The Eternity that Follows

by Diane Marie

  “Gorgeous.” Joey said, standing up and holding his hand out for Gabriella.

  Joey led Gabriella up the steps in the family room, up the steps to their bedroom, and without words made love to Gabriella.

  Joey and Gabriella were holding each other, vowing eternity to each other, when Joey broke their hold, and lightly placed his ear on Gabriella’s stomach.

  “What are you doing?” Gabriella asked, as she giggled. “Trying to hear the heart beat.”

  “You’re never going to be able to.”

  “Shh.” Joey said, really trying to listen. “Hey I think I heard it.” “I bet you that is my heart beat.”

  “Uh-un, your hearts here.” Joey said, placeing his hand on Gabriella’s heart, while his ear stayed on her stomach. “You can hear the heartbeat through the stomach too, Joey.” “Fine. You can’t just amuse me?”

  “Ok. I’m sure you heard the baby’s heart beat and not mine.” “Thank you.”

  Joey then pulled Gabriella tightly into his arms, holding her from behind. He placed one hand on her stomach, wanting to hold the baby as well.

  “Sweet dreams Gabriella.” Joey said. “Sweet dreams baby.” Joey said, lightly patting Gabriella’s stomach.

  “Sweet dreams daddy.” Gabriella giggled.

  “Are you making fun of me?”

  “Nope. You’re too cute to make fun of. Sweet dreams Joey.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  When Joey and Gabriella woke up on Thursday, Joey was mad Gabriella had class at nine in the morning. Joey wanted to spend the day cuddling.

  “We’ll have plenty of time to cuddle next week on our honeymoon.” Gabriella informed him.

  “You’re right.”

  “I’ll make you breakfast before I go.” Gabriella said, as she took her engagement ring from her jewelry box on the dresser, and placed it on her ring finger. Joey was still lying in bed. “I’m not hungry yet. I’ll get myself something later. I’m just going to lay right here for a while.” Joey said, covering himself with the blanket and closing his eyes.

  Gabriella gave Joey a kiss on the forehead before she left him to go downstairs to eat. Gabriella was out of the house a little while later.

  When Gabriella got home from class, she found Joey still lying in bed. Joey had fallen back to sleep, and was still napping. Gabriella hopped into bed and woke him up. Joey grabbed her into his arms and held tight.

  “Joey, I can’t breathe.”

  “I missed you so much.” Joey said, giving Gabriella kisses all over her neck.

  “I missed you too. It was so hard to concentrate, while knowing I had such a handsome man at home waiting for me.”

  “Oh.” Joey said, giving Gabriella his bedroom eyes.

  “Oh no. We have to start packing for our honeymoon.” “We have time.” Joey said, starting to undress Gabriella.

  Gabriella whimpered to Joey’s undressing her, she had been craving him ever since she left him this morning. He had been so cute, asking to cuddle longer, and throwing the blanket over himself. Gabriella had no protests to Joey, being in the mood herself, and knowing they had the time. Joey was attentive to Gabriella, asking her if she felt good. Gabriella replied, ‘oh yes.’ Every time Joey had asked. When they were done, Joey wouldn’t let her out of bed.

  “No five more minutes.” Joey said, to Gabriella's protest of leaving bed.

  “Joey, you must be starving. Let me make you lunch.” “In five minutes.”

  “Okay then. Five minutes.”

  In the time following lunch, Gabriella began to pack for her and Joey.

  “So am I bringing summer clothes?” Gabriella said. She had been wearing things from her winter wardrobe the past week. The temperature had dropped claiming it was fall, and winter was soon on the way.

  “Yes. But bring a sweat shirt or two just in case.”

  “All right. Is it tropical where were going?”

  “Of course.” Joey said, started to caving in and tell her where they were going.

  “That’s all I want to know.” .

  “Oh damn. Gab I have to go to the jewelers and get our wedding bands.” Joey said, realizing the day and time.

  “Well get to it.”

  “I’ll be back in less then an hour.”

  “All right.”

