Color of Forgiveness

by Madeleine Beckett

  “Go fuck yourself,” Dylan says, grabbing his tool bucket roughly.

  For some reason, Chad laughs even harder. “We all told your stupid ass not to work today, but you wouldn’t listen. Take your lovesick ass back home and don’t come back until she’s had that baby, got it?”

  Dylan nods.

  “I’ll see ya tonight at Ma’s or at the hospital, whichever comes first,” Chad says.

  Dylan brushes past him and out the bathroom door. “Ma’s making peach cream pie tonight,” Chad yells out behind him, “so tell Myra to keep her ass cheeks squeezed tight ‘cause I’ve got me a cravin’ for some pie.”

  Dylan shakes his head and flips him the bird while he keeps walking. He hears Chad’s cackles echoing behind him.

  Once outside, Dylan glances at his old work truck where the words Lawson & Sons Contracting are displayed along the side. The corner of his mouth tugs upwards as he hefts his tool bucket into the back. It feels fucking awesome to be back working in the family business again.

  As he drives home, he can’t stop worrying about Myra and their baby. Her due date is in two days, and so far she’s had a worry-free pregnancy other than that damn morning sickness that she had for over four months. He thought that shit would never go away. At Myra’s last doctor’s appointment, she was dilated to one, which the doc said was normal. So now it’s just a waiting game, and Dylan is not a patient man.

  He will admit he has been a bit overprotective of her, not letting her lift a finger for anything. Myra tells him that she likes how he hovers over her, but he just feels like he’s being an annoying ass. When Sabrina was pregnant with Mel, she had a C-section that was scheduled way in advance so there wasn’t any of this waiting shit. They just went to the hospital and had him. All this waiting, water breaking, and labor shit… it’s all brand new to him.

  It’s a Friday in November, two weeks before Thanksgiving. He was officially going to call it quits after today and stay home with Myra until the baby was born. But both his dad and Chad and everyone else in his family told him not to work today, but he didn’t listen. Of course they were all right. He just needs to be with her every minute. Just in case…

  He pulls into his driveway next to his mom’s car and smiles when he looks up at the house that he and Myra now call home. They picked this particular house because it was so close to his family. They’re only about five minutes from his parents and both of his brothers. Myra tried to buy the house with some of the cash she had sitting in her bank account that he knew nothing about... close to a million fucking dollars. He had no damn clue that she had that kind of money, but he wouldn’t let her touch a penny of it. She inherited that money from the deaths of her dad and Grampie so that shit had more than just a monetary value to it. So he’d insisted on getting a mortgage and paying for it himself. Myra had fought him on it until he agreed to let her pay the utilities.

  Myra was lucky enough to find someone to rent Grampie’s house in Nyssa so she didn’t have to sell it. So far the new occupants have not complained of any ghost sightings or paranormal activity.

  As he makes his way through the kitchen into the family room, he shrugs out of his coat and smiles when he sees Myra sitting on the couch. She has her laptop propped up on the arm and her feet in her fuzzy pink socks are perched up on top of the coffee table.

  She smiles ear to ear when she looks up and sees him. She quickly closes her laptop and sets it down on the end table. He returns the grin, sitting down on the couch beside her. He wraps one arm around her shoulders, and places his hand on her stomach. Myra’s hand moves on top of his as he buries his face in her hair. “Mm. Have I told you how beautiful you are today?” he asks, moving his hand over her swelled belly.

  “Yes…” Myra says before giggling, “…before you left two hours ago.”

  “Well, that’s too damn long ago. You need to hear it again.” He rubs his hand slowly over her stomach. “Is my baby sleeping?” He begins chuckling when his hand gets hit with a powerful kick.

  He smiles, keeping his hand in the same spot and feeling a little foot or hand hitting against him repeatedly. “My baby’s definitely not asleep.”

  “Nope, definitely not sleeping.”

  “Where’s mom?”

  “She’s upstairs trying to get Jilly down for her morning nap. She’s been a little fussy because she’s cutting a tooth.”

  He hums in acknowledgement before he leans down and pushes Myra’s sweater up, exposing her bare stomach. He kisses across the top of her belly and smiles when he gets kicked against his lips. “Hi, baby. It’s your daddy,” he whispers. “I’m ready to meet you now.”

