By the time Christmas came around, Natalie had a new ring on her finger, one that would mark the start of forever for the two of them.
No one was going crazy planning for the wedding except for Natalie and Hayden themselves. There weren't any insane moms of mother-in-laws to even act that way about it.
Hayden had rebelled his parents's rules early, and because of that, he was pretty sure his mother hated Natalie. There had to be a reason why every time he would talk about her or bring her up at dinner back in high school she would grit her teeth.
And Natalie's parents were ever-still the workaholics they used to be. Natalie was convinced all they cared about was their money and they hadn't even noticed she had left the house yet.
Of course, that couldn't be true, considering they would still acknowledge her every once in a while and she had been gone from the house for years on end. Parents or no parents, they still had the financial support for their wedding. They had grandparents and other family. Hayden had already let out a book and made thousands of dollars on it in a couple if months only, which was amazing for a first-time author and was record time for so many readers.
They would invite their parents to the wedding anyway. After all, they were the people that had bore and raised them. Well, Natalie's parents with the raising part, not so much.
Natalie and Hayden had also kept their vows and promises that the ring entailed, despite the fact that they lived together. Natalie's bedroom was off-limits for Hayden, vice-versa.
If only their parents could see them now and how mature they had grown up to be.
"Should we just.... stay here or move when we get married?" Natalie asked Hayden during the commercials on TV as they sat on the couch one evening, curled up in a blanket together.
Hayden looked at her curiously. "That's a good question."
"Well, we want kids. We probably wouldn't be able to fit them all to live here, especially as they grow, and our family grows.... I don't want to raise them in several houses. I don't want to move them."
"Yeah, you're right. We should move to.... how about we move even farther down South? Get a nice house by the water --"
"-- but not too close to the water --"
"-- right -- and we can live there? Where it's warm."
Natalie snuggled up closer to her fiancé, nuzzling her face in his shoulder. "I was actually thinking more up North since we're so far down. Less storms and bad weather, there'll actually be snow in the Winter...."
"That might be a possibility as well," Hayden considered. He kissed the top of her head. "Lets let the idea -- ideas -- settle for a little. Then we'll decide."
"Okay. Sounds good," she said with a yawn, closing her eyes. "I love you, Hayden."
"I love you so much, Natalie, Angel. More than anything in the whole wide world. The whole wide universe." He pressed a kiss against her head again, running his fingers through her hair. He truthfully couldn't wait to really get their life up and started. No matter what life threw at them, he always knew they'd get through it together.