"Robert, get your nasty face off my window!" I yelled. "You better get the Windex and clean that grease smear before you leave!"
He laughed. "I can see marriage hasn't done anything to improve your disposition. Don't you know it's past eight? Time to get out of bed!"
I glanced at the clock on my nightstand and my eyebrows rose in surprise. It was nearly eight-thirty. I rarely slept this late.
I guess I'd been more tired than I realized.
I also realized that my nausea was especially mild this morning. My stomach was a little queasy from the jerky movements of sitting up, but I didn't think I was actually going to be sick.
Awesome. Maybe I was getting over the all-day sickness that had plagued me.
"Awww," Robert said. "Your new hubby must have made his side of the bed when he got up this morning. Wonder how long it'll last before he reverts to his slob-like ways?"
I glanced over at the other side of my bed. I'd pulled the comforter and sheet loose from beneath the pillow in the night, so it was rumpled as though someone had slept on that side and pulled the blankets up when they rose.
"As I recall, you and Scott were the slobs, not Jay. Now, get your nosy face away from my window so I can get up and get dressed."
Robert didn't argue. He just rolled his eyes and disappeared from sight.
The first thing I did when I got out of bed was close my curtains. After a quick peek in my backyard. To my surprise, I saw all four of my brothers back there with J.J. and they were standing in front of my storage shed. The double doors in front were open and I could see a few new boxes stacked on one side. Someone, probably J.J. or Clayton, had moved my Christmas and other assorted holiday decorations to the front on the opposite side so that they would still be easily accessible. It had to be one of them because D.J., Robert, and Scott wouldn't have given the boxes a second thought as they stacked everything right in front of them.
Then they would have complained when I made them move everything so I could get to my stuff.
Clayton shared my neatnik tendencies and J.J. seemed to know me just as well.
I paused after I dropped the curtain back into place. It was a strange sort of paradox. J.J. knew me well enough to understand that I liked for things to be tidy, that I made lists so often I needed notebooks to keep them all organized, and that I was more than a bit of a control freak.
Those were all facets of my personality that had been present since childhood. But he didn't know the adult Lee. And I didn't know the adult J.J., not well at least.
We knew each other, but in some ways, it was as if we'd just met.
A little unsettled at the thought, I grabbed a loose t-shirt and cotton shorts with an elastic waist and dressed. I washed my face, brushed my teeth and hair, and decided that was all that could be expected of me on a Saturday morning the day after I'd gotten married.
Also, the fact that my brothers were alone with my new husband was concerning. After yesterday, I didn't completely trust them to behave themselves.
Still yawning, I made my way down the hall into the kitchen. Since I'd found out I was pregnant, I'd switched to a cup of hot tea in the mornings instead of coffee. It was caffeinated but it was a compromise. The brand I preferred had less caffeine than coffee so I figured a single cup every morning couldn't hurt too badly. Based on my online research on pregnancy, I knew most obstetricians allowed their patients a single cup of coffee per day, barring any complications.
While the tea steeped, I shoved J.J.'s sneakers against the wall by the back door and slid my feet into my gardening clogs. A few minutes later, tea bag discarded, I carried the cup out onto my back-slash-side porch. I guess technically it would have been called a sunroom because the once screened-in windows were now glass and it remained warm enough in the fall and winter to grow herbs and potted vegetables like tomatoes. I'd even tried growing microgreens and small lettuces last year with moderate success.
Growing up with a father who created landscapes and cared for flowerbeds and lawns, I'd learned the basics of gardening. Homegrown food was healthier and a lot cheaper, so I planted a spring and fall garden outside each year, too.
But the sight in my backyard distracted me from all the plants thriving in my sunroom.
D.J. was weeding the raised garden beds. Robert was building another raised bed to go with the two I already had. Clayton and Scott were helping J.J. unload the back of D.J.'s pick-up truck.
Brody emerged from my storage shed, his hands on his hips as he talked to J.J., who was carrying another box up to the structure.
Curious, I left the back porch-slash-sunroom and walked around to the backyard.
"Hey," D.J. grunted as I approached him. "Your beds were getting a little overwhelmed, so I'm cleaning them out."
"Thanks," I replied, sipping my tea.
He glanced over. "That's not coffee, is it?" he asked. "Because you shouldn't have caffeine while you're pregnant."
I stared at him as I sipped again, then answered, "It's tea and it has a low caffeine content."
D.J. leaned back on his heels, looking up at me from where he knelt next to the garden beds. "Letitia didn't have caffeine at all while—"
I lifted a hand and took another sip of tea. "Everything I've read says a small amount of caffeine is acceptable unless directed otherwise by your doctor."
"And when are you going to see a doctor?" he asked. "You're what, twelve weeks along?"
"Almost," I answered. "As soon as J.J. gets me on his insurance, I'll go."
"And when is that going to be?" D.J. asked.
"He'll fill out the online forms and such on Monday. Brody is going to try to push it through as quickly as possible."
D.J. nodded and went back to weeding.
Well, I guess he was done interrogating me for the day.
I wandered over to Robert, whose back was to me as he screwed the frame of the garden bed to the corner posts that would keep it steady.
I waited until he was done driving the screw before I asked, loudly, "When are you going to clean my window?"
I hid my laugh behind my teacup when he jumped and twisted around to stare at me.
"Jesus, Lee, you scared the shit outta me!"
I narrowed my eyes at his language and he sighed.
"I'll clean the damn, uh, darn window as soon as I'm done here," he said. "You could at least thank me for building you another bed."
"Thank you for building me a garden bed. Don't forget to clean the window."
He laughed and shook his head before I wandered away to the truck that was nearly unloaded. I took a quick peek into my storage shed and saw that they'd neatly stacked the boxes in the far left corner and there was still room to spare inside.
Brody saw me first and came over to give me a hug. "Hey, there, Lee. How's your first day as a married woman?" he asked.
"I'll tell you when it's over."
He grinned at me as J.J. made his way to us and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. "Mornin'," he said.
He smelled crisp and clean and he wore a beat-up pair of jeans, a faded red tee, and battered tennis shoes. I wanted him to hug me the way Brody had.
"Is that coffee?" he asked.
I bit back a sigh. "No, dearest. It's tea and it's low caffeine. Your new eldest brother-in-law has already notified me that I shouldn't be having any, but I figure the cops won't agree when I give that as an excuse for beating someone over the head with a wooden spoon."