THAT RING

by Dodd, Jillian

While they run upstairs to start planning, Jennifer saunters over to me with the puppy still in her arms and a grin on her face. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her look so sexy. I used to watch her in movies; now, she’s literally starring in my life.

  It’s both incredible and surreal.

  “Do you feel like we just dodged a bullet?” she asks me. “The minute he said party, I was thinking sneaking your parents’ alcohol and playing Seven Minutes in Heaven and Spin the Bottle.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” I admit, glancing upstairs before taking her hips in my hands and pulling her tightly against me.

  “Danny!” she says with a gasp as I push my pelvis against hers, letting her know what I want. Right now.

  “I still can’t believe you’re in my house,” I say, lowering my head and possessively putting my lips on hers. “My room. Now.”

  “But—” she says.

  I don’t reply; I just take her hand then lead her into my bedroom. Somehow, in my heated state, I manage to lock the door and put the puppy in her kennel before putting my lips back on hers.

  Jennifer

  “You two look thick as thieves,” Phillip says when we get to their place later that evening. “What’s up?”

  “They are just in love,” Jadyn scoffs.

  “No,” Phillip says, eyeing us. “That’s the we just had a quickie look.”

  My mouth falls open.

  Phillip laughs. “Ah, Jen, you gotta work on your acting skills. You’re supposed to at least pretend it’s not true when you get caught.”

  “We didn’t get caught,” I fire back. “But the dog started howling, and I started laughing hysterically. But Danny was a champ and still powered through. In spite of it all.”

  Danny slightly raises his chin and grins, like he’s posing for a headshot.

  Jadyn is busy setting out three mason jars filled with bacon strips on the island in front of us as Phillip passes out beers.

  “What kind of bacon is this?” Danny asks.

  “First one is pepper bacon dipped in chocolate. Second one is your favorite with the brown sugar and cayenne pepper. Third one is a new creation. A peanut butter glaze.”

  “We might need your help with something,” I say to Jadyn as I try the peanut butter bacon. “Oh my gosh, this is delicious!”

  “What’s that?” Jadyn asks.

  “The kids asked if they could have a party,” Danny says.

  “Oh boy,” Phillip says.

  “That’s exactly what I thought!” I say. “And I want to do the toast.” We all raise our beers. “To life’s little, unexpected moments.”

  “Big moments,” Danny coughs.

  “Yes, of course,” I say with a laugh. “There was nothing little about our recent, unexpected moment.”

  We’re all laughing as we clink our bottles together.

  “I told the kids we could have a real tree this year, and they asked if they could have a party where they make ornaments.”

  “That’s so sweet,” Jadyn says, getting misty-eyed.

  “Why does that make you sad?” I ask Jadyn.

  “Because Lori always thought real trees were too messy.”

  “And she’s having baby-itis,” Phillip continues. “Our kids always made ornaments for our trees when they were little. Actually,” he says, looking closer at his wife, “they still do.”

  Jadyn sets her beer down, all of a sudden looking at it like it’s poison. “Oh my gosh,” she says as the tears flow.

  “Oh my gosh,” Phillip says, his eyes huge.

  “Wait, oh my gosh what?” I ask, trying to figure what’s going on.

  I watch as Danny’s eyes immediately go to Jadyn’s boobs. It makes me instantly jealous.

  But then he laughs and goes, “Oh my gosh,” too.

  Jadyn takes a deep breath and says one word, “Phillip.”

  “I’m on it,” he says and then races out to the garage.

  I turn to Danny. “Where’s he going?” I ask, but he doesn’t answer. Instead, he follows Phillip out the door, saying he’ll go with him.

  “What was all that?” I ask Jadyn. “I swear, sometimes, you three speak in code.”

  “They’re going to go buy me a pregnancy test,” she says. “When Phillip said baby-itis, it sort of hit me. Danny looked at my boobs, which always get bigger when I’m first pregnant, and I was just complaining to Phillip about my bra feeling tight and wondered if it had shrunk.” She glances down at her chest.

