by Leigh, Anne
Once outside, our friends let out cheers and hoots. I guessed everyone knew about this beforehand, except for me.
The guys were already arguing on who the best man was going to be so that they could plan the bachelor party. The girls fawned over my ring.
Tanya was calculating the cost of my ring. She was checking some sort of diamond exchange website on her phone.
Nalee exclaimed, “Wow! This would totally go with the hot pink Hello Kitty pajamas that I was going to give you.” Her obsession for Hello Kitty would be written in history books.
My phone was ringing. When I answered it my dad was at the other end. He was already bustling with excitement, and he said, “Congratulations!” before I could get a word in. Obviously he was clued in on Zander’s plans as well. I described to him how Zander proposed. His voice could not hide his excitement when he told me that Zander had asked for his permission to marry me. He ended the phone call with, “Your mom would be so happy for you. She would have wanted you to find a good man, and I think Zander is one of the good ones out there.” His words brought a wave of tears to my eyes and I said earnestly, “She would have loved Zander, dad.”
Kieran also called. He was breathless and ecstatic. He joked that he would be my ‘man of honor’. I took him up on his offer and that silenced him. He was probably thinking that he had to wear something frou-frou to be a ‘man of honor’. It was only when I said, “I’m not going to force you into wearing something that you don’t like,” that he let out a sigh of relief and screamed, “Congratulations!” again into my ears.
I also spoke with Zander’s parents, and his mom was overly excited about planning the wedding. She let out a frantic yell when I told her that we wanted to have the wedding before the baby arrived. She asked me if I had any issues with her helping plan it. I gave her the go ahead. I wanted to be married to Zander. It didn’t matter where, how, and when.
That night he made love to me passionately. For the first time it was as his fiancée.
Chapter Four
“I can name my best memories, they all start with you.”
Zander
Something smelled so good.
The smell of home cooking was welcoming. I was going to stop by Paddie's to grab some chicken wings, but instead I drove directly to our Minnesota townhouse after receiving a text from Sedona that she was making something special for me.
As soon as I got home I went straight into the kitchen. I took in her profile. She was literally pregnant and barefoot. And cooking something. It was a miracle of all miracles. Sedona never cooked anything. She couldn't even slice an onion the right way. Now she was standing in our kitchen in a yellow dress and an apron. She looked like she was concentrating hard over something in the pot.
"It smells heavenly in here,” I said as I approached her.
She turned towards me, her eyes lighting up. "I called your mom for the recipe of your favorite meatloaf." She was stirring something in a pot on top of the stove.
"What's in the pot?" I asked while wrapping my arms around her stomach. I saw something green in the pot.
"It's some sort of stew," she explained, continuing with the stirring.
"Need some help?"
"No, I'm okay." She reached up to kiss my cheek. When she was about to turn her face away I gently grabbed her face and kissed her on her lips, slowly trying to coax her tongue to come out.
"Babe, you're going to break my concentration," she argued without any effort. "Go and change into something more comfortable. Everything should be ready in ten minutes.”
I stole another kiss and followed her direct order.
I went inside our bedroom and saw that she had rearranged my clothes again. She had them assorted by color this time. The other week they had been folded according to the length of the sleeves. She was getting bored. Sedona was not the type of woman to just sit and wait for me the whole day. There were multiple times when I found the computer left running and filled with websites and web pages of Physics and Chemistry links and games. She needed the stimulation for her brain.
I had a feeling that she was getting antsy. This only solidified my decision of bringing up the internship to her before she had gotten rid of those acceptance letters. Thank God New York State University Hospital accepted her. The other two hospitals that she had applied to and had gotten accepted to had filled up their spots. She had worked so hard towards her goals that it was only fair for her to turn her dreams into reality, even when she was pregnant.
I was going to miss having her here with me. We made good use of our days by spending a lot of time with each other. We explored a lot of new places in the city every day, after I came back from training camp. We both loved shopping for our baby. Those baby clothes were tiny as shit, but they were freaking cute. We didn’t know if we were having a boy or a girl, so we picked everything green, brown, gray, and tan. I didn’t know how many types of baby diapers, baby strollers, baby blankets, and baby everything there were. I was so undecided that I wanted to get two or three of everything. Sedona had to stop me from buying out the whole store. She showed me consumer reports on the things that we bought. I didn’t bother looking at any type of report before. I just bought stuff because I either needed or wanted them. But I found out that I was interested in the safety reviews of these products because our little one was going to be using them.
Our time together was coming to a close, because in a week Sedona was going to New York. She passed her nursing boards two days ago. I knew that she could do it. There was no doubt about it. She was on edge while she was reviewing for the boards, and when she finally got the results that she passed she had called everyone, and I swear, even our neighbors knew that she passed with her delighted screams.
