Sodapop

Like every morning I woke up before my alarm, around four in the morning. My wife Presley was still asleep beside me but I knew that she would be up soon after. I decided that today I couldn't stay in bed longer than usual, Pony would be here later today with Audrey, Johnny and his wife would be landing, and Dallas and his girl would be here around supper time. Just as I was about to get out of bed Presley started waking up, rubbing her eyes gently.

"Morning," I whispered, leaning over to kiss her softly. She kissed me back, holding my head. I pulled away gently and kissed her forehead. God she looked beautiful, her red hair resting beside her in the normal curls her hair had.

She kissed me again, rolling over so her head was resting against my chest, her ring catching some of the light from my alarm clock. I rubbed her back softly, wrapping my other arm around her waist.

Our love story had been one from the books- after things had settled down in Tulsa I realized that even though I enjoyed being a mechanic, working at a gas station auto shop wasn't enough for me anymore. For almost a week I sat around the house while two of my friends and my brother had left to pursue their dreams. I started looking online at jobs available, it took almost two years before I came across an ad that was asking for farm hands. It was the next small town over, Kellyville. I called to see if the job was still available and it was, so I went for an interview the next day. The job came with housing and meals, but I didn't exactly know if I wanted to stay there or commute back and forth every day. Kellyville was only roughly 21 miles away so it wouldn't take too long.

When I got there the next morning I met the farmer, his wife, and their children who were all roughly my age. However, his daughter had been the most beautiful girl that I'd ever seen. I could tell that she had a thing for me too, since I pulled up in our old pick up.

They had shown me around, described the duties of the job, before Mr. Knowles had requested that Presley show me around the property. She took me into the barn and we suited up two of the horses and we left on horseback so I could see the property. Half the property was grass for the horses, the other half was crops that we sold at local farmers markets. We had a garden by the main house that we used for our own vegetables and other small farm animals such as chicken and pigs.

About three weeks later I asked Presley out, I'd been living with her family since the second day I started working there. I realized that it had been to hard to be at the barn for four in the morning, finish working at ten at night, drive home, get washed up, and go to bed. Darry had suggested that I move in there, but to be honest I think it was so he could have the house to himself and his wife.

I had taken Presley on a date in Tulsa, I wanted to bring her to a drag race- she'd never seen one before. However we ended up going to the rodeo instead. She had a blast and the rest was pretty much history. We got married after about dating a year and a half, and that's when our lucked turned around for the worse.

Being in our young twenties we wanted to start trying for children- that way if we wanted to grow our family later on we would still be young enough. For the first year we didn't try consciously, though we had the house to ourselves and we… kept busy.

Then after two years she got pregnant but the baby didn't make it to the second term. We took it hard, but we started trying again after getting clearance from the doctor. The second baby we had was a rare case- Presley miscarried in her second term. Then for a couple months we stopped trying, and pushed the thought of having a baby out of our minds. Then for the third time she got pregnant, we lost that baby as well.

We decided to have tests done to see if there was a problem that we could fix. The results came back and said that we were both healthy. This broke our hearts- it meant there should be no reason that we'd lost three children. So for a couple years we decided to put a pause on starting a family and go back to using protection. Then after two years we decided that we were in a better place- the business was making more of a profit and most of the stress in our life was gone. So we started trying again, and this time the pregnancy stuck. We took every precaution there was, she was on bed rest for the entire nine months, we talked business sometimes but anything that could cause her to stress about I didn't tell her. Her parents moved back in to help take care of the animals and take care of her. Then after what felt like the longest nine months of my life we had a beautiful baby girl- Ivy Marie.

Things went perfectly with her, and about a year and a half later we welcomed twin boys into our world, Forrest Henry and River Patrick. For what felt like a blessed three years I got the privilege of raising my family the way I always pictured- with the most beautiful woman by my side, with rolling hills and nothing but farm life to see.

