Faithful (42 page)

“See? You like saying that. You like that we
sound
married.”

“I do.”

“Good, because as soon as we leave here, we get to have married-people sex.”

“Let’s leave now.”

“Drive back to Hera, now?”

“No, I booked us a room at a very nice hotel for tonight. Then, in the morning, we’re flying out of JFK. I’m taking you on a honeymoon.”

“Where are we going?” I ask. “And what about work?”

“Lauren and Carson are the only ones who know what I’ve planned, and they are not telling you. I’m taking you someplace that requires flying over a very large body of water, someplace that has beaches and ports, good food, lots of beautiful things to see, and a very big bed.”

“Another surprise,” I laugh. “You’re good at those.”

“Anything to make you happy.” He kisses me tenderly.

Six months later …

“You’re fat.”

“I am fat,” Jess replies, looking at her pregnant belly.

“I thought you’d carry the baby like a basketball, like Lauren did,” I add, not trying to be mean, but I’m curious and concerned about how pregnancy changes a woman’s body.

“Lauren is tall,” Jess explains. “Tall women carry it easier. I’m short. Everything is smooshed and fat, even my ankles.

Jess lifts up her swollen legs and tries to point to her toes so we can all see her puffy ankles. She’s seven months pregnant and looks terribly uncomfortable.

“I feel like that girl from
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
What was her name?” Jess asks.

“Vicky?” Emma asks.

“Violet,” Lauren confirms. “She blew up like a piece of blueberry bubble gum.”

“Yes, that’s how I feel. Like I’m blowing up. My skin is even a little blue.” Jess pulls up her maternity T-shirt to display the fair skin stretched across her belly. Her pink-white skin does have a bluish tinge to it.

“Are you okay, Jess?” Carson asks from across the room.

He’s sitting at his dining room table with Cooper, Dylan, and Leo, going over the new line of BD baby furniture they will be shipping out this week. Cooper’s idea for a line of baby furniture from last summer went into production when Carson found out he was going to be a father. All of a sudden, Carson became fascinated with baby products and had Cooper help do the research and work with the design team on creating mid- to high-range cribs, toddler beds, changing tables, play tables, and storage armoires for toys and clothes.

“I’m fine,” Jess groans. “You ask me every ten minutes.”

“I can’t help it. You look like you’re in pain.”

“No, you look like you’re in pain every time you look at your pregnant wife,” Dylan cuts in.

Jess and Emma laugh, but Carson looks seriously scared.

“Oh, no,” Jess gasps as she reaches for the bowl of tortilla chips on the coffee table.

“What?” Carson shouts.

“I … I can’t reach the chips.” Jess falls back against the couch, laughing.

“Hilarious,” Carson mutters.

“You make me look like a pro,” Leo says to Carson. “You are really freaking out over nothing.”

“Carson, look at me.” Jess waves. “I’m reaching for a chip. Oh, I have the chip!” She holds it up and Carson scowls. “Now I’m dipping it in the guacamole. I sure hope I don’t break my water doing this.”

We’re all laughing. It’s entirely too easy to tease Carson about his overprotectiveness.

“He’s worse at work,” Dylan says, standing up to do one of his Carson impressions. “Where are you?” Dylan yells into his cell phone for effect. “Why are you putting away groceries? Who said you could make waffles? Why are you standing up? Are you in labor? Are you having the baby today?” Dylan shouts as he performs Carson’s posture and expressions perfectly. I laugh so hard, rolling on the floor next to Maisie, that she laughs in response and that gets Bert, the Bulldog, rolling around on the rug, too.

“Man, give the guy a break,” Cooper laughs.

“Carson, I am now getting up to walk to the kitchen.” Jess stands and grins at Carson’s stony expression. “I’m walking. I’m walking, and I’m walking,” she repeats, moving her hands and legs in slow motion. “Oh, I’m stopping.” She looks down at her belly.

“This isn’t funny in the least,” Carson says with a tense face, wondering why Jess is pausing.

