| Chapter Eighteen "Well, you all know that I grew up with Joey and Robbie, we were very close actually. At first we were always fighting, but as we got older we got along great. They were so great to me, always listening to my problems, and I tried to do the same in return." I patted Joey's hand and he smiled. "When I was about 17 Robbie and I started to notice that our feelings for each other were changing. The closness that we shared was turning into affection. When I finished high school and started working for my dad, Robbie proposed. We were married in 97 and shortly after we found out that I was expecting. We were thrilled, Robbie more than me actually. He made me stop working and stay home to take care of myself. He was so wonderful, always calling during the day to check on me, bringing me and the baby little gifts. I never wanted for anything with him, he always knew what I wanted or needed before I had to ask." My eyes started to water and I bowed my head for a few seconds trying to compose myself. "Tiff, you don't have to finish if it's too hard." Justin whispered kneeling in front of me. I looked up to see his eyes filled with tears, and when I looked around the room everyone was in the same state. Joey coughed softly beside me and squeezed my hand. I looked over to him to see tears flowing freely. "No, I want to finish, if it's ok with you guys?" Everyone nodded and I went on. "One night I woke up with a terrible craving for chocolate, I couldn't sleep, couldn't get comfortable. Robbie was up and dressed before I could even ask. He asked what I needed from town, kissed me quickly and left. That was the last time I saw him. The police came to the door about an hour later to tell me that he had been hit head on by a drunk driver. He died on impact. I broke down instantly, and that morning I lost the baby from the stress." I put my head in my hands and cried openly. It had been so long since I had talked to anyone about these things. It felt good to say it all out loud though. Joey wrapped his arms around me and I curled up in his lap. The others left the room quietly and went out into the front yard. "Tiff, are you ok?" Joey asked wiping the last of my tears away. "Yeah, I am. That was harder than I thought it would be, but it felt good, you know?" "Yeah, I know, it's been so long since I thought about all that." Joey sighed standing and taking my hand to help me up. I wrapped my arms around his waist and looked up into his eyes. "I love you Joey." I whispered kissing him softly. "I love you too baby." We walked out to join the others then and they all hugged me and tried to hide the fact that they had been crying.We talked well into the night and when we fell into bed I slept better than I had in a long long time. The next morning I was up early making breakfast for everyone. They all slowly made their way down stairs as the smell of food drifted up to them. Chris was the first one down and he pitched in right away to finish making breakfast with me. We spent most of the day just relaxing, by late afternoon I was restless and went out to do more work on my corrals. It was about 6 when I saw Joey making his way towards me. I quickly turned off the tractor and went to meet him. He looked upset and wouldn't meet my gaze. "What's wrong?" I asked nervously. "We just got a call, a few more dates have been added to the tour and we have to take off, tonight." He finished finally looking me in the eye. "Tonight? Like right now?" I asked already feeling the tears creeping into my eyes. "Yeah, in about an hour." He looked at the ground and took my hand in his. "I'm sorry baby, but the tour will be over soon, and you can come out on the road with us whenever you want." I quickly brushed the tears away and smiled at him. "It will be fine, I'll come see you whenever you want. This will be ok, it's not like we didn't realize all of this before. We both travel and it's going to be tough for a while, but it will work out. It has to." I kissed him deeply and we walked back to the house slowly. |