Managing the Issues

by Yerron Yerrown

The reconciliation of Avery and Juliette

3. Chapter 3

I have no connection with any part of the Nashville Television series.

This is a pure figment of my imagination as there is very little information available concerning this situation. It is pretty much being created as I go. Basically, have a new idea, write something about it. There is no plan so I have no idea how long or how many chapters it will be. The only guideline is: when I exhaust my ideas then I will write an ending. I will make an excuse right at this point if the writing becomes verbose or vague. I do not have an editor and I am hopeless at the job. Fiction is an unfamiliar medium. I'm just doing this for a little fun.

The Reconciliation of Avery and Juliette.

Managing the Issues.

Chapter 3.

The Consolidation.

It was after ten thirty the following morning when Avery untangled himself from Juliette and pulled on a pair of boxers.

"Where do you think you're going?" Juliette complained. "You haven't finished yet."

"You are insatiable," Avery laughed. "We need a rule to take a break after the second session."

"You're not fair. I want more."

"You're being greedy now," Avery said. "Besides I only said we're taking a break. Time for coffee, and then we can go back to keeping you happy."

"You do keep me happy and I missed you terribly. God! I love you so much."

"Yeah, well, we could have a pretty good argument about who loves who the most. Last night during our little chat I decided you're my life sentence, I'm addicted to you, that no matter what I do I can never shake you loose. I guess that means I'm committed to loving you for as long as I live."

"Well," Juliette agreed, "I guess that makes two of us. I suppose we'll have to declare the love intensity argument a draw."

"Just as a matter of interest this morning I was lying in bed thinking…"

"You were thinking this morning?" Juliette queried. "I thought I had you pretty focused with other activities. I must be losing my touch."

"I was thinking between when I woke up and when we both lost control…twice."

He sat beside her on the bed and handed her a cup of coffee. "I was thinking about love. You know there' s no shortage of love in our relationship. There never has been. We've always loved each other with the same absolute devotion and now is no different. We're still committed for life, just like always. So I was thinking, 'why did we have that problem? There must be a lesson to be learned here.' It should have never happened. You know, love is supposed to over ride everything. But what if it doesn't? What if other influences can affect that devotion and create doubts and jealousies. Then I thought maybe there are things in our relationship that can interfere with our love. You know, cause us to doubt our trust, make us question our love, cause us to act irrationally. If we could identify those problems and find solutions it would minimize the chances of a repeat episode and make us stronger. What do you reckon?"

"I don't know. You know you sometimes get ahead of me. That's one of the reasons I love you so much, you think for me. You're the brains of the outfit so give me a 'for instance.' Then I might understand."

"When you overheard the conversation I had with Scarlett at the hospital," Avery explained. "You thought we were telling each other how much in love we were. You misunderstood, we were telling each other, goodbye. She said 'she could never love anyone as much as me.' Of course she could only mean up to that point in time. How could she possibly know how much she would love someone in the future?"

"I told her 'she would always have a piece of my heart.' That meant I had loved her, the operative word there is 'had' and I would never forget her. We just said goodbye that was all it was."

"But you," Avery continued, "have an inferiority complex and that was only reinforced by Jeff Fordham. What did he call you? 'Trailer trash, a mildly talented lie and not deserving of your house.' I think you deep down have those sorts of misgivings playing on your mind. So what do you think? You think you are not good enough for me. Men do not want a woman like you, you are not worthy. They want women like Scarlett. You convince yourself you really are a mildly talented lie, trailer trash just like Fordham said and you lose hope for us."

"Of course there is everything wrong with your thinking process. Firstly, you are not in any way pretentious or artificial. You are a generous person of true quality, huge talent and you deserve everything you have. Even your trailer park background. We did that show there last year. You weren't ashamed. No one who saw that show was ashamed. We were all impressed that you achieved what you have through, skill, talent and hard work. None of us can be blamed for where we were born or our family. We are responsible for what's in our hearts and our minds. On that score you are perfect."

