“Yes you can, you’re doing great. Keep going, you’re nearly there; he’s in some kind of hurry. One more, push down from your bottom and keep going, now!”
I pushed one more time, as hard as I possibly could, letting out a blood curdling scream as I felt my son slip out, much easier and faster than his sister.
Wonderful, Jewls!” the midwife exclaimed happily. “Congratulations, you have a healthy baby boy! You want to hold?”
“I can’t feel my arms!” I puffed, exhausted.
“Dad, how about you?”
I looked at Micah, who was nodding excitedly. My mum had a hold of our daughter, nuzzling her and talking to her. I watched as the midwife placed our son into his arms. All I saw was a head of thick black hair under the blanket.
“Oh, Jewls…” he whispered, holding him close. “He’s amazing.”
~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~
Jewls
We sat for a while in a contented silence with our children, just holding them and getting to know them.
There was a knock on the door and the midwife stuck her head round it. “Jewls, Micah? There are a lot of people out here all claiming to be family, all eager to meet the new additions.”
Micah grinned. “Yeah, send them in please.”
“Well…really they shouldn’t all be coming in…”
I laughed at that and shook my head. “Good luck trying to stop them.”
She narrowed her eyes but she was smiling. “Five minutes.”
She left and moments later everyone piled in, surrounding the bed. “Hey…” Mari said, grinning and managing to get herself squeezed in towards the top of the bed. “Oh guys…they’re beautiful!”
“So which one is which…?” Eli asked. His eyes were wide and he was wearing the biggest smile I had ever seen on him. It suited him. If I didn’t know better, I could have sworn he was gushing.
“This is our daughter,” I said, lifting my arms a little to show everyone my sleeping baby.
“And this is our son…” Micah said with a smile.
“Are you finally gonna tell us the names you picked, or what?” Nic asked.
I nodded. “This little one…is Hope…”
Everyone nodded, muttering awe, and their approval of the choice. Micah looked at me, seeking final approval and I nodded for him to go ahead.
“And this little guy…” he said, tears filling his eyes through his proud smile, “this, is Marco…his name is Marco.”
~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~
Jewls
MAY
“Ladies and gentleman…” Nic said, clapping his hands together. “Thank you all so much for coming today.” The crowd quietened down, turning to him and waiting. I glanced at Micah by my side, holding Marco in his arms, and looked down at Hope in mine. Both were sleeping soundly, for once.
“Six months ago, our family was attacked. We lost our beautiful brother Marco. And we lost this place. We lost everything. Times were…hard, not least for Micah.” He glanced at Micah who smiled half-heartedly at him. “What today is…is a fresh start. As we re-open Carousel, we pledge as a family to make it bigger and better than ever before, in memory of our brother.” More applause and he waited until it died down, before he turned to me and Micah.
“I want to thank Jewls. For helping my brother to heal. For blessing him with two beautiful children and agreeing to marry him, taking him off our hands. He eats far too much and we might finally get in the bathroom occasionally without him hogging it.” There was a murmur of laughter at that, and Micah rolled his eyes. “I’m going to pass this over to Micah and Jewls now, to do the honours on behalf of the family.”
Micah passed Marco to my mum and stepped forward, not before planting a reassuring kiss on my forehead. I had come a long way in the preceding year, but he knew me well enough to know I wasn’t entirely comfortable with all these people looking at me.
“Thanks, bro.” he said, taking the scissors from him. “I just want to add to that if I may, before we go inside and eat. It’s been a rough ride, losing Marco broke my heart. But Jewls and these babies, they’ve healed me. Today I officially introduce my children…Hope, and Marco. Our family is growing; the Machvaya’s are back and here to stay. I am so proud of my little family. My fiancée and I are getting married right here in August and holding an open reception, all welcome so please do come along and help Jewls celebrate making an honest man of me…”
The crowd broke into spontaneous applause again, and Eli whistled, loud, grinning. Lisa nudged his arm, rolling her eyes and mouthing sorry at us.
“So…without further ado, I would like to officially declare that Carousel, the finest restaurant in the region hands down, is now…” he cut through the red ribbon strung across the glass doors of the new and quite spectacular restaurant and grinned, “…open…!”
