Chapter 42
Daniel
Grace talks a mile a minute, telling me all about her chat with Isla, as I steer the minivan along Centennial Boulevard. I have a hard time keeping up because she’s so excited, rambling all over the place about her new potential business partnership with her friend. Still, I squeeze her thigh and ask her questions, supporting her as best I can. I’m so proud of my girl.
We fall silent as we wait in the doctor’s waiting room, though. I can sense Grace’s nervousness. I hold her hand the whole time, silently reassuring her that whatever the outcome, we’re in this together for life.
When her name is called, we meet with Dr. Maddow, an older man with glasses and a head of bushy white hair. He examines her and then sends her for a battery of blood tests and other exams right away.
We follow Kim, the young ultrasound technician, to a room where Grace is instructed to drape herself in a robe and lie on the table. I hold my wife’s hand as Kim squeezes jelly onto her stomach and rubs a wand up and down with her gaze glued to the monitor. I squeeze Grace’s fingers tighter when a confused-looking Kim calls for the doctor to come and double-check her findings. When my nervous wife looks at me, I give her quiet reassurance.
Just as the door is opening, Grace charges at the doctor and shoves him out of the way like a raging footballer. She bends over the sink and hurls up her guts. Her nerves have obviously gotten the best of her.
Dr. Maddow looks at the screen and mumbles. “Well, that explains the vomiting.”
“Excuse me?” I say. I hold Grace’s hair out of her face while she continues to puke.
The old man turns his full attention to us his eyes twinkling with amusement under his huge spectacles. “Mrs. Trotten, I’m pleased to inform you that, not only is your reproductive apparatus entirely healthy and functional—” he tilts the monitor so that we can see it. “—it turns out that you’re pregnant.”
Grace looks up from the sink, her jaw hanging loose in disbelief. “I’m…what?”
A slow smile spills across the doctor’s face as he repeats himself. “You’re…pregnant! I’d say about five weeks.”
Finally, I manage to get a few words out of my mouth. “We’re having a baby?”
The doctor nods assuredly, folding his arms across his chest.
“But I thought I couldn’t…” Grace prattles sentence fragments together. “Because of my C-section…All the damage and the scar tissue…The woman punctured my bowels…”
I try and help her out. “She thought that she’d been too badly injured by her C-section. She convinced herself that she’d never get pregnant again.” I’m laughing now. Not to mock Grace but because I’m just shocked and thrilled.
My wife’s speaks again in a trembling voice. “I read all these anecdotes. On all these internet forums…”
Laughing happily, Kim pats Grace on the shoulder. “Well, your body proved the internet forums wrong, Mrs. Trotten. Congratulations!”
I take my wife home that night in a haze of gratitude and disbelief. Gracie is silent while I make the kids some canned ravioli and I take over bedtime duty just to give her some space to come to grips with the news.
By the time I crawl into bed, she’s under the covers with the blankets pulled all the way up to her chin. I lie next to her, staring into her big brown eyes and running my fingers down her cheek.
“You okay?” I ask quietly.
She nods, her irises shining in the darkness. “I’m okay.” She bites her lip. “I just can’t believe that we got this damn lucky. We have everything. Everything. I almost feel guilty.”
She’s right. We came this close to ending our marriage, this close to throwing our ‘forever’ down the drain. And now, our relationship is stronger than ever and our family is growing yet again.
“Don’t you dare feel guilty,” I whisper. “‘Cause we almost didn’t make it.”
“I love you so much, Daniel.” She scoots a little closer and I press my lips to the point of her nose.
“I love you, too, Angel.”
We lie side by side in a companionable silence for a long minute. I count my many, many blessings. After a while, she looks at me and says, “Daniel?”
“Yes?”
“Next time the jellyfish stings, will you be the one to pee on my leg?”
I have no idea what she’s talking about but she seems to need an affirmative answer from me, she seems to need confirmation that I’ve got her back no matter what. “Yes, Grace. Yes, I will. I’d do anything for you.”
