I liked it at the time because I didn’t notice any stretch marks during the pregnancy. However, after I had Ethan and my belly started to shrink, that’s when they popped up. My confidence took a hit when I realized I looked different in my cropped sweatshirts that I loved to wear. So I quit wearing them.
Until Max noticed.
When I admitted to him that I felt embarrassed of my body now, he held me in front of the mirror and traced each line with his finger before reverently whispering, “Each one of these lines is a sign of your incredible strength, Cassandra. They kept you healthy and strong so you could become a mother and give us all the gift of Ethan. These lines are our family. Please, be as proud of them as we are of you.”
I cried and let him hold me that night and remind me that he loved my body in any shape and size. The reality of being a woman sometimes is that all the confidence in the world still can’t hold a candle to the reassuring words of your husband. I’m so lucky to have him in my life.
Max and I both frown at each other when we realize the crying has stopped. He helps me out of the pool, and we both walk over to the lounge chairs, dropping down across from each other as I reach for the camera monitor. We both inwardly gasp when we see why little Ethan’s quiet again.
Everly has apparently crawled into his crib and has curled around his little two-month-old body. She’s shushing him and stroking his eyebrows, clearly lulling him back to sleep. She leans in and kisses his head before she begins to sing softly to him.
The tears are instant in my eyes as I watch her love on her little brother like she always does. Honestly, her obsession with him is even worse than Max’s obsession with my pregnant belly. We literally have to tell her to share the baby with others when we have guests come by to see him.
“I’ll go check on them,” Max offers, his voice thick with emotion as he kisses me on the forehead before heading toward the house.
Kate, Norah, and Lynsey join me on the loungers next as their husbands all make their way into the pool with their littles—Josh with three-year-old Julianna, Miles with wild man Tucker, and Dean is holding his six-month-old son, Hogan, while a very pregnant Maggie waddles over to us. She holds her taut belly on full display in a two-piece as Sam helps her down into her chair.
“So much for waiting,” Kate murmurs under her breath, making a jab at Maggie and Sam who swore they were going to wait a while to have kids and are now being blessed with a two-for-one special.
“Double the trouble,” Lynsey declares, shaking her head. “I’m still trying to work up the nerve to have another baby but you guys having two makes me want to wait even longer.”
“If you wait long enough, you’ll have a built-in nanny like this one,” Kate says, gesturing to me. She leans over to look at the baby monitor I’m still watching as Max helps Everly out of the crib and hands little Ethan off to her. “I’m so jealous of that.”
“You should be. Everly has been amazing,” I reply honestly.
Warmth spreads through my chest at that reality because Everly and I had a very tender conversation about a month before Ethan was born when she confessed she was worried I would love Ethan more than her. I was so touched because the fact that she even wants my love is still such a gift to me. My little Sea Monster really has no idea how much she fulfills me.
I reminded her that she made me a mother first…and one never forgets their first. It was also at that moment that we decided together that she could start calling me Mama Cozy. I think that was all the reassurance she needed that I am just as much a part of her life as I am Ethan’s. I can’t wait to see what she does in her life.
“Cozy, what did you do to your leg?” Kate barks out of nowhere, pulling everyone’s focus to me.
My face flushes with mortification as I try to hide the red mark on my inner thigh. “Oh…I um…bruised it.”
“That doesn’t look like a bruise,” Kate deadpans, pulling up her sunglasses to get a closer look. “Is that a hickey?”
“No!” I exclaim, feeling my blood pressure spike as I try to invent a story that would leave a mark about the size of a mouth on my inner leg.
Suddenly, my thoughts are distracted when I catch a glimpse of Max stepping out onto the deck, holding little Ethan against his bare chest. His hair is disheveled, and his sunglasses are down over his eyes, as his arm muscles pop in the most delicious way as he rocks our swaddled baby back and forth. His thigh muscles bulge beneath the tight fabric of his swim trunks as he strides toward me, and at that moment, I realize all the ladies beside me are gaping at my husband.
I snap my fingers to divert their attention back to me. “Eyes on my thigh hickey, ladies.” I smile smugly and lift my sunglasses up. “’Cuz that Zaddy is all mine.”
The End
Keep reading for a link to a BONUS EPILOGUE for Max & Cozy (Everly goes to PROM!!!)
Also, if you’re new to the Boulder crew, enjoy a sample of the Boulder resident smut writer’s book, Wait With Me!
More from the now complete Wait With Me Series:
Wait With Me—Kate & Miles
Next In Line—Sam & Maggie
One Moment Please—Lynsey & Dr. Dick
Take A Number—Dean & Norah
Last on the List—Max & Cozy
Excerpt from Wait With Me
Leaning against the outside of the building in the alley behind the garage, I lift the red rope of licorice to my lips and suck air in through the opening I just bit off. I take an actual bite and blow out, imagining the intoxicating rush I’d be getting if this were an actual cigarette.
If only I still smoked.
My head snaps to the left when the back door of the comfort center opens, and a blaze of curly red hair comes out. The same redhead is back. The one I’ve seen passing through this alley for several days now. I always get a glimpse of her red mane through the foggy shop window where my station sits. I keep wondering where she comes from and where exactly she’s going.
Today, I have a much better vantage point. She’s dressed in plain black leggings and a loose, flowing T-shirt that has PIZZA scrawled across the front. From the drape of that top, it’s clear she’s well-endowed, and even in flip-flops, I can see the definition of those legs clear as day. Curvy and small in all the right places. She’s low-maintenance hot, not the type to primp before going to the grocery store.
The redhead is moving straight toward me but looking backward like someone’s going to come chasing out after her. I try to get the licorice out of my mouth fast enough to tell her to stop, but it’s too late. She barrels into me like a bunny against a brick wall. In the scuffle, her flip-flop gets lodged under my work boot, and with an awkward twist of her ankle, she goes crashing to the ground, her gray satchel flying five feet into the alley.
“Shit, are you okay?” I ask, reaching down to offer her my hand.
Her blue eyes fly wide. “Oh my God. My computer!”
She doesn’t even look at me as she scrambles across the hot asphalt for her laptop bag that landed a few feet from her. Crouched on her knees, she pulls the MacBook out of her bag and opens it quickly. With a sharp intake of air, the redhead finally says, “Not cracked but will it boot?”