  Honestly, now that they pointed it out, it does look like she’s wearing a great push-up bra.

  I give her a hug and feel a twinge of jealousy, wishing it were me who was pregnant.

  “Phillip and I have been talking about if we want more kids a lot lately. We sort of decided we were done.”

  “But you’ve been having second thoughts about it?” I ask.

  “Kind of. And I didn’t know if it’s because I truly want more or just because of the realization that my babies are growing up.”

  I start pacing. “This is hard, isn’t it?”

  “What is?”

  “The waiting and wondering?”

  “It’s part of it. And, although I have pretty easy pregnancies, the worry is always there and the hormones.”

  “The kind that make you cry over Christmas ornaments?” I tease.

  “Yes, those kind exactly.”

  Danny

  I’m in the car with Phillip, driving to the pharmacy. “I thought you decided you were done?”

  “We did,” he replies.

  “But Jadyn wasn’t sure?”

  “No, she agreed, but she’s been a little sad about it.”

  “Should I be wishing for the test to be positive or negative?”

  Phillip turns to me with a beaming smile. “Positive, definitely positive.”

  “You changed your mind?” I ask him, thinking he needs to slow down a little. He’s driving like a maniac.

  “I was going to tell you tonight. I signed the deal with Tripp. Had a call today with the board of directors of our company, and they all agreed,” he says.

  “I take it, you got everything you asked for?”

  “And more. When it took him too long to reply to my last offer, I upped the price.”

  “You got that, too?” I ask, impressed.

  “Yes. The company will transition over the next six months, and other than the board jobs, I’ll be retired. After four kids, a baby doesn’t scare me anymore. I know what I’m doing. This is going to be so much fun.”

  I let out a sigh, the kind of dreamy sigh usually reserved for my teenage daughter.

  “Oh boy,” Phillip says. “I know exactly where your mind just went.”

  “And where’s that?” I scoff.

  “You were just thinking about how you will probably retire soon and how you want babies with Jennifer.”

  “And how cool it would be to have babies around the same age,” I admit.

  “It would be pretty cool,” Phillip agrees.

  Jennifer

  The boys get home, and I am pretty sure they bought the store out of pregnancy tests.

  “I can never remember which one is the best when they are all lined up next to each other,” Phillip says with a wry grin.

  Jadyn quickly plucks one out of the mix.

  “Only one?” Phillip questions.

  “Yeah, I was just thinking, this is silly. I mean, I realized I am actually a little late, but I’m probably not.”

  “Wait,” I say. “Do we want to be or not?”

  “We don’t,” Jadyn insists.

  Phillip looks sad.

  And I know Jadyn is lying. Telling herself she doesn’t want to be pregnant so that if she’s not, she won’t feel disappointed. And I know the difference. I’ve had a couple of scares when I’ve prayed to everyone I could think of to please, please not be.

  We sit in silence while Jadyn goes into the master bedroom and presumably pees on the stick.

  She comes
out a few moments later, sets the stick on a paper towel on the kitchen counter, and then paces around the kitchen table where the rest of us are sitting. She lays her phone on the table, and I can see she’s set the timer to go off in less than three minutes.

  When it finally dings, she goes, “I can’t look.”

  “I can’t look either,” Phillip says, glancing at Danny.

  “Don’t look at me. I can’t do it,” he says.

  “Jennifer, will you do the honors?” Jadyn asks me.

  I smile, knowing that it really is an actual honor to them.

  I get up and walk slowly over to where it is sitting on the counter—doing it like I imagine I would in a movie. With drama. But when I read the results, I forget about acting and just scream out, “Pregnant!”

  Jadyn plops into the chair behind her in shock. I’m thinking it was a good thing the chair was there. She takes a deep breath in through her nose, and I can tell she’s trying hard not to completely lose it. I’m ready to jump up and down with joy. If I were pregnant, I’d be sprinting around the house in circles like Angel and Winger do, tossing up a toy and chasing it over and over in happiness.