"Something else I picked up on during that television trip. Your mother lost your father very early. Maybe it might be worth considering that your mother was like she was through grief. I know if I lost you like she lost your father I would fall apart. Perhaps it might be worth keeping that under consideration."

"Of course all this is to illustrate what you should have really thought if you didn't have doubts. 'Avery loves me and I love him. Our love is so strong I know he would never leave me.' That would have ended all that strife. However the failure was the doubts that led to a loss of faith and trust in our love. I think we should prove to you what Fordham said is just a load of crap. People really love you for what you are and what's in your heart. Come on, time to get up. We're going out. The next love making session has been postponed until tonight." They both shared the bathroom getting ready and that meant more fun but this time he kept it in perspective.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

"Surprise, time for a lesson." He smiled at her and picked up a box of her latest albums and his guitar as they were heading out the door.

The sign read 'Munroe Carell Jnr. Children's Hospital. Avery drove into the car park.

"What are we doing here?" Juliette asked.

"I want to prove something to you."

"Ok, what?" she was a little bewildered.

"I'm going to prove to you everything Fordham said to you was absolute rubbish. He is the low life for what he said. I am going to prove that people love you for you. Trailer park background doesn't matter. A true and pure heart is all there is. You'll never doubt yourself or us again because you are good enough. Come on, let's go."

Avery studied the directory inside the front door. "Third floor," he said.

They stepped out of the elevator and Avery went directly to the nurse's station. "Good morning, would it be alright if we visited the children in the cancer ward?"

The nurse seemed pre-occupied, "Do you have a…Oh my! Juliette Barnes! Of course, of course we are so honored for you to visit us. Please let me prepare the children for you."

"Children," the nurse announced. "Today we have a special visitor for you…" That was as far as she got. Juliette and Avery stepped into the room. Juliette was struck with the unexpected realization there was not one hair on any of the children. They were completely bald. Immediately she entered the room there were squeals and shouts of delight. "Juliette Barnes, Juliette Barnes." The children who could ran up to and hugged her legs. She touched each child tenderly and said, "I am really pleased to meet you all. This man with me is Avery."

"Is he your boyfriend?" A little girl asked.

"Yes he is."

"You love him. I can tell. He is a very good man," the same little girl said. A tear ran down Juliette's cheek.

"Yes," Juliette answered. She then asked the nurse, 'Do these children stay for long?"

"I'm sorry Miss Barnes," the nurse said sadly. "These children will never go home. They are all terminal."

"But some seem quite active. Shouldn't they be home?"

"There are some people who cannot cope with the stress, the child is nursed here." Juliette shed more tears.

Across to their right a boy, lying flat on his back, with a number of tubes attached to him was trying unsuccessfully to sit up. "That's Timmy," the nurse said. "Timmy is on almost permanent morphine. He will not see tomorrow."

"Oh my god," Juliette said and broke down in tears.

Avery went across to the boy. "Hi Tim, pleased to meet you pal." He took Timmy's hand. "Juliette could you please sign one of those albums for Timmy, I'd like to give it to him."

Juliette wrote a short note on the album sleeve and took it to Tim. "I have just written, 'God be with you Timmy. You are so brave. Love from your friend Juliette Barnes.' She gave it to the boy who acknowledged her gift with a strained smile. She bent over him and kissed his forehead.

Avery took his hand again, "Good for you Timmy. You'll be alright pal, it will soon be alright. I'll be seeing you again."

Juliette wrote and signed an album for each child in the ward. As she handed back each album she kissed the recipient on the cheek.

Avery asked, "Is it ok if we give the kids a song?"

"Of course," the nurse said.

"Ok," he said. "I'm going to surprise Juliette here. We have done this song before but not like this. I am going to play what is known as a finger style accompaniment. Let's know what you think. This is called Dreams."

He played an attractive and complimentary counter melody under Juliette's voice. He could tell she really liked it. This was obviously going to hit an album at some point in the future. The children loved it.

