Page 21 of Aaron's Patience

“Yes, they did.”

I blew out a breath. “Good. So, I have to tell–” I was cut off by a knock at the door. “What now?” I mumbled. I went to the door again and saw a middle-aged woman through the peephole.

“Ms. Thiers? Or should I say, Mrs. Townsend? Good to get used to your new name before the big day, right?”

The woman pushed her way through the door and to my surprise she was followed by two more people—a young woman and a male who looked somewhere in between the two women, age wise.

“Who are you?”

The first woman turned and smiled. “I’m Janet Johnson, your wedding planner. These two are my assistants, Jacob and Stephanie. And they,” she turned dramatically to the living room, “must be Kyle and Kennedy. We have some lovely children’s suits and dresses that these two will look adorable in for their parents’ wedding.”

My stomach plummeted.

“Wedding?”

“Will I get to dress up?” Kennedy asked, eyes wide, jumping up and down.

“You sure will, doll.” Janet smiled at a laughing Kennedy.

I turned to Ms. Sheryl who looked to be in shock.

“So, about that custody thing…” I began.

****

Aaron

“You’re getting married?” my brother, Carter, shrieked, causing me to glower deeper than usual. “What unlucky woman agreed to holy matrimony with you?”

Snickers came from my other two nitwit brothers, while my mother and father simply looked on in stunned silence. I’d just announced at the family dinner at Townsend Manor that I was getting married.

“Carter, don’t be rude,” his wife, Michelle, admonished.

“We’re going to a wedding?” my new nephew, Diego, questioned.

“Looks like it, buddy,” my youngest brother, Tyler, answered. “So, who’s the lucky lady?”

“You mean unlucky,” Carter chimed in.

I snarled at my brother across the table. “You talk too damn much.”

He grinned. “And obviously you don’t talk enough since you’re getting married and we didn’t even know you were seeing someone seriously.”

“What’s her name?” Joshua asked, next to me.

I picked up my glass of seltzer water with lime and took a sip before answering.

“Patience Thiers.”

I sighed against the audible gasps around the table.

“Thiers’ daughter?” my father, at the head of the table, questioned.

I took a sip then took a bite of the lobster tail that’d been served for dinner.

“Care to share how this came about?” Joshua asked.

“No.” I took another bite.