Jack Griggs
Right now we were at opposite ends of the emotional spectrum.
I wanted to scream and tell the whole world.
Carly just didn’t.
I wanted to talk about the baby, us and the future constantly.
Carly just didn’t.
I had a perma-grin on my face and that seemed to irritate her more than anything.
I knew she was scared, but I was running with fate like a motherfucker and taking all he could throw at me with joy, one gift a time. Because that’s what this was—a gift.
On the night of our baby discovery, we both ended up crying, but for very different reasons. Carly was scared, but I wasn’t. We could do this. I was so fucking sure. We could make it work and build a new bubble world for the future. I was so sure of it, and that just made me even more excited.
“The timing is just so bad. I’m sorry. This is all my fault,” she cried.
Her words had me finally crawling off the bathroom floor and taking my hands off the wonder that was her belly. I could have stayed there all night just staring at the magic I knew was happening inside. Right that very minute. If x-ray vision goggles really existed outside of Mission Impossible, I’d have given my left bollock for a pair just so I could watch my baby grow.
“Baby, this happened for a reason.”
“Yeah. I know. I forgot to update my shot.”
“Oh well.” I shrugged. Actually. Shrugged.
Carly was stunned at my attitude. I couldn’t explain it to her, but there was a small part of me that knew it was because she’d be forever tied to me. For the rest of our lives we’d have that special connection that no one could break until we stopped breathing.
“I… I don’t have to have it.”
I wanted to think that those words had just slipped out, but they didn’t and they had me recoiling away from her in horror. “You’ll never say those words again. Promise me, right fucking now, Carly, that you won’t do that. I want to hear that you didn’t mean it, right now.”
“Of course I won’t—well, not until we’ve discussed it some more.”
“We are not discussing that ever. This is fate. God’s gifted us this because he knows we love each other and can handle it.”
“Or… because I’ve been a silly cow and got lax with our contraception,” she quipped.
I chose to ignore her words. “Carly, honey, you’re spoiling baby day for me.” My smile was back and I picked her up and walked into the living room with her. “Today is baby day and I feel euphoric. This is what Jake was talking about. The fear is gone and I feel pure satisfaction that the woman I love is giving me a baby. Promise me you won’t do anything crazy.”
Carly still wasn’t fully on board with my joy, and that was also threatening baby day. I lay her gently on the sofa, like she was made of crystal, and placed myself as carefully as possible on top of her. I didn’t want to harm or crush my baby to death. “I think we’re going to be excellent parents.”
“How can you even know that?”
“Because I am so happy. I don’t feel an ounce of panic. I have a niece who adores me. Babies adore me.”
Carly sniggered back at me. “Jack, you thought you broke her with garlic bread.”
“I know, so no garlic bread for my baby until they can successfully wipe their own ass.”
“Can we please be serious just for a minute?”
I schooled my face and looked at her. I held it together for all of about two seconds. “Nope. Can’t stop fucking smiling.”
“We need to talk about this. Maybe I should take more tests. You know, just to be sure.”
I pouted like a baby-man-child. “You’re spoiling baby day for me.”
“For just a moment, please be serious.” I felt her fingers touch my face then scrub through my stubble with her nails. What she failed to realize, though, was that her touch and my joy at our news just made me hard. It was such an electrifying combination and I was desperate to be inside the woman who was carrying my child. “You have no job. Mine is hardly worth considering, and my parents have just disowned me. Our life is complicated enough.”
Running my hand up the backs of her legs, I started to get harder. “You forget your exams, too, and we’re also going to be homeless.”
“What?”
“I gave notice on this place when I resigned from my post. I’d planned for us to go home as soon as you’d sat your last exam. Only now we’re going home with a surprise package.” I couldn’t stop my wide-eyed, sparkly grin. It was taunting her and made her start to fight and struggle to get out from underneath me. “Stop fidgeting. I’m trying to put the moves on the mother of my child.”
“Stop saying that!” she wailed.
“Why? It’s the truth. The more I say it the faster it will sink in.”
“What if I don’t want to be a mom yet?”
That pulled me up short. Carly didn’t mean that. She couldn’t. She was so good with kids and at some point in the near future I’d decided we were having them before I got any older. The chance had just come sooner than I thought. Maybe I should have discussed that with her before. The real problem I faced was what I was going to do if she genuinely felt this way. If what she was feeling wasn’t just fear of the moment. What the fuck was going to happen then?
“Please, baby, tell me you want this? Tell me this a temporary freak out and you just need your brain to catch up?”
“I just don’t get why you’re so sure.”
I wasn’t sure I could explain the way I was feeling, that I had the words that would do it justice. “When I saw that word on your little piss stick, some kind of explosion happened inside me. I didn’t want to run and hide. I wanted to grab you and protect you, hold you forever. After I’d had my wicked way with you, of course.” I waggled my brows at her. “I’ve been hard as a rock since then and my need to do something with it isn’t going away.”
“That’s what got us in this mess!” she whined, but I saw the slight crack in her armor now. She was coming around and her flippant comments were proving it.
