My Number One Fan

~POV: Riley~
“So, when are you going shopping for the nursery?” Dad asked over the phone.
“We’re going to go get the paint tonight and work on that so I can do more with the actual furniture and things like that.”
“How are you going to paint when you can’t be around the fumes?” He asked.
“I’m going to wear a mask that covers my nose and mouth,” I answered as the doorbell rang. I walked to the door as Jeff emerged from the computer room. He walked up behind me as I opened the door.
“Riley Hardy?” the person at the door asked. I nodded and handed Jeff the phone.
“Hey Mark, we’ll call you back in a minute,” He said to my Dad. He hung up the phone and turned back to us.
“Can we help you?” Jeff asked the man.
“I have a package for Mrs. Hardy,” he said, holding up a box.
“Where’s it from?” I asked. The delivery man looked at his clipboard.
“Baltimore, Maryland.” he answered. “From an Alexandria and Walter Mitchell.”
“Okay,” I said, signing my name. We took the package and thanked the man. In the living room, Jeff used a pocket knife to cut the tape. There was an envelope with our names on it in my grandmother’s handwriting.

“Riley and Jeffrey,
This is the very blanket Riley used when she was a baby. It was her mother’s, and when Samantha became pregnant with Riley, we knew it was the right thing to do to hand it down. We also knew that Sam would want it handed down to her daughter, so we sent it to you. There are also clothes that belonged to Riley as well. We felt you would like to have them. We love you and are anticipating the arrival of our newest family member. We will be back down to visit soon.
Love
The Mitchell family.

