A/N: Hey guys!

Here's a new chapter of Before the Deckers, and this one (like recent ones) is another game changer. Turns the tables and sets them up big-time for 1976.

We'll discuss it more after you read it ;)

Enjoy!

G.

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It's been two weeks since her mother died, she's finally recovered a bit and shaken everything off. She feels better about it, now, knowing that her mother is gone.

They've been meeting with Trina's newly hired lawyer, John Hyatt, about the chunk of money and the estate that she will be receiving from her mother. It's about five-hundred thousand dollars, give or take, plus the large mansion they used to live in. She was absolutely shocked when she learned that everything was left to Trina. She guessed that something would be left to an assistant or something stupid, another slap in the face to her. But, for once, her mother did something nice for her.

"You want a beer?" She asks softly standing by the refrigerator in only her underwear and a tank top, socks to go along with them.

He looks up from his paperwork he was doing from work, "No thanks." He says, furrowing his brows a little when he looks back down. "Trina?" He asks, and the tone his voice made Trina worry a bit.

"Yes?" She asks, walking in and popping the top on a bottleneck, sitting down with one leg under her, her other leg bent and her foot resting on the chair, sipping at the beer in her hand.

He sighs and shakes his head, "Why are you drinking?"

She gives him a look, shaking her head, "What do you mean, Tom? It's 7:30 at night, I can drink-"

"No, that's not what I mean." He says, getting mildly frustrated at her.

She studies his face, unsure of where he was going with this. "What are you talking about, Tom? Since when am I not allowed to drink?"

"You're really not going to tell me, are you?" He snips, looking at her angrily. "I thought after a year of us being together that you could at least have the decency to tell me such big news like this, Trina." He says, whipping the beer from her hand annoyed.

She's furious, grabbing the beer back from him, "Don't take things from my hands." She snaps, holding it closer and tighter. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"You're pregnant! And I know it, too. But you're just...you're not even telling me and then you are so naive, Trina, that you don't know you're not supposed to drink."

Her heart falls into her stomach, and she looks down at the beer. "I'm not pregnant." She whispers, swallowing thickly and running her hand along the lip of the beer.

"What do you mean you're not pregnant? I saw the paper from Dr. Fragert, recommending and obstetrician for you, Trina. I know." He says, his face was getting all red from being frustrated with her.

She looks up at him angrily, a hint of watery eyes making her eyes glisten from the reflection of the late sunlight coming through the window. "I miscarried. Okay? You happy?" She snaps back, her voice cracking. "I was pregnant. Yes. And I was going to get rid of it. You're not my keeper, Tom, I don't have to report everything I do to you. But since you must know, I got pregnant six weeks ago tomorrow, and when I missed my cycle, I went to Dr. Fragert's office to get a pregnancy test done." She says, taking a shaky breath to gather her feelings for a moment. "And then I found out that, yes, I was pregnant-"

"Trina-"

"No. You don't get to speak right now." She says sadly, a tear falling down and running along her cheek. "I had made an appointment to terminate it. I wasn't ready for a baby, and neither are you. We're just kids, Tom. We may be older physically but mentally we're just two kids who don't care about real life responsibilities. We live in a fantasy." She says, clearing her throat and taking another deep breath. "But anyway, before the appointment rolled around, I started bleeding one day while we were on a route. It was in a hotel room, and I was in my own room that night..." She says, shaking her head. "I didn't want you to know."

"Why not, Trina?" He asks, shaking his head as well and setting the paperwork aside. "Why didn't you tell me? I thought we were a lot closer than that."

"Because I'm not a child, Tom. I may act like one but I don't have to have you as my parent, and I am not going to treat you like my parent." She states, standing up and slamming her beer down on the table so hard that it splashes and gets on his papers.

"Trina, wait!" He shouts, getting up as quick as he could, but she was already up the stairs by the time he got halfway to the bottom step.

The door was slamming shut, and she was on the inside of it with her knees to her chest, slid down on the carpet. She already didn't feel great about terminating the baby, but what else was she supposed to do? She certainly couldn't have a child, and Tom isn't ready either. They aren't child people.

She thinks about the conversations that they've had about this subject:

She's had this happen once before, once with Luke. Her senior year, she thought she was pregnant and she knew there was a possibility. Come to find out, she was. But the baby didn't make it, and her mom beat her ass as soon as she got home from the hospital after the miscarriage. It's burned in her memory forever, and she's always been cautious.

And this one:

"Is it about last night?" He asks, finally, rushing down the stairs and standing in front of her in a desperate attempt to get her to stop. "I really, really am sorry, Trina. I just...I didn't even expect it. I don't think I've come that quick since I was a teenager..." He says sorrowfully, "You make me excited, Tri. Really excited." He continues, and by now she's forgotten that she hates being called Tri, because it sounds okay coming from him. "And you make me happy. And you make me feel...new and...I don't know how to explain all of this. And...I plan on one day finding out why you don't do relationships, because I plan on sticking around that long – no matter how long that may be – whether it's as a friend or a lover...I don't know. That's up to you because...you know how I feel about you, babe. And I think you know that I would do almost anything-"

"Stop." She says, meaning it as a demand but making it sound – accidentally – like more of a request. "I can't do this, Tom. I- do you understand what it's like for me right now? I don't think you do. Have you ever made the mistake of not pulling out?" She asks, waits a beat for him to shake his head, then continues, "So you don't know what I'm going through right now. I'm not mother material, which means I have to end the baby's life like I have done one other time before. I lost my first one, and I'm not getting pregnant and having a child. I know you don't have to worry about it, because why would you? You're just the man who injected sperm into a woman, not a father."