She’s quiet and think she’s dozed off until she speaks again. “What if we keep bickering?”
“Of course we’ll keep bickering. We’ve been bickering since the day we met. We met in law school – land of people who like to bicker.” She giggles. “You just need to remember that nothing will ever make me stop loving you, nothing. As long as you’ll have me, I’m yours forever, babe. Forever.”
Gathering her in my arms, I kiss her. She laces her arms around my neck and releases a big exhale, relaxing into my hold. The harder I kiss her, the looser her tense muscles become. She begins to purr as my hands travel along her skin, exploring her body.
She’s carrying my baby. My beautiful Angel is carrying my baby.
When my palms smooth over her chest, her nipples are hard little points, begging to be touched and kissed. I move my attention there, squeezing one tiny nub between my fingers while I suck the other into my mouth.
She spills onto her back and, grinning, I climb on top of her. “Hey…” she breathes out as we gaze at each other.
“Hey…” I whisper back as I pinch the hem of her t-shirt and slide my hands under the fabric. She’s so warm and soft. And she smells like home.
I tug the shirt over her head and discard it somewhere in the darkness. Then she pushes my pants and underwear down in one motion. Our movements are practiced but natural, perfected by repetition over the years. I’ve made love to her so many times and I plan on doing it for the rest of my life.
When my mouth finds the tender flesh of her neck and begins to travel across her shoulder bone, she purrs. My lips work down her torso and over her belly. I take a moment to touch my lips to her scar. She shudders beneath me and slides her fingers into my hair, pushing me lower.
And just as I’m about to pull her panties down and slide my tongue over her sweet pussy, a shrill scream rips through the air.
I drop my forehead to her pelvis in disappointment. Ugh!
She sits up, pushing at me softly. “She’s having another nightmare,” Grace says, tilting her head in the direction of Bella’s room. She’s already trying to get out of bed.
I put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. “You stay here. I’ll go check on her.” I get dressed.
“No, no,” Grace insists. “I’ll go check on her. I’m still trying to get her to trust me.” I nod and watch her pull on her t-shirt before padding down the hallway.
A few moments later, she comes back into the room with Bella in her arms. “She asked if she could sleep with us,” Grace whispers, “Just for tonight.”
I smile and peel back the blankets, making room for them. They both climb into bed and Bella snuggles up right next to me. I kiss her forehead.
“Daddy, is Grace my mommy now?” the innocent girl asks quietly in my ear.
I nod. “She is.”
I hear the grin in her voice when she says, “I like Grace.”
“She likes you, too. She loves you.” My wife and I make eye contact in the shadowy room and share smile.
Grace reaches over and holds the girl tight. My heart swells up in my chest as I watch my child cuddle with her new mother. I pull the comforter higher around us and settle in.
Not two minutes later, I hear little footsteps pitter-pattering down the hall.
“Sebastian?” Grace questions with wide eyes just as the door swings open and our toddler strolls in with this bottle of milk in hand.
I rise onto my elbows and roar with laughter. “Hey, buddy,” I say. “How did you manage to get out of your crib?”
He flings his bottle aside and sticks both arms out to me. “Up!” he commands firmly.
Bella giggles as I scoop her brother off the floor and he crawls under the sheets next to her. He spreads his limbs out like a starfish and our little Vitruvian man promptly falls asleep. I've been pushed to the edge of the bed. One of my legs is actually hanging over the side.
I glance at Grace and she shrugs. I can hear the restrained laughter in her voice. “I guess we’re going to have to find more creative ways to get our private time, huh?”
I huff. “Looks like it.”
We lie in silence for a while as the children’s little snores fill the air. Grace whispers my name in the darkness. “Daniel…?”
I’ve already begun to drift off. “Hmmm…?”
"Thank you for not letting me break us." Her voice cracks on the words.
I reach across the mass of sleeping bodies between us and run my hand over her stomach where our baby is growing. "Thank you for giving me something worth fighting for."