I looked in the box and pulled out the soft pink blanket. It was obvious it was handmade, and it had been used for quite some time, but it was still perfect. I looked up at Jeff, who was holding one end of the blanket to look at the designs.
“That was nice of them,” he said when he finally noticed me looking at him. “This is beautiful, I understand why they handed it down.”
“Yeah, this is incredible.” I agreed. “To think, this is the blanket I was wrapped in 33 years ago.”
“You know something,” Jeff said suddenly. “We’ve only been married two years, but it feels like it’s been a lot longer.”
“It does, but that’s because of everything we’ve been going through,” I replied, placing the blanket back in the box. “I mean, come on, how many people have a baby after two years of marriage?”
“Not to many, plus it kinda doesn’t help that we’ve known each other 26 years does it?”
“Actually, it kind of does,” I said after thinking for a minute. “It makes more sense because it shows we really do know each other as much as we think we do.”
“That’s true,” Jeff muttered, looking thoughtful. “So we never decided on which room we liked best for our daughter. I really like the light one. It’ more something we would go with and it isn’t too extravagant, which I know you prefer.”
“Yeah, the darker one was just to loud for me,” I agreed honestly.
“So, the light one with the border?” he asked. I nodded slowly, still not to sure on my own decision. Lost in thought, I went up the stairs and into the room that was going to be the nursery. I pictured the room decorated both ways, and the light bordered room was the one that stuck with me.
“Bordered room it is,” I said finally, turning to face Jeff. “But no one can see it until we get it done.”
“Agreed,” he said, wrapping his arms around my waist. There was space in between us from my stomach, but it just added to the feeling because the both of us felt Kylie kick at the same time.
“So, I’m finished for the week, want to go get stuff to start on Kylie’s room?” Jeff asked, moving his hands up to my arms.
“Hell yeah, let’s go.” I said. I threw on my shoes and jacket as Jeff grabbed his car keys.
“You know Thanksgiving’s coming up,” Jeff commented.
“I know, we should talk to everyone and see what they want to do.”
“We’ll probably end up at Matt’s house,” he replied, sliding behind the wheel. “Are we just going into town or do you want to make a trip?”
“Just go into town, I’m actually a little tired.” I commented, resting my head against the window.
“Want to rest when we get back?” he asked, driving up the driveway.
“Nah, I’ll be fine.” I answered. Jeff pulls onto the road, and the next thing I know I’m getting woken up by him.
“Damn, 5 minute drive knocked you out cold,” He said teasingly. “You’re resting when we get home, nothing about it.” When I opened my mouth to argue, he cut me off. “I won’t start on the room until after you rest up a bit.” he promised. I just shrugged as he helped me out of the car. We walked into the paint store to be greeted by Wilma, the owner’s wife.
“Well, I was wondering when the two of you would be walking in here,” she said as she looked up at us. “When I heard about you two getting married I knew I’d see you in here. We have all sorts of colors that’ll go good for a nursery. What are you having?”
“A girl,” Jeff replied with a smile.
“Oh well, we have a lovely pink selection,” Wilma started.
“Uh, we’re not going with a pink room,” Jeff cut her off.
“No pink? Well, I’m open for change,” she replied with a wave of her hand. I laughed as we started looking at the purple paints.
“Oh, purple, very lovely color,” Wilma commented. “For a baby girl, I would suggest a light periwinkle or Lilac color.” She took different shades of the light purples down and showed each of them to us. There was one she held up, and I knew it was the color we needed.
“Let me see the Lavender,” I said. She handed me the color, and Jeff looked it over with me.
“This is a pretty purple,” he said, taking the sample from me. “I like it.”
“How many cans should we get?” I asked him, looking around at the other merchandise. We got new brushes and painters tape, along with masks for me. As the paint was mixing, I looked through the borders to see if they had any that would resemble the one from the picture. I was about to give up when I saw while with purple and green, exactly the colors we were planning on using.
“Hey Jeff, come here,” I called. He walked up beside me, and smiled as he looked at the border.
“You’re just on top of everything today aren’t you?” he asked, his arm going around my shoulders.
“We can hold this back for you,” Wilma said as she looked at the border.
“Can you please? We’d end up losing it or something and it will just be a plain disaster.” Jeff replied. Wilma nodded and put the border in a bag, marking it with our last name. We paid for everything and left the store.
“I would suggest bringing the others in to help,” Jeff hinted.
“Nope, this is going to be me and you from the beginning. They can’t see it until it’s finished.” I replied with a laugh.
“You know how pissed everyone’s going to be when they hear that?” Jeff asked with a smirk. “I love the way you think.”
“I know,” I replied.
“Are you going to be okay enough to work when we get home?” Jeff asked me as we pulled into the driveway.
“Uhm, we are home, and I’m fine. Let’s go get busy!” I jumped out of the car the second he stopped it. He grabbed the paint cans while I grabbed the bag of brushes and the border.
“Uh, I think we should change into clothes we won’t care about messing up,” Jeff pointed out. I looked down at the outfit I was wearing, and eventually agreed to go change. I was willing to work dirty, but when you only had a few decent outfits for a while, you’re not to willing to take chances. Since most of my old clothes barely covered over my belly, I ended up in a pair of sweat pants and one of Jeff’s old shirts. Before Jeff opened the paint, he made sure I put the mask on to block the fumes. He even put on one himself to make me feel better about it.
“Let’s get to work,” he said after mixing the paint. After painting two walls, we decided to take a small break.
“You doing okay?” Jeff asked as we got ourselves drinks. I nodded, my mouth full of water.
“Fine, this is so fun,” I replied with a smile.
“Do you want to stop for the day, or just get it finished.”
“The sooner it’s done the better,” I muttered. The front door opened just then, and the last person we expected showed up in the room with us.
“Shannon, what are you doing here?” Jeff asked our friend.
“On break, thought I’d come and see what you two were up to, a lot of nothing by the looks of it.”
“We’re working on the nursery,” Jeff replied. “Just painting right now.”
“Why didn’t you call?” Shannon asked, sounding disappointed. “It would have been done by now with a professional like me.”
“First off Shan, you couldn’t even paint a stick figure person without getting half the paint on yourself,” Jeff answered with a laugh. “And second off, Riley and I decided this was something we wanted to do completely on our own.”
“C’mon, you created the kid on your own, isn’t that enough?”
“Sorry Shannon, I’m picky,” I spoke up with a smile. “When I want something, I want it all.”
“That doesn’t make you picky, it’s makes you selfish,” Jeff pointed out. I just shrugged my shoulders.
“Do I at least get to see the room?”
“Of course,” Jeff replied, standing up straighter. “Around the middle of March, when everyone else gets to see it.”
“Is it really going to take four months to get that room finished?” I asked, shocked.
“I don’t know, it depends on how much time we can put into it,” he answered back.
“So, just tell me this, I know this is the most common thing with girls, but are you guys planning pink?”
“We’ll tell you, hell no,” Jeff answered with a smirk. “We’re not going to tell you anything else though, you have to wait until we finish it like everyone else.”
“You guys are no fun man,” Shannon muttered. “Well, I did come over for a reason, Jules and I were having a get together tonight, Shane and Christy might not make it because of Christian, but you two don’t have that excuse yet, you should stop by.”
“Actually, I have the pregnancy excuse because I’m getting to where almost everything I do wears me out, but I’ll try to make it,” I promised him. He nodded as Jeff made the same promise. Shannon left, leaving it just Jeff and me again.
“Ready to get to work?” Jeff asked, turning to face me. I nodded, grabbing the bag.
“Absolutely,” I replied.