PLEASE NOTE: This is a continuation of the stories "Donna from Daycare" and "Donna and Kevin Together." Unlike most of my stories, there was a limited amount of sex in those earlier parts, and there isn't very much in this one either.
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Kevin O'Brien woke up and smiled at the sweet face of Donna on the pillow next to the one he was using. He loved her so much as to almost constitute worship, and he knew that she returned his feelings. Both of them had been involved in extremely negative earlier marriages, but those unions had ended, and they had found each other. That day was an important one to them, for they were planning to start a series of events that would banish the negatives from their lives and commit either of them to the other forever. Before he could do any of those things, however, he had to go to the bathroom.
After washing his hands and face, Kevin padded out to the kitchen in his slippers and pajamas and turned on the coffee pot, which had been prepared the night before. While it was brewing, he poured milk into two bowls, one for Kerry and one for Kate, and added blueberries from the freezer. The bowls went into the microwave and, while the fruit was thawing and the milk was warming, he got out the whole grain cereals the children always ate for breakfast on weekdays, along with spoons.
When Donna moved into the apartment with Kevin and his two children, the adults found it necessary to set up a routine for weekday mornings, and it had been working quite well. He was the one who prepared breakfast for everybody and, by the time he had placed the bread in the toaster and gotten the fruit and other ingredients out of the refrigerator, the coffee was ready, as was the fruit and milk for the children. After filling the cup marked "Donna" and the one with his name on it, Kevin added the proper amounts of cream and sugar to both of them and kissed the rim of Donna's cup where he knew she would be placing her lips. With a cup in either hand, Kevin returned to their bedroom, nudged the door open with his foot, and went in to greet his beloved.
She was still asleep, or pretending to be, so he set the coffee on the dresser and went to the bed to gaze on her face again. This time, he did more than just smile, bending over and gently kissing her lips. He grinned at the smile that spread across those same sweet lips, and kissed her there again. This time, Donna opened her eyes, sat up in bed and spread her arms wide for the good morning hug she expected and received. After another long kiss, Kevin brought their coffee over to the bed, and they sat there, enjoying each other's presence and talking of their important plans for that day.
"Today's the big day. One of them anyhow, Kevin commented.
"I know. Are you sure you want to go through with it."
"As sure as I am that debits go to the left and credits go to the right." Kevin enjoyed his career as a partner in a large regional CPA firm, and it paid well, but it wasn't as important to him as he sometimes pretended.
Donna knew that, and she also knew that her man was saying that he was more sure of what they were doing than he was of anything. She felt the same way. Since moving into his apartment with Kevin's two sweet children, all four had been almost deliriously happy. On that day, the divorce from his bitch of a first wife became final, and they could finally start the process of their getting married. He would also no longer be responsible for any maintenance of his first wife, but that was far less important than the freedom to marry the woman that he considered his soul mate.
The first thing they would have to do would be to get a marriage license from City Hall. They had talked over the rest of the process, and had decided that a wedding at that same place was too impersonal so, since neither of them was affiliated with a church, they would hold their wedding where their neighbors and very good friends and neighbors, Fred and Wilma Brown, were long-time parishioners.
Fred and Wilma thought of Kevin as a substitute for their own offspring, who were thousands of miles away, and they loved Kate and Kerry as though they were their own grandchildren. Their affections were warmly returned, and the three O'Briens had a very close relationship with the Browns, who saw the only problem as being that Kevin was not as happily married as they were. He had told them of his bad marital experience, but they still believed that women and men should be together and that Kevin and his two kids would all be better off if he remarried the right woman. When Donna came on the scene and they saw the obvious love among Kevin and her and the children, the oldest generation conspired with the youngest to get the whole group together, where they obviously belonged.
It had worked even better than anybody could have hoped, and everybody's expectation was that, as soon as his divorce became final, Kevin and Donna would get married, and everybody would live happily ever after. They weren't really naΓ―ve enough to believe in such fairy tales, but the happy couple did believe that their love was so strong that they had an excellent chance of achieving that ideal. So did Fred and Wilma and everybody else who knew both of them.
After breakfast and everybody's morning ablutions, which were done like clockwork, and all four dressing or being dressed, they all piled into Kevin's sedan. In the back, two year old Kate was securely buckled into her baby's seat. Kerry, who had recently celebrated his sixth birthday, thereby achieving the distinction of being a Big Boy, was safely held in place by his seat belt, which he had learned to operate by himself. The first place they stopped was at Mrs. Ortiz's Day Care Center, where Donna worked at the job she loved and was almost superhumanly good at, taking care of children. She unbuckled Kate, lifted the little girl out of the car and, after sharing a long and passionate kiss with her betrothed, escorted the child to the front door, where she let Kate ring the bell for admission. Kevin watched until the door closed behind his fiancΓ© and daughter and drove Kerry to his kindergarten class, which would end at noon.
As he had every day since working out their morning schedule with Donna, Kevin arrived at his CPA office at 8:30, although he was not due to arrive until 9:00. He would also not leave until 6:00 PM, because he would need to arrive at the day care center fairly late to pick up Kate, Donna and Kerry, who would have been transported there from his school by one of Mrs. Ortiz's employees. Little extra services such as that made her establishment the best in town, although also the most expensive.
As a partner, Kevin was not paid by the hour so, rather than sitting around drinking coffee during the extra time, he worked on whichever of his accounts could use his attention. Such diligence did not escape the notice of Darren Hodge, the district branch's managing partner, who was on the verge of retiring, and was quietly evaluating the other partners there to determine which of them would merit his recommendation to be his successor. Kevin had at least as much seniority as any of the other candidates and an excellent record overall. His unusually high level of recent production had made him the leader in Mr. Hodge's consideration, although that fact would not be made public until his actual retirement was announced, which would be followed by his recommendation. Although he was aware of his seniority and of Darren's age and eventual retirement, Kevin was not considering those facts in scheduling his weekdays. All he was doing was taking care of his family.
Early that afternoon, by prearrangement since it was a comparatively slack season for the CPA firm, Kevin took the rest of the day off to pick up Donna and both children from Mrs. Ortiz's and drove to City Hall. They had decided that, since Kate and Kerry were so much a part of their lives, and had been so instrumental in their meeting and falling in love, they should also be involved in all the processes that would culminate in their wedding. At the marriage license window, Kevin presented his divorce decree on the grounds of incompatibility, and Donna showed her notice of annulment on the grounds of her barrenness. After some routine questions and showing of identification and collecting of a fee, the precious license was issued. The first step had been taken on the journey that both of them fervently believed would last forever.
Since beginning her job, Donna had willingly worked long hours for Mrs. Ortiz without ever asking for any extra time off, so her employer had no problem letting her take that afternoon for such an important personal errand. Once the license had been secured, they had no need to return to work, and there was nothing they really had to do that day, but there was something they very much wanted to do.
Donna had always been rather low paid while working for her first employer, who operated a day care center that was cheaper than Mrs. Ortiz's and not as good. She hadn't minded, because she loved the work so much and her needs were simple. They included an inexpensive studio apartment, and they had decided to keep it as a place where they could sneak away sometimes for some private time together, especially in the afternoon. When Donna moved in with Kevin, she notified the building management in writing of her intention to leave, but she later notified the same people she had changed her mind. Since that time, they had been mailing a check for rent every month, and they had used it a few times, mostly on weekends. The only furnishings there were the Murphy bed and some pillows and bedding, but that was all they needed.