When I returned into the kitchen, she had the dining table all set up with a candlelight centerpiece and some flower arrangement. Wow, she was going all out.
"Let's eat," she said.
I pulled out my chair and sat down. She must have been cooking for a while. On the table was my favorite meatloaf, a green-looking stew, potatoes and salad. She had a draft beer in a tall glass for me and had pink lemonade in hers.
"Wow." I was really surprised. "You made all of this?"
"Yes," she said as she smiled. "I wanted to see if I could cook for you."
I scooped a chunk of the meatloaf and potatoes on my plate. She was still looking at me.
"I didn't taste it yet," she said. "I figured that if I followed everything that your mom said it would taste great. So, tell me about your day."
"Well, we ran a couple of drills today. Same old, same old. Coach talked about changing our strategy for the season opener, so we had to learn a couple of new plays." I took a bite of the meatloaf.
What the hell? How much salt did she put in this? Did she pour a pint of salt instead of a few pinches? I knew that recipe like the back of my hand. I've made it a hundred times with my mother, since I was ten.
"What's wrong?" Now she was looking straight at me, obviously waiting for my final verdict on her cooking.
I would never lie to Sedona. But the thought that she cooked for me for the very first time and that she spent the whole afternoon cooking for me was more than enough reason for me to say, "Nothing, babe. It tastes delicious."
When she smiled all of her teeth flashed. I drank my beer to wash the meatloaf down.
"Oh good," she said. "I thought I screwed up the recipe."
You did not only screw it up, you tightened the bolt and turned it into this salty shit.
She took a few bites of the meatloaf and stopped. "Hmm. This does taste good."
Were her taste buds off? I mean, you could taste the salt in this. From a mile away.
She scooped up some of the green stew and put in on my plate.
"What's this one?" I asked. I've never seen stew this color before.
She explained, "It's beef stew with spinach. I got the recipe from the internet. I know you need protein and well, spinac
h is good for you."
Where did the beef go? Was it inside the spinach? All I could see was green; there was no meat in this weird-looking thing.
"Oh good." I drank more of my beer. Beer made everything taste great. "So, what did you do today?"
"I cooked for most of the day," she replied. "And I was fixing some stuff in the baby's room. I know where we're going to put the crib and the playpen."
The thought of her preparing stuff for our baby always made me smile. Our baby was a gift to us. A priceless treasure created by us.
I held her hand from across the table. She could cook me a dozen of these horrible meatloaves and I would gladly eat them all if it meant that she smiled at me like this.
"I love you," she said.
"I love you too," I answered, and took a spoonful of the stew. Hmm, it didn't taste bad at all. It actually had potential. Maybe if she hadn't overcooked the spinach into a soup it would actually taste great.
"So tell me," she paused, her violet eyes poking fun at me. "Just how bad is it?" Her finger pointed at the meatloaf and stew.
I let out a huge sigh. Damn, she knew me so well.
I didn't answer.
"Do you want to order pizza and chicken wings?" she suggested, her eyes sparkling with amusement.
"Only if you want to," I said.
"Zander, babe," she said. "I don't know how you were able to eat that much of the salt-infused meatloaf. I was waiting for you to gag on it. I must have heard your mom wrong."
I barked out a laugh.
I signaled for her to sit on my lap while reaching for my phone with the other hand. Ready to call the pizza place.
She faced me as she sat on top of me. "I should be banned from the kitchen, huh?"
I touched her cheeks and said, "Babe, thank you for the effort. I really, really appreciate it. Let’s just say that I know I'm not marrying you for your cooking skills."
She laughed and gave me a big kiss.
Chapter Five
“The life inside of me is the best gift that you could have given me.”
Sedona
Our baby took precedence in our lives. With Zander’s training and upcoming football game schedule, I made sure that I timed my prenatal visits when I was going to be in Minnesota. He wanted to go to every single prenatal visit with me. We picked an OBGYN based in New York since I would be spending most of my pregnancy there while doing my internship. Her name was Dr. Brown and she had a stellar reputation, according to Zander’s mom’s close friend. While I was in Minnesota, I had most of my blood tests and ultrasounds done at the clinic of Dr. Kimberly Gayle who was Dr. Brown’s associate.
In two days I would be flying to New York. I was more than ready to start my nursing internship. With my internship ending so close to my seventh month of pregnancy, Zander and I agreed that it would be best for me to deliver in New York once we spoke to the doctor. At my last prenatal visit, Dr. Gayle had informed us that I was suffering from anemia. Zander became really worried about this. Dr. Gayle reassured us that it would be okay as long as I took my iron pills. She also cautioned me that I should not be flying as much as I did, past my seven-month mark. This was the main reason as to why we were going to have our wedding in New York. I wanted it to be at a beach somewhere, but since Zander was adamant about being married before our baby was born, I concurred with having it at the New York Metropolitan Hotel. His mom had to pull some strings to reserve the date that we both wanted.