When Ivy turned three she started getting terrible nightmares and the only way we could calm her down was to drive. So whenever I heard her start crying I'd grab the keys, carry her to the truck and drive to one of the open fields off the highway. There she could see all the stars, but the lights from the freeway and cars going by also comforted her- she hated the complete darkness. Once she had calmed down and I told her a story we got back into the truck and started the quick drive home. I used the hands free in the farm truck to text Presley that we were on our way back and then all I can remember was glancing in my rear view mirror, smiling when I saw Ivy asleep in her car seat. Then it suddenly got extremely bright and everything went black.

I woke up two days later in Tulsa General, my neck in a brace and my leg was in a cast, I could feel that my body had numerous sets of stitches. My head felt like it had been pounded in with a cement truck and I looked around, trying to adjust to the bright lights. When I saw Presley and Darry sleeping beside me it didn't take long to remember what had happened. I cleared my throat and used the button at my side for a nurse, who came right in following a doctor. He slowly examined me before taking the neck brace off. Upon all the commotion my beautiful wife and my brother had woken up, and I could tell something was very wrong when my wife started crying.

"I.. I-Ivy?" I asked, my mouth had been very dry. She started crying harder and Darry held her tightly, and I looked at the doctor, he swallowed hard,

"Sir… I'm very sorry but… Your daughter passed away in the accident." My whole world felt like it had stopped spinning. My daughter… My beautiful little girl had been ripped from my life and it was all my fault.

"When emergencies services made it to the scene… You were holding your daughter in her last moments… Her neck was broken so she wasn't in any pain… But by the time paramedics had gotten to her… It was too late. I'm so sorry." The doctor said, and I completely broke. The memories came flooding back, a slideshow in my mind of her entire life up until she passed away in my arms. I couldn't do it. For three months my body and mind shut it's self down. I went through the motions of work, after all these years I could probably do it in my sleep. I stopped caring for Presley and stopped paying any attention to my boys.

God bless this woman. She somehow managed to talk me into therapy, for myself and for the both of us. Now before I didn't believe that someone needed to know our problems to get them fixed- but therapy had made me realize that I lost a big part of my heart and world that I'd never get back. But where I blamed myself, Presley didn't blame me. I'd been doing exactly what Ivy needed, trying to calm her after a night terror… And then comforting her in her utmost time of need. With therapy I learned how to love again, I learned how to talk to Presley, confide in her, and most of all I learned how to move on.

It hadn't been easy, Presley and I had a lot of fights and I knew that she had wanted to give up- but she didn't. She fought to stay with me and I'll never ever thank her enough for that.

Currently, Presley was four months pregnant. Barely showing but we both decided that we were ready for another baby- to make our family a family of five again.

"Did you sleep okay?" I asked, running my fingers through her hair. She nodded, kissing my chest softly,

"Yeah... I just wish I could sleep longer." I kissed her softly,

"I've got the chores this morning, sleep in. You need it baby… You're growing our little baby in side of you." She nodded and closed her eyes and I waited for her to fall asleep before getting out of bed. I pushed my pillows gently towards her, so she could still have my scent and could hopefully have a longer sleep than the normal six hours. I got downstairs to pull on my boots and I saw my father in law sitting at the table drinking his coffee.

"Morning Sodapop. I've got the chores this morning, you go back upstairs and be with my daughter." I swallowed hard and nodded. Today marked one year since Ivy had passed away. Today would be hard, on all accounts, but at the same time it was going to be easy. I'd come to terms with the fact that she wasn't in pain, and she was up there with my parents looking down on us. We missed her more than anything but for whatever reason another angel was needed- and that was our little girl.