As they were leaving Juliette asked Avery, "Do you think we could do this on a regular basis? I've got so much from your lesson, I do not want to stop."

"I think we can do that. We'll ask the nurse. Just remember the lesson though; you might get a test on it later." They decided to repeat this visit weekly provided her commitments allowed.

As they were walking out Avery stopped. A woman was sitting on a bench and she was obviously very distressed, sobbing almost uncontrollably. He went across to her, "Excuse me, are you ok? Can we be of some help?"

The woman raised he tear streaked face and said, "No one can help me."

"I don't want to pry but we would really like to help you. Can you tell us what the problem is?"

"My son is dying," the woman sobbed.

"Oh," he said realizing there was little they could do. "I'm sorry to hear that. You have our sympathy."

"The woman looked up, "thank you," she said and then recognized Juliette. "He is all I have and now he's being taken from me. Worst is he was gay and he is dying from a disease related to his orientation. But people are so cruel. Even though he is dying people still ridicule him. Younger people, neighbors, 'is the faggot dead yet?' That kind of thing. I'm so ashamed."

"Would you take us to him?" Avery asked. "He might enjoy meeting Juliette."

"He would," the woman said as they went into the hospital. "He is a huge fan. He has every one of your recordings. He thinks 'Don't put Dirt on my Grave' should win an award."

"I hope he's right," Juliette said. "This is Avery Barkley he co-wrote it with me. In fact he co-writes almost everything with me."

"He knows who you are as well Mr. Barkley. He has seen you live at the Bluebird several times and also with Miss Barnes band. You are his idol. I'm Jenny Blyth. My son is David."

They went into the ward and a young man with a number of lines connected to him was lying flat on the bed. 'Sad,' Avery thought, 'we are both about the same age.' The man on the bed looked extremely ill; a deathly grey color. Avery shook his hand, surprisingly there was a measure of strength to the handshake. "Pleased to meet you David, I'm Avery. This is Juliette." The man in the bed gave a small nod of recognition and a smile. "You keep hanging in there for your mom David. It'll be alright." Juliette shook his hand but was too emotional to speak. A nod was her only gesture.

Avery went to Jenny and put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't let the cruel remarks distract you from what is really important Jenny. It's not important what his sexual orientation was. That was as natural for him as ours is to us. Don't focus on his dying or the manner of it. That is something ahead of all of us. Focus on him being your son. All the memories you have. What is important is how he lived his life, not how it ends. Focus on that." He could feel tears building. Juliette was crying as well. Jenny stopped crying; a look of realization crossing her face. "We'll see you later Jenny, you take care. Look after yourself and David."

Avery and Juliette left the ward and made their way towards the elevator. "Thank you Mr. Barkley," Jenny called after him. "Thank you Miss Barnes. God bless you Mr. Barkley and God bless you Miss Barnes. God bless you both."

Back in the car Avery lent across and gently kissed her. "I have never been as proud of anyone or anything in my life. You were fantastic. What did you think?"

"I can't believe that. I have never dreamed of such an experience. All of them, it was like everyone had their hearts open and we just fell together. I loved them and they loved us. I owe you so much for that. I'm so pleased I have been through that. You are right, I suddenly feel like a real worthwhile person; someone who loves and is truly loved, just for myself. Those kids only knew me as me, they didn't buy records they don't read tabloids. They respond to what they see and feel. They see and feel the true me and they responded. You have taught me more in two hours than everything and everyone in my entire life. I am so blessed to have found you. I love you so much, but just as importantly I now love me and I never knew that was even possible. I now know what it is like to respect myself as well as others. Avery you will never have reason to doubt me ever again. I am even more completely yours."

