Page 97 of A Lifetime of Afters
“Put it in the October box as well.” Rounding the table to the kitchen, he brought me back a pen. “Make whatever changes you want.”
My heart skipped a beat. Maybe several. It was possible I was having a heart attack. I took a breath and pretended to think. Lowering my eyebrows, I scowled at him. “Don’t look.”
He immediately closed his eyes.
How smooth and peaceful his face was. I’d only ever seen him like that in sleep. Most times not even then.
His lips tipped up. “Are you writing or staring at me?”
“Staring at you,” I admitted. “You’re beautiful.”
Without opening his eyes, he said, “Women are beautiful. You’re beautiful. I’m a stud.”
You have no idea. But you’ll know in about a minute.“You are.”
Beginning with July, I crossed out Moose Lake and moved it to October. Writing down the date of October 31st, I carefully wrote beside it, ‘Baby’s First Hallowe’en’. For December, I added ‘Baby’s First Christmas’. And in July, I simply wrote the date, July 27th, and drew a heart around it. After a moment, I went back up to April and wrote, ‘Get Married’.
“Hurry up, beautiful girl or you’re going to get punished.”
“Will I?” I mused. I didn’t think there would be any punishments in the near future. “Hm. We’ll see.” Placing the paper in front of him, I covered his hand with mine. “You can look.”
His eyes went to July, and he pointed to the circled date. “You want to get married in July? Is that why you don’t want to go to Moose Lake?”
“Keep looking, Hawk.”
His eyes went back up to January and he skimmed through the months, stopping at April. His eyebrows shot up. “You want to get married in April? Isn’t that too soon to pull it together?” He stopped abruptly. “What am I saying? April is fantastic. We can elope if we have to although I’d rather get married at the resort this time seeing as it’s the way it always should have been.”
My mind flashed back to the binder full of plans. “You didn’t get married at the resort?”
He twisted his mouth to the side. “No. I couldn’t do it in the end. We eloped.”
“Why couldn’t you do it?” My mind spun with plans. Harley and Lou and I were going to make it so beautiful!
“She complained incessantly and all I thought was that it should have been you.” He shrugged. “Not very gentlemanly, I know, but I never claimed to be a gentleman. Speaking of which,” he wagged his eyebrows, “can we go to bed now?”
I nodded toward the paper. “Just as soon as you see the rest of the changes.”
He growled to himself and sat back in his chair, then regarded me with narrowed eyes as he drained his beer before picking up the paper. “I haven’t seen your boobs in three weeks, Noelle. I really don’t care what you add-”
He slapped the paper back down on the table. His eyes grew huge in his face as he struggled to take in what he read.
I reached for the pen and wrote under July 27th, ‘Become a father.’
Finally, he raised his head to look at me, his eyes dropping to my hand that again rested protectively over my stomach. “Noelle…” His eyes skittered back and forth from my face to my hand to the note to the table and he leapt up. Snatching the wine cooler off the table, he informed me, “You can’t have this!”
“I know. I wasn’t going to drink it,” I watched him carefully. He looked stunned.
Slowly he circled the table and dropped to his knee for the second time that night. “Noelle,” he held his hands toward my stomach, “can I touch?”
“Of course.” Yup. No punishment in my future.
Putting his other knee down, he edged closer and splayed his hands over my womb.
I placed my hands over his.
“You have the tiniest of bellies here,” he whispered. “Our baby is growing in there.” Realization hit him and he looked up at me. “July 27th. The baby is due July 27th.”
I smiled. “Are you happy?”
