Careless Mistake
by Kelli
Part 35
Early December 2004...
Britney sat in the family room of their house in LA. She had just put Mackenzie down for the night and was waiting for Justin to come home.
Every noise she heard outside she'd look at her watch and wait for the front door to open, but no luck.
"Let me try this again," she said as she dialed his cell phone number.
Still out of service. She threw it down on the couch next to her and curled her legs up in a ball.
Next thing she knew there was something tickling her nose. She could feel someone leaning over her so she slowly opened her eyes to see a red rose dangling in front of her.
"Happy birthday, baby," Justin said.
She looked past the rose and stared at him and then started to cry.
"Oh God, baby....I'm sorry I'm so late," he said wrapping his arms around her.
She stayed in her ball so it was hard for him to get his arms completely around her the way he wanted to.
He scooted over to sit on the couch next to her, sitting on the phone as he did. "Ow," he said before moving it to the coffee table. "Come here, Brit," he said, holding his arms out.
She shook her head and continued to cry.
He reached over and pulled her shoulders up. She didn't fight him but she didn't help him either. Finally he had her leaning against his chest so he could put his arm around her back and rested his chin on the top of her head.
"I'm sorry," he repeated. "I missed my first flight so then I had to go stand-by and didn't catch a flight until like seven and then there were two stops...."
"You could have called," she whispered through her tears.
"I tried calling when I missed my flight but I only got your out of service message on your cell phone and then I didn't have time to call here. Then after that there wasn't any time in between flights to call..." He took a deep breath. "I know, I'm sorry. I was just in such a hurry to get here I wasn't thinking about what you were going through all by yourself, waiting for me."
She didn't say anything, only let him hold her.
"How's Mackenzie?"
"Fine," she sniffed. "She missed you. She kept saying da da all day long because she knew you were coming home."
He was sorry he missed her before she went to bed.
"It was only a week," he said wiping his hand over his face, trying to convince himself it wasn't a big deal.
Britney looked up at him in disbelief.
"That's a long time to her....to us."
He sighed. "I know....I don't know why I said that. I'm home for awhile now, though."
"Great, so you'll be spending twelve hours a day in the studio," she mumbled.
He closed his eyes and acted like he didn't hear that.
"I'm going to go up and give Mackenzie a kiss," he said, abruptly standing up, dropping Britney onto the couch.
Her head hit the hard arm on the chair on the way back down and she grimaced in pain as she rubbed the sore spot.
"Shit," she said.
She sat up and wiped the tears from her face. She caught a glimpse of the rose laying next to her on the couch and picked it up. When she brought it to her nose to smell it, it made her smile.
In a few minutes, Justin came back downstairs and noticed that Britney was sitting up so he sat down next to her.
"God she's so gorgeous. Sometimes I want us to have more children just to see what they would look like," he chuckled and looked at her.
That caught her off-guard. "You think like that?"
He shrugged and nodded. "Yeah, why?"
She smiled. "Well, because I think like that sometimes, too."
He chuckled. "Oh here," he said pulling a box out of his back pants pocket.
She looked up at him before taking the box from him.
"Happy birthday," he said.
The box said Tiffany's on it and she slowly opened it to reveal a beautiful gold necklace with a diamond studded charm in the shape of Mackenzie's initials.
"It's so beautiful," she said, looking back up at him. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," he said.
She leaned into him and kissed him.
"We'll have our romantic dinner tomorrow night, okay?" he asked as he rested his forehead against hers.
Her eyes were downcast as she looked at the charm.
"Okay. Here, put this on me," she said as she gently took it out of the box.
She held her hair up as he wrapped it around her neck and fastened the clasp. He let it fall and they both looked at it.
"I just love it," she said wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Good...I was hoping you would," he chuckled.
Suddenly she pulled away. "What?" he asked.
"Have you decided on what you're wearing to the Billboard's yet?"
"That was random. I don't think so."
"Okay...I am going tomorrow to get fitted for my dress."
"Okay," he nodded. "And? Oh God, you don't want us to match again, do you?"
She giggled into her hand. "No but I wanted to kind of have the same colors.....at least I don't want them to clash. Talk to your stylist tomorrow so they can let Kurt and Bart know, okay?"
He quickly shook his head. "Okay."
She yawned and leaned against his side.
"You tired?" he asked rubbing her back.
"A little. I had lunch with the girls today....then we went and got our nails done," she said, holding out her hand for him to see.
"Nice," he said, nodding his head.
"Oh and I got some brochures in the mail today."
"What kind of brochures?"
"Different places to get married," she said looking up at him. "Do you want to see?"