It hurts her to know that this is her second baby that she's lost. She shouldn't have even told him, because now he'll have a bunch of questions about how it happened and when and why. She's beginning to get a rotten feeling in the pit of her stomach that she can't ever have children – and she's not sure why she's upset about that. She doesn't want children, and she never will want children.

Thirty minutes of Trina and Tom sitting against the same door, just back to back, and Tom finally slides his hand under the door. "Trina?" He whispers, and his fingers find hers.

She looks down at his hand, tears clouding her view before she wipes them away. She moves her hand just a little bit, away from his. "I said I don't want to talk, Tom." She says, her voice shaky from her soft crying she's been doing.

"Then don't talk, just listen to what I have to say." He whispers back, keeping his hand right there. "I was a jerk, I guess."

"You guess?" She coos sadly, wondering how he only guesses he was a jerk. He was a full-on, hardcore jerk (in her mind).

"Yeah, Tri...I'm just as new to this serious relationship stuff as you are." He says softly, sighing a little before continuing. "You're right, you're totally right when you say we're not ready for a baby. And I mean, I guess you don't have to report everything to me that you do." He says sadly. "It's just...I don't like it. I don't know."

She sniffles, "Do you report everything that you do to me?" She asks, looking straight forward again at their bed.

He lets out another sigh, swallowing thickly, "No. I don't." He whispers, and she can hear his hair scruff against the door – she knows that he's shaking his head. "And that's why I'm apologizing for getting upset. It's just...different." He says. "I'm not used to having someone who doesn't tell me their every move."

"I'm a private person." She breathes, sniffling again and leaning her head against the door, wrapping her arms around her legs again now that she's a little bit colder.

He nods against the door again, "I know you are...I just wasn't thinking about that and taking that into consideration when I got upset in there, Tri. I'm sorry."

"Sometimes your sorry doesn't sound all that sorrowful, Tom."

"It is." He says sadly, sniffling now, too.

She sighs, shaking her head and batting her eyelids, trying to make some of the tears go away. "I just don't feel like I need to tell you my every move, Tom. I know it was our baby, but it was my body. I don't want my body to have to go through pregnancy or labor or birth."

"Which is fine..." Tom says back.

She sniffles again, "It doesn't seem too fine."

"We aren't kid people, Tri. We established that. We're not parents...we never will be."

She swallows thickly and looks back down at his hand. She wants to take it, but she's still just so irritated with him for being like this toward her. "Promise me you won't ask a bunch of questions about the miscarriage and make me re-live all of that pain." She whispers, laying her hand down next to his, but not where he can reach it yet.

After a short pause, she can hear him lick his lips before he finally says, "Promise." and sniffles again.

They both had the sniffles. They both were upset from one another.

Finally, she reaches for his hand and tangles her fingers with his, giving it a light squeeze before he squeezes hers. This was one of their few disagreements, and on this one, they'll learn to just leave it at that – a disagreement.

The phone is ringing off the hook. It's been a month since the baby mishap, and Trina and Tom are on the couch, too busy making out to even want to answer the phone. It stops, but then starts again and she groans. "We should answer that." She murmurs as he's peppering kisses down her bare neck (and almost everything else).

He grumbles a bit as he pulls away from her skin, reaching over and rolling off of her naked body, standing up to finally grab the phone. "This is Tom." He says, seemingly annoyed that he has a full hard-on and he has to talk on the phone now.

She can halfway hear it on the other end, and she can tell that it's John Hyatt – their lawyer for the inheritance and all. "Tom, hey, is Trina there?"

"Of course she is." He answers, handing the phone to Trina with an unamused look. "It's John, he said he needed to talk to you about your mom's mansion."

She sighs and takes the phone after a short eye roll, sitting up and wrapping her arm around her chest. She was cold, now that Tom wasn't supplying body heat from on top of her. "This is Trina." She coos.

"Trina! Hey! Good news."

"Good news?" She asks, raising a brow. "What good news do you have for me, John?"

"Your mother's house sold. In all, you'll be receiving one check for five-hundred thousand, for your inheritance, and then after you sign the papers to say the house is officially sold, you'll be receiving another check for one point one million."

"One point one million?!" She gasps, her eyes widening, she sits up straight and puts her feet on the ground. "Is that what I just heard you say?"

"Correct! It sold for a little over the asking price due to two different people wanting it. These people finally made an offer and we knew we couldn't refuse that."

Trina puts a hand over her mouth, and then scrubs it up to her eyes so she doesn't get all emotional. It's only been almost two months since her mother died – and only about a month since they finally got it on the market. "Oh, wow." She whispers, her voice getting caught in her throat. "You sure you are shitting me, Hyatt?"

