by Max Monroe
I felt my husband’s hand wrap around mine, and I found the strength to open my eyes and meet his loving gaze. “I love you,” he mouthed.
“I love you too,” I mouthed back.
“Okay, Georgia, I’m just going to put this gooey and most likely cold stuff on your belly and see if we can see your baby on the abdominal ultrasound,” Dr. Shay instructed. She was an OB/GYN on staff at a hospital nearby and, thankfully, had been more than willing to make a house call to our hotel room, with her ultrasound machine in tow.
“Since you’re a little over eleven weeks, I think we have a good shot of being able to see the baby, but I don’t want you to get worried if that’s not the case,” she continued as she slid on latex gloves. “Sometimes, we need to do a vaginal ultrasound to really get a good picture.”
“Um…vaginal ultrasound?” I asked with wide eyes and glanced around the room at the various faces of our friends, all of which were pointed directly at me.
“Oh, don’t worry, Wheorgie,” Cassie chimed in. “We’ll cover our eyes if she has to shove anything up your vag.”
Winnie laughed and shook her head. “No, we won’t cover our eyes, we will leave the room and give her privacy.”
Cassie’s face scrunched up in annoyance. “Speak for yourself. I’m staying. I’ve seen her vagina anyway.”
“No, you have not!” I exclaimed, and Cassie quirked a brow. “Shut up,” I muttered when I recalled the home Brazilian wax debacle during college. I hadn’t been able to walk straight for a good week after that.
“Anyway,” Cassie continued. “I think you have a very pretty puss-ay. I can understand Kline’s fascination with it.”
“I’m a female, and I have a vagina,” Lexi leisurely announced to the room. “The vagina is a muscular and tubular part of the female genital tract which, in female humans, extends from the vulva to the cervix. The outer vaginal opening may be partly covered by a membrane called the hymen. The vagina allows for sexual intercourse and childbirth and channels menstrual flow.”
Various reactions flew through the room at the words sexual intercourse and menstrual flow leaving a six-year-old girl’s mouth.
Kline smirked down at me in amusement.
Wes choked on saliva and started coughing.
Thatch and Cassie burst into laughter, startling a sleeping Ace to cry softly for a moment on his dad’s shoulder before drifting back into dreamland.
“Um, sweetie,” Winnie said as she picked Lex up into her arms. “Where did you learn that?”
“Netter’s Atlas of Human Anatomy.”
Winnie raised a brow. “You’ve been reading my books from med school?”
Lexi nodded. “Uh-huh. I can tell you a lot more about the vagina. Do you want to hear, Mommy?”
“Yes, please, I’d love to hear more about it,” Thatch announced. “One of my favorite subjects.”
“Jesus,” Wes muttered, and Kline and I both laughed.
“How about you tell me all about it later?” Winnie smartly redirected before things got out of hand.
“Okay, Mommy,” Lexi agreed.
“Ready?” Dr. Shay asked as she sat on the edge of the bed beside my hip, her hand confidently holding the ultrasound probe.
I mentally scolded the nerves in my belly and forced a smile and a nod. They’d better get out of the way because I didn’t want to see them. I wanted to see my baby. Kline squeezed my hand as he noticed the change in me.
“Okay, let’s see your baby,” she said with a smile and squirted three blobs of ultrasound gel onto my stomach.
She placed the probe onto my skin and started to rotate it around in circles, and Kline’s hand’s grip grew tighter on my mine. I had to shut my eyes to stop myself from bursting into tears.
“Oh, here we go,” Dr. Shay announced, but I still couldn’t find the strength to open my eyes. Here we go could have been anything. Here we go could have been bad news. Here we go could have been…
“Would you like to hear your baby’s heartbeat, Georgia?”
My baby’s heartbeat?
My eyes popped open, and I let out the breath of air I didn’t realize I was holding tightly in my lungs. Wes and Thatch high-fived behind their women, and Cassie covered her mouth with a hand.
“Would you?” Dr. Shay asked again. I forced myself to stop looking at my friends and see her. The happiness in her eyes. The good news that lived there.
I nodded.
She reached toward the ultrasound machine with her free hand and tapped a few buttons, and then the room was filled with the steady and strong whooshing sounds of a little heart beating.
It was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard in my entire life. Half of Kline. Half of me. All of our love wrapped up in one tiny little package.
Kline had tears in his eyes as he stared at the ultrasound screen in absolute awe. I followed his gaze and, for the first time ever, I saw our baby. Its tiny face and his or her little heart, a bright spot on the screen fluttering like a hummingbird’s wing.
“There’s your baby, Georgia,” Dr. Shay said with a smile. “Everything looks healthy and strong. I’d say you are around eleven weeks and three days, but once you get back home, your doctor will be able to do a vaginal ultrasound and give you exact dates and gestation.”
I couldn’t hold back the tears after that, and I didn’t even try. They streamed down my cheeks in a steady flow of relief and all-consuming and unconditional love.
Our baby.
“That’s our baby, Kline,” I whispered in amazement. “Right there, on the screen, that’s our baby.”
He smiled, and two tears slowly slipped from the corner of his eye and down his jaw. “Our healthy and strong baby.”
