We wrapped around each other and she rested her head on my chest. We stayed like that for a moment and I waited until I knew she was completely relaxed. Then, I decided it was now or never.
“Baby, we need to talk about your pills,” I informed her.
Mia’s hand tracing the tattoo on my chest froze.
“What about them?” she asked, her words sounding cautious. I squeezed her shoulder and quickly wondered if she'd changed her mind about having one more baby, but I hoped not. I was thirty-seven years old so it was time to start working on the last, and if she told me now that she didn't want more, I'd be devastated. I'd respect her decision since it was her body that did all the work, but I'd still be devastated.
“I was thinking it might be a good time for you to stop taking them,” I finished.
Mia quickly rose, lifted on her elbow, peered down at my face and locked her amazing, dark green eyes with mine. Her eyebrows were lifted to her hairline.
“You mean you’re actually talking to me about this instead of just throwing my pills away?” She sounded stunned.
I decided to think before answering - surprising, I know - but I wasn't sure if talking to her about this was a good thing or not. Maybe I should have just thrown them out?
“Well, it was more of a heads-up,” I replied.
Her eyes narrowed. “A heads up that you’re about to start tossing them down the drain?”
“Yep.” I figured I might as well answer honestly, even though I couldn't get a read on her mood. I didn't know if she was open to the idea of trying for another baby or not.
Then, to my complete and utter fuckin’ shock, she grinned.
“Adam, I’m pregnant,” she said through her smile.
I grew still. Surely, I hadn’t heard her right.
“What did you just say?”
Her grin grew massive as she half shrugged.
“I stopped taking my birth control three months ago. I'm pregnant.”
I narrowed my eyes on hers and if I wasn’t mistaken, she was laughing on the inside. I could feel her chest vibrating.
My little redheaded terrorist.
“You weren’t gonna tell me you stopped taking them?”
“Payback, Baby,” she confirmed, still smiling, and at that smile, my entire body filled with adoration…no, worship. I worshiped my wife. I reached around her head, tangled my fingers in her wild, wavy hair and brought her face down to mine.
“My heart, Freckles. I fuckin’ love you,” I mumbled against her lips.
Her smile softened to barely there, but her eyes were full of the same worship as mine when she whispered, “My heart, Adam. I fuckin’ love you, too.”
We kissed, both smiling, and a moment later, Mia lifted when we heard the stomping of little feet running down the hall.
“Momma!” I heard Aaron, my five-year-old son, the oldest redheaded twin, my third tattoo, shout just as he barreled into the room. “I told Aiden there was gonna be a buncha girls here today for Laura’s party and he said ‘bitches be crazy’!”
I groaned and muttered, "Oh shit" just as I heard Mia's loud gasp.
I slammed my eyes shut.
I felt him climb into bed and snuggle up to Mia who I could still feel was stiff as a board.
“Nuh uh! I did not say that!” Aiden, my other five-year-old son, the youngest-by-a-minute redheaded twin, my fourth tattoo, shouted in denial just as he climbed into bed behind Aaron. Only he snuggled up to me - possibly for protection.
I opened my eyes to take a quick peek at Mia, but all I saw was red - as in her face of fury red.
I gave her an innocent, yet apologetic smile and silently thanked God that Mia was already pregnant because I had a pretty good feeling she was going to cut off my balls after this.
"Love you," I told her.
"Oh, be quiet, Adam," she countered.
I sighed. Her "Be quiets" really meant "Shut the fuck up" when the kids were present.
"Baby, you wanna tell me again why Laura's having her party here? And why aren't Lex and Landyn here doing this shit instead of us?" I asked just as I stepped off the ladder I’d been using to hang the last of the Happy Birthday banners and decorations. Our house - straight up - looked like a Zebra vomited black and pink. Not that I minded doing anything for my nieces, but hell, their parents had a big enough house for a party.
"Oh, uhhhh..." I heard her voice, but it wasn't close. "Laura wanted to show her girlfriends the goats, so she decided on a petting zoo theme since it's too cold to have a pool party. I don't know. I think Lex rented some animal entertainment lady to come out with ponies and rabbits and other animals for them to pet. Plus, Layla had a soccer game this morning so I volunteered us to decorate since I knew they wouldn't make it here in time."
Well, there you go. That was exactly what I meant about all of us being busy. It was nonstop, but I wasn't complaining.
Okay, well I had been complaining, but all of us being a family...or more appropriately, giving Mia the big family she'd always wanted, made it all worth it.
It also reminded me just how much I loved my house. As in, I fuckin’ loved it.
