CHAPTER 9


Two months later.

Charlotte opens the door to let Andie, Nicky and the kids in. "Your belly's growin'." Charlotte rubs her hand over Andie's baby bump.

"You don't need to remind me every time I see you, momma." Andie gripes. "I'm not as big this time as I was with Charley or Michael Nikolas."

"Dinner's all ready in the kitchen." Charlotte tells them. "Chase and Michelle made Chicken Fettuccine and some fancy dessert."

"Sounds fattening." Nicky rubs his stomach.

"You got nothin' to worry about." Charlotte leads the family into the house.

"Are you saying, I do, momma?" Andie rubs her pregnant belly, following her momma into the kitchen.

"I said no such thing, Sweet Pea. Don't put words in my mouth." Charlotte picks up Charley and sits him in a booster seat at the kitchen table. She washes his hands with a warm wash cloth before telling Harper. "Wash up before supper."

Harper makes her way over to the sink. "Whats for dessert?" She asks while soaping up her eight year old hands.

Cooper chuckles. "We haven't even had dinner yet."

Nicky sits at the table. "You know the rules, rabbit, no dessert until you've finsihed your dinner."

"But we're at Nan's house." The eight year old tries. "You're supposed to get spoiled at your grandparent's house."

"Nice try." Charlotte wipes Charley's hands with a towel. "The same rules apply here."

Chase tells Harper. "You spend just as much time here as at your own house so going to grandma's house and getting spoiled doesn't apply for you guys, you practically live here."

"Are you jealous?" Cooper teases Chase. "Because your room is still available upstairs."

"No." Chase defends. "I'm just saying Andie and the kids are here a lot."

"We don't mind." Charlotte helps Michelle set the food out.

"The dinner smells really good." Andie puts baby Michael Nikolas into the highchair near Cooper.

"I guess I have baby duty again tonight." Cooper taps Michael on the nose.

"Andie?" Michelle turns around. "Chase and I were hoping you'd allow Harper to be a flower girl in our wedding and Charley could be our ring bearer?"

Andie sits down at the table. "I'm fine with that."

"I found the cutest little dress for Harper and I think Charley would look adorable in a mini-tux." Michelle sets the bowl of Chicken Fettuccine on the table.

"It's your wedding. Do whatever you want." Andie scoops some fettuccine on the kid's plates before her own.

"How are you doing, Drew?" Nicky pours milk for the kids.

"Fine." Drew scoops fettuccine onto his own plate.

"You don't talk much." Chase tells his younger brother as he waits for him to pass the bowl.

Michelle asks Nicky. "Would Broken Spell be able to play at our wedding on October 15?"

Nicky twirls his fettuccine on his fork. "I'll have to make sure we don't already have the date booked but if we're open, consider it done."

"Can you let us know as soon as possible? We'll pay the band. We don't expect you to play for free." Michelle tells him.

"I'm not going to charge you, you're family." Nicky twirls the fettuccine onto his fork.

Michelle announces to them. "I tell everyone how much I love Chase's family."

"That's what Tess used to say." Drew finally has something to say. It feels awkward. Everyone eats their food in silence now.

Harper is the first one to break the silence. "I miss Aunt Tess. When is she coming back?"

"She's not." Chase answers, quick and definitively.

"Why? I miss her." Harper tells Chase.

"She moved away and found a job somewhere else." Chase explains while he plays with his food.

"Why? Doesn't she like us anymore?"

Nicky tells his daughter. "Eat your fettuccine. I'll talk to you about Aunt Tess later, okay, rabbit?"

"Okay, poppa."

Charlotte spoons some fettuccine into three year old Charley's mouth. Truth be told, Charlotte likes Michelle, she's nice enough and Chase seems to adore her but still Charlotte misses Tess, dearly. Tess had become her second daughter, in a way.

Cooper puts his fork down. "Well, the one good thing about the wedding coming up so soon is we'll get to see Noah and Marley. They're going to spend the week before the wedding here."

Michelle and Chase exchange glances with each other. They both caught on to 'the one good thing' part of Cooper's sentence, once again, it feels awkward.

"I can't wait to see Marley again." Harper bellows "I love Marley!"

"Noah is your uncle, doofas." Fourteen year old Drew reminds Harper. "You're supposed to get excited to see him, not his girlfriend."

"But Marley always plays with me. She braids my hair and paints my toenails."

"It's okay." Charlotte tells Harper. "It's nice that you're close to Marley, maybe she'll be your aunt one day."

"Don't count on it." Drew drinks his chocolate milk. "Look what happened with Tess. We all expected Chase to marry her. The kids even called her Aunt Tess and now it's Ka-Put!"

Michelle looks at Harper. "You can start calling me Aunt Michelle if you want to."

"No, thank you." Harper answers, politely. "I'll wait until the wedding, just in case you run away like Aunt Tess did."

The table is completely quiet for the next five minutes until Cooper breaks the ice. "I'm done eating. Who wants dessert?"

"Me! Me!" Harper and Charley both call out at the same time.

"Kids." Nicky wipes Harper's mouth for her.

Chase rubs Michelle's arm, watching Nicky wipe the children's mouths off. "Soon we'll have one of our own, Michelle. I can't wait."

"Oh my God, you're pregnant?" Charlotte's eyes pop, focusing on Michelle.

"No, ma'am. I'm very responsible in that way." Michelle explains. "Chase just said that because we plan to start trying for a baby as soon as we get married which isn't long off."

"I see." Charlotte nods.

Michelle stands up, they all watch her walk over to the fridge. She certainly is a beautiful woman. She pulls the cake out and turns around to face them.

