Page 19 of Rome
Caleb snorted derisively. “Pic’s beyond pissed at the moment, but he’ll get over it.” He didn’t offer any other information, and I didn’t bother asking for details.
Since I kept yawning all through lunch, Caleb insisted that I go upstairs to take a nap while he and Ethan worked on carving the pumpkins.
“We’ve got this, baby girl. Go on and rest, and we’ll surprise you with our masterpieces when you wake up.”
“Yeah, Mommy. Daddy and me are gonna do masterpieces,” Ethan assured me, although I was fairly sure he had no idea what the word meant.
I was too tired to argue, and I’d been on my feet too much, a fact that Caleb had communicated to me with a single look as he frowned at the sight of my swollen ankles.
Two hours later, I was well-rested, my ankles were no longer puffy, and Everly Rose decided to lay on my bladder, causing me to decide rather quickly that it was time for a visit to the bathroom. After I’d peed for approximately the umpteenth time that day, I made my way downstairs, only to be greeted by a trio of carved pumpkins on the kitchen island, and the delicious smell of pot roast filling the air.
“I added some potatoes and carrots to the roast when you went upstairs earlier,” Caleb said as I wandered into the living room and found him watching the Colts play football, with Ethan jumping around the room cheering them on. I squinted at the TV, realizing that Ethan was actually cheering the other team’s player, who had the ball and was currently running for the end zone with half of the Colt’s defense on his ass. I glanced questioningly at Caleb, wondering if maybe there was some weird football rule that I didn’t know about. Sports weren’t exactly my thing, football especially. I could follow the rules of basketball when the Pacers played, but football bored me to tears for some reason.
Caleb just shook his head and reached out a hand to help me as I carefully lowered myself onto the couch next to him. “I’ve explained it three times already, but he keeps forgetting which team is ours, so now I’m just letting him do his thing. He’s having fun cheering for whoever has the ball,” he leaned over to whisper as I settled in at his side.
“Yes!” Ethan yelled with a fist pump. “He scored, Daddy. Mommy, did you see that? He scored a score!”
“He scored atouchdown,” Caleb corrected with a grin, and Ethan repeated it, trying to commit the word to memory.
The rest of the afternoon was spent quietly, except for Ethan yelling his continued encouragement to the other team’s players. It must have worked, as they thoroughly trounced the Colts. By the time the game ended, our dinner was ready, and we sat down at the kitchen table to eat.
Afterward, Caleb and Ethan cleaned up the dinner dishes while I got Ethan’s lunch ready for the next day and made sure he had everything packed in his backpack that he would need for school. We went over his spelling list for the coming week, which Molly had sent home on Friday. Each week’s list consisted of five simple words, and Ethan was thrilled to discover the word “ball” on this week’s list.
He grumbled a little when it was time for his shower, but Caleb quickly put a stop to that. Ethan insisted that Daddy needed to read to him tonight, so I left them to it and went to soak in the tub for a bit. My back was aching from the extra weight I was carrying around, as well as the fact that my center of gravity was a bit off these days, so I was leaning back when I walked in an effort to compensate for it.
Caleb came in about ten minutes later and sat down on the bathroom floor, leaning back against the vanity with his legs crossed out in front of him at the ankle as he divulged what he could of last night’s problems at the shop.
“But Pic’s going to be OK?” I asked, after he finished his story.
“Physically, yeah. He has bruises, a couple of loose teeth, and a few stitches in his side. Financially, he’s gonna be hurting for a while though. The club voted to suspend him for one month without pay. Well, everyone except for fuckin’ Ace. He didn’t see what the problem was.”
I rolled my eyes at that. Of course he didn’t. Caleb’s uncle wasn’t big on ideas like respect, or rules, or brotherhood.
“Pic also has to pay the five-thousand dollar fine as reparation to the River Rats. Plus, Lola got wind of it. She came to the clubhouse looking for him this morning after she couldn’t get hold of him all night. They got into a screaming match in the middle of the common room. This may be the last straw for her.”
I felt so bad for Lola and their kids. She was a nice woman, who deserved better than a man who clearly had no respect for her, and their kids deserved a father who was actually present in their lives.
“Are you ready for me to help you out?” Caleb asked. At my nod, he got up from his spot on the floor and held out his hands for me to take hold of, carefully supporting me as I stood up and stepped over the edge of the bathtub onto the floor. He grabbed the bath towel I’d laid on the countertop and helped me dry off, then wrapped the towel around me and tucked it between my boobs. My enormous belly peaked through the gap in the front where the edges of the towel wouldn’t meet, and Caleb rubbed it, bending to drop a kiss on it, before going back downstairs. I put on a clean nightshirt and my robe, then joined Caleb downstairs. He put on a movie and settled into the corner of the couch to watch it, pulling me against his chest and wrapping his arm around me. I fell asleep before the first car chase even happened, startling awake toward the end of the movie when a particularly loud explosion filled the screen. I jerked in Caleb’s arms, which immediately tightened around me.
“Easy, baby girl. It’s just the TV.” I laughed at myself, then realized I needed to go to the bathroom, again.
“Ugh, I swear, if your daughter doesn’t stay off my bladder, we’re going to have our very first mother-daughter spat,” I grumbled, motioning for Caleb to help me up. He tried to hide his amusement, wiping the smile off his face when I glared at him.
The movie’s credits were rolling when I came back into the living room, and Caleb picked up the remote to turn off the TV.
“It’s time for my girls to be in bed,” he said, as he walked over to double check that the front door was locked. I walked upstairs as he keyed in the code to arm the alarm, then turned the lights off in the living room and followed me.
“I can’t believe how tired I am this time around,” I said around a yawn as I walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth. “I don’t remember it being this bad with Ethan.”
Caleb joined me at the other sink – I was beyond thankful that our bathroom came equipped with double sinks and a large vanity – and grabbed his toothbrush as well, squirting some toothpaste on it as he pointed out that I was now taking care of Ethan while I was growing another human. “Of course, it’s gonna be harder this time, Abs.”
A few minutes later I slid into bed with all the grace of a camel with a few extra humps, while eyeing my gorgeous husband as he stripped off his clothes and tossed them into the laundry hamper in the corner of the room. Even feeling thirteen months pregnant, I couldn’t deny the tingle I felt at the sight of all that incredible, tattooed skin on display, and that lovely v-shape at his hips that oh-so-helpfully pointed the way to my very favorite part of his anatomy.
He pulled back the covers on his side of the bed and got in, clicking off the lamp on his bedside table and immediately reaching for me. We started off most nights snuggled up together, although we did usually drift to our separate sides of the bed at some point during the night, only to wake up spooned together again more often than not.
I ran my hand up over his six-pack abs, then across his rock-hard pecs, tracing my fingers over the names that I knew were tattooed over his heart. He’d had Pic ink mine the day after I’d agreed to marry him, despite Pic trying to talk him out of it.
There was a belief among tattoo artists that adding your partner’s name to your body was a surefire way to doom the relationship, but Caleb had declared that to be bullshit. Besides, he’d already inked my name around his own ring finger after I’d agreed to be his Ol’ Lady a few months before that. He’d had Ethan’s name added under mine a week after his birth and had already planned to have Saint add Everly’s name when the time came.