Epilogue
“Three years, Mrs Machvaya. Three years you’ve worked here…and still you’re a complete chicken.”
Micah grinned at me, as he passed me again, spinning one of the cars emitting a little shriek from the occupants. I waited for the ride to bring him around again, and narrowed my eyes at him. “I am not…” he was gone again and this time when he came around he was still grinning and shot me a wink. I made to thump him and missed as the waltzer carried him just out of my reach.
“Yes you are!”
“It’s too high!” I shouted after him.
“It is not.” He said on his next round. “And anyway, it’s for charity. You said you would do it.”
“No…” I said, pausing for his next round, “you said I would do it. I signed up for nothing.”
The next time he came round he jumped off, landing in front of me, grabbing my hips and pulling me up flush with his body.
“Mrs Machvaya, give it up. We both know…I have ways to persuade you. We both know for instance, that if I stick my bottom lip out, like so…” he did just that and made his brown eyes wide and sorrowful, “…that you will be unable to resist and you will give in.”
I laughed at his attempts, but it was half-hearted because deep down I knew he was right. Well, he was usually right.
“Baby…you’re my husband. The father of my beautiful children. And God knows I love you with my whole heart. But nothing on this earth, and I mean absolutely nothing…would get me up there, with a piece of elastic tied to my feet jumping to a certain death. Nothing.”
“Not even risking the disappointment of your children, who have come along to watch mummy do the big leap?”
He gestured behind me, and I turned to see the whole Machvaya clan headed our way, Marco riding Luca’s shoulders, Hope on Kris’s shoulders. George and Ruby were running alongside Eli, trying to drag him towards the dodgems. He looked, as usual, harassed but amused.
I felt my familiar rush of pride at being part of this wonderful, and frankly gorgeous, family. Luca and Kris set the twins down, pointing me out to them and they came running at me. I jumped down to meet them on the grass and was almost knocked onto my bum by the force of their joint hugs.
“Hello, you two!”
“Hi, mummy!” Marco exclaimed. “Daddy..?”
“Right here!” Micah exclaimed, grabbing him and scooping him up, sitting him on his shoulders. Marco shrieked excitedly. “You come to watch mummy do her special jump?”
“Mummy is not doing it!” I protested, picking Hope up and holding her to my hip. “Daddy is. Shall we go watch, huh?”
“Yeah!” both kids squealed excitedly.
Micah rolled his eyes and groaned. “Fine. Make me do it alone.”
“You’re really gonna do this?” Nic said, amused.
“Yes, I am.” Micah said, “Said I would and I am a man of my word.”
Eli looked up at the sky and shook his head. “Bro, you want your head testing.”
Micah laughed. “So what’s new, huh? Anyway, why are you all here, what’s this, a family outing?”
Luca shrugged. “Family day at the fair, nothing more in it th
an that. We are not here to laugh at you, promise.”
“Sure you’re not. Who’s holding the fort at the restaurant?”
It was Nic’s turn to shrug. “Steve and Tracy have it under control.”
I turned to him, shocked. “You’ve left a none-family member in charge of the restaurant?”
“Hey, I’m a reformed man.” He protested. “I’m learning to have a life beyond work. I admit, it’s not always easy, but…it has its advantages.” He pulled Jenna closer to him, patting her tummy and the baby growing there.
“Mic, you ready?!” Alex shouted from across the way, interrupting the family banter, and Micah nodded.
“As I’ll ever be!” He called back.
He kissed my cheek and jogged over to Alex, shaking his hand and embracing him briefly before looking up at the platform, one hand up to shield his eyes from the sun. He turned to me one last time, grinning and I smiled back.
He still had nightmares sometimes, I still caught him crying when he thought I didn’t see, and I knew there was a part of him that might never heal…but he had come such a long way, and at last, he seemed to have found some sort of peace enough, pouring all the love he had once had for Marco onto me and the kids.
He saluted me and jumped up next to Alex on the bottom platform. As the other platform began it’s descent to collect him, Alex spoke into a microphone.
“Ladies and gentleman, its bungee time! Our very own Mr Micah Machvaya is up first, raising money for the burns unit at St Joseph’s hospital. Give up it for Micah!”
