Invisible

Chapter 56 Final Promise

"This was perfect. After all of the uncertainty and confusion we've had I love just how this happened." I slide my hands up and under his collar as he presses his lips against mine, hands cradling me carefully as I hold on with force. Nothing is keeping us apart anymore.

"You keep me sane." I breath out between kisses.

One more kiss and Hunter steps away, "you keep me up late." He grins.

"I won't tonight. Promise."

I change into the one clean pair of pajamas I packed and crawl into bed while I wait for Hunter to finish showering. I don't make it very long but as I drift off I could swear I hear him humming and his arm around me, keeping my sleep safe.

-----

The ring is back on the chain around my neck, it means something different now but to the public I'm still just Hunter's friend. We figured it would be best if we eased into it, telling our parents... Or his and the rest of our friends and relatives.

Being back home with Hunter on the road both feels better and worse. I miss him worse than before and try not to focus too much on him but I just can't help it. Added to that, while Tiff, Sam, Al, and Maggie are thrilled I got my memories back, I'm on a pretty tight leash for running off without telling anyone.

"So, who are you bringing to Kenny's wedding next week?"

My head snaps to attention, I was folding laundry over the kitchen table while she went over some paperwork for a charity auction she's hosting next month for endangered species... or something like that. I just know I'm attending and so are my baking skills. "Sorry, I haven't had time to send in the RSVP they know I'm coming right?"

"Don't worry, they will let you come as long as you bring the cake."

I nod and smile, blushing as I turn my attention back to the laundry.

"You're bringing Hunter, aren't you?"

"I didn't ask."

"How are things with you two anyway?" I hear her set down the pen ad stand, chair scraping against the hard wood floor.

"Pretty good." I mumble, unable to meet her gaze.

"Leah...?" She can tell I'm hiding something. I continue to fold a towel. "Did something happen between the two of you?" She grabs my shoulders and turns me around, crouched down to look me straight on. "Oh... My...-"

"You say anything you die!" I whip the towel at her.

"But I don't know what I'm not supposed to say! What happened?"

"He proposed." I whisper, covering my hand with my mouth.

"He did what???"

"Shh!" I look down the hall at Sam's den and find the door to be closed.

"Details! Right now!" Tiffany pulls me down onto the chars and drags every last detail out of me. When I finish she is grinning so wide I'm afraid her face is going to split in two. "Oh! I just knew it, from the second I saw you two together I knew you were going to be something!"

I hide my head in my hands, hiding my own smile. "Tiff, I can't explain it. He makes me happy and he reminds me that I'm okay to be me. That I'm all he needs. I don't care who knows as long as they see how happy I make him and he makes me."

"See, that's love. Not that comfortable, over protective junk you had going on with Jacob." She affirms her own description from so long ago. 'It won't matter who knows as long as you can be together' or something like that.

"But you can't say anything! Not until after the wedding!"

She pretends to zip her mouth shut and lock it, tossing away the key.

"You're such a kid!" I laugh.

"No, but I'm going to have one soon." She laughs and places her hand on her growing abdomen. It doesn't matter that she's 7 months pregnant, she still looks fit and simply beautiful. Until a few months back she barely showed, recently it seems harder to forget.

I roll my eyes, "just don't go into labor during the 'I do's' poor Gemma and Kenny..." I trail off laughing and she joins me.

"Man, too many restrictions. I can't brag about my friend's engagement and I'm not allowed to give birth... Why am I attending this wedding again?"

"Maybe because you're the sister to the groom." I stick out my tongue at her and she hits me in the shoulder playfully. "Don't you have some work to attend to?" I nod at the paperwork she had spread out.

"Don't you have a wedding cake to start on?"

We both go back to our business and before too long I'm in the kitchen, measuring and mixing and singing along to the radio. Wishing Hunter came home this Friday instead of next, wishing I could swing dance with him at Kenny's wedding, wishing it was our wedding so this could just be all over with. And, wondering if a tour bus will support a fully stocked kitchen.