I knew she would be happy, but I didn’t expect the tears. I didn’t realize she was so emotional about it all.
“I never would have stayed away if I’d known it made you this upset.” At my admission, she shakes her head, reaching out to my cheek and cupping it like I do her.
With the tip of her nose brushing against mine, she steadies herself, giving me a peck on the lips before looking back up at me.
“I’m glad you’re coming home because this baby is going to need both of us.”
The moment she says baby, her hand moves to her belly and shock and then elation hit me harder than I could ever imagine.
“You’re pregnant?” I question her in a single breath and her wide smile is joined with a nod.
I hug her and she hugs me back, both of us clinging to each other, both of us surprised in the best of ways.
There are ups and downs in marriage, there are good times and there are bad, but moments like these and all of our other firsts that we’ve shared and will share in our lives are so worth every dip on this wild ride.
“I love you,” I tell her and kiss her, crushing my lips to hers before she can even say it back.
I love you for always.
FLIRTING WITH A GOOD NIGHT
SYNOPSIS
In our small town, all of my friends have found their soulmates and here I am, moving from one crush to the next but never actually settling down. The reason why is standing only a few feet from me now. He’s joking with my best friend’s husband, as I sit on their sofa trying not to stare. With his sleeves rolled up, the tattoos he got while he was away in the marines are on display, curved around his toned muscle that flex with his rough chuckle.
Cade was years older and left right after high school. I never told him how I felt, we were so young and there was no way he’d ever go for a sophomore like me. Times have changed and now he’s back… and I can’t stop staring and pining over the man I’ve been longing for.
And when he looks my way, with that handsome smirk, rough stubble and gorgeous baby blue gaze…
SHARON
“Just smell it.”
Magnolia’s command is murmured with aww, even if it does crack me up. Both of us take a deep inhale that has my back pushing against the cream sectional sofa. Her eyes are closed, her nose just a centimeter above the practically bald little one’s head. He has just a small smatter of dark brown hair at the very top of his noggin and with the little jostle, he coos, putting a wide-eyed Autumn on edge.
“There’s nothing like it in the whole world.” Magnolia’s statement is met with both another coo from Cameron, the two-week old little one fast asleep in her arms, and a long exhale of relief from his mother. Autumn’s arms are still up as if she was getting ready to snatch her newborn and quickly rock him back to sleep if he woke from the two of us taking a nice long whiff of that baby smell.
I bite back my smile, unable to not see the humor in the room with Magnolia completely missing Autumn’s stress.
“Seriously,” Mags presses, “There’s something about the way they smell…” I finally let out a laugh when Mags closes her eyes and lays back with the little boy.
“If you keep creeping me out, I’m taking my baby back,” Autumn’s response is given with a broad smile. You’d never know she just went through almost thirty hours of labor earlier this week.
There really is something about that sweet baby powder like scent, though. I have to agree with Mags, pulling my legs up on the sofa and then resting my pointer against Cameron’s little cheek. “He is freaking adorable Autumn,” I murmur and feel my heart swell with happiness for her and Trent and their other two boys.
“I want another baby.” Mags cradles the baby closer and Autumn’s eyes go wide.
“If you wake him, you keep him,” she comments while dragging the basket of clothes across the kitchen island to be closer to her. She’s all the way at the end of it, now perched on a stool, while the two of us, strike that, two and a little a bundle, are huddled at the end of her sofa where the living room meets the kitchen.
Our Wine-down Wednesdays have certainly changed recently. Mags with her … shall I say love life dilemma, and Autumn with her ever-growing family.
“I’m not going to wake him up,” Mags admonishes Autumn then makes an ‘oops’ expression as Cameron wiggles in her arms.
The little man has only been on this earth for less than 2 weeks but he knows how to make the whole world stop as he nestles in tighter.
“I would steal him away from you,” I start and then we all hear the front door open and the sound of several boot steps filter in through the house. “But I have to get going,” I finish as the sight of two men interrupts the conversation.
With a charming smile, the first man pauses to cup the little one’s head. Giving me the perfect comparison of father and son.
Cameron looks just like Trent, Autumn’s husband. His little nose and those large brown eyes. They are all Trent.
With a pout from Mags, and her pulling the baby into her arms playfully, as if to say ‘he’s mine, off,’ Trent chuckles and makes his way to Autumn, planting a kiss on her cheek before setting down a number of plastic bags on the counter next to his wife.
What is it with men and carrying every single bag from the grocery store in at once?
“Thanks for giving him a ride while his car is in the shop,” Autumn’s gratitude is met with a little nod from the second man.
The one who has my heart stuttering from my place on the sofa.
“No problem,” his deep voice echoes and I take the chance to drink him in.
In our small town, all of my friends have found their soulmates and here I am, moving from one crush to the next but never actually settling down. The reason why is standing only a few feet from me now. He’s joking with my best friend’s husband, as I sit on their sofa trying not to stare. With his sleeves rolled up, the tattoos he got while he was away in the marines are on display, curved around his toned muscle that flex with his rough chuckle.
He was years older and left right after high school. I never told him how I felt, we were so young and there was no way he’d ever go for a sophomore like me. Times have changed and now he’s back… and I can’t stop staring and pining over the man I’ve been longing for.
And when he looks my way, with that handsome smirk, rough stubble and gorgeous baby blue gaze… Lord, have mercy.
“Cade Jameson,” Magnolia calls out as she gently sets the infant down for the first time since she snatched him from me. The little bundle lays effortlessly into the rocker at our feet.
With a gentle touch, I rock the little one, still bundled in a ‘choo choo’, blue plaid, train swaddle and look anywhere but at the man who’s become the center of conversation.
In my periphery, I gauge the friendly hug between them. It’s nothing more than polite. Well maybe a touch comical considering how short she is and how he has to bend down to hug her in return. She’s a bit petite and Cade is a wall of muscle, taller than most.
“It’s good to have you back. You staying long?
“I am,” he answers proudly and I only notice that I’m staring, waiting with baited breath for his answer, when his gaze lifts past Mags to where I am.