Page 24 of Catching Dreams

“My brothers and I used to go all the time together but it’s been awhile.”

“Boring,” I said with a groan. Tyler just laughed and I really hoped Cooper wouldn’t notice first.

I grabbed the bag of stuffed sandwich cookies I made. I was able to take different flavors of store-bought cookies and sandwich frosting mixed with sprinkles, chocolate chips, and other goodies between them. Ty told me they looked delicious, and his name was on one of the Snickerdoodle cookies, which had cinnamon stirred into the whipped vanilla frosting. I knew Peyton and Camden would be excited about the sugar cookies that had chocolate frosting mixed with sprinkles.

“I’m definitely adding stuffed sandwich cookies to my bakery once it’s reopened! But, of course, the cookies and frosting will be made from scratch. I can do more flavors of frostings and fillings.”

“People will love them! They look delicious, even with what you had to work with. I can’t imagine how good they will be fresh baked from scratch.” I adored how supportive my husband was of my bakery.

We walked the short distance to Penelope’s apartment complex from the motel. We were one of the first to arrive, so we helped set up the tables and lay out all the delicious-smelling food the diner had prepared. Soon, the room was filled with Tyler’s family, some former teammates and coaches, my co-workers from Cupcake Curveball, and others, including Erick and Tanner.

We wondered how long it would take someone to notice our shirts. We didn’t have to wait long because soon a voice I was unfamiliar with said, “You put a cookie in your wife’s oven? Wife?!”

Everyone in the room turned to look at Carter’s best friend, Alex (or was it Alec? I think that’s his name), who was pointing a finger at Tyler’s shirt.

“So, when you called her your wife in your speech it wasn’t a publicity stunt or anything?! She’s your actual wife?” Julia squealed.

I walked over to where my husband was standing and took his hand in mine. We were both silently waiting to see if anyone would react to my shirt. Our friends did not disappoint.

“Dos?! DOS?! Gemelos?” Ivan was staring at my shirt with big eyes.

“What is he saying? Why is he not speaking English? I thought you said he was learning more,” Carter asked as he came over to us. He did not look happy. “And what’s this about her being his wife? There is no way my brother got married and didn’t tell me.”

I squeezed Tyler's hand as I felt him tense a little next to me. We both knew not everyone would be happy that we were married in secret.

“Wait. Wait. Wait.” Penelope said and held up her hand. “How could you not tell me? Are you really married? What? When? How?”

“You forgot to ask where,” Cooper interjected and stood next to Penelope with his arms crossed over his broad chest.

I looked up at Tyler, and he was about to say something when he was interrupted by Hayden. “No, you guys are asking the wrong question. What was Ivan yelling about ‘dos’? What does that even mean?”

“Dos means two in Spanish,” Dominic Anderson explained.

“I know that,” Hayden said with a roll of his eyes. “But why would he be saying two?”

“She has two cookies on her shirt!” Peyton squealed.

“Twins?!” Tyler’s mom’s voice rang above everyone else. “When did you find out?”

“Yesterday,” I said as tears began falling down my face once I saw his mom crying, too. “That’s why we left straight from the doctor’s office and went to Ty’s game. I had to tell him in person.” I found myself walking over to Susan, and she pulled me into her arms and held me tightly. I hugged her back, and it really made me wish my grandparents could be here for this. Even if everyone was going crazy around us, my grandparents would have jumped right in.

“That’s why you missed the tornado. I just don’t understand how you didn’t know about it at all,” Julia said, trying to put all the pieces together.

“Because I made her turn off her phone and wouldn’t let her listen to the radio because I knew she’d cave and call Tyler,” Penelope explained to everyone. She turned and shook her head at me. “I still don’t understand why you got married without telling me.”

“Same, girl!” Julia said.

“Does Meadow know? I bet you told her,” Penelope asked with a pang of hurt in her voice. I wiped a tear away because this is the reaction I didn’t want and was most afraid of.

“She better not know,” Carter said with a shake of his head at his brother. “He didn’t even tell me. Does Landon know? Did you tell him and not me?”

“No one knew,” Tyler said defensively while walking over to where I was standing with his mom. He took me in his arms and pulled me close. He wiped away my tears with his thumb and kissed the top of my head. “We had our reasons for getting married quickly and quietly. We’re sorry if we hurt anyone.”

“We didn’t mean to hurt anyone on purpose. We did it for insurance reasons,” I said through my tears. “I was an idiot and didn’t get personal insurance when I opened the bakery. So the pregnancy would be covered under Ty’s insurance, we got married right away, but we would have gotten married eventually.”

“Damn right we would have,” my husband agreed. “Molly and the babies are everything to me.”

“Why is everyone mad?” a little voice asked. I looked down and saw Camden walking over to us. He stood in front of me as if to protect me. He looked at everyone surrounding us. “Why are you making Molly cry? I thought people getting married and having two babies were happy things?!”

---