It was her birthday, he'd humor her.
"Sure."
She jumped up and ran out of the room. When she came back she was carrying a large envelope. Her elbow jabbed his leg as she plopped back down next to him and opened the envelope. He was biting his lip from the sharp pain she had caused.
"What's wrong?" she asked, noticing his eyes were closed and that he was biting his lip.
"You have a pointy elbow," he said rubbing the sore spot on his leg.
"Awww," she said, rubbing the spot, which was dangerously close to his crotch. "I'll kiss it and make it feel better tonight."
He blinked at that as she pulled a few brochures out.
"Here's one in Jamaica," she said, opening it up.
"Jamaica? Brit, I thought we were going to be somewhat practical about this. I do want some of my family there....so do you."
"Well, I'm just showing you this because I love this gazebo out on the edge of the cliff like this...overlooking the ocean. Isn't that pretty?"
She handed it to him and pulled out another one. "Gorgeous," he said.
"This is one under a tent...."
He took that one from her.
"This is one at a church that actually isn't too far from here. It's pretty, don't you think?"
He took that one and looked at it. "Yeah, that is nice. How close?"
"It's about eight miles away from here. I don't remember ever seeing it though."
"Do you have to belong to get married there? I mean if it's a Catholic church it's out of the question...."
"No, I think it's Methodist, I'm not sure," she said with a wave of her hand.
"This one is in a field somewhere. I like the openness to it," she said with and exaggerated wave.
He looked over her shoulder. "Yeah openness for media helicopters to be overhead."
Her face fell. "Shit, I never thought about that. Maybe I should have our security look through these and let them decide what would be the most secure," she said, looking back up at him.
He smiled at her. "Brit, I think they can pretty much handle anything we throw at them as long as it's not an open field," he said taking that brochure from her and setting it down next to him.
After they were finished looking through all the brochures he looked at the pile of them on the floor and ran a hand through his hair.
"Let's just elope in Vegas," she said, thinking the same thing he was.
"I don't think our mom's would forgive us if we eloped."
"Neither would Laura Lynn...."
"Or Trace...."
They both sighed.
"We really need to pick a date so we can get moving on the planning," she chimed in after a few moments of silence.
"Okay....well, my album will probably drop in the spring and then I'll tour in the summer. What does your schedule look like?"
She rubbed her forehead. "Hopefully I'll get that part in the movie and I will be filming late winter/early spring then after that I don't know what...."
"Probably another album?" he asked, trying to cover all bases.
"Well, there's nothing in the works right now so if we get the wedding date set we'll just have to work our schedules around that, right?"
He nodded. "How about late summer...."
"September?" they both questioned at the same time.
Britney screwed up her nose as she stared at Justin. "That's too long away. I don't want to wait that long."
He shook his head. "Me either."
"What about sooner?" she asked.
"Like how sooner?"
"Like January. Before I start filming and before your album drops...." she said biting her lower lip.
"Baby that's about a month away..."
"I know but can you think of a better time?"
She turned so that her knee was resting on his leg and she was facing him.
"Think of it this way, it will help us select what kind of wedding we have because there's limited time. It will have to be simple with a few close friends and family...."
"What do you think of as close family? Because if any of my aunts aren't invited, they'd have my hide...."
She screwed up her nose. "True. So we limit it to lots of family and a few close friends."
"Okay next question.....how many bridesmaids do you plan on having?"
She thought about it for a moment. "I have to have Laura Lynn as my maid of honor...."
"And Trace will be my best man," he nods.
"Maybe that's all we should have. Oh I do want Jamie Lynn to be in the wedding somehow...."
"Flower girl?"
She shook her head. "She's too old for that. What about a junior bridesmaid and Jonathon can be like a junior usher and Stephen can be the ring bearer?"
She was getting excited about this.
He chuckled. "Okay, sounds good. What about Bryan?"
"He can be an usher....you know the ones who walk the people to their seats...."
He loved that she looked so happy right now.
"Okay, those sound like good plans. Now we need to decide what kind of wedding," he said looking down at the brochures.
She sighed and her shoulders slumped.
"Just when I thought we were making progress," she said.
"I have an idea...."
"What's that?"
"Close your eyes," he said.
She gave him a strange look but he nodded at her so she closed her eyes. He took her shoulders and turned her around so that her back was resting against his side and he wrapped an arm around her and began to stroke her arm.
"Now, keep your eyes closed and tell me about how you've always dreamt of what your wedding would be like....all the way back from when you were a little girl," he whispered.
She smiled and pictured it in her head and began to speak.....