“Oh … it’s just heartburn. Now, I’m walking again.” She chuckles as she walks into the kitchen.

Carson’s face visibly relaxes.

“Wow. She had you going there.” Cooper observes Carson. “Maybe you need a vacation.”

“Maybe you should see my doctor,” Dylan chimes in. “No one is this nervous or uptight unless there’s a real reason to be worried.”

“Dylan is right, Carson.” Lauren shakes her head. “Honey, you are a wreck, and your wife is having a perfectly normal, healthy pregnancy. What are you going to do when she actually goes into labor?”

“When that happens,” Cooper explains, “I’ll give Carson a good knock-out punch, and then I’ll take Jess to the hospital. Lauren and Imogene can be her coaches in the delivery room. When Carson wakes up, the nurse will hand him the baby.”

“And then Carson can freak out about putting the baby seat in the car and getting up at night to check if his baby is breathing.” Leo shrugs. “Sorry, Carson, but you’re going to be one of those dads that always freaks out.

“Can we stop talking about this and get back to these orders. These shipments have to go out this week.” Carson fumbles mindlessly with the papers in front of him.

“Hey, my crew is ready,” Cooper responds. “We’re loading the local trucks at six o’clock tomorrow morning, and we have two national shippers picking up the California orders Tuesday afternoon. By Friday, we should have our numbers in for you.”

“I think, by the end of next month, we’ll have a good idea of where this line will sell well,” Dylan says, closing his laptop.

“Carson!” We hear Jess shout from the kitchen.

“What?” He sounds angry, but he looks alarmed, as if this is the real deal.

“I’m opening the refrigerator now. If I go into labor, I’ll let you know,” Jess says in a sing-song, teasing voice.

“Goddammit.” Carson gets up from the dining table.

“Where are you going? We haven’t finished the inventory list,” Cooper says.

“I have to go check on my wife,” Carson growls as he heads to the kitchen.

“Ha!” Dylan shouts and lets out a loud, belly laugh.

The rest of us can’t hide our laughter, either.

“The guy is going to kill himself with worry before his kid arrives.” Leo shakes his head.

Lauren and Emma are sitting on the couch, knitting baby blankets or something babyish while I get my daily baby fix. Maisie is only wearing a diaper as she gets up on her chubby knees and crawls a few feet before plopping down on her belly. We make a game of it, and I follow her and then pull her back to her starting position, which makes her giggle. Cooper comes and joins us on the floor.

“Hello, little beautiful.” Cooper rolls the baby onto her back, kisses her forehead, and then gives her a big, loud raspberry on her belly. She screams and laughs in delight and pulls his hair, so he gives her more farting sounds on her sensitive tummy.

“That makes her pee every time. I bet she just filled her diaper,” Lauren says.

Lauren has been very relaxed since having her baby, nothing like a hyper cheerleader anymore. She’s more like Mother Earth as she shuffles around in Uggs at work and carries Maisie on her hip.

“I’ll change her,” I volunteer.

“Oh, you want to get in some practice?” Emma asks. “Something you want to tell us?”

Both Cooper and Lauren raise their eyebrows at me. Maisie is the first baby I have ever paid much attention to. Perhaps it’s because Cooper and I are her Godparents, or maybe it’s because I’m quite enamored with this little girl who can’t speak or walk and poops and pees all the time, but she brings so much joy to her parents and the rest of us.

“Is there something you want to tell me?” Cooper asks me in the guest bedroom where I’m placing Maisie on her changing pad. Cooper pulls a new diaper out of the baby bag as I wrestle with the baby’s flailing legs to get her wet diaper off.

“I’m not pregnant,” I say with a laugh.

“Okay.”

“You look a little sad about that? Or are you relieved?”

“Nah. But I’ve been getting used to the idea. I’ve thought about it.”

When she has a clean diaper on, he picks up Maisie and holds her above his head until she laughs again.

“I thought we could be married a bit longer before we have kids,” I say. “I see how Leo and Lauren juggle work and parenting, and that’s with grandparents helping out. Before we get caught up in that life with all those people involved, I kind of want you to myself for a while. I like when the two of us are alone.”

