Precious Moments

Before we left for the club, where we were having brunch with our parents, Reed called me into his office. When I went in there, he had Alexis completely cleaned and dressed in a dress that I never saw before.

They looked so good together - Reed was wearing black dress pants with a light green dress shirt; Alexis was in a sleeveless dress, the bodice was white and the bottom was light green (but darker than Reed's shirt), there was white long sleeved vest to pull over the dress that had little pink flowers on it. Like I said, they looked good together. He was squat down with her, holding her hands in his as he held her up. She was standing in front of him, she was wobbling but she was standing.

I walked over and knelt in front of them, "Are you going to walk with daddy?" I asked her. She looked back at Reed with this half smile on her face.

"No, we are only testing out her sea legs," Reed smiled at me. "She's been pulling herself up all morning." I told him she did it the other day too. "How long before you think she'll be walking? Do I have to put up a gate around the yard before we move in?"

"It probably wouldn't hurt," I told him as he handed her hands to me.

"I couldn't get the button on the back done up, they are so small!"

I sat Alexis down on my lap and went to do up the button but there wasn't one there. "Reed? There isn't a button there!" I looked again just to make sure I wasn't losing it but - oh wait! What is that? I poked my finger under the collar of Alexis' dress, hooking it around a necklace that I didn't see before. "Where did you get this?" I asked her but I was looking at Reed. He just shrugged and smiled at me. I pulled the necklace out from under Alexis' dress and let it fall against her, it hung down over her belly! "Let mommy see?" I said when she grabbed for the pendant that was on the necklace.

Turning her around to face me, I opened my hand to her and she dropped the pendant in my hand. On further inspection I realized it was a heart shaped locket; a white gold heart shaped locket with 'mom' wrote on the front and there was a tiny flower and a diamond decorating it as well. "Oh my," I whispered as I gently touched the writing on the front. As I sat there staring at the locket, close to tears because it was so beautiful and unexpected, Alexis kept poking it. "What are you trying to do snuggle bug?"

I felt Reed's hand on my back as he leaned in and whispered, "She wants you to open it."

"Oh," I said, trying to open it. But my hands were shaking so badly that I couldn't. "Please?" I held it out to him, "I can't."

Reed's arms came around me, he held me between them as he opened the locket and displayed it for me. "Oh!" I exclaimed and grabbed the tiny heart, pulling it close to my face. There were two pictures in the locket, one of Alexis now and one..."It's Alexis! Just after she was born!" I looked up at him, "Where...?" I knew he didn't have any photos of her besides the recent ones.

"I had Janie go through your pictures," he explained. "I wasn't sure she would get me one in time but it came a couple days ago," Reed kissed me. "Happy Mother's Day Amber."

Still when I think about yesterday when I first saw that locket, I feel like crying. It was so beautiful and the way he gave it to me was probably the best ever! I certainly wasn't expecting it.

Of course, Alexis wasn't so thrilled about giving it up, she tried to take off with it still around her neck when Reed went to take it off her. But he was able to talk her into giving it up and then he slipped it around my neck. "I love it," I told him. "Thank you so much," I said as I leaned in to kiss him.

I couldn't believe how lucky I was but apparently that wasn't all he had in store for me.

When I went to get up off the floor, he held out his hand to stop me. "Darling, I have something else for you." He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out an envelope and handed it to me. Once I opened it, I smiled. He handed me a set of keys to the house, "Thank you," I smiled at him.

We headed out to the club not long after that. I was excited to see his grandmother again but I wasn't looking forward to seeing our parents. When I asked him how we ended up having plans with both parents at the same time he told me that our mothers wanted it that way, 'since we are family'.

Reed was carrying Alexis and I was carrying the gifts that he had picked out for our mothers, when we entered the club. Once we arrived at out table, his grandmother jumped up out of her seat. "Oh it's about time you got here! I was positively dying here with these corpses! Come here my dear, let me look at you," Madeline reached out and grabbed my arms, holding them out to my sides. "You've gained some weight!" She exclaimed dropping my arms to my sides again and gave me a quick hug before she turned to Reed, still talking to me. "It's a good thing I say, you look a lot healthier now that you've filled out. Wouldn't you agree?" She asked Reed.

Reed coughed and turned red as he looked at me. Then he adverted his eyes quickly as if he didn't know if he should be looking at me, "AmberLynn has always been beautiful to me Grandma."

His grandmother laughed softly, "Of course she has my dear, otherwise we wouldn't have this little precious right here!" Madeline lifted Alexis from Reed's arms, "Oh my aren't you just the prettiest little thing! Nana could just eat you!" But thankfully she just gave Alexis a big kiss on the cheek and handed her to me. "Come on sit, tell me what you've been up to my dear. I've missed you, you know."

Up until that moment, things were looking good. But of course that couldn't last.

By the time brunch was over, I just couldn't wait to get out of there.

But that's a story for another time...