Epilogue
Leighton Mitchell Mathews
JUDD’S HANDS ARE ON MY hips, guiding me while I walk backward through our bedroom door, kissing en route to our bed. “Happy anniversary to you, Mrs. Mathews.”
“Happy anniversary to you, Mr. Mathews.”
Judd came home from that two-month tour, and we married six weeks later. I know. We jumped in, but there was no reason to wait. I wasn’t leaving him or Scarlett. And he was never going to let me go. It was just the right thing to do.
That was two years ago. Our marriage hasn’t been a piece of cake. Being apart for long stretches of time when he was touring has been hard. We’ve somehow made it work. But not anymore. Judd is done touring.
“Have I told you lately how much I love you?”
“You might have told me this morning when you brought me breakfast in bed, and when I was getting ready to go out tonight, and when you took me to dinner, and when we were driving home. But you can tell me again if it pleases you.”
“I love you so much that it hurts. My chest literally aches when I look at you.”
I go up on my tiptoes and press a kiss to his mouth. “I love you too.”
“Put on something sexy for me.”
“You assume that I can still fit into something sexy.”
“You’re not big.”
I put my hand on top of my swollen belly. “Your definition of big varies greatly from mine.”
I’m two weeks away from my due date, and I’m huge. I don’t know how my belly can get any bigger.
“The size of your stomach validates that we have a healthy baby growing in there.”
“I know. I’m happy for my abdomen to stretch as much as it needs to for him or her to be fat and happy.”
“Forget the sexy lingerie. I just want you naked.”
He undresses me and I do the same for him. When we’re both bare, I push my fingers through the back of his hair as I kiss him. His hands are at my lower back, and he pulls me closer, making my pregnant belly press against him.
His hands caress my breasts, and he thumbs my nipples. After they harden, his mouth takes turns sucking both. The top of my abdomen tightens into a hard ball, just like every other time he plays with my boobs.
The tightening is a contraction. Not painful, but definitely attention-grabbing.
I sit on the bed and move to the center. He crawls over me, stopping to kiss my stomach. “I can’t wait to meet our baby.”
“Me either.”
He grips my hip and coaxes me to turn onto my side. “Daddy wants it from behind.”
Fine by me; I can’t lie on my back anymore. Feels like I’m smothering.
I get situated, which takes a lot more work than it used to, and he positions himself as though he’s going to spoon me from behind. He bends my top leg at the knee and pulls backward, so it’s resting over his legs. “Are you comfortable like this?”
“I’m good.”
He kisses my shoulder in the bend where it meets my neck and eases into me slowly. “Oh fuck, that feels amazing.”
He pulls back and thrusts several times, groaning with every advance. “Oh, you are so damn tight, Leigh.”
He bends my knee and puts the sole of my foot flat against his thigh so my leg is hiked out. He reaches around and rubs my clit. “I’m going to make you come so hard.”
He circles it fast and hard and then slow and soft. It doesn’t take long for me to get there. Everything is extra sensitive these days. “I’m getting close.”
He moves faster and harder, and the first wave of pleasure hits. “That’s it, baby. Come all over my cock. I want to feel your body quiver and squeeze it because you’re orgasming so hard.”
Judd thrusts slower but harder and goes motionless, remaining deep inside me. His special finale.
He kisses my bare shoulder. “Best wife ever.”
“Best husband ever.”
“I hope you still feel that way after you get a dose of my being here all of the time.”
“Nothing will make me happier than having you here every minute of every day. And Scarlett is going to love it too.” She is crazy about her daddy. And Judd is wrapped around her little finger.
He rubs his hand in a circle over my belly. “I missed almost everything with Scarlett, but I’m not going to miss anything with this one. Not one single thing.”
***
For months, you’ve been in our hearts
And now you’re finally here in our arms
I see your face so full of wonder
And the world is already a better place
You are loved
Adored more than you know
Judd stops singing and playing his guitar when he sees me standing in the studio’s doorway. “I didn’t want you to hear the song until it was finished.”
Scarlett got her own song. I got mine. And now this baby is getting its own too.
“No worries. I only heard a few lines. What are you going to call it?”
“Adored.”
“I love that. Is it almost finished?”
“Close, but I have a few kinks to work out. I can probably have it finished by tomorrow.”
“Well, this baby isn’t waiting on you to finish his song. He’s ready to come.”
“It’s time?”
An excruciating pain begins in my back, and I grasp the doorframe. “It’s definitely time.”
I’m admitted to the hospital, and I quickly discover that my labor with this baby is nothing like the last time. More pain. Way more pain. But at least I’m dilating fast. We’re only at the hospital for a few hours when the nurse says that I’m ten centimeters and ready to push.
“Come here, baby.” I hold out my arms for Scarlett, and she leans down from Judd’s arms, squeezing me. “You’re gonna go out with Nana and Pop for a little while.”
Scarlett points to my stomach. “Baby.”
“That’s right. The baby’s coming out of Mommy’s tummy.”
A contraction starts, and I feel a ton of pressure in my butt. “Can y’all take her to the waiting room? I feel like I need to push.”
I can’t control it. My body is doing what it wants to do without my permission.
Judd is at my side, holding my hand while they prep me for delivery. And everything happens so fast, much faster than it did with Sadie.
Judd brings my hand to his lips for a kiss. “I’m a nervous wreck.”
“Almost over.”
Judd leans down and kisses my face. “I love you so much, baby.”
“Love you too.”
The next few moments are an agonizing blur . . . until I hear our baby’s first cry. It’s music to my ears.
My doctor turns our baby around, and Judd and I say it simultaneously. “A boy.”
Judd leans down and kisses the top of my head. “I can’t believe that our baby is here, Leigh. Thank you so much for giving me a son.”
Cooper Mitchell Mathews is placed on my chest and tucked inside my gown so that we’re skin-to-skin. His mouth forms an O, and he presses it to the skin on my chest, lightly sucking. I can already tell that he’s going to be a good breast baby.
Judd lowers his face to our son’s. “Cooper, you and your sister are blessed to have the best mother in the world. You have no idea how loved and adored you will be.”
Judd, Scarlett, and I were once mistaken for a happy little family. And I liked to pretend that we were. But now there’s no more mistaking it or pretending.
We are a happy little family.
The End