been a month.”
“Like I said, why do you always stay away too long?”
“You are entirely too spoiled. Where’s my niece?”
“Ashton and Dad will be here in a second with her.” She’d grown close to Willis and considered him one of her fathers. He’d even earned a place in her heart. Now his sister, Maureen, was a different story. She loved her aunt, but the woman could be a bit much. The little family barbeque she’d arranged to welcome Jodie into the family had over 100 attendees and not even a third of them were family members. Maureen had spent the week telling anyone who would listen her niece’s sensational story. Thankfully for Jodie, her supermen were on the case and took her to a festival downtown instead. She was introduced to the family over the next few weeks.
Linda came running into the room. “Oh, my goodness, I thought we’d never make it.” She hugged Jodie and everyone else in the room. “I told your father we shouldn’t leave town with your delivery date so near.”
“Where is he?”
“Parking the car.”
Through the course of therapy, Jodie had returned to calling Dr. Elders, “Daddy.” Clay had them all in much-needed individual and family therapy, and they were all on the road to recovery. Now if she could only get Evelyn to stop tripping and accept Clay’s proposal, life would be perfect.
Ashton and Willis entered the room with the baby.
Linda held her hands out to Willis. “May I hold her?”
“She’s so beautiful,” he said with pride as he handed her over to Linda. “You two did good work.”
It did Jodie’s heart well to see Linda and Willis getting along. Outside of the wedding where they steered clear of each other, it took four months of therapy to get them into the same room, but was worth every session.
“Were you able to contact Thomas?” Jodie asked Ashton.
“He finally answered his voice mail when we were in the nursery. He’s on his way.”
Thomas had been the best man at their wedding and she’d been given away by both of her fathers. She’d known about marriage, but didn’t realize there was a ceremony portion until she saw a wedding wars episode of Top Chef the evening Ashton proposed to her. She immediately called Cassidy and Lisa to ask for assistance.
Lionel pulled the blanket further from the baby’s face. “Oh, no. Not another golden-eyed girl? What’s her name?”
Dr. Elders entered the room and hugged his baby girl. “Sorry, I’m late.”
“You’re right on time.” She reached for her baby. Ashton took her from Linda and handed her over to Jodie, then sat beside his women.
“Family, I’d like to introduce you to Lydia Doris Tolliver.”
The End
http://www.deewrites.com
A Note From The Author
I hope you enjoyed Ashton and Jodie’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it. As usual, I took creative license here and there, but it all worked out in the end. I always love hearing from readers. If you’d like to have a book discussion about this or any of my titles or just want to say “Hi,” I can be reached at deatri@deewrites.com.
Until the next novel,
Much Joy Peace and Love
Deatri King-Bey
http://www.deewrites.com
Red Rose Publishing
Trapped In Paradise
Broken Promises
Genesis Press
Caught Up
Ebony Angel
Parker Publishing
Beauty and the Beast
Whisper Something Sweet
Red Rose Publishing, Jodie's Choice