"What kind of cake is that?" Cooper rubs his palms together.

"It's a chocolate blackout cake. I made it myself." Michelle places the cake on the table before she slices it, handing the pieces to Chase to pass out. Chase gives each of the kids a piece before handing Nicky the biggest piece.

"Great job, Michelle." Nicky tastes the cake. "This is really good. It has coffee in the recipe, right?"

"Yes. I added an extra tablespoon of coffee and I also added crushed peanuts to the recipe." Michelle tells them. "To add a different flavor."

"Oh no!" Andie exclaims. "Nicky's allergic to peanuts!"

Nicky immediately puts his fork down. He hurries to the sink to spit the cake out before rinsing his mouth out with water.

"I'm sorry." Michelle apologizes to Nicky. "I didn't know you were allergic to peanuts." Michelle turns to ask Chase. "Why didn't you tell me Nicky had a peanut allergy?"

"I thought you knew. I thought everyone knew." Chase answers.

"Tess knew." Andie tells Chase. "How would Michelle know unless you told her?"

"What do we do?" A shaken Michelle asks Charlotte. "You're a doctor. Do you have an epi-pen?"

"Is my poppa going to be okay!" Harper yells out.

"Oh No! My poppa!" Charley bangs his spoon on the table picking up on the anxiety in the room. "Hewp my poppa!"

"Your poppa is going to be fine." Charlotte rises to her feet and takes a packet of benadryl out of a kitchen medicine cabinet that contains Cooper's cholesterol pills along with other over the counter meds. She opens the packet of Benadryl and hands Nicky two pills to swallow. "Take these. They'll help ward off an allergic reaction."

Nicky tells Charlotte. "I feel okay. I only took two bites of the cake and I spit one of them out." Nicky makes a weird face.

"What is it?" Charlotte asks, noticing Nicky's facial expression.

"My tongue and throat are starting to feel itchy."

Charlotte orders Drew. "Run upstairs and get my medical kit. I have an epi-pen in there."

"This is embarassing." Nicky's looks around the kitchen, noticing everyone is staring at him. "I'm fine, everyone I'm fine." He reassures them.

Andie rushes over to her husband. "You're starting to get hives on your face."

Nicky shakes his head. "This is embarrassing." He sits back down at the kitchen table, waiting for Drew to come back with the epi-pen.

"Don't be embarrassed, it's not your fault." Andie hovers over Nicky, rubbing his head. "You didn't know there were peanuts in the cake."

Nicky gulps, feeling his throat itch even more now. "I usually ask if there's peanuts but I thought I was safe here. I thought everyone knew."

Michelle looks on horrified at what her cake has done to Nicky.

Harper starts to cry now. "Is my poppa going to be alright?"

"He's going to be just fine." Charlotte reassures her before telling Cooper. "Get the kids out of here."

Drew runs back into the kitchen with the medical kit while Cooper escorts the kids out of the kitchen, down the hall to the playroom. Charlotte pulls the epi-pen out of the medical kit and injects Nicky in the leg with it.

"Thank you." Nicky holds his hand on his leg where Charlotte jabbed the epi-pen through his jeans.

Charlotte nods. "I want you, Andie, and the kids to stay over here tonight in case there's a problem. Technically, I should take you to the ER to be monitored after I administered the epi-pen but I don't wanna scare the hell outta the kids. You'll all stay here tonight, understood?"

"Understood." Nicky nods.

"I'll go home and get us all a change of clothes and pj's." Andie gives Nicky a kiss on the cheek. "Are you okay with me leaving for a few minutes?"

Nicky nods.

"Don't worry." Charlotte tells Andie. "I'm not gonna let anything happen to your man while you're gone."

"Thanks, momma." Andie gives Charlotte a hug before hurrying out the door.

Drew comments now. "Ever notice that whenever there's a serious problem Andie runs away?"

"It's not serious, I'm fine." Nicky tells Drew.

Charlotte looks Nicky straight in the eyes. "Peanut allegies are very serious. People can and do die from anaphylatic shock when they're allergic to peanuts. You're lucky I had an epi-pen. You should be carrying one around with you just in case."

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry." Michelle can't take anymore she runs out of the kitchen, frazzled. Chase follows her.

"What's wrong?" Chase asks.

Michelle sits on the couch. "Everything's a disaster. I tried so hard to impress your family with the meal and the dessert and it turned out to be a nightmare. I almost killed your brother in law."

"It was my bad for not telling you Nicky was allergic to peanuts. You had no idea and besides Nicky's fine now." Chase explains. "My momma would take him to the hospital if she thought he was in any danger."

Michelle wipes her eyes and tells Chase. "They love Tess, they kept talking about her. They hate me for taking Tess's place."

"You're not taking Tess's place." Chase plays with one of her brown, bouncy curls.

"Yes, I am. You were engaged to Tess and now you're engaged to me. I can't fill her shoes."

"My family hasn't known you very long." Chase comforts Michelle. "They've known Tess for over ten years."

"What if they never like me?"

"Give them time to get to know you, they'll love you just like I do." Chase brushes her hair out of her eyes with his finger.

Drew's the first one to come out of the kitchen. He notices Michelle's teary eyes. "Michelle, you're an awesome cook, much better than Tess, she couldn't cook for an army of rodents."

"Thank you. I think." Michelle responds.

"For what it's worth, I loved your blackout cake. It was a great touch how you added the peanuts, but of course, I'm not allergic." Drew chuckles.

"See?" Chases gives Michelle a gentle peck on her forehead. "They're starting to like you already. Hang in there."

"Okay." Michelle sniffles back her tears.