"Positive." He chuckles into the phone, "No, really. It sold for that much, Tri..."

"Wow." She whispers again. It's all she can seem to even think about saying right now. She's rich. She no longer has to eat Ramen Noodles to save up for a car (even though she's been carpooling with Tom, or taking his car when he isn't working to wherever she needed to go. It'll still be nice to have her own). She looks up at Tom and smiles, crying out, "It sold!"

"It sold?" He asks, smiling as well and sitting down beside her, leaning on her a little.

"It sold." She confirms, rubbing her cheek happily and shaking her head. "Can I meet up with you tonight to sign the papers and all of that?" She asks John, still so in shock that she didn't even know what to do with herself.

"Of course you can. Meet me at the office at 4:00."

"Tom and I will be there." She says, "Thank you, John."

After their goodbyes, she hangs up and looks at Tom, totally dumbfounded. "That's one point six million going into my bank account, Tom..." She whispers, her eyes wide and a little bit teary. "I-"

"You know what we should do with that?" He asks her, smiling a little bit.

She chuckles softly, shaking her head, "Save it?" She says, completely at a loss.

"That, and we should do a little bit of investing." He says. His business mind was turning now, and she's thankful for it, but she already had that part thought through.

"I know." She whispers, nodding and smiling, trying to take a deep breath. She didn't realize it until now, but the few breaths she's taken have been short. "Yeah...w-we need to invest." She says, batting her eyes and letting out a laugh. "One point six million, Tom! In my bank account!"

"Not yet." He teases, winking a little bit and kissing her lovingly, his erection rubbing against her thigh.

She smiles down at his hardened cock, "Maybe we should celebrate?" She asks, taking it in her hand and gently swiping her thumb over his tip.

A whimper comes from him – he wasn't expecting her to do that. He then smiles, and raises a brow, "Do you think I would say no to that?" He coos, and before he can press her backwards she does it to him.

Straddling him, looking down at him, she smirks, "I think we have had enough foreplay, don't you?" She whispers, still holding his cock under her, between her legs. She's still smiling, waiting on him to say something. It was a few seconds, and he never answered. She batted her eyes and shrugs a little bit, "Yeah?" She asks again, chuckling.

"Sorry." He whispers, looking at her like she was a sudden angel that had fallen from heaven and right on top of him. She can't help but chuckle at his silly expression, one of complete awe. "I don't think I tell you enough how beautiful you really are."

She feels her cheeks redden and she chuckles quietly, "I'm already straddling you, about to sink down on you...you don't have to suck up to me..."

"It's not sucking up." He whispers again, gently placing a hand on each of her hips, her fingers softly kneading her ass. "But to answer your earlier question, we've had enough foreplay." He says quietly, smiling before he urges his hips up into her.

She sinks down onto him, moaning a little bit and sitting right on him, taking him in quickly. "Mmm." She murmurs, her head tilting back, her fingers gently tracing over her neck. "You feel so good." She whispers, closing her eyes before leaning her body forward, balancing herself by holding his biceps.

"So do you." He murmurs, pulling his body up to press a hot kiss to her lips. "I love you."

"I love you too." She says immediately, smiling as she slowly moves off his cock, then slowly back down on it. It's slow, gentle, and not like usual. He's still kneading at her skin, and they're looking in each other's eyes which is something that only happens rarely – they usually both have their eyes closed. She can't help but smile, chuckling a little before a tear falls on his chest. "Sorry." She whispers, moving just a tad bit faster.

"Why are you crying?" He whispers, taking one hand off of her hip and bringing it to her face, wiping underneath her eye and smiling sadly up at her, gently pressing his hips to hers.

She shrugs and sniffles, leaning down to kiss him lovingly, still rolling her hips and fucking him. "I just...got a little overwhelmed right there for a second. We're really in love." She chuckles, leaning up to position herself better, getting a better angle.

He smiles at the reposition, bringing his hand back to her hip and squeezing gently. "We are." He whispers back, biting his lip before picking up the pace a little more. "Is this good?" He asks, waiting for her to match his pace.

It's still slow and soft, but it's just a little more intense for the both of them. "Good." She coos quietly, meeting his hips with hers.

They went like this at a steady rhythm for a few minutes, both of them already highly aroused from all the foreplay they were doing before that phone call. She felt him twitch inside of her, and she smiles down at him. "I'm about to come, too.." She whispers, assuring him to not hold out. She could feel her walls tightening around his thick cock, and it wasn't any time before she came, and he came shortly after.

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One point six million dollars woooooo. This is the game changer I was talking about, well and the other part was that this is where Trina's feminist views kick in.

But back to the inheritance.

This is going to be how they have the house. But I need y'all's help...

My question is, when should they buy their house together? After they're married or before they're married? And if it's before, when?

I really appreciate your opinions when you guys review. I read each and every one of them when they pop into my email and take them into consideration to try to give y'all a fun story to read.

Thank you so much for reading this story and for enjoying it. Please help me out and answer the above question in the reviews...it'd mean a lot.

G.