“Oh God, we can have sex without interruption. However will we contain our excitement?”
I laugh as I pull her leggings and panties down. “Baby, you don’t have to contain anything.”
Giggling, she throws off her shirt as I do the same, tossing it to the floor with h
ers. As I undo my pants, I take in her sweet body, her growing abdomen, and then the scars that cover her inner thighs. Leaning down, I kiss her right in the middle of her breast before trailing kisses down her ribs to her belly. I fall between her legs, and they come up, wrapping around my chest as I move my fingers along her. Looking up, she meets my gaze as she slides her fingers into my hair, a little kitten smile on her sweet lips.
A lump forms in my throat as I get lost in her eyes, my finger dancing along the place where my child grows. I wonder what it will look like. Will it have my eyes, hers, or a mixture, changing with its mood? I want to know if it will be a girl, because I think that’s what I want. I want a little version of the person who holds my heart in her hands. I want to come home to my girls, my loves. But then, a little boy would be life-altering too. Someone like me. Tearing up the world. Jeez, it would be awesome. Either way. But I don’t care because what I want is for it to be healthy and come from this gorgeous woman I’m totally in love with.
Moving her finger along my cheekbones, she smiles. “You look like you’re gonna cry.”
Smiling bashfully, I look away, shaking my head. “Men don’t cry.”
She grins, rolling her eyes. “Sure, they don’t.”
“It’s allergies.”
“Oh, those pesky things.”
“For sure,” I say, swallowing hard. “Hey, Avery?”
“Yeah, Jace?”
“Can I tell you something and you not laugh?”
She smiles, her eyes burning into mine. “Yeah.”
I hesitate because it’s kind of corny, but I have to tell her. I want her to know. Clearing my throat free of emotion, I whisper, “I used to think that the ultimate high, the number one thing in my life, was hockey. I used to think nothing could come close to the way the ice makes me feel, the way it smells, the feel of it against my skin. The sounds of my stick against the puck or the rush of scoring. I really thought it was life, but I was wrong.”
Her eyes turn softer as she holds my gaze. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I say, pressing my lips to her belly. “Because nothing can even come close to the smell or feel of your skin. The sounds you make when I kiss you, or touch you, or the rush I feel when I see my baby growing inside of you. I thought I could never love anything more than hockey, but then you came along, and yeah, you’re it. You and our baby.”
When her lip trembles, I smile as I shake my head. She sits up, taking my face in her hands. Kissing my lips, she presses her nose to mine and squeezes her eyes shut tightly. Clearing her throat, she smiles as her lips quirk at the side. “You are everything I never thought I could ever have. The love, the completion, everything. You are really amazing, Jace, and I can’t thank you enough for making me feel important.”
“You don’t have to,” I whisper against her lips. “You won’t ever have to thank me for anything as long as you keep kissing me.”
She smiles against my lips, and my eyes fall shut as she whispers, “Done.”
I love when he touches my stomach.
I don’t know why, but it’s just so much more real when he does it.
Watching as his finger swirls around my belly button, I kiss his bare chest and snuggle closer to him while still taking in the room we’re lying in. Jace, or maybe it was Lucy, didn’t hold back on designing of every inch of this apartment. She made it a home, with little things that are so us. Pictures hang on a string along the wall by the bathroom, each one reminding me of a moment in our lives. He did all this for me. It’s so sweet, and honestly, it’s taking everything not to break out in tears.
I’m so unbelievably happy.
Has it been easy? Maybe in the beginning. But since the moment I told Jace I was pregnant, it’s been a whirlwind that he has handled with such grace. It blows my mind—this goofy, wannabe player, spoiled brat stepped up and became a man in seconds. I don’t know how I got so lucky to be the one to get the stand-up guy, but I’m pretty sure it was the work of God. He made him for me. Yeah, this isn’t what either of us wanted at this exact moment, but I wouldn’t change anything.
Not when I can’t even stop smiling.
“So,” he says and I look up into his smiling face. “According to the book, we are out of the first trimester.”
“Yeah.” I eye him, unsure where he is going with this. “And?”
“And that means we can make it Facebook-official,” he waggles his eyebrows at me and I laugh as he sits up, pulling on a pair of shorts before grabbing his phone.
“Seriously?” I ask, my body still humming from the amazing love we just made. “Everyone who matters knows.”