"I reckon we belong to each other forever," Avery said. "Just look at how well that went for both of us. I can tell you now, to be honest, I was no different to you. I always thought I never deserved you. I suppose Charlie Wentworth gave me doubts. But I used to think 'why were you with me?' You are famous, you are wealthy and I am nothing and have nothing. You will eventually realize and dump me. I didn't know how I would handle that because I loved you so much but I did expect it to happen. So when we had that episode I was destroyed. I knew it would happen and it did; it completely destroyed me. I half expected to see you with Wentworth again but then I saw you on the news making that movie. They said you were getting close to that Noah West and I thought I had lost you for good. I would have crawled across a mile of broken glass for you and now you were gone. I was a wreck. Then I got that text from you. I have absolutely no idea why, but I felt hopeful. Hopeful of what, I couldn't imagine, but it gave me hope. Now look at us."

"Avery, despite everything that had happened and the stupid mistakes you never lost me. I was just as miserable as you. Despite our arguments and insults I never lost hope for us. I was never giving up. I was just going to hang in there until we calmed down enough and I didn't care how long that took. You know West did come onto me. Without any warning he just kissed me and suggested we have sex. I stopped him straight away. I was never making the mistake of betraying you again, even if we were broken up. Now I am proven right and I feel so good in myself for everything that has happened since they kicked me off that film. Avery, just so you know how I really feel. You are worth a thousand Charlie Wentworth's and a million Noah West's. You have me for life and you will never lose me. Please be sure…never doubt me again. Right now though I have a request if you can bear with me. You may think this is a little strange but it will mean a lot to me."

"Ok. What is it?"

"I want to go to church. I want to thank God for everything he has given me today. I want to thank God for giving me you."

"Ok. The West End Uniting is the closest. Is that alright?"

"Yep, right religion as well."

"See we must be right for each other. Right religion for me too; God sure knows what he is doing."

Avery wasn't a particularly religious person, but he did believe and he respected the church and what it represented. He joined Juliette in a silent prayer of thanks. He was grateful for the events of the past couple of days, and if some supreme power had an influence he was happy to express his gratitude.

Just then a minister appeared near the pulpit. Avery stood and attracted his attention. He went down to the front of the church to talk to the reverend. Juliette finished her prayer and although she couldn't hear the conversation it aroused her curiosity. The minister was listening intently to Avery nodding his head intermittently. He then walked out a side door leaving Avery waiting by the pulpit. Juliette stood to go to Avery but he held up his hand for her to stay where she was. Presently the minister returned and spoke briefly to Avery. Avery replied, they shook hands and he came back to her.

"What was that all about?" Juliette asked.

"We have just joined the congregation of the Nashville West End Uniting Methodist Church. We will be at services Sunday morning at ten thirty."

"You did that? Why? You have never gone to church since I've known you."

"Well, among other things we are expecting a child. This changes a few things. It is only right our child is bought up under the influence of a religion. I like this one and it's a magnificent old church. So I reckon we should join. Besides we can probably help them. With our backgrounds I'm sure they'll find a use for us."

"Weird," Juliette said. "You never cease to amaze me Barkley. Well you won't get any objections from me. After today I reckon we owe God a lot. If going to church helps repay some of that then I'm all for it."

Avery had a suggestion of a smile on his face all the way home. He was proud of himself. He had disguised his plan with the minister brilliantly. He actually told her there was a second motive but had camouflaged it so well she was not aware. The church calendar was free for a Saturday in four weeks time. He needed to implement the rest of his plan and then he would need that Saturday if all went well.

They arrived home well past lunch. "Hey would you like a tuna and cheese sandwich for lunch?" Avery asked her. "I'll make them."

Juliette was in the bedroom changing into more casual clothes. "Yes thanks," she said.

Avery took off his leather jacket and hung it in the closet. It was sometimes difficult to tell the difference between Casual Avery and Formal Avery. Often that leather jacket was the only factor. "That is going to change," Juliette thought. "He's got a measure of respectability to uphold now. I'll work on that."

Avery made the sandwiches and they sat on the couch and had them.

"You know," Avery said when they finished. "We cleared up some important issues this morning. That should help us a lot. You can have a go now. I'm throwing myself on your mercy. What is it about me you think I need to fix to make our relationship better?"

