"See, I told you that my mom would love you!" Elijah smiled as he opened the passanger door to his car for Marah. She sat in the seat and smiled up at him.
"I liked your mom, too. Your sister was very sweet as well." then she frowned, "But I wonder if they will feel the same way about me once they find out about the baby."
"Try not to worry about that right now, we will worry about that when we have to." he closed the door and walked to the drivers side, got in and started the engine. "I called a real estate agent earlier today. Maybe we will have a list of houses to look at. Give us something to do tomorrow."
"Ohh, that sounds like fun. I can't wait. Though, we also need to plan a trip back East, so I can introduce you to my family."
Elijah laughed nervously. "And you think you were nervous about meeting my mom? Dad's are nortorius for hurting anyone that messes with their daughters."
Marah laughed and said, "Don't worry, Daddy is a gentle giant. My parents will love you!" she sighed and then said, "You know..I was a little..ok, a lot, surprised that you told your mom I was the woman you were going to marry."
"So, you don't want to marry me?" Elijah asked, looking a little like a sad little puppy.
"I didn't say that.. I just said that I was surprised that you told her... especially before even asking me!"
Elijah perked up and smiled at her and said, "I'm sorry. I'll try to make it up to you."
"You better!" she said and squeezed his hand.
"What did you think about Orli?" Elijah asked.
"He was great. Such a funny guy. Watching the two of you together was a blast. I loved listening to you guys talking about your time making the Lord of the Ring." she smiled and winked as she added, "He's hot, too."
Elijah laughed. "He's hot, huh? Want to trade me for him?"
"Welllll. . ." Marah said, laughing at Elijah's expression. "No. Never."
~*~
They pulled up to the house and noticed a strange car in the driveway.
"I wonder who that could be?" Marah said.
"Not expecting anyone?" he asked.
"No.."
Marah got out of the car and walked over to Elijah. She took his hand and led him to the door, which opened before she could get her key out.
"Marah! There you are! Your father and I have been wondering where you were!" Marah's mother, Elaine, hugged her. "And who's your handsome friend?"
"Mom, this is Elijah Wood. Elijah, this is my mama, Elaine."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Taylor." Elijah smiled.
"Please, call me Elaine." Elaine moved out of the doorway so they could come in. "Jared, Marah's here!"
Marah and Elijah followed Elaine into the living room, where Jared was sitting in the recliner. He stood up to hug his daughter and noticed the man holding his daughters hand, gave him the once over. Marah chuckled and hugged him.
"Daddy!" she scolded.
"What?" he asked innocently, then turned to Elijah. "I'm Jared Taylor, Marah's father." he extended his hand for Elijah to shake.
"I'm Elijah Wood."
Jared looked at him for a moment and then asked, "Do I know you from somewhere?"
Elijah grinned and said, "I'm an actor. You might have seen me in Lord of the Rings?"
"Ah, so that's where I've seen you." he smiled and gestured for Elijah to have a seat. Marah sat beside him. "So, Marah, where were you? Your mother and I were worried."
"I was meeting Elijah's mom." Marah smiled. "And there's no need for you to worry, I'm an adult now, if you remember."
"Doesn't matter how old you are, we'll always worry about you. Meeting Elijah's mom, huh?" her father replied.
"Yes. You and Mom would like her." Marah told them.
"Would we? Are we meeting her sometime soon, or something?" Elaine asked.
Marah smiled her little 'I have a secret' smile at her parents and didn't say another word.
"I reckon you'll tell us soon enough." her father laughed, knowing he would be wasting time getting an answer from his daughter, plus he figured he already knew the answer to that question. An uncomfortable silence filled the room and Marah and Elijah exchanged glances.
"Well," Elaine yawned, "I'm exhausted, such a long flight out here! I'm going to go on to bed. Nice to meet you, Elijah! I'll see you in the morning, Marah." she stood up and started towards the bedroom. When Jared didn't stand to follow her, she turned around and said "Jared? Are you coming?"
"Oh, sure. Yes." he coughed and said, "Good night, Marah. Nice to meet you, Elijah."
Elijah stood and shook Jared's hand, "It was nice meeting you as well, sir."
After Marah's parents had left the room Marah cuddled against Elijah. "Well, I say that went ok."
"Yeah, not too bad." he smiled tenderly. "I should probably go back to my place though." he whispered. "I wouldn't feel comfortable staying here with your parents here as well."
Marah grinned and whispered, "Still scared?"
