The next morning I woke up freezing. I shivered a couple times before waking up completely. We fell asleep before putting clothes back on and we didn't shut any of the windows. Sure, living in Texas people think we're always hot, but at night it gets pretty chilly. I rolled out of bed, trying not to wake Brock up. This was the only day we got to sleep in every week and for the first few weeks we lived here I woke him up to help me with stuff, but now that we were officially unpacked I figured I'd let him sleep in. I looked down at the ring and smiled before putting on my robe and closing the windows around the house. Of course I knew he was the one I'd spend forever with, if I didn't think I was going to marry him some day I sure wouldn't have slept with him, which is exactly why I made him wait almost 2 years… I was harsh…
After I closed all the windows I started a pot of coffee, we finally went grocery shopping and stopped eating out for every meal. 15 minutes later the coffee was ready, which I was thankful for because I wasn't quite ready to be up yet. I poured myself a cup, then poured Brock a cup and checked the time. 9:07... That seems late enough. I walked in and set the coffee down on the nightstand next to his side of the bed, then kissed the back of his neck… he didn't move a muscle.
"Brock…" I sang. Nothing. "Brock." I said louder and more stern. Was he dead? "Brock!" I shouted and he jumped.
"Jesus Reba, you cant wake a man up like that!" I rolled my eyes.
"I tried the whole 'nice, wifey' stuff and it didn't work."
"Well, try harder." He said as he laid his head back down and closed his eyes.
"Well don't be such a heavy sleeper." he didn't say anything. "Brock, get up. I got you coffee."
"Thanks." He mumbled.
"Your welcome…" I said, then went and opened up the curtains letting the sun hit his back and light up the entire room. "Now get up and get dressed. I'm tired of looking at your naked butt."
"Liar." He said, still not moving. I smirked and rolled my eyes.
"Well, I'm goin to call my parents… I haven't talked to them all week and I'm sure they'd be happy to hear about our announcement." I said, walking to the door. I turned around to see if he had moved and as soon as I said 'announcement' his eyes shot opened.
"My mom…" Is all he said. I laughed an evil laugh and started walking out.
"Oh shes just gonna love this…" I said, still smiling to myself as I walked out to the phone. I waited for him to finally role out of bed and when he did he came out in his robe and his coffee in his hand. He stood close to me and put his ear down next to mine so he would be able to hear my parents reaction. See, unlike Liz, my parents would support us 100 percent if they knew I was making the right choice. If they had any doubt in their mind that I didn't love Brock they would not let me marry him and try to knock some sense into me. Of course they would mention how young we are, but then again, they were young when they got married. It rang 5 times before somebody answered.
"Hey sweetheart!" I heard my moms warming voice say.
"Hi momma. Daddy around?"
"He's… comin down the stairs now. JV! Reba wants to talk to you." She yelled at him.
"Oh. No, momma. I wanted to talk to both of you."
"Oh? Well how're we supposed to do that?" I laughed.
"Press the speaker button, mom."
"JV, wheres the speaker button?" I heard her whisper to him. They were whisper arguing over which button to press, then 2 minutes later the finally got it. "Okay honey, we're ready." I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. 'They were gonna support me, right? They loved Brock… though he was a little cheap, but they both approved.' I thought to myself.
"Well… Brock and I are engaged." I said quickly. I heard my mom gasp, then silence. I waited for what felt like a decade before I heard my mom laugh, it sounded muffled, was she hugging daddy? I smiled.
"Oh my gosh, honey. That's amazing! I'm so happy he finally did it! How'd he do it? Was it romantic?" I laughed at the overwhelming questions, and the way he did it.
"Well… if you call getting pulled over and getting mad at me because I was flirtin with a cop to get out of a speeding ticket romantic, then yes… It was very nice." Me and Brock both chuckled, then he kissed my cheek and put his ear back where mine was.
"What?" I heard my parents both say in sync.
