by Kitty Parker
…
"Well, Daisy, Jack was not lying. You make an amazing pasta salad," Aaron smiles at her once he puts his fork down on his clean plate.
"I'm so glad you like it," Daisy smiles, her cheeks blushing a little with the compliment. "And I'm so glad Jack thought to invite you over tonight for dinner."
"Thank you for having both of us," Aaron says.
"Oh, please, it's just burgers and pasta salad," Daisy gets up and starts to clear the table of plates, Jack getting up immediately to help. "And now cupcakes for dessert."
They have eaten their dinner that evening on the back deck and after eating, Matty and Henry have gone down the steps with Otter to play football in the backyard. Aaron gets up to help as well and the three adults go into the kitchen where there are cupcakes on a plate on the counter, freshly baked that afternoon.
"These are almost too amazing looking to eat," Aaron comments while Jack is already taking one for himself and taking a large bite from it.
"Well, you can just stare at it if you want but Jack and Matty will eat all of yours," Daisy laughs a little, taking one for herself.
And Aaron finally licks at the chocolate frosting, almost moaning as he did. "So," he says as he takes another lick. "Matty wasn't lying either. Best cupcakes in the whole state."
Daisy blushes and smiles again at that. "Jack and Matty keep telling me I need to try out for Cupcake Wars," she says with a little laugh as if it's the silliest thing she's ever heard.
Aaron is just smiling though as if it's not that silly at all. "So, do you think you'll try out now or are you going to wait until after the baby's born?"
Jack, almost finished with his cupcake, stops in mid-bite and stares at the man standing across the little kitchen and Daisy, standing near him, has frozen as well. Aaron, at first, doesn't notice their reactions, smiling as he watches the boys for a moment play before taking a careful swipe of cupcake frosting and finally looks back to the couple, seeing them staring at him as if they are both shell-shocked.
And Aaron's eyes widen a little bit and he's not a stupid man. He's quick to realize that Jack and Daisy have told no one that she's pregnant and he's the first – and only – to know about it.
…
Part Four.
Daisy stands in front of the full length mirror in the corner of the bedroom, sideways so she can study her profile. She doesn't look pregnant. There's a bump but it's barely there and she's been wearing loose shirts in an effort to hide it. Her face isn't swollen. There's absolutely nothing about her that makes it obvious that she's pregnant. So how on earth was Aaron able to take one look at her and just know that she is?
She and Jack have made an agreement not to mention the baby until her fourth month and she knows that Jack was reluctant to do so and she had smiled because she likes Jack being so happy and excited, he wants to tell everyone about it. But anything can happen in the first trimester. It's still such a fragile time and if something does happen and she has a miscarriage, she'd rather that happen when only she and Jack know of it. She wouldn't be able to deal with her own grief while dealing with everyone else's sympathy towards her.
Aaron was so apologetic once he realized – quickly – that he wasn't supposed to know about the baby and he swore up and down and promised them that he wouldn't breathe a word of it to anyone. He promised them that he'd forget about it entirely and though Daisy doubts that that's possible, and even though she still doesn't know Aaron and is just getting to know him, she finds herself believing that he will keep the secret.
With a soft sigh, Daisy pulls her shirt back down, grabs the book she's currently in the middle of reading from her nightstand and heads towards the stairs. She stops though and heads down to the hallway, to the small empty bedroom next to hers and Jack's. It's completely empty at the moment. When she and Jack bought the house, they agreed that one bedroom would be theirs, one would be Matty's and the third and final bedroom would be for the baby they both wanted so badly. And since moving in, they haven't put anything inside of it. Not even a cardboard box from the move.
Daisy stands in the doorway now and flips on the too-white overhead light and looks around the small, simple square bedroom with the simple white walls. The room is in the back corner of the house and has one window that looks over the backyard and another window that overlooks the side of the house and she imagines the sheer white curtains blowing in the gentle breeze when it's summer and it's warm enough to leave the windows open a crack. She's never had a nursery before and she remembers that after having Matty and he was a baby, they still lived on the farm with her parents, in her bedroom, the baby's crib pushed against one wall.
She stands in the doorway of the empty bedroom and imagines everything she and Jack would be able to do with the space. New paint on the walls, new baby furniture, a rocking chair in the corner that she can sit in and cradle the baby and sing to them.
Her hand drifts down to the barely-there bump and rests it there and imagines when she'll finally be able to feel little Nibblet moving within. She's going to pray every day just as she always does and she'll pray that everything will be fine with this pregnancy. There's no reason why anything should go wrong. She's healthy and she's going to take the best care of Nibblet. Nothing had happened during her pregnancy with Matty and there's no reason why anything will happen with this one.
Flipping the switch, turning the light off and drowning the room in semi-darkness again, Daisy turns and heads back down the hallway, this time going down the stairs. In the living room, Jack and Matty are sitting on the couch – each eating their second cupcake of the night and drinking glasses of milk, the television on across from them. Every Saturday night, Jack and Matty watch episodes of Cops together. Daisy's not sure where the ritual came from. Jack had babysat for her a couple of times – before they were together and she was dating Spencer, another lifetime ago. Maybe it had been then. Whenever it was though, it is a habit that is rarely broken.
