“I don’t care about your money or what you can give me; I’m not the one wanting to get married. I think we could find another solution,” she snapped and let out a sigh of frustration. She was getting far angrier the more he lashed out at her.

“I’m tired, where’s the guest room?” he asked, as he rubbed his hand through his hair for the hundredth time. She showed him the room and then dragged herself off to her own, feeling defeated and more drained than she ever had in her life.

Jasmine figured she’d climb into bed and lay there awake all night. She was grateful when her heavy eyes closed and she felt oblivion overtaking her.

“Dad,” Jacob yelled, as he came skidding into her room at the crack of dawn. Her first thought was, why did she keep getting woken so horribly early and then panic started to overcome her at the look of complete devastation on her child’s face.

“I knew he wouldn’t be here,” Jacob said as tears started streaming down his face and he crawled in the bed next to her to sob on her shoulder.

“It’s okay baby, he’s here, he’s just in the other room, he hasn’t left,” she said, as one of her own tears escaped. She hated to see her son in pain for any reason but the unbearable heartbreak of him thinking his father was gone was the most horrible thing she’d ever experienced.

“Hey bud, are you okay?” Derek said, as he stepped into the room and saw Jacob sobbing in her arms. He looked up and the tears stopped instantly, as a huge grin overtook his face.

“You didn’t leave,” Jacob exclaimed, as he jumped from the bed and threw his arms around his father. Derek picked him up and sat down on her bed. She scrambled up into a sitting position and pulled her legs up to her chest, hugging them tightly. Derek looked over at her with an expression that seemed to say, I told you there was no other answer. She knew he was right.

“Where were you then?” Jacob asked, as he looked from his father to his mother.

“I was sleeping in the other room, bud,” Derek said as if that would satisfy him.

“But mom and dad’s sleep together. Maryanne says when her mom and dad stopped sleeping in the same bed they stopped being married and then her dad found a new person that Maryanne has to call mom even though she doesn’t like her. She says she has to have two houses and doesn’t get to be with her mom and dad together anymore,” he said in the longest speech she’d ever heard him give. Then his tears started to fall again as he thought about it.

“Your mom and I aren’t going to live in separate houses Jacob. We figured things out last night and decided neither of us could stand to be away from you. We will stay together and be a real family,” Derek said and tried to get his son to stop crying.

“Do you promise?” Jacob asked with a hiccup.

“I promise you that. As a matter of fact you can be my best man when we get married,” Derek added.

“Really? Do I get to wear a tux…tux…Oh I can’t remember what they’re called,” Jacob said and blew his breath out with frustration.

“It’s called a tuxedo and if that’s what you want to wear then that’s what we will wear. We will have matching tuxes,” Derek promised.

“And will mom get to wear her princess dress?” he asked.

“If she wants,” Derek replied.

“Honey, I don’t need to wear a princess dress. We’re just having a small wedding and I would look silly wearing a big poufy dress,” she said. She was actually really disappointed to settle for a justice of the peace wedding. She’d always dreamed of her wedding day looking like a fairy tale. She’d learned the hard way long ago, fairy tales didn’t always come true, though.

“But, Mom…hold on,” he interrupted himself, then jumped from the bed and ran out of the room. Jasmine looked at Derek and shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t know what he was up too.

Jacob came running back into the room and she saw the familiar book about two seconds too late. She made a grab for it but Jacob had already crawled back onto Derek’s lap and opened the cover. Jasmine could feel her face flushing as Derek looked at a book that basically told him her dreams.

“Jacob, your dad doesn’t want to look at that,” she said as she tried to grab the book again.

“You do, don’t you?” Jacob said as he looked up at Derek.

“Of course I do,” he said. He’d agree with anything Jacob asked. The kid could probably get a brand new motorcycle from him if he just asked. She’d have to talk about that with him. Instead of arguing, she sat back and glared at Derek as he gave her a look with his brows raised.

“See, Dad, this is the dress mom wants to wear. She said when she got married it would be like a fairy tale book and she’d be the princess marrying her prince and I got to be the young prince. She said she was going to one day find a frog and give him a kiss and then he’d become her prince and rescue her from the castle. I guess that means you’re the frog,” Jacob said and then broke out in giggles.

Derek looked through the pages of the book and felt like he was somehow intruding into her thoughts. She had pictures and notes of everything she wanted for her dream wedding. He got to the back of the book and raised his brows at her one more time, as there were pictures of what she wanted to wear on the honeymoon. She had excellent taste and his mouth watered as he pictured her in a few of the outfits.