"Oh my God, are you serious? A man asking a woman what's wrong with him?" She was laughing now. "Where should I start? There is so much."

"Ok smarty, have your joke. I'm trying to be serious here but if you want to have fun we can head for the bedroom and really enjoy ourselves."

"Deal," she said and immediately grabbed his hand and dragged him into the bedroom.

Afterwards, she is lying on a bed that looked like two crocodiles had a wrestling match in it. She leaned back against a pillow with a look of exhausted satisfaction on her face. "My good God, but you are an experience." The lust was still obvious in her voice. "How come you are so good? That was so intense I swear you almost had to scrape me off the ceiling. You make it last so long; that was well over an hour. How do you do it? I just love you so much."

"Do I detect a note of complaint?" He smiled.

"No! never."

"Good! Maybe now we can get back to our earlier discussion?"

"Alright, this is from our conversation yesterday, right? What do I think you should fix to make our relationship better? What have I found frustrating? Actually, there are a number of things. Let's start with what I think is that selfishness. Selfishness might be a little strong a term for it but that's how it comes across. You just disappear into your own little world and you are oblivious to everything and everyone else around you."

"I understand. Yep I agree it is a major fault of mine. It's not really that I am intentionally selfish but I can see how it could be taken that way. Trouble is it's a problem common to a lot of men, me included. Unfortunately its how I'm hard wired. That doesn't mean we can't do something about it, it's just that I have never had to do anything about it in the past. Truth is it's probably the main characteristic of a man women don't understand."

"I'm going to tell you a story from my childhood." Avery said. "This is true and I have never forgotten it. My mother asked my father to fix something in the house. I'm not sure what it was, a jammed window I think. He used a box of tools he bought in from the shed. Well he fixed the window but he forgot to take the tools back to the shed. This frustrated my mother, a box of old tools cluttering up the house. Instead of asking him to take them back she put the box in the middle of the hallway. As true as I stand here, for three days my father did not know they were there. He walked up and down that hallway maybe ten times a day but he never saw the tools. He would step over them, go around them, whatever, but he could not make a connection of 'tools and shed' in the same thought process. My mother in complete frustration yelled at him to take that box out to the shed. As soon as it was drawn to his attention he looked at the box as if it had just magically appeared. 'Oh right," was all he said and took the box out to the shed."

"So," Juliette said. "That doesn't sound like it's going to work very well for me. How do I cope with - men are idiots?"

"No, no, that's the mistake women make. They think men are just ignorant morons when that really isn't the case. Men become extremely single minded in their focus. Women can multi-task. You know my mother could knit a shawl, read a book and watch television all at the same time. The amazing part was she knew exactly what was going on with all of them. How do women do that? It's impossible for a man. My father is the illustration of this. He didn't deliberately ignore the tools. No! Each time he walked up that hall his mind was focused elsewhere. He was just not aware."

"Multi-tasking is easy," Juliette said, "it seems pretty straightforward to me."

"There, you see. You don't understand but when you can accept this is the way men are it is easy to work with it."

"How, if he is turned off to everything around him?"

"Easy…you ask him. Now it is not a good idea to just ignore what he is doing and expect him to drop everything because you wanted to talk. If he is working on a complex or intricate problem he won't like that. In fact he will probably be pretty abrupt and snappy." The trick is just ask him, 'can you talk.' That will not break his concentration and he can answer, either 'yes or no.' Accept what he says. If it's no leave it for a while, till he doesn't look as absorbed and try again. That is how it's handled, with a minimum of fuss."

"Another thing about men not many women are aware of. Now this is a little difficult because it requires a fine, subtle balance and a lot of tactical skill. Basically though, men need to be told what to do. Now, this is very sensitive. Far too many women go overboard and turn this into nagging. But it's true; men need to be told what to do. They will rarely find chores on their own that are outside their area of focus."