"Well, I got pulled over for speeding, so I flirted with the cop a little, which, by the way, worked. We got off with a warning. Brock, being the jealous type he is, was just blurting out everything that came to his little mind and he accidentally said that he just put all his money into a ring. I slammed on the breaks and forced it out of him and he did it. He said what he needed to say while I really only listened to about half because I was trying to focus on not crying and how the rest of our lives were gonna be. I just nodded and hugged him. The ring is beautiful, momma. And it fits perfectly." I smiled as I looked at my left hand.
"Oh… I'm so happy for you two. Just remember, you're still so young… But if your sure he's the one then I couldn't be happier." I smiled again.
"Thank you momma." I waited for my silent dad to say something.
"We're gonna have to come see it." Was all he managed. My smiled faded when I heard his unexcited voice.
"What's wrong, daddy?"
"Nothin." he said in a dry voice.
"I know somethins wrong…" There was a little pause and I heard him take a deep breath.
"I just… cant believe my little carrot top is so grown up." He sounded a little choked up, but coughed to cover it up. I sighed and let the silence hang over us for a while.
"I'm ready, daddy."
"I know you are." A few more moments of silence. I felt Brock sigh, but ignored it.
"So. We have to make our trip out there official." My mom said, lightening up the mood.
"Yes. Every time I talk to you guys you say you wanna come out, but we've lived here for almost 4 months now! Now you guys will absolutely have to come, I'm gonna need help with my dress and everything."
"Well, honey, you give us a date and we'll work around it. I think you guys are busier than we are." She said. I looked at Brock for suggestions but he just shrugged.
"How about y'all come… hm…" I flipped through the calendar that was hanging next to the phone. "How's about y'all come around the beginning of September." I looked at Brock for his approval. He nodded.
"I think we could make that happen. So, about a month?" Momma asked.
"Yep, if that works."
"Alright honey, well I'll hopefully hear from you guys soon. We miss you so much."
"I miss you guys too."
"Tell Brock we say 'hi' and that we're thrilled for him to be marrying our little girl." I smiled.
"Okay, momma. He says 'hi' and he appreciates your approval."
"Give my soon-to-be-son-in-law a big ole hug from his soon-to-be-mother-in-law." I rolled my eyes, but smiled.
"Okay, mom."
"Alright, we love you!"
"I love you guys." We said our byes then I hung up the phone. "Man, that women can talk." I said to Brock. He grinned.
"Sounds like someone I know."
"Oh yeah?" He nodded.
"I know where you get it from…" I rolled my eyes.
"Whatever." We sat in silence for a few minutes, I was staring at him with big, impatient eyes and he knew what I was waiting for.
"What?!" He asked.
"You know what!" I snapped back. He let out an exaggerated sigh.
"Why do I gotta do it now?"
"You scared?" I grinned and let out a chuckle.
"Yes, I'm scared, Reba!" He admitted. I laughed.
"Well, might as well just tell her now and get it over with. It's better than waiting and her finding out that you waited, then she's really not gonna be happy." He sighed understandingly now. "And I really cant wait to hear her screamin at you." I added and laughed again. He rolled his eyes and snatched the phone out of my hand. He quickly dialed her number and this time I was the one on my tippy toes trying to listen. A few rings later she picked up.
"Hi, mom…" Brock said, sounding SUPER excited about talking to her. I elbowed him.
"Lighten up! You're supposed to be happy about our engagement!" I reminded him in a stern whisper-yell.
"I proposed last night." He blurted out. I slapped my forehead and ran my hand through my hair. I shook my head and glared at him.
"Seriously?!" I mouthed. He shrugged and looked at me with a worried expression. We heard nothing.
"To who?" She asked about 30 seconds later. I rolled my eyes and so did Brock.
"Seriously, mom? Who do you think?"
"Oh… Her." I clenched my fists. "Why?"
"Because, mom, I love her…" He sounded so tired of putting up with her…
"Oh." Brock looked down at me as I was glaring at him. 'C'mon, you've gotta start standing up for me.' I thought.