“See, she has to have a fairy tale princess wedding. She made me listen to a ton of those girlie princess books. She told me it was to teach me how to be the perfect prince for my own princess. I don’t like girls but mom says that will change. I really think she’s wrong cause girls have coodies. It’s okay if dads like girls though,” he said as if he was bestowing his greatest wisdom.

“We will give your mom the fairy tale wedding then. You can help me to make sure everything is right, can’t you?” he asked. Jacob’s eyes widened in awe as his father bestowed that honor on him.

“Of course,” Jacob said with his most serious expression.

“Good then, that’s all settled. Do you want some breakfast?” Derek asked, as he tucked the book under his arm.

“I can take that,” Jasmine said and held out her hand. Derek ignored her and walked out of the room with her book, leaving her alone, irritated and feeling a bit left out.

She was tempted to crawl back down under the covers and fall asleep again but she knew she was far too stressed to even close her eyes.

She threw the blankets back, like a child having a tantrum and stomped into the bathroom. She decided she didn’t like men very much right then. She took her time in the shower and then finally decided to face the day and walked out to the kitchen with her head held high.

Chapter Ten

“I know you really like your house but it’s simply too small. I’m going to contact an agent today and set up some appointments. I did a cursory look last night and there are some really great places on the market I’d like to see. I’d prefer to build my own place but it takes too much time and I want us to get settled as soon as possible,” Derek said, as they were sharing a picnic in the park.

Jacob was playing soccer with some other kids, leaving them alone together for the first time that day. Her whole body tensed at his words. She liked her home. She knew it was small but she’d been paying for it all on her own and she didn’t want to give it up.

“I don’t want to sell my place,” she said, while crossing her arms and glaring at him.

“You don’t have to sell it. You can rent it out if you want or just let it sit empty. I can hire a cleaning crew to come in once a week to make sure it doesn’t get moldy or damaged,” he offered.

“Do I get a choice?” she snapped at him. She knew the place was too small and she knew they would be more comfortable with extra space but her world was being uprooted and she felt like she had no control over anything.

“I’m not your enemy Jasmine; I’m trying to do the right thing for my son. How does me wanting to watch him grow make me the enemy?” he asked her with exasperation.

When he worded it like that she felt like the bad guy. It wasn’t fair he was twisting things around. She was going to have to get over her feelings of betrayal over him walking away from her, or the next nine years of her life were going to seem like forever.

“You’re right, I’m being difficult but you have to realize Jacob and I have been fine for the past nine years and it’s hard to change,” she conceded.

“Can we call a truce for now, for the sake of our son?” he asked.

“That sounds good to me,” she answered, wanting some peace.

Derek made a few calls while Jacob was playing and within the hour he had appointments at six different locations. She was amazed at the speed the man was able to get things done.

Jacob came running up to them and dove into the food. All his playing made him very hungry.

“Hey buddy, want to go look at some houses?” Derek asked him.

“Why?” Jacob asked, with no interest.

“We’re going to find a bigger place to live so you have more room to play,” Derek told him. Jacob was very interested after that. He couldn’t wait to leave the park and look at houses. The first few they went to left Jasmine in awe. She’d grown up in the biggest house of her town and she thought it was fancy but it didn’t compare to the places they were looking at now.

Each house had electronic gates, requiring a key pad to even enter the driveway. The homes were enormous and she was afraid she’d lose Jacob if they moved into one of them. She was making sure he didn’t leave her sight as they toured each one. She didn’t know what Derek was looking for but the places weren’t holding his interest. She was actually grateful for that. She was hoping the other places were scaled down a bit.

Each time they left one of the places the real estate agent seemed disappointed but Jasmine was impressed with how well she covered that. Jasmine was sure the woman was going to make a killing off of the commission if Derek purchased one of the homes, as their price tag was in the millions.

The forth house they went to had a similar gated drive and was just as big as the others but seemed a bit different to her. It didn’t seem as cold, like the people who lived there, were perhaps more real. It was a colonial style that had a huge three story entranceway that was done in white rock. The door was big enough to drive a truck through, she thought, as they entered.

“This home is only three years old and was built to entertain. The man and his wife had it custom built but he has to go back overseas for a few years and they decided to go ahead and sell because he’s not sure where they will be when they come back. I know his wife is saddened to leave this spectacular home,” the agent began.

“There’s so much to offer, as you can see from just walking in the front doors. Some key features of the home is the property contains twenty useable acres, a full sized tennis court, a full size outdoor and indoor basketball court, along with both outdoor and indoor pools. Apparently the sellers had teenage kids who also built a paintball course on the south end of the property but if you’d like that to be taken out it would be an easy task,” she said as she eyed Jacob, thinking he might like that feature.