  Dylan feels he really is ready. He’s worked hard to get to this point and has been seeing Dr. Mitchum every week since the Rhonda incident. She helped him accept that what happened with Mel was an accident and wasn’t his fault, and she helped show him that he never really grieved properly. But now he finally feels like he’s in a good place, and he’s every bit excited about this baby as any soon dad-to-be would be.

  He also knows that he still has a lot of things to work on, like trying to control his overprotective feelings that he has towards Myra and the baby. Dr. Mitchum has also been trying to prepare him for the fears he’ll face once the baby gets here.

  Myra threads her fingers through his hair as he turns his cheek and lays it against the warm skin of her stomach, feeling the baby move against his skin. Somewhere in the room, his mom loudly clears her throat. He shuts his eyes and groans because he’d totally forgotten about her. He pulls Myra’s sweater back down and sits up, moving his hand back to her stomach possessively.

  His mom sits down across from them and sets the baby monitor on the coffee table. Then she smiles at him in that ‘I told you so’ kind of way.

  “Yes, I’m back,” Dylan says with an eye roll. “You don’t have to say it.”

  Sherri’s eyes crinkle up at the corners when she smiles brightly at him.

  “Did Jilly go down okay for her nap?” Myra asks. Dylan rubs his hand gently over the top of her stomach.

  “Not really. That tooth is really bothering her so I put some Ora-jel on it, but I—” Sherri gets interrupted by a loud wailing coming from the baby monitor. She smiles and shakes her head. “Like I was saying, I didn’t think she would stay asleep for long. I’ll go see if I can rock her for a bit.”

  Once his mom leaves the room, Dylan’s lips attach themselves to Myra’s neck. She giggles as he kisses his way up her throat and along her jawline until he finds her lips. He kisses her softly, but then it turns more serious as his tongue slips gently into her mouth to taste her. Feeling himself grow hard, he groans and turns his body towards her, trying to get a little friction on his cock.

  She pulls back and whispers, “What are you doing?” in a breathy voice.

  “I’m trying to touch you as much as I can before Susie gets here and steals you away from me.”

  “She’s not going to steal me away. Besides, we’ll still have our nights together.”

  “I don’t want just your nights. I want you all the time.” He grabs her hand. “Feel,” he says as he pushes it onto his cock.

  She gasps, laughing. “I can’t believe you’re hard,” she whispers, her eyes darting nervously towards the stairs.

  He smirks. “It’s your fault. You’re always so beautiful and sexy. I can’t help it if my cock gets hard every time I’m around you.”

  “If your mom wasn’t here and Susie wasn’t on her way, I’d take you upstairs and…” She stares intently at his lips and slowly licks hers.

  Dylan groans. “And…?

  Myra makes a humming sound. “I’d strip your clothes off…”

  “Yeah?” Dylan says, practically panting.

  “And I’d—”

  Myra’s interrupted by a loud knocking on the door.

  “Goddamn it,” Dylan mumbles, quickly adjusting himself. “I’m gonna do some dirty fucking things to you tonight, baby,” he whispers in her e
ar before he stands up and helps her to her feet.

  “Well, they say lots of sex can help start labor.”

  “Lots of sex?” he repeats with a raised eyebrow. “You’re in so much trouble, woman.” He waves his hand towards his jeans that are tenting.

  Myra giggles. “I guess I’ll go get the door, huh?”

  He nods and grins at her waddling towards the front door before he escapes upstairs to try to get rid of his erection.

  * * *

  Myra fans her face on the way to the door and hopes she doesn’t look as hot and bothered as she feels. She smiles when her hand touches the doorknob and she hears Susie and Jackie’s loud voices.

  “It’s a boy,” Jackie says vehemently.

  “It’s a girl, damn it. I’m her best friend and I know this crap,” Susie shouts back.

  “Well, you may be her Philly best friend, but I’m her Boise best friend, and I’ve been feeling on her stomach now for months, and I just have this special feeling that it’s a boy.”

  “Well, you, little missy and your special feelings can kiss my over-sized white cellulite-ridden ass because that baby in there is a girl, I tell you and you can’t convince me otherwise.”

