Chapter 18

It was the night of the rehearsal dinner and they were all at a very nice Italian restaurant in downtown Dallas. Everyone was talking and joking and waiting on the soon to be newlyweds, who had not yet shown up.

"I hope that Ronnie and Brad are not late because they can not keep their hands off each other" Brenden Morrow joked and his wife Anne-Marie rolled her eyes and jokingly hit his arm. Brenden gave her a look and then gave up trying to a comedian.
"I am sure they are on their way. After all poor Ronnie has to deal with the fact that Brad knocked her up so she is two people now" Loui Eriksson joked and everyone laughed and then Brenden said, "How come everyone laughs at Loui's comment but not mine?".
"Morrow, I am just way cooler than you are" Loui joked and Brenden shook his head.

Sure enough a few minutes later Brad and Ronnie showed up. They walked into the party room and everyone let out a sigh of relief.

"Sorry guys that we are a little late but the baby was having its own party after all the wedding practice and I was trying to settle him or her down" Ronnie apologized as Brad just put his arm around Ronnie's shoulders and gave her a quick hug.

They sat down and then the party really got started. Everyone was eating and talking about the wedding.

Ronnie was enjoying the dinner and talking with friends and family was lots of fun. Everything was relaxing and happy and that is what Ronnie needed now. She was excited that tomorrow she would be Mrs Brad Richards. It made her think of all the things she had been through in her life and now everything was getting to a place that was perfect and happy. This was definitely want she wanted and made her super excited about the future which made her look down at her abdomen and felt the baby kick.

"Wow" Ronnie exclaimed and Brad was at her side instantly looking at her with concern.
"Are you ok?" he asked.
"The baby just kicked me and I just took it as a sign that tomorrow is going to be amazing" Ronnie said smiling which made Brad happy. He kissed her quickly and then went back to who he had been talking to.

Ronnie smiled and then her soon to be in laws came over to talk to her.


After the dinner Brad and Ronnie were standing in the parking lot with friends.

"Ok well you two love birds have to separate tonight" Loui said trying to pull Brad away from Ronnie. But Brad was still holding Ronnie close and then jokingly whined,
"I do not want to go. I want to stay with my girl".
"Yeah I do not want him to go" Ronnie joked back snuggling closer to Brad as possible with her baby bump.
"Ronnie, we gotta party on your last night as a single girl so unglue yourself from that hot guy you are stuck too" Mia joked even though her husband, Kris Letang, was holding her close.
"Hey now that sounds like fun. Peace Brad" Ronnie laughed and tried to get away from Brad who was not letting her go.
"Let me go Brad, I wanna party as a single girl!"
"I do not want you to be partying as a single girl because of all the guys who will try and get with you" Brad said seriously which made Ronnie laugh.
"Fine but we really do have to do this tradition since we kinda screwed many of the other ones around" Ronnie said putting a hand on her baby bump which then made Brad smirk and let Ronnie free.
"Yippy I am free ok Mia, let's go and rock and roll" Ronnie said skipping over to Mia who was finally detached from her husband too.

The love birds gave each other one last kiss and then went with their friends to enjoy their last night as singles.