He holds Maisie with one arm and puts his other around my waist.

“I like running naked through the house with you, too. Babies change schedules and take energy, and I’m pretty happy with our spontaneous sex.” Cooper kisses me.

I sigh as our lips part and the kiss ends. “I think I could eventually manage two pregnancies, tops.”

“Well, a MacKenzie woman can get pregnant by thinking of babies. Two pregnancies could actually be four babies. Remember, twins run in my family.”

“Four kids?” As I shudder, he chuckles.

“God, what if we do have twins? I can’t even narrow it down to one baby name.”

“Easy, we call them Thang 1 and Thang 2.” Cooper says it with a straight face as he kisses Maisie again.

“I love how easy going you are with kids,” I say with a smile. “Really, it’s nice that you’ve had so much practice with your nieces and nephews.”

“Let’s give this baby back to her parents so we can go home.”

“And be alone?”

“Yeah, I want to be with my wife.”

We walk back to the living room where Cooper hands Maisie off to Leo. Dylan is setting up a movie for the theater screen that rolls down from the ceiling, and Emma and Lauren are putting more snacks on the coffee table. Jess is snuggled up to Carson on the couch, apologizing for teasing him while she continues to taunt him with his baby fears. He looks happier and at ease as long as he has Jess next to him. We say goodbye and leave, taking Cooper’s truck back to our house.

“You’re really thinking about us having children, aren’t you?” I ask, studying his profile as he drives.

“Of course,” he replies, glancing at me. “Imogene, I paid attention when you gave me your speech about marriage and family. Whenever you’re ready, tell me when and where.”

“My go-to stud, how romantic.”

“We can make it more interesting, maybe go to Portugal again. Algarve. Or maybe the Amalfi Coast or Provence. What do you think about that?”

“We could have a destination conception,” I laugh. “Someday. Not now.”

“Whenever you’re ready.”

“Well, it doesn’t always happen when you want. It might take us a few months or years.”

He scoffs. “Excuse me, but my dudes know what they’re doing.”

“I beg your pardon. I didn’t mean to insult your swimmers.”

“Home,” he says as we arrive and he parks the truck. “Did I tell you how much I love you?”

“Yes. And I love you.”

“Are we going to go inside to practice so we’re really good at this?” As he takes my hand, I can’t stop laughing.

“Maybe.” I grin as we walk inside. I’ve been a grinning fool since the day he proposed.

“Well, at least we’ll make it fun.” He picks me up and cradles me in his arms as he barrels into the house. “Did I tell you I love you?” he asks again, smiling.

“Every day.”

Acknowledgments

A big thank you goes to Michelle Carroll, Emma Corcoran, and Becky Korte. These women were more than my beta readers; they were the friends who cheered me on through some less than stellar days. Michelle also gets a special shout out for all those fun teasers she creates for me to post on social media.

Autumn Hull’s keen eye for content helped me fill in plot holes and smooth out a number of scenes to make Cooper and Imogene’s story so much better.

Alizon Duckwall and Kristin Campbell are my amazing editing team who make my eyes bleed with all the revisions and corrections they send my way. However, their detailed edits are the necessary polish.

Aaron Campbell maintains and updates my website, and I’m pretty sure he’s happy that I don’t have time to run a daily blog.

Alisha and Damon at Damonza did an amazing job on my cover. I’m always impressed with their creativity and professionalism.

Finally, I would like to thank all the readers and bloggers who have enthusiastically supported my books. I appreciate everything you do for me whether it’s a personal message, a review, talking about my books online, or sharing my books with friends.

Thank You!

Sara

About the Author

S. A. Wolfe lives with her husband and children in New York City. When not writing or reading, she loves hanging out with family and friends. Unfortunately, she is also great at procrastinating.

Dear Reader-

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The FEARSOME SERIES:

FEARSOME (Book 1)

FREEDOM (Book 2)

FAITHFUL (Book 3)

Thank you!

S. A. Wolfe