  Joey gave Gabriella a long hard kiss goodbye, and told her he would finish his packing when he got home. When Joey was gone, Gabriella finished her own packing. She then went through Joey’s clothes, picking out his outfits for him. Gabriella only picked what he would be wearing for night time, assuming Joey wouldn’t expect her to be doing any cooking on her honeymoon. Gabriella left everything on the bed for Joey’s approval, figuring he could pack his bathing suits, and day clothes all by himself

  When Joey got home, Gabriella was in the kitchen making her sauce for dinner. Gabriella decided to go all out, by adding meatballs and sausage to her sauce. Gabriella had never made her sauce with meat for Joey before. Gabriella was just taking the meatballs out of the oven, and placing them in the sauce. “Yum.” Joey said, when he saw what Gabriella was making. “There’s sweet Italian sausage in there too.”

  “Yummy.”

  “Aww Joey, you’re too adorable.” Gabriella admitted.

  Joey placed his hand around her stomach.

  “The baby’s so lucky to have a mommy who’s such a good cook.” Joey said, giving off a warm vibe to Gabriella.

  “Thanks Joe. Go finishing packing. I laid some nighttime clothes out for you.”

  “Thanks sweetie. I’ll get right on that. First I want to run out and get some Italian bread for dinner. I know how much you love it!” “All right. Well dinner’s not for a couple of hours. The meatballs need time in the sauce.”

  “That’s all right.”

  When Joey came back, Gabriella was standing in the kitchen waiting for him. Joey placed the Italian bread on the counter and looking peculiarly at her. “What are you doing?” Joey asked.

  “Waiting to put these in the baby room with you.” Gabriella said, picking up the Mickey and Minne Lennox that were left on the counter.

  “Oh.” Joey said, delighted.

  It took Joey and Gabriella all of two seconds to display the Lennox in the nursery. Joey left Gabriella in the nursery alone, knowing she liked to sit in there, and daydream about holding her baby.

  Joey himself, went to go finish packing. When Joey was done, he found Gabriella in the kitchen stirring the macaroni. Gabriella scooped out the meat from the sauce into one of her new serving bowls, then poured gravy into her gravy dish. Joey stood, watching her as he leaned on the entrance to the kitchen. When Gabriella turned around to place the serving bowl and sauce on the table, she spotted Joey.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Watching how lovely you are in the kitchen.”

  “Oh impressed are we?”

  “Very.” Joey said, giving Gabriella a quick kiss on the check, and then going to cut the Italian bread.

  When Gabriella had dinner placed on the table, Joey sat down and took a bite. “Delicious.”

  “Oh, not yum?” .

  “I’m going to be a daddy soon, figured I’d grow up a little.” “Yes but yum is baby talk, and you have to say it to the baby while feeding it.”

  “It? Do you think it’s a girl or boy?”

  “I have no clue.”

  “You’re the mother, you must have a feeling.”

  “Nope, not yet.”

  Joey and Gabriella spent the rest of dinner talking about possible baby names. At the end of dinner, they hadn’t decided on any one name. They both decided they would spend some time thinking about the names they agreed on, and then discuss it again when the baby was closer to arriving.

  They went straight for the bedroom after dinner. Gabriella had a mild protest, she wanted them to wait till they were married before they made love again. Joey was against the idea, and began kissing on Gabriella’s neck. Gabriella gave into Joey, and he had them
both undressed quickly. Joey starting by hitting Gabriella's spot right away so she wouldn’t complain he wasn’t respecting her request on waiting. Gabriella lost all her will power as Joey was being romantic, sweet and intimate, causing Gabriella to realize he was using his soul to make love. Gabriella gave into her own desires, letting her soul make love back to Joey’s.

  When they were done, Gabriella looked around the room, and felt taken care of by Joey, being he had designed such a romantic room for his dream girl.

  “Joey?” Gabriella asked, hoping Joey hadn’t fallen asleep yet. “Yes my dear?”

  “Who did you buy the land from?”

  “Oh. I told you I knew someone.”

  “Like who?”

  “My grandfather. Okay. My grandfather owned all the land on this side of the lake and he gave it to me for a steal before he passed away.” Joey said.

