A Second Chance at love

Chapter 60: Mom knows best

After breakfast, Jon and the kids and I(we gave Mariah half the day off-we were going to give her the whole day but she insisted on taking care of the kids that night so Jon and I could be alone) piled into our rental car and drove to my mom's townhouse. We were both extremely nervous as I knocked on the door.

Before my mom opened the door and let us in Jon got cold feet and started to panic as his anxiety flared up so he went back to the car to get himself under control. There was some definite apprehension between us at first, but, that soon melted away. We sat and chatted in the sunny living room. "My grandbabies are just beautiful" she smiled. I introduced her to Brianna, Amber, Kayla, Tyler, and Nate whom she had never met. "you remember Emma though don't you?" I asked her as Emma walked over by her.

"It has definitely been awhile since I've seen you" she said hugging Emma " you were such a cutie pie when you were little." she said "now you are a pretty young girl." Emma just smiled.

I stood there watching the scene unfold and then my mom walked over to me and enveloped me in a huge hug that made the last of the nervousness I had melt away.

"Its been too long Chrissy, way too long." "I know mom" I said" "but, Jon and I did what we had to do to protect our family."

"I know" she replied. "speaking of the devil" she said "where is that handsome husband of yours anyway?"

"his anxiety got the best of him while we were waiting for you to come to the door, so he went back to the car to get himself under control." I said.

Emma went outside to see if he was going to come inside, and when she came back, she was giggling "he's fast asleep!"

"sometimes sleep is the only thing that will help as at times those attacks can make him pretty tired." I said. I waited another 45 min or so before I went in the other room and called his cellphone to wake him up.

When he finally came inside, he was still kinda half asleep and I could tell he was still somewhat nervous and apprehensive about seeing her. Sensing that we adults wanted to be alone Emma and Brianna took their brothers and sisters outside to play.

We talked about her two battles with cancer "I'm 5 years cancer free she said proudly" we also talked about the kids.

"I have a wonderful idea!" she said "why don't I call and order pizza and you guys can stay for lunch." I glanced at my watched and realized it was nearing 1pm!

"that's fine with me" I said "you ok with that honey?" I asked Jon. He just sorta nodded and stared out the window.

"come with me in the kitchen" she told Jon the two of them disappeared and it was long before I heard his laugh ring out. 'gotta be a good sign' I thought to myself. As I rustled through the bag I had Emma bring in and sat a box on the table by my mom's chair.

As the two of them came out of the kitchen I could sense Jon was more relaxed and he was smiling. He came over and sat by me as mom sat back down in her chair and snuck a quick kiss.

"what's this?" she asked picking up the box. "some things we wanted you to have if things worked out." Jon said "I packed the box up and Chrissy wrapped it." Jon said. She opened it and at once I saw tears in her eyes.

"this is wonderful!" she exclaimed happily. In side the box was a framed photo of each of the kids, a framed wedding photo of Jon and I and a framed family photo, plus a copy of our wedding video.

Jon helped her hang the photos while we waited for the pizza guy to come. After we ate, mom decided she wanted to watch the wedding video. So, we settled into the living room to watch it.

She loved all the flowers and decorations. "the flower girl is so cute, I love her dress!! Emma squealed.

"that's you Emmie" Jon said giving her a little hug "you were our flower girl. I watched Emma's face as she looked closer at the flower girl and began to giggle--ohmigosh!! That IS me!"

"Christina!", my mom exclaimed "your dress was gorgeous!!" "You looked amazingly beautiful" "just like a princess"

I just smiled "its so much better that what you were wearing when I saw you later that night" she whispered as she leaned over to hug me.

"you weren't supposed to see that-that was for Jon's eyes only" I whispered back. The girls kept telling me how pretty I looked. "when do we come on the video?" Brianna asked.

"None of you three girls were even born yet, that's why you aren't in the video."

"ohhhh" Brianna giggled. As the tape finished mom wiped tears from her eyes as Jon rewound it and popped another tape in the VCR.

"Chrissy and I had been fighting and having problems and with help we overcame them--this was her Christmas present to me that year." he said as he hit the play button.

Imagine my surprise when I saw home video of him opening the ring box I gave him as part of his Christmas present just before we renewed our vows.

"look Bri there we are!!" Emma pointed out happily "Aunt Allison is holding you and I am sitting on Daddy's lap. As we watched the remainder of the tape I smiled as Jon softly repeated the words he said that night in my ear.

As we gathered our things to leave, mom asked us if we could come back the next day around noon. "Sure" Jon said "need us to being anything?" I asked.

"Nope!" she said cheerfully- Just you, Jonathan and my grandbabies. Bring swimsuits and sunscreen too-it should be a nice day for a swim.

Jon and I shot each other a very surprised look when she actually called him by his name.

We met up with Mariah at the hotel and Jon and I put the boys down for a nap while she and the girls talked and giggled excitedly about something.

"Shhhh! it's a secret she told them. Jon said he need time to think and stayed with the boys while Mariah and I took the girls to the little mall that was just a couple blocks away.

"Let's make this a girl's day out!" Mariah chirped happily. The 6 of us had a blast!! We even got manicures and pedicures.

"nail polish sure is stinky stuff!!" Amber giggled wrinkling her nose. "PU!" Kayla laughed in agreement. As we headed back to the hotel Mariah's phone rang and she talked in a very hushed voice confirming something about 1pm the next day.

"Chloe got rid of the cane for good!!" she cried happily "she just has a slight limp now-dad says she'll always have that though"

"That is awesome news!" I said hugging her. "Jon will be thrilled to hear it."

She took the girls back to their room and I went in our room to tell Jon the good news. He took the boys next door to Maria first and then we sat and talked.

As I expected he was thrilled to hear about Chloe. He immediately texted Jordan and told him to let Donnie know and have him tell the others.

After a romantic candlelight dinner for two on our balcony, and a relaxing soak in the hot tub we fell fast asleep--it had been a wonderful day.