Subsequent to my release from the hospital after being shot and stabbed, Mia and I had moved in straightaway with Lex and Landyn for a few months until we were able to sell our old, two-story, Victorian-style house. The old house had been more than nice, and would have been perfect for us to raise our family in, but after everything that had went down inside of it, we’d needed a fresh start.
Now we lived in a single-story, three-thousand square foot, ranch-style house that sat on approximately three acres. I hadn't been sold on the house at first because for some reason, I'd wanted another two-story house, but I'd left the decision up to my wife, and this was the house she'd chosen.
And I gotta say, my wife had impeccable taste in houses.
She had also made a damn good point when she'd informed me, "Adam, I'm not seventy-five years old yet, but speaking for my seventy-five year old self, I refuse to climb stairs to clean rooms on a floor that nobody's going to be living on anyway. So we're not getting another two-story unless you plan on cleaning it yourself, and when I'm seventy-five, you'll be eighty. Think about that."
Again, there you go. That had been the end of the house subject.
But after moving into our badass house four months after selling the old one, I'd then brought up another subject that had been nagging me just as much as the pain in my shoulder.
"Baby, you gonna let me give you a real wedding, or what?" I'd asked.
Her eyes had hit mine and she’d answered waspishly, "Or what."
I'd frowned and considered her words before asking, "You gonna elaborate on that?"
She'd shrugged and replied, "Baby, we're already married. We got married in front of your mother the first time so that's all that matters to me --" I'd opened my mouth to retort, but she'd held up a hand to stop me. "No. No wedding. And before you ask, I don't want another ring. I love the original. You bought it for me when it was all you could afford and...I don't know, it just means the world to me that you kept it after all this time. If you get me another ring, I won't wear it."
And there you go....a-fuckin-gain. That had been the end of the marriage subject… but not the ring subject because that, I’d absolutely refused to let her win. However, I had compromised, and instead of buying her a new wedding ring, I had bought her an engagement ring. A two carat, solitary, round-cut diamond set in platinum that she wore and never took off.
I walked away from the ladder and headed into the kitchen where Mia’s voice had been coming from. When I walked in, I saw her standing at the counter, still in my huge t-shirt, pajama shorts and barefoot. She had no makeup on and her hair was in a tangled mess on the top of her head. Aaron and Aiden sat at the table while Madison sat in her high chair; all were stuffing their faces with food.
Mia looked up the moment she heard me walk in and she smiled. My gut clenched. I walked straight to her, cam
e up behind her back and wrapped my arms around her stomach, fingers pressed in. I bent and kissed her neck. Then I reached for her left hand, picked it up and placed a kiss over her rings all while she watched me do it.
“Gross, Dad!” Aaron called out.
“Yeah, Dad! Kissing girls is gross!” Aiden seconded.
Mia chuckled and I rolled my eyes, but spoke through my grin, “Oh yeah? Just wait until you’re fifteen. I’ll make sure I remind you just how gross girls are then.”
I walked out the back door with two bottles of water in my hand and headed straight for my wife. She was standing beside the same table Lex, Trish and Tony were sitting at. I wondered where Landyn was, but only for a moment because my attention was stuck on the one person wearing snug jeans, a white, sleeveless, button-down top that was tucked in, with a brown belt, brown sandals and a multi-colored scarf that hung loosely around her neck. Her hair was pulled up into a messy, yet sexy ponytail at the crown of her head, but the most beautiful accessory she carried was my baby girl, Madison.
“Dada!” Maddie shrieked happily as she tried to lunge out of her Momma’s arms and into mine.
I put the drinks on the table and held out my hands. “Here, I got her. You shouldn’t be carrying her right now,” I scolded.
Mia sighed. “Adam, it’s fine. Don’t start freaking out on me already. I carried the boys - sometimes both of them at the same time - while I was pregnant with Maddie.”
I gave her an over exaggerated gasp and she lifted one eyebrow at me.
“What in the hell is going on with you two?” Lex asked suspiciously as she looked back and forth between the two of us.
I didn’t hesitate. “Mia’s pregnant.”
There were gasps all around.
"Oh good God, I thought Lex and Landyn were the baby making machines! Four?" Trish asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, four, but that's it," I told her.
"You know, Trish, you should really consider having another one because next thing you know, little Tony, Jr.'s going to be as old as Layla," Mia responded.
At Mia's reference to my oldest niece, I turned to search her out in the crowd. I think we all did.
She wasn't hard to spot either, because she was the only one throwing a football around with someone's little boy who looked to be about her age. She'd changed out of her soccer uniform and now wore jeans that were too tight, a pink top that was too tight, pink chucks and her long black hair hung halfway down her back.