"Hell yeah!" he laughed and kissed her, only intending for it to be a peck. But when his lips touched hers, it was as if the world stopped spinning. It wasn't enough. She wrapped her arms around his neck and moaned softly as his tongue melded with hers. He pulled back a little and let his forehead touch hers. "I should go." Marah sighed and nodded. "I'll come by in the morning, we'll go look at those houses if the fax has come in by then." He kissed her gently again and walked out the door.
The next morning when Elijah woke up he reached for Marah, then remembered that she wasn't there. She was at her place, with her parents. He rolled from his side onto his back and stared at his ceiling, thinking of her. Thinking of how weird it was, their whole relationship. It had moved so fast. He wondered if perhaps it was moving too fast. But then he thought about how well they clicked, how well they fit together. When he was with her, he felt complete. He sighed and got out of bed, walked to his closet and pulled out a pair of blue jeans and a button up shirt. Grabbed clean underwear and socks from his dresser and went to take a shower.
After showering and dressing Elijah walked from the guest house to the main house to say hi to his mom. He opened the back door which opened into the kitchen, where Deborah was already making breakfast.
"Elijah!" she smiled at him, surprised to see him. "I wasn't expecting you this morning."
Elijah hugged her and kissed her cheek. "Good morning. I wasn't expecting to be here, but thought I'd stop by on my way out."
"Do you want some pancakes?" she asked. Then, "Where are you headed to this morning?"
"I'd love some." he grinned. "Well, I'm going shopping and then I'm going to see Marah."
Deborah smiled knowingly. "Shopping, hmm? If you're going shopping for what I think you're going shopping for, there's something I want to show you first." She led him into her bedroom and picked up her jewelry box. She opened and trifled through it and when she found what she was looking for she smiled and closed her fist around it. "But before I give it to you, I want to ask you - are you sure.. absolutely sure, that she is the one."
Elijah looked at his mom and told her, "Mom, I've never met anyone like her in my life. She's beautiful, inside and out. When she smiles, it's like the whole room lights up. I know I haven't known her for very long, but it feels like I have. She's the one."
Satisfied, Deborah asked him to hold out his hand. She put the ring into his hand and told him, "This was your grandmothers. She gave it to me before she died, and told me to give it to you when you finally met the woman you were going to marry. So, here you go."
Elijah looked at the ring in his hand, it was beautiful. Simple, yet elegant. It was amazing, as he was planning on getting something so very similar to the ring he held. It had a diamond in the middle, and on each side of the diamond were 4 smaller diamonds. It was perfect.
"Mom..it's perfect. I swear, it's almost identical to what I had in mind." he hugged her and wiped away the tear on her cheek. "Don't cry mom."
"It's just hard to see my baby growing up." she said softly and patted his cheek. She sighed and asked him, "Do you still want those pancakes?"
He grinned and told her, "Of course!"
After eating breakfast with his mother, Elijah got into his car, started it up, and put it into drive. Forty-five minutes later he arrived at Marah's door where she greeted him with a smile and a kiss.
"How has your morning been?" he asked her after he stepped inside.
"It's been good! Mom and Dad went shopping and the list of houses came in."
"Oh really?" he asked. "Well, do you want to go look at some?"
"Now? Don't you have to call someone first?"
"Not to just drive by them we don't. We'll drive by and mark which ones we'd like to look at more closely." he smiled and pulled at her hand.
"Ok, sounds like fun. Let's go!" Marah said excitedly.
~*~
"Ok, where's the next house?" Elijah asked, as he started up the car after walking around the third house.
Marah picked up the paper and read down the list and than read him the next address on the list.
"I know where that one is." he told her. "It's only 10 minutes from here."
"So, what name were you talking about before we got to the last house?" she asked.
"If it's a boy, how about Holden?"
Marah giggled. "Holden Wood?" she asked him. He looked at her, his expression serious. She giggled again and tried to look serious. "Well, I like the name. Really, I do. But, Lij, Holding Wood??"
He laughed. "Well I guess Holden is out."
"Very out." she told him. "Hmm, how 'bout David?"
"David Wood." he tried it out. "David Wood. I like that! What about a middle name?"
"I thought of David, you think of the middle name."
He thought to himself for a few moments before he said, "Alexander? David Alexander? What do you think?"
"I love it!" she smiled. "It's perfect! Now all we need is a girls name."
"Which will have to wait." he said as he parked the car in the drive way of a two story Victorian home. It was painted white with dark blue shutters, had a white picket fence, a huge screened in front porch. Marah was already in love with it, she prayed the inside was as nice. "What do you think?"
"I think that this is the one you should call about." she grinned and hugged him. "It's perfect! It's the one, I'm sure of it!"
He pulled out his cell phone and started to dial the realtor's number.