  But I come to realize as I watch Phillip stride toward Jadyn, drop to his knees in front of her, take her hand, and gaze into her eyes, that there’s more to it.

  The emotion I see in their faces isn’t just happiness. It’s a huge jumble of things—one of which is fear.

  And I understand that, all of a sudden, it became real, not just an idea. That there’s an actual little baby growing inside her and that alone can be fraught with difficulty. Things like miscarriages, birth defects, and stillborns. Complications. I realize being pregnant isn’t just about having a baby; it’s a bigger process. Probably a more important process of learning what pure love really is. How I suppose you have to be cautiously optimistic until you get to a certain point in your pregnancy, and even then—as Phillip and Jadyn well know after their experience with Chase’s birth—outside sources can also affect your baby’s life. I suppose it’s like how in your own life, the second you feel like you have it all under control, something happens, and you suddenly realize you don’t. Only this is on a bigger level because it isn’t about you. It’s about this tiny, sweet, little creature totally depending on you. Your baby.

  I’m both lost in thought and mesmerized by the love that radiates between Phillip and Jadyn when Danny steps in front of me and wipes the tears from my face.

  He kisses me on the nose.

  “Someday, that’s going to be us,” he whispers.

  “Do you really think so?” I ask, more tears forming from sheer happiness.

  “Yeah, I do.” He gives me a naughty smirk. “Although it might require a lot of trying.”

  And I can’t help but laugh through my tears.

  “I think we need another toast,” Phillip says as we gather back around the island and grab our beers. “Here’s to my beautiful wife, the newest edition to our family, and to the fact that I’m going to be a stay-at-home dad this time around.”

  Jadyn’s eyes get huge again. “You did it?”

  “I’d say he did,” Danny quips.

  “Yes,” Phillip tells Jadyn, ignoring Danny’s comment. “Tripp agreed to all my terms, including the increased price. The board approved the deal via conference call, and Tripp and I signed it this afternoon. Six months.”

  “We don’t have enough bedrooms,” Jadyn says.

  “The kids can share, and before you know it, Chase will be going off to college anyway.”

  “Don’t say that!” Jadyn says. “He’s staying with us forever.”

  She looks at Phillip, and they both laugh.

  “Nah,” Phillip says.

  “But we might need to build an addition,” Jadyn continues. “We do have that attic space. Maybe we add a third floor?”

  “Whatever you think is best, darling.”

  Jadyn playfully smacks him on the shoulder. “Oh no, don’t you start with that bullshit already.”

  “Is that bullshit?” I ask Danny.

  “Phillip says that a lot when Jadyn is pregnant,” Danny replies with a laugh. “Keeps him out of trouble. We haven’t finished the toast,” he reminds us. “Jennifer and I are starting to feel stupid with our bottles still up in the air. To all of it and all of you.”

  “Hear, hear,” we all say.

  “Let’s go out for dinner,” Jadyn suggests. “We need to celebrate. Get dressed up. Let me call the sitter and see if I can bribe her into canceling her Saturday night plans and coming over for a few hours.” She makes a quick call, ups the ante for the babysitter, and hangs up. “Negotiating isn’t as fun when you’re desperate, but she agreed. Let’s invite Marcus and Madison to go with us. No one else will be able to get sitters this late.” She turns to me, explaining, “Their youngest is a sophomore at Notre Dame. Smart girl. Engineering major. Since she left for college, they have been traveling and enjoying the empty-nest life.”

  “Our empty-nest life just got pushed back by seven more years,” Phillip quips.

  “How does this happen?” I ask.

  “Well,” Phillip says with a grin.

  “I don’t mean how, but, like, are you not on birth control of some kind?”

  “No, we chart my ovulation with an app, and during that time, we use condoms,” Jadyn says.

  “But there was a recent night after she came home from California after being gone all week, and she was going to look it up, and I didn’t give her the opportunity,” Phillip admits.

  “Seven years of lost empty-nesting for five minutes of pleasure,” she murmurs.

  Phillip narrows his eyes at her.

  She rolls her. “Okay, it might have been more than five minutes. After the first time.”

