CHAPTER EIGHTY-ONE

Website where all photos of all outfits mentioned is on my profile. I'm back. The memorial was tear jerking, as one would expect. Was good to see my husbands family but I'm very happy to be home. A 230am wake up call this morning was not a joyful experience.

The drive from Des Moines to a tiny place in the middle of Nebraska called Grand Island is remarkably uneventful, Happy enjoys every mile of the 300 that he drives between the two cities, for someone so comfortable on a bike it's strange seeing him behind the wheel of a car but when we had stopped for lunch in Omaha he'd insisted on finding somewhere that he could see the car from the table. We'd ended up in a McDonald's of all places, the twins happily playing in the playground for a while as the adults had drunk coffee and watched them.

The hotel we end up in is better than the one the night before, the walls much thicker and the sounds from each room not passing through like tissue paper, everyone manages to recover the sleep they'd lost from the echoing sound of the person under Donna and Opie's room who had snored so loud all night that at one stage I was sure they were sleeping on a bed that had been parked on the landing outside our rooms.

At 4pm the following day it's a very happy convoy of cars that pull into the hotel Cam had hurried rang and booked from the mid-point in the drive. Donna climbs out of the Dodge, apologising profusely to Cam again and again for the way the twins had been behaving.

She eventually turns around and silences her with a growl "It's fine, they're 4 and were bouncing off each other. Give them a day off from cars and hopefully they'll be okay. I don't care if we have to make this drive take till next month. We will make it back to Charming, with our eardrums intact."

Opie chuckles, lifting one of the now silent kids from their seats and putting them on the ground "I take it the behaviour hadn't gotten any better the second half?"

Donna shakes her head as Ellie and Kenny lean against the side of the Dodge, their faces downturned and unhappy expressions plastered across their faces. As Cam's words about staying an extra night register with Ellie she looks up "Can we stay another night here mommy, please."

Donna frowns then turns around, taking note of the place we've pulled into. The door that opens to a huge lobby with marble floors and a chandelier that hangs at the mid-point between the door and the counter. Glancing over at Cam she shrugs when Cam nods "I guess so baby, but you'll be early to bed and no dessert after the way you both behaved today."

Kenny pokes his toe into the ground and crosses his arms across his chest looking upset for a minute till Ellie jabs her fingers into his ribs and he nods.

Cam goes in and checks in to the four rooms she booked just an hour ago and returns with the keys, handing them out she grins at Al "The lady at reception told me there's a theme park not far from here. We should so go tomorrow."

Al nods, turning her eyes to the rest of us. Donna shakes her head and rests her hand on her stomach "A theme park? I don't think so."

I giggle and thread my arm through hers "I agree. You guys can go to the theme park tomorrow and have fun for us. We'll find something else to do.

Donna snickers "The kids can go if they behave tonight." Aiming her sentence at the twins they both nod enthusiastically and chirp "We'll be good Mommy."

Ellie takes it one step further into 'awww'-ness by sliding up to her mother's side and wrapping her arms around her legs "I promise I'll be good Mommy." Looking up with her green eyes into the matching one of her parent Opie chuckles behind me, dropping the keys to the Viper into my hand.

"Guess we're taking the kids to the theme park tomorrow while you two do whatever it is you want."

Donna glances over at me and shrugs leaving me to look at Cam "Do they have other stuff around here?"

Cam shrugs her shoulders "No idea. Go look, we'll sort the bags out and meet you back inside."

She turns to the valet's that are standing behind her with a smile "Sorry about that." They all shrug as the guys retrieve the few bags we need from the cars, along with the port-a-cot for Abel before they each climb into a car.

Jax fixes his eyes on the young guy who gets behind the wheel of the Viper and lifts an eyebrow "You drive that like you've got an egg balanced on your head."

Swallowing hard the poor guy nods once and starts the car, then crawls away from the curb slowly making Jax snicker.

"That wasn't very nice baby." I say, pulling Donna towards the door "I fully approve."

Hearing them all laugh behind me I walk straight towards the wall covered in brochures and start looking through them.

"Well, we can do a day spa, go shopping, spend the day here, see a movie. What do you feel like?"

Shrugging she lifts a few of the brochures out "We could go to the movies in the morning, then go to a spa. No shopping, we don't have the room for it in the cars."

I sigh in an overdramatic way and elbow her lightly "We can always ship it home to ourselves. Think of it like presents we know are coming."

Donna laughs but shakes her head "I don't think so S."

I drop my head on her shoulder and sigh dramatically "You're right of course, however we still have the rest of the shopping for BV to do."

"What?" Donna asks quietly as she grabs one more brochure and heads towards the lift "I thought it was all under control."

I nod "It is, but apparently there's still all the 'chick shit' to buy." The couple that arrived at the lift just after us look over at us, the older woman sniffing in distaste at my use of the word 'shit'. "That's Juice's term. Apparently Jax and Opie are happy to help do the modifications to the house but when it comes to buying pots, pans and crockery they want nothing to do with it."

Donna wiggles her eyebrows, her eyes darting to the couple and grinning "So our husbands are happy to build a house to expand their interest in porn, but not furnish it?" She sighs "And thus it falls to the obedient women to buy everything else which will be seen worldwide by voyeurs watching these women go about their daily activities."

The woman beside us sniffs again as the doors open. Donna and I step into the lift and I hold my arm out to hold the door open but she shakes her head in disgust "We'll wait for the next one." Turning to look at the man with her she frowns at the smile on his face.

As the lift starts rising Donna collapses against me in a fit of giggles "That was priceless. I thought she was going to have a stroke."

I shudder "Eww, I think he would have been happy for one though."

Donna is still laughing as the lift opens on the 11th floor and we head towards the rooms we'd been given.