  Gabriella was shocked.

  “Wow.”

  “Yes. The land was passed down by my family, one of my great grandfathers bought the land when New York City was too crowded and they were selling the land up her cheap. My grandmother owns the land now and it’ll go to my father when she passes.”

  “So one day your father is going to own all the land around us?” Gabriella asked, knowing she was reaching a touchy spot. “Guess so.”

  “Do you think he’ll come around again or just sell it?” Gabriella asked, wanting Joey to confide his feelings in her.

  “I haven’t thought about it much.”

  “Oh.”

  “I wouldn’t want to see him again anyway.” Joey said, taking Gabriella into his arms to remind her, she was all he needed.

  Gabriella fell silent, and gave Joey a kiss goodnight on his forehead. Gabriella said a prayer for Joey that night, that one day, Joey would be reconnected with his father. She knew he felt incomplete in life since his father had left at such an early age. She feel asleep in comfort of her and Joey's love, hopeful it would grow on and continue forever.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Over breakfast Friday morning, Gabriella informed Joey, she was going to go work out over at her parents house. She hadn’t worked out since she found out she was pregnant, she was waiting the doctor’s approval. Gabriella didn’t want to lose any of the muscle mass she spent all summer working hard on building. Joey also stopped working out since he found out Gabriella was pregnant, to be fair to her. Neither of them could tell the other had stopped working out though. Joey mentioned to Gabriella, he didn’t want to lose her for the day.

  “That’s why I want to workout, to prevent it.” Gabriella said. “But you’re not allowed to run only jog.” Joey pointed out. “How about you come to my gym with me as a guest.”

  “Fine.” Gabriella said, she didn’t want to argue. Knowing, Joey was protective over his baby, she was growing inside of her.

  At the gym, Joey and Gabriella started jogging on the treadmill together. Joey yelled at Gabriella to lower the sped she had first set it on.

  “What? It’s much lower then my normal pace. I can’t run any slower.”

  “Jog, you’re supposed to be jogging.” Joey said, setting his own pace. “Please just match my pace.”

  “Fine.” Gabriella said, lowering her sped to Joey’s, and then slowed down to a light jog. Gabriella then stopped jogging, walking fast instead, wanting to prove to Joey, she could run at a higher sped.

  “All right fine but only a little higher.” Joey said, when he noticed she was walking.

  When they were through with their jog, Gabriella went to lie on the mats to do her abs.

  “Why are you doing ab exercises?” Joey asked, seeing no point in Gabriella doing ab exercises if she was pregnant.

  “I plan on doing ab exercises until I’m too fat not to. I’m not losing my whole six pack throughout my entire pregnancy, I plan on kicking my body right back into gear.”

  “Oh all right.” Joey said, feeling he couldn’t argue.

  “Besides, doing ab exercises is a good prevention tool from keeping my ab muscles from separating form the pregnancy.” Gabriella said.

  Joey laid on the mat next to Gabriella, following her ab routine. When they were fished, Joey’s abs were killing him. “I’ve never done those before.” Joey said, in regards to one of Gabriella’s ab exercises which worked a new muscle group in his stomach.

  “You can’t tell.” Gabriella said, as she pictured Joey’s stomach. “I can surely see the definition of the muscle group.”

  “I guess doing those will define them more.”

  “Guess so.” Gabriella said, kissing Joey’s nose for he was just too cute.

  When Gabriella went over to the dumbbells and grabbed a ten-pound weight, Joey immediately switched it for a six-pound weight.

  “You’re not supposed to lift heavy things.” Joey reminded her what the doctor said.

  “From the bottom up I’m not supposed to. He didn’t mean I couldn’t use weights to workout my arms.”

  “Just please me.”

  “Okay, fine”

  Joey then left Gabriella to do her arm routine, opting to use the machines in the gym to work out his arms instead. When Gabriella was done, she walked over to an arm machine, and sat herself down.

  “What are you doing?” Joey came over and asked Gabriella. “Trying out this machine.”

  “You have too much weight on it.”

  “Oh Joey, are you done at the gym yet?”