  Myra throws open the door, expecting to catch Susie and Jackie throwing fists.

  “Myra!” Susie shouts with a gigantic smile, dropping her bags and grabbing Myra in a hug. “And your widdle watermelon,” she says a cutesy voice, rubbing her hand on the top of Myra’s stomach. “You look absolutely gorgeous. Skype sucks. It has done you no justice.”

  “You look great too,” Myra says with a grin, looking Susie up and down.

  “I do, don’t I?” Susie says. She strikes a pose with one hand on her hip, the other behind her head. “Can you believe I’ve lost twenty pounds? It’s like a miracle of modern science.”

  “You look fabulous,” Myra says. “Come on in.” She looks at Jackie and gives her a wave. “Hey,” she says.

  Jackie shouts ‘hi’ back and waves frantically.

  “Do you have much luggage? Dylan can bring it in for you. He’s upstairs, but he’ll be back down in a few.”

  “I’m good. I only brought this one suitcase and my carry-on.”

  Myra shows her to her room upstairs where Susie stows her bags. Then the three of them sit in the family room together. “Okay, Myra. Just be prepared for my hands to be planted on your stomach until you have this baby,” Susie says, animatedly stretching and exercising her fingers before attaching them to Myra’s belly. “There’s nothing more exciting in the world than feeling a baby kick. A baby girl kick, I should say.”

  “Baby boy,” Jackie argues. “When Myra first told me that she was pregnant, she handed me a blue teddy bear. That was a sign. I believe in spirits and signs and I just know that was the universe’s way of letting me know that it’s a boy. Plus, look at her.” Jackie says, waving towards Myra’s stomach. “She’s carrying low. That’s proof right there.”

  “That’s an old wives tale. Besides, she looks like she’s carrying high to me. Myra, stand up.”

  Myra smiles and rolls her eyes but still stands up, her face warming under their scrutiny. Susie taps her finger against her lips while she stares intently at Myra’s stomach. “That little girl is definitely high. It’s so a girl.”

  “It’s a boy!” Jackie shouts back.

  “Will you two stop?” Myra shouts. She sits back down and Susie’s hands immediately go to her stomach again. “You’ll find out soon enough so quit arguing.”

  “Hey, that reminds me,” Susie says. “I’m ready for you to go into labor right now. I’m only going to be here for a week so I need you to have this baby tonight so that I can hold her the rest of the week.”

  Myra laughs and shakes her head.

  “Where’s mom?” Jackie asks Myra.

  “She’s upstairs.”

  “We need to tell her to fix Mexican tonight for supper. I’ve heard that eating spicy food can make a woman go into labor.”

  “Oh… I know. We could get her to eat a habanero pepper,” Susie says to Jackie. “That little girl would get the hell outta there fast.”

  “Uh, you’d have to take me to the hospital for throat injuries, not labor, if I did that,” Myra says, laughing.

  “Wait. I know,” Susie says. “We need to go buy some castor oil or maybe some prunes. Maybe you could drink a bottle of prune juice. That’d give you the shits so bad you’d have to go into labor.”

  Jackie starts giggling hysterically.

  Susie busts out laughing. “Can you imagine going into labor while sitting on the toilet with the shits? Oh my god, that’s hilarious. You wouldn’t be able to go to the hospital because you wouldn’t be able to leave the toilet.”

  All three of them laugh and giggle until they have to wipe tears from their eyes. Myra moves Susie’s hand up to a spot just below her ribcage. Susie gasps her face lighting up. “That’s her foot, isn’t it?” Myra smiles and nods at her. “Oh my god, that’s awesome. I remember those rib kicks. Damn, they hurt. Weston used to kick me right in the bladder so hard that I’d piss myself every single time. I was so danged excited when I got pregnant because of the ‘not having to wear freaking pads for nine months thing’, but I still had to wear pads to catch the piss.”

  “Let me feel,” Jackie says in a whiny voice. Dropping onto her knees beside Myra, she puts her hand next to Susie’s.

  “Hey, you’re around her all the time,” Susie says with a frown, trying to push Jackie’s hand away. “It’s my turn, so get lost.”

  Jackie doesn’t flinch. “I don’t get to spend as much time with Myra as you think. I’m always either working at the clothing store here in Boise, or driving back and forth to Nyssa to check on the bookstore or trying to sneak some time in with Nick in between his classes.”