"Why do you think I have a secretary at Highway65? She's not a decoration, actually she's not that good looking but hell is she efficient. She keeps me organized. She tells me what to do, and when to do it. She keeps all my appointments, meeting times everything. But here's the trick, she knows how to tell me what I need to do. She doesn't just blurt out, 'Get to your meeting with Rayna.' No, she says about fifteen minutes beforehand, 'Your meeting with Rayna is coming up in fifteen minutes.' You notice the difference? The real trick is instead of telling, treat it like a suggestion. You will rarely create any friction."

"A man can organize anything," Avery explained. "A man can organize a pie fight, provided someone tells him he needs to do it. So say you have a chore for me. For example you would like the lawn cut. Say for these purposes I am currently in the middle of watching a football game. Asking me to do it then would be nagging and would just create resentment. But say if you said instead 'would you cut the lawn sometime today, sweetheart.' Then the lawn would be cut as soon as the football game finished."

"Now I see. This was covered in the lesson you gave me. It's just about respecting the other person. This might take me a while but I will try. I'll work on it. Will you help me and be patient with me?" Juliette asked.

'Hey! I love you and we're a team. I'll do whatever you want. You only have to ask."

"Avery I have learnt so much today. I really think we can make this work. I have this confident feeling we are going to be a wonderful family."

"There is something else we need to look at because these are unavoidable and we need some understanding when they happen," Avery said.

"I think I know what you're going to say."

"Yes, no matter how much we try and avoid them we are going to have fights from time to time. Hopefully, there won't be many but they will be unavoidable. We both have short fuses so they are going to occur."

"I'm afraid you're right. What can we do about them? Our fights can get pretty ferocious," Juliette said.

"I believe there is a solution to this but let's look at the nature of fights. Rules will never work but let's try to set some guidelines if that's possible.

"No fight shall be allowed to affect our relationship. That is set in stone and non negotiable."

"All fights must be resolved before we go to bed. Therefore makeup sex is encouraged. That would be a good one."

"Next! No walking away from the fight. That's one for me. It must be resolved one way or the other."

"Shouting and screaming is allowed. Sometimes it's the only way to get your point understood."

"Vulgar swearing is not allowed. You never know who might be able to hear besides it is unacceptable to degrade the other person.

"Under extreme frustration you are permitted to hit me. I can wear it. However I can never hit you. Of course I never would. I'd die before doing that."

"Throwing items is not allowed. We must respect the cutlery, crockery and ornaments."

"What do you reckon?"

"Actually it's not the Marquis of Queensbury rules but they seem pretty good for our purposes. At least our fights should be kept under some level of civility. I think they're good. Pity we didn't have them a few weeks back."

"That's all water under the bridge. That's all behind us. We're only concerned with our futures now."

"That brings us to the last item, trust. We have to have complete trust in each other. This is the only thing I worry about in any relationship. The trust aspect, it is so essential and so fragile. Sometimes it can be lost irretrievably; sometimes it can be lost through doubt. I don't want us to lose our trust under any circumstances. We need something in this relationship to fall back on so trust can be ensured."

"You know I have been thinking about this a lot," Avery continued. "All the things we have learnt. The relationship items we have covered. The issues I think will make us better. What all this needs is just that cohesion to bind it all together, that core value that gives us the faith, incentive and trust to keep this working. That essential that removes all doubt and builds our relationship in our family."

"So what's your idea?"

"I think we should get married."

"You know," Juliette said. "I'm not even surprised you said that. When we were sitting in that church today I had the strangest feeling right out of nowhere. 'We should get married here.' It just seemed to me to be the most natural and obvious thing to do."

"Are you kidding? I had exactly the same thought and then immediately that minister appeared," Avery said.

"Oh, God. This is meant to happen. That can be the only explanation."

"Well, just hold on and let me finish. I was a little vague when you asked me what I spoke to that minister about. I said 'among other things we joined the church.' That was completely true. What the 'other things' were; I organized the first free date on the church calendar. Would you believe, not ten minutes earlier they received a cancellation for four weeks from Saturday. I have organized our wedding for that date."