"You're calling her now?"
"Sure, she'll come right over." he smiled and squeezed her hand. "Yes, I'd like to speak to Mrs. Roberts please." he paused for a moment and then said "Yes, Mrs Roberts? This is Elijah Wood." he paused again. "Yes, I got the list you faxed. In fact, I'm standing in front of one of the houses right now." he laughed and told her the address. "Yes, we'd love it if we could get a showing." again he paused. "Ok, thanks, we'll see you in a few." he hung up his cell phone and put it back in his pocket. "She'll be right over. She said that the owners are away, so we can take a look around the yard and back while we wait."
He took her hand and led her to the back yard, where there was another huge screened in porch. Marah sighed and looked around her. The yard was full of large Oak and Maple trees. Rose bushes along the house.
"This is beautiful, Elijah. Just beautiful!" she said after taking it all in for awhile.
"Just wait until you see the inside." Mrs. Roberts said from behind her.
"Oh, Elijah, I just love that house!" Marah exclaimed as they drove away. He turned and smiled at her.
"I know you did. You only told me a hundred times while we were walking through it." he chuckled. "I love it, too. I gave Mrs. Roberts our offer. Let's see if it's accepted."
Marah rolled her eyes at him and laughed, "You offered the price they were asking, of course it's going to be accepted."
He grinned and shrugged his shoulder. "You never know. Maybe they changed their minds. You said yourself how perfect of a house it is." Marah looked over at him in horror and he laughed. "I doubt they did, sweetie. I'm sure they had their reasons for listing the house and I doubt they'd change their minds overnight. Especially with us offering the asking price."
"I guess we'll just have to wait and find out tomorrow." Marah replied.
"Mmm.. might hear tonight, never know!"
"Oh, shhh! Now I'm going to be on pins and needles all night!" Marah laughed as they stopped at a stop light.
"So, are we going to your place where I drop you off since your parents are still there....or are we going back to my place?" he asked.
Marah smiled shyly. "Well, which would you prefer?"
He laughed and asked, "Well which one do you think I prefer?"
"Hmm.. your place?" she guessed with a small smile.
"Sounds good to me." he grinned and as the line of cars moved he turned his turning signal on to indicate he was turning right.
Along the way back to his place they talked of the furniture they wanted to get for the home and how they would decorate it. They talked a little about baby girl names as well.
“What do you think about Caitlin?” Marah asked.
“Are you spelling that with a K or with a C?” he asked.
"With a C.”
“Hmm. Well, it’s ok. How about we put it in the ’maybe’ list?” he replied, then added, “What do you think about Audrey?”
“Audrey? Audrey Wood.” Marah said, testing the name out. “Audrey Caitlin Wood.”
“Oh, I like that!” Elijah smiled. “Audrey Caitlin Wood. It sounds good!”
Marah grinned. “So, David Alexander or Audrey Caitlin. Hopefully neither of us changes our minds.” she chuckled.
They pulled into the driveway of his moms house and she looked at him, confused.
"I thought we were going to your place?" she asked.
"We are. I live in the guest house behind Mom's. For now anyway." he smiled.
Marah returned the smile and got out of the car and followed him to the Guest House behind his mom’s home. He unlocked the door and let her in. She turned to say something to him, but was unable to speak. He was staring at her intently, his eyes devoured the whole of her body.
“You’re beautiful.” he whispered just as he pulled her close to him and kissed her fervently.
“He takes my breath away” she thought as her lips met his passionately. They walked until her back was pressed against the wall and his body pressed against hers.
He broke the kiss and stared into her eyes, then whispered, “It’s amazing how complete you have made my life recently. When we were first apart, I didn’t understand why I couldn’t get you out of my mind. I couldn’t understand why you were always there, no matter what I did to get you out of it. But now I do. You’re this amazing woman - and I find that every day that I spend with you I learn that I care for you more and more, which is hard to believe as my heart is already overflowing with love for you.”
Tears glistened in Marah’s eyes as she kissed him and whispered, “Ditto.”
He kissed her again and whispered, "I have something for you."
"something for me?" she asked, looking at him with a puzzled expression.
"Yes. It belonged to my grandmother. My mom gave it to me this morning."
Slowly, Elijah watched her expression go from puzzled to a look of knowing. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring.
"Will you marry me, Marah?" he held his breath, even though he was sure she would say yes, he was nervous as hell.
With the tears that threatned to over flow earlier over flowing, Marah nodded her head as he held her hand in his and put the ring on her finger.
"I hope it fits."
"It's a little big, but it shouldn't fall off." she said softly and pulled him into her arms and kissed him.
Before - After