  “Fine… but just know that I hate sharing,” Susie says. She scoots her hand over about a centimeter, and Jackie grins brightly at her.

  “That sucks that you couldn’t sell the bookstore,” Susie says to Jackie.

  “I know. It’s been on the market for about eight months now with no interest at all. But thankfully I was able to find some good, reliable people to run it when I can’t be there so at least I didn’t have to close the doors.

  “Whoa,” Jackie says, her eyes going wide.

  “That had to hurt,” Susie says, rubbing Myra’s stomach in sympathy.

  Myra nods, her face grimacing. “That did hurt.”

  “It’s not fair how damn skinny you are, Myra,” Susie says. “I was the size of a house by the end of both of my pregnancies. The only thing I could fit into was one of those big housecoat moo-moo things that you see ninety-year old women wearing. I swear my feet were so swelled up that I had to buy shoes two sizes bigger to fit my Yeti feet in. I kept tripping all over the damn place because of my big bozo feet.

  “And my face… I swear my nose looked like it had somehow tripled in size like I’d shoved a big old Idaho potato in the center of it. I was a scary sight. But you? You just look like you stuck a basketball underneath your shirt. You make me want to hurl.”

  “Isn’t she the cutest?” Jackie says. “She’s just all belly but still so tiny.”

  Myra laughs and rolls her eyes because she can’t get a word in edgewise with these two.

  “So when are you and Nick going to have some babies?” Susie asks Jackie. “How long have you been married now? I think it’s time you start trying.”

  “We’ve only been married for two months,” Jackie says with a giggle. “But I can’t wait to be a mom. Nick will be the best dad ever. I want two kids; a boy and a girl. I’m going to name the girl Jasmine Rae and the boy Jaden Ryan.”

  Susie shakes her head and blinks her eyes. “Okay... So you’re not pregnant yet, right?”

  Jackie giggles and shakes her head. “No.”

  “Well, then how is it that you’re announcing your baby names and you’re not even pregnant, yet here sits little Miss Myra about ready to pop
, and she won’t even give us a hint as to a baby name?”

  “I know!” Jackie says. “Myra, please tell us the baby names. Please? We promise we won’t tell Dylan that you told us.”

  “Uh… no,” Myra says with finality.

  “Why not?” Jackie whines.

  “Because Dylan and I will announce the baby’s name at the hospital when the baby is born… that’s what we’ve decided, and we’re not changing it.”

  * * *

  When Dylan gets to the bottom of the stairs, he catches the tail end of their conversation. “That’s right, Jackie,” he almost snarls when he steps into the room. “Quit bothering Myra about that shit. She’s told you a dozen times what we’ve decided.”

  “Ah, shut up, Dylan. If I remember correctly, it was the three of us talking, and you weren’t in this conversation.”

  “All right, you two,” Myra says. “Stop it.”

  He has to grit his teeth in order to not say something back to Jackie. He only keeps his mouth shut because of Myra. He doesn’t give a shit if Jackie is married to his brother. They still don’t get along and probably never will. There’s just something about Jackie that rubs Dylan the wrong way, and apparently the sentiment is mutual.

  He walks up beside Jackie and stares down at her with his eyebrow cocked as if to say ‘get the hell outta my way’. Jackie rolls her eyes and huffs before finally moving. Dylan sits down next to Myra and wraps his arm around her. “Hey, Susie,” he says with a half-grin.

  “Hello,” Susie says, smiling. “You look incredibly healthy and well as always.”

  “Thanks.”

  Susie clears her throat. “Um… Dylan?”

  “Yeah?” he answers.

  “I have a favor to ask.”

  “What?”

  “Well, I was wondering, if you could… sex up your woman a lot tonight so that she can have this baby by tomorrow,” she spits out really fast-like.

  Dylan starts coughing, his eyes bulging out of his head while Myra slaps Susie on the arm, and Jackie starts laughing hysterically.

  * * *

  “Sherri, you are a fine, fine cook,” Susie says as she pats her stomach, “but I’m highly disappointed that you didn’t slip a ghost pepper into Myra’s pasta. I need her to have this baby now.”