I glanced around the room at our best friends and saw their faces mirroring our joy. They were happy for us. So very happy for us. And for the first time, maybe ever, they were quiet. Letting us have this.
Wes smiled a genuine smile and wrapped his arm around Winnie’s shoulder, tucking her into his side. “Congratulations, guys.”
“I’m so happy for you, Georgie,” Cassie said softly, all of our years of friendship a slideshow in her voice.
I honestly didn’t think I had ever experienced a more beautiful moment than this one.
Love.
Both inside of me and all around—and so very obviously unending.
“Cass!” I called out in a loud whisper as the door to the room shut behind me. I’d been for a run on the beach with Kline and Wes a couple of hours after the ultrasound, as Georgia, finally at peace, got some rest. I’d been gone for no more than an hour and a half, but I was more than ready for some time with my woman and baby.
It was weird to feel so contently dependent on their company and daily nurturing, but they gave me something that I couldn’t give myself, no matter how good I was at everything. And let’s be real, I was good at everything.
But as much as I loved myself, there was a vast difference between that and the love of another, someone you loved with your entire being. All I wanted was to have their love in return, so getting it felt all that much more rewarding. I wanted to love myself, but that wasn’t a challenge.
Slowly, knowing enough about life with a baby to be quiet after not getting an immediate answer to my call, I worked my way through the suite until coming to the room we’d been using as Ace’s nursery away from home. It was actually the bigger of the two bedrooms, but the sun didn’t blast straight through the windows in the morning and it was the farthest from the hall.
I could hear the soft sounds of Ace’s sleeping inhalation all the way from where I was, and a premature smile formed on my face. He was one of the loudest breathing babies I’d ever encountered and a completely different animal than Frankie and Claire’s Mila. She’d been a needy baby, constantly aching for attention and crying out for it with all the power in her little lungs.
Ace had more of a low-key vibe about him, as long as you were catering to his exploration of the world aro
und him.
Two long strides brought me to the doorway. I watched, leaning into the frame, as Cassie reached up and wrapped her hand around the tiny, clutching fingers at her throat and closed her eyes.
She started to sing, no louder than a hum, really, but I knew Ace could feel the vibration of her words just fine. Skin-to-skin, chest-to-chest, he soaked every ounce of warmth and love Cassie had to give straight inside his tiny body.
Cassie’s face was soft and free from the stresses of motherhood as she completely lost herself in the perfect moment.
Content baby, at ease mama, and the unbelievably beautiful picture they made for the man who loved them—I fought an unwinnable war to freeze time.
“When you’re fast asleep, um, dream and lose your heartache, something something about a fluffling rainbow…”
She stumbled through the lyrics to “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” and I did my best not to laugh.
Not because it would somehow affect her delicate sensibilities, but because it might ruin my best-ever run as a voyeur.
Muted voices from the pool area below trickled up and through the window, but not enough to distract from my family in front of me. It was actually quiet in comparison to New York, markedly less hustle, bustle, and overall mayhem, and I’d lost sleep the first night while I tried to get used to it.
Of course, now that I’d gotten over the hump and was sleeping like a fetus in the fucking womb, I was sure the transition back would be even worse.
Maybe we need to move out of the city…
“What are you doing?” Cassie asked on a whisper, surprising me. I’d thought I was still under the radar, blissfully unnoticed in my perusal and enjoyment of the picture the two of them painted.
My eyes sought and held the wild maturity in hers, and I fell in love all over again.
“Watching you,” I admitted, moving from the intensity of her eyes to the softness of her body. Cassie was still so honest in her individuality, perfectly consistent with the wild, crazy woman I’d fallen in love with, and yet, she’d somehow managed to deepen the softest of her dimensions and make room for the tiny little human in her arms. She didn’t always do what the other moms did, but she did everything with ten times the love.
Because when Cassie held you in high regard, her affection was genuine in a way that most people only dreamed of or faked really well.
“Stalking me,” she clarified with a hushed laugh, and it was one of those things that fell under past precedent. I’d always be known as the man who stalked her, and I was okay with it. Ace, safe and sound in her arms, was all the evidence I’d ever need that nothing in our past needed regret or change.
I shook my head and crossed the room, dropping to my knees in front of her chair and putting a hand to her throat and the other to the soft fluctuation of my son’s breathing back.
“Loving you.”
Her head tilted just slightly, into my touch, and contentment stronger than I’d ever felt before filled any hollow space in my body entirely.
“You’re everything. For me, for Ace. The best wife and mother and the most interestingly intense woman I’ve ever met. I never know what to expect, but I never worry that I won’t like it. Ace feels the same way.”
“He can’t talk.”
“That’s not what you told Georgia.”
“Yeah, well, I’m a bitch and a liar.”
“You are the woman we never could have dreamed.”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t even know all the words to this stupid Cinderella lullaby.”
I chuckled. “Maybe not. But you’ve got all the feelings down pat.”
She pulled Ace tighter to her chest with one arm and reached one hand out to slide a finger along my neck. “Aw, baby.” She laughed quietly, and it mixed with tears. “Right now, I feel numb.”