Daisy thinks that maybe, Jack watches it with Matty as his way of making the boy stays on the straight. By showing him stupid mistakes people make all of the time, Jack is trying to keep Matty from turning into every other man in his family line.
Daisy goes to the front door, making sure it's locked even though she knows Jack's already locked the house up for the night, and she then goes to curl up in the armchair, a hand going out to Matty's head as she passes. Tucking her legs up beneath herself, she turns on the lamp on the table beside the chair and opens the book where she left off. It's one of those light stories – about a woman who buys a dog compulsively after a breakup and winds up meeting the love of her life in a dog park. Daisy prefers books like this. She is always guaranteed a happy ending and sometimes, life can be crappy enough without adding to it by reading books that make her feel crappy, too.
She gets engrossed in the story and it takes her a moment to realize that Jack's standing in front of her. She lifts her head and smiles up at him.
"Gettin' more milk. You want some?" He asks.
She shakes her head, still smiling. "I'm okay, thank you."
He doesn't seem to like that answer though. "I'm gonna get you some milk. You need to make sure you drink plenty of it 'specially now," he tells her and she laughs softly.
"You read that in your book?" She teases him lightly.
"Yeah," he says. "Nothin' wrong with keepin' your bones strong."
"You read that chapter but you won't skip ahead to another chapter?" She asks with a raised eyebrow and she's still teasing at him but at the same time, she's completely serious. She loves that Jack feels the need to be so careful with her but at the same time, she absolutely hates it.
He can't just make her fall completely in love with having sex with him and then refuse to have sex with her.
"'m gonna read every chapter," is all he says before going into the kitchen.
Matty's slouched on the couch, stretching his legs out so he can rest his feet on the coffee table placed in
front of the couch.
"Did you have fun with Henry tonight?" Daisy asks after glancing to the television to see that the show is on a commercial break.
"Yeah," Matty nods his head. "He's lucky. He has a ton of other stuff to do besides football. His dads makes sure of it. He takes violin lessons and he's in the science club."
Daisy takes a moment to think of what to say to that. Matty never expressed any interest in doing anything other than play football. It never even crossed her mind that now that he's taking a break from playing, he might possibly be bored.
"Are you wanting to do something?" Daisy asks.
Matty shrugs and the episode of Cops resumes and his attention focuses back onto that and Jack comes back, handing her a small glass of milk and then sits down on the couch with his own in his hand.
"Where are they?" Jack asks him.
"Pensacola," Matty tells him.
"Celtus went down to Pensacola for a while," Jack comments off-handedly. "Didn' go with him. Was already workin' at the garage when he went."
"You think he's on this episode?" Matty then asks innocently but Jack chuckles as if that's one of the best things he's ever heard and Daisy doesn't bite back her own smile.
"Don't know," Jack then answers and Daisy can hear in his voice that it's actually absolutely possible that Celtus pop up on this episode. "Celtus likes to surprise people."
And later, once they have turned off the lights and made sure the doors are locked and have gone upstairs, Daisy makes sure Matty gets into his bed and then gets herself ready for bed before climbing in between the cool sheets, pulling her laptop into her lap. Jack comes in from the bathroom a few minutes later, wearing a tee-shirt and boxers to sleep in, and he first goes to the window to open it a crack to allow the cool fall night breeze in as they sleep and he then goes to the bed, climbing onto his side and laying down flat on his back. He turns his head on the pillow to look at her beside him.
"Whatcha doin'?" He asks and barely gets the question out before he lets out a yawn. He adjusts the blankets over him. "You pinnin' more nursery stuff?" He guesses.
She smiles a little. Since the test came back positive, Daisy's been on Pinterest constantly, adding all sorts of nursery related rooms to one her boards – setting it to private for the time being so no one can see – and she has shown Jack plenty of ideas. They haven't made any decisions yet though she knows that whatever they do decide on for a baby's nursery, with Jack doing it, it will get done just as she's envisions.
"No," Daisy shakes her head. "Matty said something… I'm just doing some research."
"What kind of research?"
"Things at his school that might interest him," Daisy says, her eyes not leaving the screen as she then opens a new window and types in the website for their town's YMCA, seeing if they have anything on their schedule that Matty might want to get involved in. "I know he's going to go back to football eventually but I think right now, he's feeling a little lost. Maybe even a little bored."
"Don't surprise me," Jack says and does his best to bite back the next yawn. "If the kid's not at school, he's at practice and if he's not at practice, he's at a game. Got nothin' but free time now and a person who's used to bein' busy, once you ain't, you don't know how to handle it."
Daisy wonders if Jack ever realizes just how much he and Matty share in common.
After another few minutes of searching, Daisy closes the laptop and carefully slides it onto her nightstand before slipping further down between the covers. She instantly turns towards Jack, her head finding his chest and one of his arms wrapping around her shoulders as his other hand reaches out and turns the lamp off on the nightstand, sending their bedroom into darkness though not complete. Their bedroom faces the back of the house and their neighbor who has their backyard bordering theirs has a small back porch light they keep on all night. The man has a teenage daughter who sneaks out at night and she thinks her dad doesn't know about it but he does.
