Chapter 38

Milo

 

 

I sat straight up in bed, listening intently. Something woke me up. I thought it was a boom, but I wasn’t sure if it was real or part of a dream.

“Daddy!” Ainsley shouted, streaking across the bedroom floor and practically flying into our bed.

“Watch out for—”

I reached my hand out. Liza wasn’t in bed. I turned to look at the clock on the nightstand, but the familiar red numbers weren’t there. We had lost power. Great.

“It’s okay. It’s just a thunderstorm,” I assured Ainsley. “How about we get some water, and you can sleep in our bed tonight. Okay?”

“Okay.”

I rolled out of bed, reached for her in the darkness and picked her up. “Let’s go find Mommy.”

“She’s in the bathroom,” Ainsley announced.

“Oh, she is, huh?”

“Yep, she’s sick. She told me I could lay in bed with you until she was better.”

I hadn’t even known she had been out of bed.

“Was she with you?” I asked, a little confused.

“She was laying in my bed because I was scared. Then she ran to the bathroom.”

“Oh,” I said, understanding the situation a little better. I had slept right through the storm and her getting out of bed. “Let’s go check on Mommy.”

I tapped on the bathroom door and waited. When she didn’t answer, I opened the door. She was sitting on the floor next to the toilet.

I took Ainsley back to our bed. “Can you sit right here for a minute while I help Mommy?”

At that moment, the power flickered off and on and then stayed on. I turned on our bedroom light.

“Can you do that?” I asked her.

She nodded her head and laid down on my side of the bed.

“I’ll be right back.”

I rushed back to the bathroom and sat down on the floor next to her. “How are you feeling?”

She moaned.

“Maybe you got whatever it was me and Ainsley had a couple weeks ago.”

She shook her head. “No.”

“Want me to get you anything?” I asked, reaching out to feel her head to see if she had a fever.

“I don’t have a fever,” she groaned.

“That’s a good thing, right?”

She leaned forward, stood up and flipped on the light. I looked up at her and could see she was pale and had dark circles under her eyes.

“I don’t know if it’s a good thing,” she mumbled.

I got to my feet and hugged her close. “You’ll be okay. Let’s get you back to bed so you can rest.”

“Remember how I said I didn’t want any more kids?”

“Yes.”

She stepped away from me and opened one of the drawers in the bathroom cabinet. She pulled out a box and handed it to me.

“What’s this?” I asked, reading the letters EPT. I read the fine print and looked up at her. “What the hell?”

“Open it.”

I opened the box and pulled out the stick. “Is this what I think it is?” I asked, not sure if I was reading the thing right.

“Yes, it is. It’s a pregnancy test.”

I looked at it, staring at the little plus sign in the window. “You’re pregnant?” I asked, slightly dumbfounded.

“Yes, Milo. You knocked me up. Again. Why do you always have to get me pregnant?” she moaned, pushing me out of the way as she lunged for the toilet.

I stood there staring at the stick in my hand. She was pregnant. We had made another baby. I couldn’t believe it. I was stunned, but very happy. I heard her retching and put the stick back in the box before grabbing a washcloth and running it under cold water.

I rubbed her back and held her hair back while she puked.

“I hate this,” she said in complete misery.

I handed her the cloth and let her wash her face.

“Want to go back to bed?”

“Yes. If I can sleep.”

I helped her up and hugged her tight. She was going to have my baby, again. This time, I was going to be there every step of the way. I kissed the top of her head.

“How’d you know?” I asked, realizing she could only be a few weeks along.

She shrugged a shoulder. “When the dizziness didn’t get better yesterday, I had a funny feeling about it. I bought a test while I was out earlier today. I wanted to wait to tell you.”

“Why, wait?”

“I don’t know; I just didn’t think it was the right time.”

I stepped back and grabbed her shoulders. “Look at me,” I ordered.

She looked up. “What?”

“It’s always the right time. No more secrets, especially this kind of secret. I don’t know about you, but I am very happy about this. I am here to say. I’m not going anywhere,” I told her, meaning every word.

She slowly nodded her head. “Okay.”

“Good, now let’s get you back to bed. It’s still early. We can try to sleep for a couple more hours.”

A loud crack of thunder struck just as we were going into our room. Ainsley yelped as the lights went out again.

“We’re here, hon; scoot over and let Mommy and me in bed,” I said, pushing her little body to the middle.

The three of us crawled under the covers. It was unusually cold, but I didn’t mind a bit. It meant lots of snuggling with my favorite girls.

I couldn’t sleep once I was back in bed, no matter how hard I tried. All I could think about was the baby. Would it be a boy? I didn’t care. I was too damn excited. I knew it was going to take Liza a little time to reach my excitement level. She was the one dealing with the morning sickness. It was understandable that she was less than thrilled at the idea.