“Are you—”
“In my arm. My arm is numb. Your fluffing huge kid weighs a million pounds already.”
I smiled and held out my hands. “I’ll take him.”
“No,” she denied, pulling Ace tighter to her body and my lips to hers. “I’m good right like I am.”
“Me too,” I agreed.
I’d be good like this for a while. Forever.
Ace huffed out a deep, content baby breath as I laid his now sleeping body down for the night and padded out toward the living area of our hotel room. The creak and whine of a shower turning on echoed from the bathroom.
I was headed for the couch when Thatch peeked his head out of the master bedroom with a sly smirk. “Want to join me, Crazy?”
Normally, I would’ve jumped on that kind of opportunity, but I had something I wanted to research on my laptop. Something of utmost importance, actually.
I shook my head and linked my hands together behind my back to keep them from gesturing aggressively in opposition to the mission. “Nah. I’ve got some work emails I need to respond to.”
Lies.
Thatch flashed his most persuasive pout in my direction, but I stayed strong.
“Go take your shower, you big ogre. I’ll be on the couch when you’re done. Maybe we can just order some room service for dinner?”
He moved his big, muscular, and very naked frame into the hallway on purpose, standing like a proud peacock in his birthday suit, his nipple ring winking in the lights. It shone almost obscenely, but I couldn’t stop my eyes from homing in on the Supercock. It was like a magnet to my horny gaze. I actually swore it was scientifically magnetic, put there by the aliens or something, so strong was its power.
And my husband was no fool. Goddammit. He knew my weakness, the devious bastard.
“Are you sure, honey?” he asked with a sexy smirk. “I’ll even massage your shoulders a little under the hot water…”
Oh man, he was really pulling out the big guns.
“Nope. I’m good,” I bit out, even though my pussy was all but screaming, Wait a minute! We’re not good! We want the shower! We want the massage! We want the Supercock!
“Oooooookay,” Thatch said with a wink. “Suit yourself. I’ll be in the shower all wet and naked and stroking myself clean.”
“Sounds like you’re about to have a grand time.”
I fought the urge to scowl. I wanted to have a grand time. I wanted to have a grand boning time and fuck my Jolly Green Giant in the shower, but I needed to stay focused. I had research to do, and I needed to do it while Thatch was otherwise occupied.
Thatch eyed me curiously, and I knew I had to get him out of there.
“Go take your shower and then we can order room service. I’ll even let you play with my tits a little while we wait for them to deliver it.”
“Fifteen minutes?” he brokered.
“I’ll be generous and give you twenty minutes.”
“A twenty-minute playdate with two of my favorite girls?”
“That’s what I said.”
He smirked. “Get ’em ready for Daddy. And time my shower. I’ve got this feeling I’m going to set some kind of world record. Actually, you better call an official from the Guinness book while you’re at it.”
“You got it, Daddy. Just make sure you get nice and clean so I can get you all dirty again,” I taunted, grabbing both breasts and squeezing them together. His smirk turned into a full-on, megawatt smile.
The second his naked ass was out of sight, I jumped into action. I’d stupidly shortened my own clock by offering titty play, but now I had to deal with the consequences. I plopped down on the couch and set my laptop on my thighs, and as quickly as I could, found my favorite realty website and entered the criteria into the search field.
I scrolled through all of the listings and mentally approved or declined the possibilities.
Nah. That one is too big. She’d need a maid to keep it clean.
Hmmm…I bet a six-year-old would love a backyard like that. Add it to the list.
Okay…Yeah… This has a nice man cave… He’d probably love filling it with football memorabilia and
other stupid shit like that…
Ohhh…This master bedroom is gorgeous… I bet they’d enjoy a sex swing in the corner of that little nook by the window…
I’d worked as quickly as I could, but I knew I was down to the wire. Luckily, I had three perfect homes saved just in the nick of time. I honestly didn’t know which one would work best, but I had a feeling the options I had would make them more than happy.
“What are you doing, Crazy?”
His booming voice startled me, and I glanced up from the screen which held a picture of the last pretty house I had looked it and found Thatch leaning over the couch and practically cheek-to-cheek with me. A hand went to my chest, startled again by his close proximity this time.
“For fluff’s sake,” I muttered and took a deep, shaky breath. “Do you understand personal space? I mean, hell, you scared the sneakers out of me.”
He tilted his head to the side and looked at me closely. “Why are you so jumpy? That’s not like you.”
“I’m not jumpy,” I refuted.
He smirked. “You just about jumped off the couch when I asked you a question, and when you saw I was right beside you, you practically dove out the window. You’re real fucking jumpy.”
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “You don’t exactly have a quiet voice or a small head. When you’re not expecting either of those things to be in your ear or in your face, I gotta be honest, baby, they can be fluffing terrifying.”
“You don’t seem to have any complaints with my big head when it’s between your thighs.”
“You’re right,” I agreed. “Maybe you should just keep your head there all the time. Then, you can’t scare the shit out of me, and my pussy will be one happy girl.”
He chuckled at that. “Your pussy is the greediest fucking girl I know.”
“So?” I flashed a pointed look in his direction. “What are you trying to say, Thatcher?”