  “Someone’s cranky.”

  “I’m not cranky. I have an, overbearing whatever you are to me.” Gabriella wanted to say husband, or babies’ father, but realized he wasn’t either of those things yet.

  “I’m your lover.” Joey said, summing up all the names Gabriella had thought to call him.

  “Aww.” Gabriella said, then she kissed his nose.

  Gabriella then walked passed him, shaking her ass so he would immediately follow. Joey wanted to drop down to his knees from the shake Gabriella had given him, instead he hurried behind her and gave her kisses all over her neck. “Ewe Joey, I’m sweaty.”

  “Yum.”

  “Come on I have to get ready for my noon class.”

  Gabriella took a quick shower, and got ready for school as soon as they arrived home. When Gabriella was all dressed and ready, she found Joey in the kitchen. Joey had made her a sandwich for lunch with a plate of carrot sticks.

  “You simply must please me again and eat. It’s for the baby.” Joey said, after Gabriella had given him a look.

  “I didn’t say anything. Thanks babe.” Gabriella said, choosing her words to show, she was getting used to Joey’s care and concern for her and the baby.

  When Gabriella got home from school, Joey wanted to fed her fruit for a snack. Gabriella laughed when she walked in, and Joey had milk and fruit set out for her.

  “You didn’t have any milk this morning, and I know the baby needs a calcium to grow.” Joey said, afraid Gabriella didn’t approve of the snack.

  “Thank you for caring so much.”

  When Gabriella was done with her snack, which Joey had stayed in the kitchen to make sure she finished, she wanted to finish up what she had leftover of her school work before the wedding and honeymoon.

  “Hey Joe? Did you get my computer and set it up like I asked you too?” .

  “I sure did. I grabbed all of our movies and CDs and stuff too. Where going to have to get a wall unit when we get back.” “We need to get a few things.”

  “I hooked the computer up to the cable so we have internet. We can buy all registry stuff that wasn’t bought when you’re done.” Joey said, really wanting to make sure they purchased the rest of the Lennox characters they didn’t receive as gifts.

  “That works.”

  When Gabriella was done with her homework, she went online to update her Facebook status, ‘Living with the most handsome man on earth in our gorgeous new home!’

  Gabriella then checked her messages to see if Jemma had written her back yet. Gabriella hadn�
��t given much thought to Jemma being she had been too busy with the house, school, the baby, and of course Joey to care for. Jemma surprisingly didn’t write her back. Gabriella was almost sure she would have written up some scandal as to why she shouldn’t be marrying Joey.

  Gabriella walked over to Joey who was in the family room with her playing video games. She wanted to discuss how Jemma hadn't written her back.

  “So?” Joey asked, when Gabriella informed him, Jemma hadn't responded.

  “So, I feel bad.”

  “Bad? About what?”

  “That we’re not friends anymore and I didn’t even invite her to the wedding.”

  “Gab, please don’t, she doesn’t have a care in the world for you. Just let it go.”

  “I guess you’re right. It’s just that my friends are coming from out of town for the wedding tomorrow, I‘m a little embarrassed.” “Embarrassed that you choose a man that cares for you over a whore that is out to get you? Look at the facts. The situation with Vinny is enough evidence that she would do whatever it takes to get her way. And you know her way is us not getting married.” Joey said, pulling Gabriella down into his arms. “I love you baby, I put you first, you didn’t do anything wrong letting love stand in the way of a horrible friendship.” Joey said, and Gabriella knew Joey was right. She hadn’t chosen between them, she simply didn’t want to be friends with someone that would purposely want to ruin her hand at happiness.

  “I love you too.” Gabriella said, kissing Joey on the cheek.

  Joey was all set to leave for his brother’s house with his over night bag with him. Gabriella walked Joey to the front door. “I don’t want to leave you for tonight.” Joey said

  “We have our whole lives ahead of us.”

  “I know. I still can’t stand the thought of being without you, even if it is for just one night.” Joey admitted, Gabriella looked into Joey’s eyes.

  “Forever?” She asked.

  “Forever.”

  “And the eternity that follows?”