My mind drifted to the future. I imagined what she would look like pregnant. Would she have crazy cravings? I smiled thinking about me making midnight runs for ice cream. I had never been around pregnant women or babies. What I knew was limited to what I had seen on TV. This was going to be very exciting time, and I was looking forward to every minute of it.

I decided to get out of bed. I needed to make some lists about what we would need for the baby. The house was big enough, but the office was now going to have to be the nursery. I slipped on a pair of sweats and headed to the kitchen to make coffee.

“Daddy,” Ainsley said, walking into the kitchen and rubbing her eyes.

“Hey, sweetie, you’re up early.”

“I’m hungry.”

“Have a seat, and I’ll get you some cereal.”

Liza came into the kitchen, looking miserable. “You got this?” she asked.

“Yes, go back to bed. We’re fine out here.”

I gave Ainsley her cereal and walked to where Liza was standing against the wall.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“I’m positive. I can handle getting my daughter a bowl of cereal. Come on, let’s get you back to bed.”

I walked her back into our room and tucked her in before kissing her. “Sleep.”

She nodded and closed her eyes. I wished there was a way I could make her feel better, which gave me an idea.

I grabbed my laptop and started doing research. I needed to know everything there was to know about early pregnancy. I jotted down every suggestion that was made on the numerous websites about dealing with morning sickness.

“Let’s get you dressed, kiddo. We need to go the store and get Mommy some crackers.”

“Crackers? Mommy doesn’t like crackers.”

“She will today,” I said with a wink.

I couldn’t wait to tell Ainsley she was going to be a big sister, but that was something that would have to wait until Liza was ready. I wrote two notes and put one on the pillow beside her in bed and then another on the kitchen counter. I didn’t want her to miss the note and panic, but I also didn’t want to wake her when she was sleeping so peacefully.

Ainsley and I went to some trendy supermarket. It was upscale and boasted it only sold the best, organic foods on the market. Only the best for my girl and my unborn child. We loaded up on fresh fruits and vegetables, crackers, ginger tea, ginger ale and everything else the experts recommended. Then we headed back home. I was eager to see her.

“Hey, guys,” she said, looking and sounding much better than she had a few hours earlier.

“Hi,” I found myself smiling so big my face was probably going to hurt in the morning.

“What do you have there?” she asked, looking at the bags we were carrying.

“Groceries, for you.”

She raised an eyebrow. “For me?”

I nodded. “You and the littlest Pastek in the house,” I winked. “I’ll go get the rest,” I said, giving her a quick kiss and heading back out the door.

“There’s more?”

“Daddy bought everything, Mommy. Everything!” Ainsley said, holding her arms wide.

I could hear Liza laughing as I walked back to grab the rest of the groceries and the bouquet of roses I had picked up.

“For you,” I said, delivering her flowers.

“Aw, this is so sweet. Thank you.”

“I helped pick them out,” Ainsley offered.

“Yes, she did. She did a good job. Go, sit down. I’ll take care of this. Do you want some ginger ale? Crackers?”

She smiled and shook her head. “I’m fine. It passed. I’m sure I’ll be wanting all of that tomorrow, but for now, I’m okay.”

“Good, but sit. You had a long night.”

Ainsley drifted off to her bedroom to play with the few toys she had at the house. I quickly put everything away, knowing I was probably putting it in all the wrong places, but at least it was off the counter.

I grabbed one of the cans of ginger ale and took it to the couch to sit beside her.

“You really didn’t have to do all that,” she said, leaning her head against my shoulder.

“Yes, I did, and I wanted to. You will be treated like a queen,” I said kissing the top of her head.

“How did you know?” I asked.

“It was the dizziness that gave me the first clue. I remembered when I was pregnant with Ainsley, I was really prone to dizzy spells the first few months. There were a couple of other clues as well. And, well, we didn’t use any protection,” she added the last bit with a hint of shame and regret.

“Oh. I guess I assumed you were on the pill.”

“That’s what you get when you assume,” she shot back.

“I’m sorry, you’re right, but well, we never did, and you never mentioned it.”

She released a long sigh. “I should have. I didn’t. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“We’re lucky you didn’t, because now you get to have another one of my babies,” I said with a grin.

She laughed. “I feel very lucky.”

“You better be serious, because you are lucky. So, can I tell people?”

She shrugged. “I guess, but technically you’re supposed to wait until I’m about three months, just in case I miscarry.”

“What?” I asked, horrified at the thought. “You might? Why?”

“No, no, not like that. It’s normal, and it does happen for no good reason at all. I would suggest we not tell the world yet, but you can tell people you’re close to,” she agreed.

“Good,” I said, pushing the contact for Coach Summers on my phone.

“My dad!” she asked.

I grinned. “Yep, now shush; I have some big news I want to tell him.”