"Thanks Dad." With that I went into my sons' room and picked them up one by one, bringing them into our bed. I knew that these little guys would make my day easier, they were so different from each other and so full of life that half the time it's hard to believe that I made them. Both of our boys had strawberry blond hair, a mix of Presley's red hair and my blond hair. Forrest had my dark brown eyes, while River had Presley's hazel eyes. They were identical, but a rare case where they had different colour eyes. Forrest was my little buddy, whenever he had the chance he loved to be helping me around the animals and he loved it when I taught him about some of the duties we did. River was interested in the equestrian side of things but he loved helping my mother and brother in laws with the crops. Forrest tended to soak in every bit of information he could, where as River wanted to learn things for himself (and for the hard way).

Presley and I also decided that we wanted our boys home schooled, her Mom being a retired school teacher it seemed it would be the best idea. She could focus on each of our boys independently, helping them learn in different ways. River was already like I was towards school, he hated learning unless it was with his hands. Forrest was more like Presley and Ponyboy, he went nuts learning new things.

We all woke up a couple hours later, Presley woke up before me and she had her arm wrapped around the twins as they slept between us. I turned on my side and wrapped my arm around my family, reaching to kiss each of their heads.

"I thought you had work?" She asked quietly and I shook my head,

"Your dad covered me this morning." She nodded and we laid there quietly before I noticed the time. I knew we had to get up and start preparing the spare bedroom for Pony and Audrey, and while Johnny and Elena were here with their girls we were going to offer them the basement apartment downstairs- it was a three bedroom fully furnished apartment and I knew it would be easier on them than staying in a hotel.

I got up and brought the boys downstairs while Presley got a shower. I grinned when I saw that Rebecca (Presley's mom) had a freshly baked chocolate cake on the table and she was making french toast. I kissed her head and hugged her,

"Thank you Mom." She hugged me back and rubbed my back,

"You're very welcome honey." We all sat and started eating, Presley came down in one of my sweatshirts and a pair of jeans, we'd most likely head into Tulsa with the boys to greet everyone before bringing Johnny and his family back. I kissed her softly, and she stood beside me so I rested my head against her.

"How did you sleep?" Her Mom asked her and she smiled,

"Really good, I feel really rested."

"Good," She said, coming over and kissing her head. Our plan was to head into Tulsa, go to the graveyard where Ivy was buried on our way into Tulsa and then see my family. After I finished eating I went back upstairs to change and shave.

I pulled on my jeans and a flannel, calling the boys upstairs so I could get them dressed. We usually let them pick their own outfits, while it was cute having them matching when they were babies we didn't want to force them to look alike.

They both chose to wear jeans and flannel and I didn't even realize until we got downstairs that they wanted to match with me. I grinned and rubbed their head affectionately, before grabbing the keys to the truck. We left, just before we got out of Kellyville we stopped in at the graveyard. We paid a little extra for a premium lot- right next to a willow tree. I went over first, I wanted some time alone before Presley and the boys came over.

"Hi baby girl… I hope everything is going good." I said softly, sitting in front of her tombstone. I put a small teddy bear down, "I can't believe it's been a year since we lost you… It feels like it's been so much longer. I'm… I'm still so sorry that I couldn't save you… And I know you weren't in any pain but God Ivy… I miss you so much little girl. I'm sorry I haven't been back in the last couple of weeks… Your uncles are all coming back… I'm sure you'd have love to play with Uncle Johnny's girl Easton… She would have been the same age as you baby." I heard footsteps behind me, Presley sat beside me and each of the boys sat in my lap.

"We miss you sweetheart… So so much." Presley said softly, taking my hand tightly. I sniffled and squeezed her hand tightly. She leaned over and kissed me softly but I felt her bottom lip start trembling and her shoulders start shaking. I wrapped my arm around her tightly and tried to stay strong for her. It wasn't long after she broke down that I did too. I'd hoped to stay strong today but how could I?

The twins each moved to give us a hug, before proceeding to talk to Ivy as if she'd gone away on a trip and fill her in on everything she'd "missed". They moved off of our laps and took their bears and started playing with her bear and I hugged Presley tightly. I looked over at the other side of the graveyard and saw an older couple holding each other, I'd never spoken to them but I knew that they were the parents of the man that was drinking and crashed into my truck. After a few more minutes in silence we picked our stuff up and walked to the truck.

