Rain Check?

~106~

  Chris sits up, startled by my words. "What do you mean, speed this up?" His eyes search mine and I almost want to laugh. I can see that he knows what I mean, but he needs to hear me spell it out for him apparently.

  "I want to get married sooner, rather than later."

  The biggest smile overtakes his face and I immediately burst into a side splitting laugh, throwing him for a loop. "Why are you laughing at me like that?"

  "Because with that thing on your lip, and that big gorgeous smile of yours, makes you look more sinister than happy," I giggle out, my hand swiping at my cheeks as I begin to cry from how hard I'm laughing. 

  His hand moves around me swiftly grabbing up a pillow that he uses to smack me upside the head, only making me howl louder. I let him think he's won for only a moment before I lean up to tickle his sides making him dance around right on the middle of the bed, hopping away from me as quickly as he can. "Stop, woman!" He stands, grabbing my hands and pulling me closer to the edge of the bed. Pulling my hands up to his chest he holds them tightly against his black t-shirt. 

  My laughter stops, but my smile doesn't fade. "Are you serious?" I quirk my brow, asking him to continue. "You want to get married soon?"

  "More than anything," I admit. "I don't know how, or your schedule, or how your fans are going to react, or even Megan for that matter-"

  "I don't give two shits about any of that, Dempsey," he stops my rambling as I give him an evil eye for his language.  "I'll give Ethan a ten dollar bill when we get back. This is all a me and you situation. I don't care about my fans or Megan when it comes to us. If you want to do this soon we can sit down and look at my schedule and plan it out. I'll turn down a project if I have to. This," he releases my hands from his chest in order to get closer to me, "you and I, is what's important. And if you're up for it then I say let's start planning."

  "Let's do it."

  Deciding it was time to maybe leave a bit larger Instagram breadcrumb, Chris decided it was time to officially follow my page. He didn't comment on anything, just a simple follow. It was enough to start speculations, especially when someone snapped a clip of him walking around Disneyland Paris.  I was no where to be found in that clip as I was taking a breather with Joe's wife in a nearby restaurant. 

  Even at this point, all that's on my Instagram is pictures of Star. Someone even commented talking about how they think Dodger must have a new girlfriend or that Chris is trying to move towards some type of doggie dating service for his pup with Star being the first option. 

  Honestly it's comical.  

  "You wanna make the call?" I ask him while sitting across from Scott in our hotel room the following day.

  "Who gets the first call?" Scott asks, almost worried that we'll choose wrong.

  "Easy. Demi, call your mom and I'll call mine. Put everybody on speaker together." He slides my cell along the table closer towards me, while grabbing his own out of his pocket. 

  "That poor iphone 6 is  on its last leg, babe," I tease him. He cuts his eyes over to me at which point I stick my tongue out at him. "Look at the battery life, Chris. It's been plugged in for an hour and it's on like twenty percent."

  "So?"

  "It was at thirty-five when you plugged it in. Time for a funeral." I turn my attention to calling my mother, thankful that even though it's nine o'clock in Paris, it's just three in the afternoon back home in Boston. 

  Her cheerful voice comes through immediately, excited to finally see both of us together again almost as much as I was yesterday when we arrived. Only a moment later Lisa joins the call as well.

  "Why are we all on at once?" she asks, her features laden with concern. "Demi, are you alright sweetheart?"

  I share a quick glance with Chris, that doesn't go unnoticed by either mother. "What was that? What's going on?" my own mother questions. 

  "First, everything is fine," I assure them both. "I'm doing well, no issues since we arrived and I'm doing my exercises."

  Lisa sighs in relief while my mother's expression changes again. "You're pregnant!"

  I jerk my head back in shock. "No! Oh my gosh, Ma. No!"

  "Not yet anyway!" Scott calls out from the other side of the room causing Chris to throw a pen at his head. 

  I plead with Chris to take over before I begin fumbling over words. He rests his hand on my thigh, giving it a small rub before speaking. "We've decided to move ahead with the wedding."

  "Oh, that's great news!" both mothers exclaim. 

  "We can start looking for a dress when you get back here. I think they usually need at least three to six months for ordering purposes," my mother informs all of us. I shake my head quickly, watching her expression fade. "Why not, Dempsey?"

  "Well, Chris will be done with filming in six weeks instead of two months."

  Lisa's face lights up. "You'll be home for Christmas then!"

  Chris nods his head, turning towards me with a smirk. "Yeah, I will." I match his smile, urging him to continue. "The wedding is gonna be on Christmas Eve."

  Both mother's jaws drop, making Scott laugh at the similarity between the two that we'd never noticed before now. 

  "How? That's not a lot of time guys. How are you even going to find a place to have it on such short notice?" my mom asks in a panic. "And the dress?"

  "Don't worry about the where," Chris assures both, "I'm taking care of that. It's going to be small anyway, but meaningful."

  "As far as the dress," I begin, knowing that my mother is probably going to ring my neck, "I already found one." I see my mother's face drop. "I'm sorry! It's just like you said there's not much time and we just happened to go past it today while sightseeing and I couldn't pass it up."  I hold my breath, ready for the onslaught of disappointing words to spill from my mother's lips.

  "As long as it's what you want, sweetie. That's all that matters."

  I feel a lump begin to form in my throat as my eyes begin to tear up as well. Chris gives my thigh a squeeze, confirming that my earlier fears were unwarranted. 

  "Wait!" Lisa interrupts all of us. "You mean Chris saw it?"

  Scott comes rushing over, sticking his head in between us to join the conversation. "No, Ma. I'm not that crazy to let them screw around with that kind of tradition. Chris was filming so I took Demi on a little tour. He hasn't seen it."  

  I hold back a chuckle as once again both mom's sigh in relief in the same manner. 

  "So Christmas Eve?" my mother repeats once more.

  Chris threads his fingers through mine before bringing them to place a kiss to my knuckles. With his eyes smiling at my own, he nods. "Christmas Eve."

*Unedited

*I'm not positive at this point, but I'm thinking we MIGHT have only a handful more chapters.