  I laugh. I love these two.

  Jadyn turns to me. “Jennifer, do you have any dressy dresses to wear with you?”

  “Uh, not really. Just that orange one. But I’d probably freeze.”

  “Okay, you come with me,” she says. “Danny, call Marcus and see if they can join us. Phillip, call Trio’s and use your magic to get us a private room for seven o’clock. Tell them we’ve got a famous friend in town, and we want Kat to wait on us because she will be discreet.”

  Phillip and Danny both stand at mock attention and snap a salute to her.

  She grabs my arm with one hand, leading me toward her bedroom, while she reaches back and flips the guys off with the other.

  I’m wearing a very sexy black dress and think I look damn good, but whatever Hollywood sparkle I might have doesn’t compare to Jadyn’s glow tonight. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen her so happy.

  And that makes me happy. She’s been such an incredible friend.

  When we get to the restaurant, I’m introduced to Marcus and his wife, Madison. Marcus is a big guy, and I have to look up at him. He’s tall, well over six feet of lean black muscle. Madison has gorgeous, smooth skin and a riot of long, dark curls. Her tall frame makes me wonder if she ever modeled.

  “I used to protect your pretty boy’s ass,” Marcus whispers, kissing my cheeks in greeting.

  “I heard that,” Danny says. “Marcus was one of the best offensive linemen I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing with.”

  “So, what’s up?” Madison asks as we take our seats. “We usually don’t get invited to dinner on such short notice.”

  “We decided it was a good night to celebrate. It’s not public knowledge yet, but Phillip sold his company today.”

  “Congratulations, man,” Marcus says to him.

  We sit down at an intimate table in a room surrounded by an ornate wine cellar. Champagne is quickly poured, and toasts are made.

  “Jadyn,” Marcus says, “you’re not really drinking your champagne. You not that excited about having Phillip home all day?”

  “I’m very excited about that. Especially because we got another surprise today.” She raises her glass and toasts again. “To all the fun little surpr
ises in life.”

  “The kind that grow up,” Phillip adds.

  “You’re pregnant?” Madison exclaims.

  “Better be careful,” Marcus says to me. “There must be something in the water.”

  I study my glass. “I don’t see anything.”

  Marcus laughs. “It’s a saying, meaning you could get pregnant, too. If you’re not careful.”

  I can’t stop the grin that immediately forms on my face at the thought. “Oh well, I should get to drinking then.”

  “Wait,” Jadyn says to Madison. “Are you pregnant, too?”

  “Yep,” Madison says. “You’re all happy about it, which is great. Me? I cried and cried. We just got our life back. The kids are happy in college. We can go anywhere and do anything we want, whenever we want. It’s like being a teen again. Only with the means to do things. We even went to Coachella this spring and did the whole VIP experience. I felt twenty again. And he had a vasectomy, for gosh sake. It failed. Ten years later.”

  “What do you mean, it failed?” I ask.

  “I’m so virile that things grew back together,” Marcus says proudly.

  “Are you excited now?” Jadyn asks. “How far along are you?”

  “Ten weeks. I could technically be a grandmother. I mean, I hope my daughters don’t get pregnant at this stage in their lives, but the point is, I could be. I’m forty-four years old. But now that it’s sunk in that it’s actually happening and we saw the first ultrasound, I will admit that I’m coming around a bit.”

  “I’m excited,” Marcus says. “We were young the first time. In college. I was working and playing football. Taking care of our babies really fell on her. I’m gonna spoil this one rotten. And I’m kinda hoping for a boy this time. I figure he’ll be a hell of a football player. I mean, talk about being able to get through a defense!”

  “You mean, because he got through …” I spin my finger around, point downward, and then start laughing.

  “So, how about you, Miss Jennifer?” Marcus asks. “Are there any babies in your future? Danny always wanted more kids.”

  His question stops me in my tracks. Danny isn’t divorced yet. No one really even knows about our relationship, and I’m sure that’s why we are in a private room tonight, but I can’t deny that I want children.