“Carly Sevens, I promise to love you and our baby for as long as oxygen is consumed by my body. My life has true purpose now. I no longer feel like I’m wandering. I feel like Jack again. I feel happy and settled, like I’ve found my home. And you did that. So for the rest of my days, I will move heaven and earth to make yours and his truly special and amazing.” I finished by kissing her belly.
“You made them sound like vows, and it could be ‘her’ life.” I stopped suddenly when a train of awesomeness hit me. “I didn’t mean anything by that.” Carly was starting to backtrack. “Don’t get all guy freaky because I mentioned vows.”
It wasn’t that it was freaking me out, but as I’d freaked her out enough, I figured it was best not to share. Mentioning the word twins could completey derail this train.
“Carly, I’d marry you tomorrow if you wanted.”
Now she was speechless. It was finally time to stop talking and start loving.
Loving on her.
I raised her t-shirt and kissed her belly again. I knew I’d be doing that every chance I got. As I repeatedly touched my lips to her skin, her hand played with the hair on my head. I didn’t want to point out what she was doing, but her subconscious actions gave her away. She was accepting the situation and the miracle growing inside her. I gently unbuttoned her jeans and slid them down. “Just think…” I kissed her pubic bone, easing down her panties. “I put my big man’s toy in your safe little place and we made a baby. Our love and timing was so perfect that the ultimate magic happened.”
“Aww, don’t do that. Don’t bring out cute Jack to sucker punch me.”
Oh yeah, she was definitely on the ropes.
“Your sexy ass pussy sucked my little swimmers and cooked them until they made a baby.” I carried on drawing patterns on her body.
“Your big stick got overly excited, spewed out your man meat, which took root like a bunch of squatters and refused to leave. You invaded my private space.”
“I’ll always invade your private space,” I mumbled, beginning to lick her. “I fucked you so good I made a baby. In fact, in a few minutes, I’m going to put my baby maker back inside you.”
“Enough.” She laughed. Carly was beginning to warm up to the idea, and as she started to smile, I started to tickle her lower lips and watch as the smile was replaced with hazy, lust filled eyes.
“I can’t wait to see you grow with my child.”
“Or get fat and have stretch marks,” she breathed, as I slowly put my mouth to work with my fingers.
“Is it wrong that I’m looking forward to you being so big that I’ll have to carry you around?”
“Or… roll me… Jack!”
“You’ll be so big, I’ll have to fuck you from behind or watch you ride me. I’ll be able to see all of you while you make love to me.”
“All… my…. fatness,” she panted.
“Your tits will grow and you’ll be impossibly beautiful.
“Oh, Jack,” she mewled, scoring my scalp with her impatient fingers.
“You wanna practice some of those positions now, honey?”
I fucking knew she did. Her body was quivering, and if it was even possible, I wanted her more now than I had ever done before.
“I do. Put it in me. I need you in me, Jack.”
“For you. Anything.”
I undressed her and made love to her. There was no rush or frenzy on this occasion. I took all the time in the world to worship her wonderful body and the gift she was giving me.
I kept having snippets or flash forwards. Carly with her milky white skin, so swollen and round. My large hands holding her bump, patiently waiting for the baby to kick or move.
It was all so fucking exciting.
We lay on the sofa, complete and satisfied as I continued to draw patterns on her now flat stomach. Like before, she was running her hands through my hair.
This. This was how we communicated best. When we were stripped naked and vulnerable, and there could never be anything but honesty between us at moments like this.
“I fucking love you, Carly Sevens.”
“I know you do, and not to dampen the mood but I would like to talk.” Her tone wasn’t the same as before, so I waited patiently for her to continue, absentmindedly writing names on her body. “Before things get out of control, I need to see a doctor.”
“Agreed. You’ll go tomorrow.”
I felt s sharp pain in my scalp as she pulled my hair until I had no choice but to look up at her.
“I may go tomorrow, but there will be no demanding or railroading of my decisions. I get you’re excited and protective, but I still have free will and a mind of my own. Baby in my belly or not, Caveman Jack is acceptable in the bedroom and only the bedroom.
“Ow, ow, ow,” I shouted. “Okay, got it!” Carly released my hair. “I make no apologies for wanting to look after you.” She ignored that and carried on.
“Doctors appointment and exams, that is my focus for the moment. That’s it. I don’t want to make any plans apart from where we live. I don’t want to tell anyone until after I’ve finished at college. I need your word on that. I have to focus.”
“Agreed.”
Carly stopped fussing with my hair and pulled my chin up. “I mean it. No telling anyone, including Jake, until I’ve told my mom and dad. That’s going to be bad enough, but if they find out secondhand, our mountain to climb just became Everest.”
I knew she was right. However, I’d been planning on calling my brother as soon as I could get to a phone. She was right, though. This had to be handled delicately. The whole situation with her parents was tentative enough. To put that right would take careful negotiation. Finding out they were going to be grandparents from my brother was not what could be considered careful at all.
I also had to give her the time to focus on her exams. A baby didn’t mean her future was over; it just meant we now had more reason for her to get the best results possible.
But right now, I was most nervous about our doctor’s appointment. What if the test had been wrong? I knew I’d be devastated and insist on trying for a baby immediately.
Worse than that, though, what if something was wrong?
Come hell or high water, Carly was seeing a doctor at the earliest opportunity and I wouldn’t stop worrying until she had.