The Paralyzed Dream (COMPLETED)

Chapter Thirty One

       A light knock on Lacey's door caused her to stir awake from her night of light sleep. Opening up her eyes, Lacey welcomed the person in to her room with a content sigh.

      "Hey, good morning, beautiful." Slade greeted with a smile, entering the room, sitting down next to Lacey on her bed. Leaning forward, he dropped a kiss on her forehead, resting his hand on her knee and asking with a smile, "How did my fiance sleep?"

      "Honestly, not that great." Lacey chuckled, resting her hand on Slade's on her knee.

       "Sorry, love. I just wanted to come in and let you know what my plans were for the day, but if you are tired, then why don't you go back to bed?" Slade said in a concerned voice.

         "No, I will be alright. Once I get up and movin', I will wake up. So, what were your plans for the day?"

       "Well, I offered to drop Ryder and Willie off at school since Willie's truck won't start. So on my way back from the school, I was fixin' to stop by the auto parts store and then come back here, do chores and work on the truck, then take you into town and check out that ring. How's that sound?" Slade's eyes glistened when he mentioned Lacey's ring.

      "Sounds perfect to me. Or," Lacey drew out the word, grabbing Slade's hand and interlacing their fingers. "I could come with you to do all of that and we could look at the ring after we get the starter for Willie's truck. That way you don't have to drive all over creation." In all honesty, Lacey was just overly excited to go pick out her engagement ring today, so of course she was being impatient, wanting to leave as soon as possible to go do so.

        "Very true. That makes much more sense. See, this is why I asked you to marry me." Slade chuckled, leaning forward, asking for a kiss.

        "That better not be the only reason." Lacey grinned, as she closed her lips over Slade's.

       "Of course it isn't the only reason." Slade tapped Lacey's hand with his free one after pulling back from the kiss. "Well, darlin', we have to leave in thirty minutes to drop off the kids at school, so I reckon you should probably start gettin' dressed so we get can a move on."

         "Yes sir." Lacey smiled, sliding into her wheelchair that Slade pulled closer for her.

         "I'll meet you downstairs." Slade stood up off of the bed, smiling at Lacey before leaving her room.

       Lacey got dressed as quick as she could, knowing that she was in a time crunch to get ready since they had to drop her brothers off at school this morning. Plus, Lacey was excited to go into the jewelry store in town. 

        After running a comb through her long, brown hair, Lacey was surprised that it actually looked good enough to wear down, since her hair hardly ever behaved the way she wanted it to. 

      Taking one more look in the mirror, Lacey folded her lips and nodded. "Not bad." She commented on her appearance before making her way to the stair lift. 

        Safely on the lower level of her home, Lacey heard her brothers talking to Slade in the living room. Making her way down the hallway to join them, Lacey smiled when she caught Slade's eye. 

      She loved how every time he looked at her, it was as if he was seeing her for the first time, and falling in love more and more with her. In her opinion, she wasn't much more dressed up than she usually was. A navy blue and white handkerchief patter tank top was paired with Wrangler jeans, and cowboy boots. According to her, there was nothing special about the outfit, but the smile on Slade's lips told her otherwise. 

      "Y'all ready to go?" Lacey tore her gaze from Slade to ask her brothers.

      "Yup!" Willie replied, hopping up from the couch, grabbing his book bag and slinging it over his shoulder.

       Ryder follow suit of his older brother, and jumped out of his seat, grabbing his lunchbox in one hand, and his back pack in the other, in one fluid motion as he sprinted out of the living room. "Last one to the truck is a rotten egg!" He hollered as he let the wooden screen door slam behind him as he ran outside. 

        "I guess it's a race?" Slade teased Lacey, making a face. Reaching a hand into his pocket, Slade fished out the truck keys. 

      A chuckling Lacey followed Slade outside. Once they were in the yard, Lacey saw Ryder hopping into Slade's daily driver truck. It was the one that Ryder had almost always seen Slade drive, so it made sense why he thought that they would be taking that truck today. 

       Nonchalantly, Slade sauntered to Lacey's dad's truck, hopping in the cab after Willie. Lacey, now a pro at getting into vehicles independently, buckled her seat belt before bending over to remove one of the wheels off of her chair, resting it in the back between where Willie sat, and where Ryder would soon be sitting. 

      Making sure everyone was buckled, Slade chuckled as he drove the few feet over to where his truck was parked, honking the horn to catch Ryder's attention. The six year old cast a mean mug of a glare to the occupants of the truck beside him. 

      With a defeated look, Ryder hopped down from the cab of Slade's truck, slamming the door, and walking to the open seat in the back of the cab of Zane's truck with his chin tucked to his chest. 

       "Hey, buddy." Slade said with a grin, turning around to greet Lacey's youngest brother. 

      "I thought we were takin' your truck, not dad's. Now I lost the race. I'm the rotten egg." Ryder pouted, folding his arms over his chest, huffing as he looked down to the ground. 

      Without missing a beat, Slade comforted. "No, you are not the rotten egg, and you didn't lose. You were the first one in the truck, so you won there. Even though you were the last one in this truck, we have a saying where I am from. You know what that saying is?" 

      "What?" Ryder's grouchy demeanor let up some as he gave Slade his full attention. 

     "It's 'savin' the best for last.'" Slade grinned.

      "So I'm the best since I got in here last?" Young Ryder's face lit up.

     "That's exactly right." Slade pushed his hat down further on his head, turning back to the wheel, backing the truck out of it's spot, driving down the driveway. 

       "Ryder, there are four of us and only three seats in Slade's truck. Why did you think we were takin' his truck?" Willie asked his little brother in the back seat.

      "Because, anytime Slade drives us, we take his truck. Dad doesn't like folks drivin' his truck either so I thought for sure we were takin' Slade's, and I thought I would sit on your lap or something." Ryder countered. 

     As Slade drove, he smiled over at Lacey, and immediately the bickering between the two brothers in the backseat was completely flooded out by the look in Lacey's eyes as she smiled back at him. 

     Seeing how great Slade was with comforting Ryder gave Lacey a glimpse at how great of a father he would be in the future when they decided to have children. It was in that exact moment that Lacey knew she could not be more proud to be marrying Slade. 

                                                               ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Author's Note: Wow, y'all, I am SO horrible! I truly apologize for taking so dadgum long to update. Between Christmas, celebrating birthdays, New Year, to family stuff, I had hardly any time to write at all, and I apologize profusely. For whatever reason, Wattpad has not been letting me publish any chapters, or even save my work, so that is half of the reason I have been a slow poke updating. 
I know that this is a short chapter, but hopefully y'all still enjoy it. Please let me know what y'all think of it! :) Thanks, and God bless! :)