I guess feeling all eyes on her back, she turned and I could see her damn bright honey-colored eyes from here when she smiled and waved at us all.
The girl was gonna be a heartbreaker.
"She just had her first kiss," my sister-in-law Lex said softly to the table and all eyes hit hers.
"She what?" I asked low and dangerous.
"Oh, calm down, Adam. I haven't told Lan yet, because I know he's going to be pissed. It was nothing, really. Layla said it was just a peck on the lips."
My lungs seized at the thought of some little bastard kissing my beautiful niece, but it seemed someone else had no problem breathing because his inhale was sharp and loud.
"Lexi, Baby, what the fuck did you just say?" Landyn asked in a growl, and I watched as Lex's eyes grew round.
"Uhhh..."
"Lexi," Landyn repeated in a cautioning tone.
"Oh, all right. It was nothing, really. She said a little boy she likes kissed her, but she knows she can't have a boyfriend until she's sixteen. And before you go beating up little Brandon over there, it wasn't him."
I snorted at the mention of Layla not dating until she was sixteen, and Mia muttered, "Shut up, Adam."
Landyn looked in the direction of his oldest daughter, his shoulders slumped and he rubbed a hand through his hair as if in misery. I felt bad for him. I really did. It would be wrong to say that Layla was his favorite daughter, because that just wasn't true, but there was a special bond between the two of them. It probably had a lot to do with Landyn missing out on the first few years of her life, and the fact that she was a bit of a tomboy and all Landyn had were girls, but the relationship between them was amazing to watch.
And it made me think of my own baby girl.
I looked down at her in my arms and said, "Maddie, give Dada a kiss."
She leaned in and landed a big wet one right on my lips with a loud, "Muah!"
Then my eyes sought out my twin boys where they were playing with Tony Jr., a few feet away. Eric and Kenny were taking turns pushing each of the boys on the swing set, and I swear to God, had I been alone, the sight would have brought a tear to my eye.
My family.
Even that bastard Eric and his husband Kenny had become family.
I twisted my neck and my eyes found my wife's.
She was already looking at me and I knew she was feeling the same sense of fulfillment I was.
I leaned down, put my face close to hers and asked low, "You my heart, Freckles?"
Her face softened when she replied in a small whisper, "Always."
I touched her bottom lip with my thumb and bent to take her lips with a quick, deep kiss.
"Enough said, Baby."
Ten minutes later, I watched as my friend Johnny's truck turned into the entrance of our property. Since Mia's incident in the courthouse over six years ago, Johnny and his eleven year old daughter, Jasmine, had become a fixture in our lives. Johnny didn't have much family; he was a single dad and he worked a lot to support Jasmine, so we made sure they were invited to all our family celebrations.
The moment he parked, I watched Johnny and Jasmine exit the truck, but my body solidified when the passenger door opened and Breena got out.
What the fuck?
"Oh, good, he picked her up," I heard Mia say at my side, and when I faced her, she continued. "Breena's car broke down again. She called earlier and said she wasn't going to make it, so I asked Johnny if he could swing by and pick her up since he doesn't live far from her."
"And she was okay with that?" I asked, shocked.
Mia replied, "Obviously."
Because of her past, Breena didn't really do well around men by herself, but maybe Johnny having Jasmine with him helped, and they had met a handful of times. Though, even from afar I could see she looked uncomfortable. My eyes moved back to Jasmine when she ran over to our table and gave a polite "Hello" to everyone just before she ran off to go play with all the other kids.
My eyes went back to where Breena was standing and Johnny now stood with her... no, he towered over her and I could see they were talking. It looked to be innocent... until he touched the apple of Breena's cheek and Breena's expression turned terrified.
I stiffened and was just about to stand when Mia grabbed hold of my hand and whispered, "Adam, don't. She needs this."
I knew she was right when a second later, Breena's stance relaxed toward Johnny.
Jesus. Johnny?
But just as I had that thought, I heard screeching tires from a car, right before it turned down our driveway. There were kids here and whoever was behind the wheel of that car was hauling ass and it pissed me right the fuck off. I stood as the little blue car barreled toward Johnny's truck, stopped right behind it and then the car door was thrown open.
Missy, Mia's cousin, ran out of her car like a mad woman and headed toward Breena and Johnny, screaming at the top of her lungs.
Mia stood and hissed, "This can't be happening."
I practically threw Madeline in Mia's arms and growled, "Baby, get ready to call the station. This is fuckin' happening."
The End...
or is it?
Thank you for reading…
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Adam, Enough Said (This Can't be Happening) Page 33