Chapter Thirty-Two

 

 

 

 

Nick

 

 

 

 

 

“I don’t know,” Kelly murmured as she walked through the empty space. “The backyard is too small and I feel like the inside is too much space for the three of us. Does that make sense?”

I wrapped my arm around her waist and let the palm of my hand rest on her protruding stomach. At thirty weeks, she finally looked pregnant but no one really believed us when we said how far along she was. The doctor reassured us at every visit that the baby was on track growth-wise, though.

The house we were standing in was pretty big but I wanted Kelly to have the best. If a big house was what she wanted, then we were going to have a big place. I didn’t want her objecting because of money or because she was afraid to go outside the limits of society’s expectations.

“It does, Kel, but what about when we have more kids? I’d rather buy big now versus moving every time we have another baby.”

Kelly turned her head and looked up at me with a smile. “More kids, huh?”

“Yes, more kids.” I leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose. “Four more.”

The smile on her face turned to a look of horrification. “Five kids? That’s not happening, Nicky. I’m thinking one, maybe two.”

“We’ll see, my insatiable wife.” I gestured to the space around us. “Do you think it’d be too much space with three little Greek boys underfoot?”

“Honestly, yes. More than three thousand square feet is overkill, babe. We could get away with two thousand easy.”

The realtor’s face fell for a moment before she quickly schooled it and stepped closer to us. I’m sure she’d already mentally spent the commission she’d make from the house we were standing in. “I don’t know. I think Nick is right, honestly. This place gives you plenty of room to grow and that pool in the backyard is gorgeous.”

“The pool is gorgeous,” Kelly replied with a spark of frustration in her deep blue eyes. The realtor was starting to grate on her nerves. Someone at her work had suggested this woman but I wasn’t really a fan either. “But like I was telling Mr. Christos, the size of the house coupled with the pool doesn’t leave hardly any room in the backyard. I’d prefer something smaller with a place for our children to play. Do we have time to see the next place?”

Without waiting for an answer, Kelly pushed up on her toes and brushed her lips against mine before turning to head out of the big house. From behind, you couldn’t even tell she was pregnant. My favorite view of her was from the front, though. Kelly’s beauty was always overwhelming but the sight of my child growing in her stomach still left me speechless.

“Man, those pregnancy hormones are tough,” the realtor, whose name I thought was Izzy, said quietly from my side. I hadn’t even heard her walk up.

“What?”

Her slender hand reached out and gripped my bicep. “You seem like such a romantic, offering her the world. Does she realize what a lucky girl she is, Nick?”

“Don’t,” I warned, stepping to the side and forcing her hand to drop from my arm. “Not only is it inappropriate and unprofessional, it’s a fucking bitchy move and completely unattractive in a woman.”

Without waiting for her to reply, I turned and walked towards the front door I’d seen Kelly disappear through just moments before. I stepped outside and found my wife leaning against a pillar on the porch, her phone in her hand as she read something.

The air was a bit cooler since it was the end of January, but it still hovered in the high fifties, low sixties every day and Kelly looked amazing in her jeans, black boots, and maroon sweater that hugged her stomach perfectly. She looked up when she heard me and a smile blossomed across her lips as she tucked her phone into her back pocket.

“Ready?”

I nodded and held my hand out to her. “Ready.”

“So, I’ll just meet you both at the next listing?” Izzy asked, locking the key back in the lockbox connected to the doorknob. Kelly waited until Izzy had turned around before shaking her head.

“Actually, I’m tired and ready to head back home.” Kelly squeezed my hand once. “Is that okay?”

“Of course.” I kissed the side of her head, inhaling her berry-scented hair, and nodded at the realtor. “Thanks for your help today.”

“I’ll pull up some more listings and call you both tomorrow,” Izzy replied hopefully with a huge smile on her face. “Have a good night.”

“Yeah, you too.” Kelly said before murmuring so only I could hear, “Bitch.”

I chuckled and opened the passenger side door to the Camaro so she could get in. “So, I take it we’re done with Izzy?”

“You mean the money grubbing ho who can’t stop looking at my husband like he’s a hunk of meat? Yeah, we’re done with her. I called the listing agent for the last house and he’s going to meet us there now.”

I laughed at her description of our realtor and reached over to clasp Kelly’s thigh. “You’re in a ‘take no prisoners’ type of mood.”

“I’m tired. And huge. And hungry. And huge. And achy.” She paused and flashed me a small smile. “Did I mention huge? We’ve looked at so many houses. I really just want to find the right one and put the stress of looking behind us.”

“I know, sweetheart.” I stopped at a light and leaned over to press a kiss to her cheek. Even cranky and petulant, my wife was amazing.

We pulled up along the curb of a house that was only about six miles from the station and I liked it immediately.