“What do you want to name our baby?” I asked. I was resting my head against the top of the sofa with my legs on the chaise, half of Zander’s head cradled on my stomach. He folded his legs so he could fit his large, muscular body on the chaise. We were lounging by the large sectional couch in our Minnesota townhouse.
Baby clothes were folded neatly beside me. I had opened up all the packages that I had ordered in the past few weeks. I couldn’t stop buying all the cute baby paraphernalia. Zander’s mom also sent a package almost every week. She was obsessed with all things baby.
We both decided not to know the sex of our baby, and so the nursery was going to be painted with neutral colors. Zander sketched a few designs for the room during his free time. A few of our friends rebelled against the idea of not knowing. Nalee said she wanted to know if she could start buying pink stuff. Well, Hello Kitty baby stuff. Dom said that he wanted to buy a collection of baby baseball gloves if it was a boy. Zander was not into baseball, and Dom had an ulterior motive for saying that.
Zander and I took everything in stride. Our baby was a surprise to us. We wanted to meet him or her at the same time.
He gazed up at me. His eyes, more blue than green right now, and his cheeks slightly reddened from my pinches, with his dimple showing on his right cheek, glowed as he said, “If it’s a boy, I’d like to name him Nicholas.”
“Nicholas.” My eyes found his lips; he had such sexy lips. “That sounds like a great name.”
“Stop looking at me like that,” he warned teasingly.
“Like what?” I fluttered my eyelashes at him innocently. He placed a hand over my eyes. Zander thought that the fluttering of eyelashes as a flirting mechanism was ridiculous.
“You want a repeat performance of what happened in the kitchen twenty minutes ago?” His voice was getting husky. I was getting wet thinking about it.
I gulped. “Are you complaining now?” A few minutes ago he was begging me to finish him off.
The thought of kneeling down in front of him until he spread me wide and open on top of our birch dining table brought another pool of wetness inside my panties.
As much as I wanted to, I was feeling a bit tired.
I pushed those lustful thoughts away, saving them for tonight. “What if it’s a girl?” I inquired, my hand brushed lightly against his hair.
“Lily? Sofia? Emma?” he suggested. I liked those names; they sounded feminine and sweet.
“Babe, you know how celebrities combine names?” I thought out loud. “What if we combined our names and make a new one?”
“Okay, like what?” His tone was mischievous as his eyes crinkled in amusement.
“Well, if you combine our names Zander and Sedona, and we have a girl, we could name her Zedona.” I chuckled.
He let out a big laugh. He almost fell off the couch. He had to sit up to hold his stomach in.
“You’re a genius babe. Freakin’ hilarious!”
He pushed up on his elbow and nestled my head against his shoulder. “I guess we’ll know when we meet him or her.”
“I guess so,” I admitted. I couldn’t wait to meet our baby.
Chapter Six
“You give rest to my weary soul and calm my deepest fears.”
Zander
NFA training camp was hell. And I fucking loved it.
Today Coach Benson had us run through scrimmages the whole morning. It was now three in the afternoon and we were still running plays.
I’ve been playing football for God-knows-how-long. I know every muscle in my body that has been sore, bruised, and battered to the point of mutilation. The squats, the sprints, the drills? All of those were designed to develop and maintain our agility, strength, and quickness so that we could outlast our opponents. Those did not bother me one bit. I grew up pushing my physical limitations. What bothered me was that on the muggiest day in Minnesota, while we had our practice at a local college’s football training grounds, some of my teammates were acting like total bitches.
It was normal to feel upset about a friend or a teammate being traded for another team. I understood that. If the day came when either John or I were traded to another team I would also be sad. But I would not bitch and sulk about it to every fucking guy on the team, which was what Stock Vedder was doing right now.
Stock Vedder was a four-year veteran wide receiver for the Minnesota Fox. I had his stats memorized. It was my job as a quarterback to learn how my teammates were doing, what their strengths and weaknesses were. Vedder averaged 85.3 yards per
game. Last season, he had 1365 yards, 80 catches, and 10 touchdowns. There was no doubt that he was an asset to the team. To me, he was an asshole.
His close friend, Trent Boulders, was the quarterback whom I had replaced. Boulders had been traded to the Denver Mountaineers and Vedder took it out on me personally. Before practice today, he called me pretty boy a couple of times in the locker room. I just ignored him. I’ve been around all sorts of egos in football. This game was pure testosterone. No room for girly shit. It was all about sweat, swearing, and in-your-face insults. The best way to deal with an insult and petty bickering was to ignore it. As long as he caught the ball on the field I could leave whatever issues he had with me off of it.