"Look, mom. I called you because I knew you would want to know. I know you're not a fan of Reba's, for some reason… Shes never really done anything to you, but I am. What you say and think doesn't matter to me. Your opinion will never change the way I feel about Reba, so, if you don't have anything else to say then I guess this conversation is over. From now on if you want to know anything you call us. If you'd like to be attending this wedding call us for the date, if not then I guess we'll see you when you decide you want back in our lives. I love you, just not the way you treat her and she's the most important thing is the world to me so until you figure out a way to like her or learn how to bite your tongue don't expect to hear from us." I stood speechless. I could've sworn my jaw just about hit the ground. Am I dreamin? I pinched myself and flinched. Nope, not a dream. I put my ear close to his again to hear what she had to say, I heard silence.
"I'm sorry you feel that way." Is all she said. Brock hung up the phone a little too hard and I jumped. I was happy he finally stood up for me, but I felt terrible.
"Brock… I'm so sorry. I mean, thank you! But…" I trailed off at a loss of words. What do I say at a moment like this? (Hehe) I felt responsible for their relationship going down the drain. He put his hand up to stop me from continuing.
"It isn't your fault, if she didn't mistreat you then we wouldn't be having this problem. I just wish she could be more like your parents." I nodded.
"It'd be a lot easier…" I agreed. He sighed
"Well, guess we'll have to learn to live with it. It's either you or her and I chose you." I didn't know whether I should smile at that or not.
"Brock… even if your mother stays around and…" I took a deep breath. "… Insults me every chance she gets, I'll stay. I'm not going anywhere for a long time." I finished through my teeth.
"I understand, and I know you wouldn't leave me because of my mother, but maybe this will teach her a lesson. I know she cant stay away forever, what happens when she has grandchildren? She'll be around for them, I just cant stand how she treats you and that was the last straw. She'll come to her senses…" he reassured me and kissed my forehead.
"Apologize." I said after thinking about it for a few minutes. He was at the fridge and he froze and slowly turned around.
"What?"
"You heard me Brock… I said apologize." I said and picked the phone up off the wall and held it out. He walked over to me slowly.
"No… You cant be serious." I stared at him… seriously. "Why? Do you know how long it took me to plan that out and memorize it last night after you fell asleep? No. No way. For the first time I stood up against my mother and I'm not going to ruin it."
"Brock… Apologize." I said.
"Why?!"
"Because! If you call her and say 'Reba overheard our conversation and she thought I overreacted' She'll like me a little more, right?" He hesitated before shaking his head.
"Doubt it."
"Brock just do it!" I yelled.
"Fine!" He grabbed the phone and called her back. She didn't answer so he left her a message.
"Reba overheard us and she wanted me to apologize because I apparently overreacted. Sorry." He said in a dry, annoyed voice. I rolled my eyes and waited before he hung up the phone before smacking him on the back of the head.
"That's the best you could do?!" I asked. He rubbed his head.
"Ya don't have to hit me!"
"You should be used to it by now and if you're not you better get used to it." I held up my left ring finger. "I'm sure you'll always have that mo-ron side to ya, and honey, they ain't gonna get any softer the longer I'm with you." I warned, gave him a sarcastic smile, then walked out to the living room and plopped down on the couch.
"You're impossible to please!" He yelled from the kitchen.
"Because you're an idiot!" I snapped back. He stormed into the living room and stood right in front of me with his arms crossed. "What?"
"First you tell me to be mean to my mom, then when I finally stand up for you, you yell at me?!" He asked, glaring.
"You weren't actually supposed to be mean! You could've told her nicer, you don't actually disown her!"
"Would you make up your mind?! And I already told you, she'll come around and be nicer to you. She only gets to watch her son get married once and she wouldn't wanna miss it."
"She might… You are marrying 'her', remember?"
"Yeah… well 'her' is the love of my life and what my mother thinks and says will never have any affect on my relationship I have with 'her'." I smirked.
"Well, I hope she comes around…"
"She will."
Sorry about the stupid endings, I never know how to end these things. :/ Anyhow, REVIEW! Pleeaasseee. :D