"I don't know whether I should be happy or angry. You didn't even ask me. You just went straight ahead. I'm not sure if I have been taken for granted. Have I been insulted?"

"No, not at all. The date was offered. I figured it was better to take the date. Then if you didn't like the idea it would be easy enough to cancel. They are booked out for over two years."

In that case you are forgiven and I acknowledge you were pretty shrewd. You are going to have a very happy wife. You do amaze me, must be why I love you."

"Well, I want you to be happy. I mean we could get married at City Hall but that would be so wrong. Besides, you are pregnant. Imagine what the tabloids would do if they found out you are pregnant and had a quickie secret wedding. That would give them enough smutty material for a month."

Nope I want to do this right," Avery said. "Four weeks is still pretty quick. I want this to be the happiest day of your life and the biggest and best wedding extravaganza Nashville has ever seen. I want the motorcade though the city. I want closed circuit television beamed to LP field and Vanderbilt football field. I want to fill both venues with your fans…for free. I want a huge all Nashville party for this and we have the time to put it together. What do you think?"

"It'll be expensive," Juliette said.

"Damn, you only get to do it once and besides we don't know how the city might get on side. We do have an in with the Mayor through Rayna. Besides this will be great for the label as well. Hell, we might even get some artists for a show. We should put Glen and Emily on it and find out"

"Ok. Wedding sorted. I am seriously excited about this. However, there are still two issues to be resolved. However these affect you more than me. So, you will have to make the decisions because you have the ultimate responsibility."

"Am I going to like this? Sounds like there might be a worry coming," Juliette said.

"I don't know only you can answer that. My first idea is you sell this house. Not just the house, every stick of furniture and anything else you think might throw up sad memories. Now my logic here is, I think we should, if possible make a clean fresh start with Juliette and Avery houses and stuff. This house I think has sad memories for you. You bought it with that Dante character and he tries to blackmail you. Also he was shot here. That must be pretty traumatic the same as your mom dying here. I was just thinking maybe we should start our relationship without any sad baggage but this is your call and I will be with you one hundred percent."

"I was thinking exactly the same thing a few months back but the idea got put on the back burner. I think we should do it."

"Ok. I don't know what we should buy but I would like to talk to Rayna. I know her father's house will have to go on the market to settle his estate. Only Rayna and her sister are the beneficiaries. Selling that house might slow down finalization of the estate. They might want to do a deal. How would you feel about living there?"

"Are you kidding?" Juliette said. "That place is a palatial estate. I'd love to live there. By all means, talk to Rayna."

"The only other issue is money. You have most of the money. I know I have made suggestions about spending some on the wedding and the house but those are exceptions. Besides, if you don't like either idea we can ditch it. I'm getting enough money to provide for us very comfortably. I think your money should stay yours. You do with it whatever you want. I will only offer advice if you ask me. I can take care of all our needs from now on."

"I'm sorry but I don't agree," Juliette sounded determined. "We are a team and our family is a unit. My money is our money just as you said your money is our money. We are together in this in everyway possible. If we want the flash wedding and I agree with you on that then we have the money to pay for it. If we can buy Rayna's father's house we will have the money for that and heaps left over. That is what I want."

"We are both doing this so right," Avery said. "I love you gorgeous woman and I think we should seal this in the bedroom later tonight."

"What a good husband you're going to be. I'm going to love this marriage."

"Well, not wishing to throw a blanket on this party but I think while we are putting everything in order I have one very unpleasant task to put right. You can join me in this or I will do it myself, it's up to you. I'll give you fair warning though; it will be very nasty if you want to join me."

"Good god, what is it?" Juliette asked.

"I'm going to try and reconcile my family. I want you to have the whole family experience if I can fix it. I'm the only one in a position to do that."

"Ok. Then we are in like everything else, together." Juliette did not even hesitate.

"Alright! No sense in postponing the task. I'll ring and let them know we'll be there for the weekend."