I called Johnny, I knew he'd be getting to the airport just about now, "Hey! I just wanted to let you know that one of us is going to pick you up from the airport, I'm just not sure who yet."

"Okay, well we should be there in five hours." He said, I could tell he sounded exhausted.

"Alright, sounds good man. See you then."

"See you later."

When we pulled up to Darry's house mostly everyone was already there, he said he'd heard from Dallas and he would get there shortly, they'd left the hotel very early in the morning.

"Hey man!" Steve said from the porch where he was smoking his cigarette.

"Don't forget you can't be doing any of that around the girls that are pregnant."

He rolled his eyes playfully, "No kidding?" I smirked and playfully punched his shoulder before going inside. The twins eagerly ran in to play with Darrel junior (DJ) who was ten. Even though there was a six year age gap between them DJ seemed to love playing with them (his only other playmate half the time was his younger sister Josie who was five). Charolette smiled when she saw us come in and came over to hug us.

Charolette was Darry's wife and the main real estate agent at his company. They'd been married for twelve years and if I remember correctly they ended up rekindling at a local coffee shop in Tulsa.

"Soda, Presley, hey." She said, kissing my head and Presley's.

"Hey Char, the place looks amazing," I said, noticing that the house had been rearranged to fit more people.

"Thank you, I know that we're having most of the people over here so I knew we needed to rearrange so we could maximize space and seating."

"Awesome. We're thinking of offering the basement apartment to Johnny to give him some more space than a hotel."

"Well Darry and I were going to offer the in law house to Dallas and Johnny, so it doesn't get crowded at your place," She said, Presley nodded,

"We didn't even think about that. Great idea.. We've got the room for Dallas and his fiancée, there's a spare room on the main floor. Pony and Audrey are going to take the spare room upstairs."

Being a company that used to offer housing, the main house had about nine bedrooms. Four upstairs, two on the main floor, and three in the basement. Then there was also a house across the driveway that was only a two bedroom, one bathroom place that her parents lived in.

Just then we heard arguing coming from one of the rooms and Charolette sighed, "Steve must have gone back in… Tessa went to lay down after she and Steve argued for half an hour… They're having problems with the apartment."

"What about?" Presley asked quietly,

"I think the whole money thing… It's looking like Tessa may need a c-section and they're… Well from the sounds of it, with the cost of that and everything else they're going to need they won't be able to afford their mortgage. Her family isn't going to help them out at all and while the business is going great for Steve he still has a lot to pay for."

Presley looked at me and I nodded, so we went over and knocked on the door,

"What?" Steve asked irritably. I rolled my eyes and opened the door. Tessa was sitting on the bed rubbing her bump and it looked like she had been crying. Steve was standing looking out of the window with his arms crossed.

"Hey… So we kinda couldn't help but over hear your fight… And we have a solution."

"What? You won the lottery?" Steve said bitterly.

"No," Presley said gently, sitting beside Tessa and taking her hand,

"We still have the three bedroom apartment in the basement at our place… We don't feel comfortable renting it out to someone we don't know so… If you guys would like, the place is yours- rent free."

"W-We… We can't accept that." Tessa said softly, wiping her eyes.

"Yes you can… Steve, I've owed you everything. When money was tight you bought me lunch… You gave Darry money when you thought no one was looking. Consider this my thank you for helping us when Mom and Dad died. I don't want any money for the place, if you don't take it it's just going to collect dust."

Steve swallowed hard and turned around, giving me a tight hug.

"Thank you so much…" He whispered quietly.

"Of course… Sell your condo and we'll start moving you guys in as soon as possible okay? Get everything settled in before the baby comes." He nodded and I saw Tessa start crying again as she hugged Presley.

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