Stumbling into Love
Page 38

“I know.” He wraps his hand around my stomach. “I keep telling him to let you rest, but he doesn’t seem to be listening.”
“He’s stubborn,” I agree, placing my hand over his on my stomach.
“I wonder where he gets that from.” He smiles, and I narrow my eyes on his.
“Shouldn’t you be on your way?” I snap.
Chuckling, he kisses my nose. “Do you have any requests?”
“Requests?”
“Do you know what you would like me to get for you?”
“Something big.” I look down at my stomach and revise. “Really big.”
“You’re not big, gorgeous. You’re pregnant with our son.”
“Yeah, your son who is already nine pounds.” I remind him of the news the doctor delivered two days ago at our last appointment. “Our boy is now the size of a bowling ball, and we still have about five weeks until his due date.”
“His dad is a big guy.” He winks, and I roll my eyes.
“So arrogant.”
“You love me.”
“Yeah,” I agree softly as he glides his fingers across my forehead and down behind my ear. “How did I get so lucky?”
“I ask myself that same question every day.” He rolls me to my back and looms over me. Looking up into his love-filled eyes, I feel tears sting my nose. I don’t know that I will ever get used to him loving me the way he does. So completely. “Don’t cry.” He laughs, wiping away the tears.
I cover my face. Since becoming pregnant, I cry all the time about the dumbest stuff, which is so annoying.
“I’m not crying,” I sniffle.
I hear him laugh.
“I’m not . . . ,” I gripe.
“Good.” He pulls my hands from my face, kisses me once more, then sits back. “Let me go so I can get back here.”
“I’m not holding you hostage.” I sit up and scoot back to rest against the headboard.
“You’re mostly naked.”
“And?”
“And it’s distracting.” He circles my nipple with his thumb, and my eyes slide closed. “Gorgeous, I need to leave.”
My eyes fly open, and I find him smiling at me. “So go, then.” I cover my chest, and he laughs.
“Do you love me?”
“No,” I tease.
His grin widens.
“Whatever.” I push at his chest. “Hurry and come back.”
“I won’t take long.” He kisses my forehead, then my lips before he pushes up out of bed.
Watching him as he leaves the room, I smile. Then I reach down, pull a quilt up over myself, and lie down.
“Hey, gorgeous.” I blink my eyes open and find Wesley sitting on the side of the bed. “I’ve been trying to wake you up for about ten minutes now,” he says, studying me.
I sit up, then scoot back in the bed. “Really?” I rub my eyes.
“You’re tired.” He rests his hand on my stomach. “Are you sure you want to go out to your parents’ house?”
“I’m sure. Besides, I can sleep in the car on the way there, or take a nap there if I need to,” I say.
I can see in his eyes that he doesn’t like the idea.
Tipping my head to the side, I rest my hand over his. “I’m okay.”
“I know you’re exhausted.”
“I know, but that’s because I’ve been growing a human,” I joke, but Wesley doesn’t laugh.
He takes his job of taking care of me very seriously. Getting up on my knees, I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss his cheek.
“I’m fine,” I say.
He turns to look at me, then slides his hand up my back and into my hair. Pulling my mouth down to his, he touches his lips to mine.
“Promise me that if you need to rest, you will rest.”
“I promise.” I give him a salute. “Now let’s see what you got for me.”
I hold out my hand, and he picks up the bag and passes it to me. Opening it up, I fight back a laugh as I pull out the dress to get a better look at it.
“Well, it’s definitely festive.” I stand up and hold the red, white, and blue dress up in front of me. The top of the dress is dark blue with white stars, and the bottom part is red and white stripes.
“There weren’t a lot of options,” he says, sounding unsure. “Is it okay?”
“It’s perfect.”
I go to him, wedge myself between his spread thighs, and his hands move to my stomach. He drops his forehead and rests it there.
“Thank you.”
I run my fingers through his hair, and he tips his head back to look at me. I bend at the waist as best I can and touch my mouth to his, then take a step back and put on my new dress over my head. The band that wraps around my breasts is a little snug, but besides that, the rest of the material skims over my stomach and slides down my body. It just touches the floor. Going across the room, I check myself out in the mirror, turning side to side. I look very patriotic.
“You look beautiful.”
“Thank you.” I meet his gaze in the mirror and shake my head when I see how dark his eyes are. He is really in love with my pregnant body. I don’t get it, but I do appreciate that he still finds me attractive. “Are you ready?”
“As ready as I’m going to be.” He stands up from the bed and comes up behind me, wrapping his arms around me, settling his hands on my waist, and his chin on the top of my head. “Remember what you promised?”
“I remember . . .” I roll my eyes, then turn in his arms and get up on tiptoes and peck his lips. “Let me finish getting ready, and we can go.”
“Take your time.” He kisses my forehead, then turns me toward the door. Going past the living room, I head into the bathroom and finish getting ready. I hear the TV turn on. I have no doubt that he’s watching one of his guy shows while working on either the crib or the dresser we picked up from Ikea a few days ago. Both things came in a million pieces. I didn’t even pretend to know where to start, which left him on his own.
After brushing out my hair, I put it up in a bun, then put on some tinted moisturizer, blush, and mascara. Once I’m done, I head into the kitchen and pull out my ever-present pitcher of grape Crystal Light. I’m so addicted to the stuff that I drink about a quart a day. After filling up my tumbler, I take it with me to the living room and take a seat on the couch to watch Wesley finish one more dresser drawer.
“Do you think we should move?” I ask.
He stops what he’s doing.
“I know we said we would wait until after he gets here, but we only have the one bedroom, and he seems to be accumulating a lot of stuff already,” I say, looking around the living room.
Last month, my sisters threw me a baby shower, and we got so many diapers and other things that we will need for the baby that there isn’t any room left in the apartment for us.
“Gorgeous, you are in no shape to move. I’m not going to put you through that right now. We’ll move after the baby’s born.”
“Don’t you think it will be harder to move with a newborn?” I ask.
He looks around, then down at my stomach. He drops his face into his hands for a moment and grumbles something I can’t make out.
“We need to go to your parents’.” He stands and pulls me up to stand with him.
Grabbing his hand, I stop him before he can get away. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing. We just need to hit the road if we’re going to make it there in time for lunch.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” He bends and kisses me quickly before leaning back. “Let’s go.”
I grab my bag from the top of the kitchen table and then take his hand and follow him out of the house. The car is parked a block away. Once there, he helps me in, then jogs around to get behind the wheel. Checking my cell phone, I see a text from Fawn letting me know that she and Levi just arrived out on Long Island and that traffic was horrible.
“Fawn said they just got to Mom and Dad’s, and that traffic is backed up.”
“It’s all right. We’ll make it there in time for the fireworks,” he says.