Daisy knows it makes Jack hope that they have another boy. Daisy can't imagine them having a daughter who would sneak out though. Of course, anyone who gives birth to a daughter lives with the idea that their daughter is a precious angel and that they would never give their parents grey hair.
But it's not a bothersome light. It's not too bright and there's plenty of yard between the two and she pulls the drapes down most of the way when they're in bed.
Now that the lights are off and she's lying in bed, Daisy realizes how tired she is and she had forgotten how tiring the first trimester of a pregnancy could be. Before she knew she was pregnant with Matty, she started falling asleep in class – something that had never happened to her before – and the teachers wrote notes home about it and it was her mom who read them and took her to the doctor, in the back of her mind, Annette already having a feeling as to what was going on with her daughter.
The second trimester will be better and she'll feel more like herself even as the baby grows larger and she gets larger, too. She'll have more energy and hopefully, she won't have the need to throw up every day and her husband will finish reading the pregnancy book and see for himself that there's absolutely nothing wrong with them being intimate even with little Nibblet inside of her.
Jack is a stubborn man and Daisy knows she can't force him to skip ahead and read that chapter first and then go back and read all of the other chapters. Jack is going to read the book's chapters in orders and all she can do in that time is glare at him.
All she can do is hope that he's finished reading the book by her second trimester because if not, she might just have to kill him and she's really not looking to be a single mom again. Now that she has Jack, she doesn't want to do anything alone ever again.
…
Daisy is not imagining it. She knows she's not. Her mom is looking at her. Not just looking at her but looking at her.
Every Sunday, after going to church service in the morning, Daisy and Matty go to the farm to spend the day. Sometimes, Jack comes with them but usually, he goes to go visit Celtus. Daisy and Matty will go with him sometimes but Daisy knows that Jack likes to go on his own most times. He really doesn't like the idea of Daisy and Matty going into a prison – though Daisy has visited Celtus on her own a few times – and she knows that sometimes, the two brothers talk about things that Jack doesn't want her to hear.
Jack has left straight from the church and Daisy and Matty ride back to the farm with her parents, stopping at their house to pick up Otter. Once arriving at the large Greene house, Matty goes to the barn with Johnathan. One of the horses was feeling a little under the weather and Johnathan is going to check up on the animal with his grandson's help and Daisy and Annette go into the house where Annette begins making dinner – which Jack will be back in time for – and Daisy helps.
Wearing aprons, they work on the fried chicken – which takes hours to make but is well worth it in the end. Daisy is stirring the batter as she makes cornbread from scratch and she looks up every few minutes to see Annette's eyes on her. It's starting to be unsettling and Daisy can't help but frown a little.
"What?" She finally asks.
But Annette shakes her head – as Daisy expected her to do. "Nothing, dear," she says.
Daisy does her best to keep from sighing. "That's not a nothing look."
"I'm sorry. It's nothing. Really, Daisyy," Annette says with another shake of her head and coats the chicken with more flour. But minutes later, she's back to looking at her intently and Daisy stops mixing and stirring to look back with a raised eyebrow this time. Annette lets out a slight laugh then as if she's just realized something.
And Daisy feels her stomach tense a little. Her mom's not an idiot and she already knows what Daisy looks like when she's pregnant but how can her mom possibly know? She doesn't look pregnant and it's Aaron all over again. How are people looking at her and knowing? Her dress is loose today. There's nothing to show off yet.
"How far along are you?" Annette asks, stopping in her work
to wipe her hands off on her apron and she walks around the work table in the middle of the kitchen to come towards her.
"Far along with what?" Daisy asks, trying to remain as innocent as possible.
Annette just gives her a look that tells Daisy she knows better than to treat her like an idiot and Daisy lets out a soft sigh.
"Not far at all. Three months. That's why Jack and I haven't told anyone yet. It's still too new and we don't want something happening-" Daisy cuts herself off.
Annette is looking at her with a smile and tears brimming in her eyes and Daisy feels herself smiling, too, and tears sting her own eyes which she knows isn't because of her hormones going crazy. Annette takes the bowl from Daisy's hands and sets it down before enveloping her daughter in a tight hug. And Daisy smiles and hugs her back.
"I am so happy for you and Jack," she says to her, kissing her on the head, pulling back and putting her hands on Daisy's shoulders, she holds her back so she can look her over.
"How were you able to tell?" Daisy asks curiously because maybe the way Annette had guessed is the same way Aaron had been able to guess and she wants to know so maybe, she'll be able to hide it.
Annette smiles. "You're glowing," she says and that's all she says; as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. "How are you feeling? Any cravings? How's Jack taking it? Bad morning sickness yet?"
"I'm feeling fine. Very tired all of the time but it's manageable. Cravings have just been butter pecan ice cream so far. Jack is so happy but he's nervous and he's reading a pregnancy book and refuses to skip chapters. And the morning sickness has been about every day, usually just as I'm first waking up and then I'm good the rest of the day."