It looked like it was only about five years old, so the tree in the front yard was still small, but the rest of the front yard was xeriscaped to perfection. The cream color of the siding looked really great with the royal blue color of the trim and door. It was two stories and the windows on the second floor were big and inviting.

I got out of the car and offered my hand to Kelly to help her out. We had both just straightened up when someone greeted us from behind. I turned and smiled at the man who strode towards us in a suit.

“Mr. and Mrs. Christos?” He held his hand out to me first, the grin never leaving his face. “I’m Arnold Hurtado from Remax Realty. It’s nice to meet you both.”

“Thanks for coming so quickly,” Kelly replied as she gripped his hand. He just nodded and stepped back to flourish at the home in front of us.

“I’m sorry you’ve been having issues but I’m happy to show you this listing. How about we go inside?”

The inside looked even better than the outside. A large, open living room connected to the dining area. The kitchen was twice the size of the one in the apartment and the appliances looked brand new. Another small eating nook was off to the side and it led to a small den area in the back.

“Wow,” Kelly breathed when we entered the den and opened the sliding door to the backyard.. A gorgeous covered patio ran the length of the house and the yard split between grass and the small kidney-shaped pool. There wasn’t a ton of grass but enough so that our kids could run and a swing set could be set up. The pool wasn’t huge by any means but perfect sized for us.

“It’s a little over two thousand square feet,” Arnold commented as he led us up the stairs to the open hallway. “There’s that bathroom downstairs and two more up here, along with four bedrooms. I have some printouts that have the average utility bills for the last two years.”

Kelly stood in the master bedroom, in front of the large window that had a small lip to sit on in front of it. She stared outside for a moment before turning to look at me, a brilliant smile on her face.

“This is it.”

I nodded and pulled her to my chest, kissing her temple as I held her tight. “I think so, too. Let’s go downstairs and talk specifics with Arnold, okay?”

We left the house an hour later. Arnold was heading straight to his office to submit our offer and all we could do at that point was keep our fingers crossed. Kelly had walked back through and taken pictures she could show to Owens and Megan and she didn’t stop talking about the house the whole way back to Canyon City.

“I’m going to miss the gym, though,” she said, her voice wistful. “Florian recommended a couple of places in New Hope, though.”

I reached over and took her hand in mine, lacing our fingers together. “We’ll find another great place. The loss is harder for them, I’m sure. They’re losing their best yoga instructor.”

I’d seen my little yogi in action several times over the past few months. She was leading a prenatal class twice a week at that point and no longer involved in the regular classes. I was happy that she’d slowed down a lot at the gym. We still went a few times a week but the workouts were a lot less intense and I was doing more at work to compensate.

“What would you say to pizza for dinner tonight, hot stuff?”

Kelly smiled and let her head drop to my shoulder. “That sounds good. I want to show Megan and Simon these pictures.”

We were barely through the door of the apartment before Kelly had her phone out and was describing every detail of the house to her sister. The two of them spoke excitedly and I chuckled as I took the beer Owens was offering me.

“Where is this one?”

“Golden Heights,” I replied, taking a healthy pull from my bottle. “It’s a nice neighborhood and has some good schools. Kel’s already said that you and Gold need to find a house on the same street as us.”

He chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. “Megs would be next door to Kelly if it was possible. As soon as the wedding is over, we’ll resume the hunt for a house.”

Kelly called Owens over and he obliged my wife by oohing and aahing over the photos she showed him. I sat in the armchair and just smiled as I watched them all. It was hard to believe that at the same time last year, Megan and Owens were broken up and Kelly had just started dating Devin the douche. Everything was completely different in all of the best ways.

The next morning, we met a photographer at a park in Canyon City. Kelly was wearing a tight, forest green dress that fell to her knees and met a pair of brown boots she had pulled on. I was dressed in dark denim jeans with a grey, long sleeved button up shirt.

The photos mainly consisted of Kelly by herself, posing in some way to accentuate her round stomach. The photographer added me in after about twenty minutes, telling me how to hold my wife and how to interact with her stomach. Once those were done, Kelly changed her outfit in the small bathroom and more photos were taken except this time with her stomach bare. The shirt she wore covered her breasts but everything else between those and her long, flowy skirt was just belly.

And those pictures were sexy as hell. Her stomach was perfectly round and the tattoo that stretched along her side was sensual, begging for my tongue to trace it like I had many times before. When I joined her for photos with her in my lap, Kelly turned and flashed me a knowing smile.

“Feels like someone is happy to see me,” she muttered, tiling her head back so she could kiss my cheek. I moved her, grinding her against my erection, and put my lips at her ear.

“Keep it up and we’ll really give this photographer some memories to capture.”

Her laughter was almost musical and I couldn’t help joining her. That woman made me incredibly happy.