Everyone cheered, his brothers making the most noise, and I stood with the kids cheering too and laughing. It didn’t matter what he tried to say, I knew he was terrified. He stood on the platform while they attached the harness to his legs and raised a finger, gesturing for me to go to him. I set Hope down and went to him.
“Second thoughts…?”
“Nah,” he said with a nervous laugh, “course not. Give us a kiss. And think of me often, darling.”
“You don’t have to do it, babe.” I said, my own fear kicking in on his behalf. He had cheated death once; I suddenly had the thought that a second time was possibly pushing it.
He smiled brightly and clapped his hands together. “Let’s go, Alex.”
Alex laughed. “If you think I’m going up there, you can think again. Off you go.”
Micah narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to protest, but the safety man had already pressed the button and they had begun their journey up into the sky. All the way up we could vaguely hear a string of expletives, and Nic covered Marco’s ears, as smiling I did the same with Hope.
He seemed to be going up for a long time, until I could hardly see him and my own panic began to really set in on his behalf.
“Are you sure it’s safe?” I mumbled to Alex.
“Perfectly.” He said with a shrug. “This is gonna be hilarious.”
Through the sound system the countdown began, and every shouted along with it.
“Five…four…three…two…one…bungee!!!”
Micah was still standing on the platform, his arms up working the crowd who began a chant of “Micah! Micah! Micah!” and then he put his arms out either side of him and seemed to just fall forward off the platform. I looked away briefly, feeling instantly sick and as he hurtled towards the ground, I actually felt the wind as he sailed past our heads before springing back up and then coming back down again. Eli was laughing hysterically and I dared myself to look as he sailed past again. The bouncing seemed to have stopped, and he was basically just swinging now. His tee shirt came loose from his jeans exposing his chest and a cheer of appreciation rang out from the girls in the crowd.
I found myself finally relaxing the closer he got to the safety of the ground and laughed with everyone else, joining in with the applause.
“Jewls, your husband is most definitely completely insane!” Jenna said, slipping her hand into Nic’s.
“Yeah he is,” I laughed, “but he’s all mine and I wouldn’t change him for the world.”
THE END
Thanks, as ever, go to Jenny Wainwright, for her help, support and encouragement and for her tireless editing to help make this book what it is.
Also, thanks to Claire Mathewson
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Micah’s story is the first in the Gypsy Kiss Series, read on for an exclusive snippet from book 2, Nic’s story
Gypsy Kiss Book 2 - Nic
I walked into the house expecting to be met with a grumpy Eli complaining I was late and he had places to be, so I was surprised when I found Sandra in the kitchen, drinking a coffee and reading a newspaper.
She looked up at me over the top of her glasses and smiled. “Evening, Mr Machvaya…”
“Hi,” I said, unable to hide my confusion, “I’m going to regret asking this, but…where’s Eli?”
“I don’t know, he just hasn’t arrived home yet…”
Fucking Eli. I’d had a long, stressful week and what I needed to get through it; I was going to have to wait for. He was my brother and I loved him, but God, he really could be incredibly selfish.
Sandra seemed to sense my disappointment and frowned. “Is something wrong, did you have plans?”
“Uh…no…” not as such but I had hoped…
“Only all the boys are asleep, Marisol too…and I’m quite happy here, so if you needed to go somewhere it’s quite alright…”
“I had um…an appointment with the head teacher. Something to do with the twins again.”
“On a Friday evening?”
Damn it Nic, couldn’t you have thought of something else?
“Uh, yeah…it was the only time I could make it this week; it’s been crazy at the restaurant. It doesn’t matter I can reschedule for next week.”
She smiled and shook her head. “Go, Mr Machvaya.”
“But Eli-”
“Will be back soon, I’m sure.”
“But you-”
“If I was in my own house I would have my feet up with a coffee. I’m perfectly happy here. Go. But promise me after your meeting you’ll go for a little drive or something. Something to clear your mind, relax you. I am absolutely fine here. Go.”
I hesitated a moment more and grinned, kissing the top of her head. “Mrs Robinson, you are a legend.”
She laughed at that, calling after me. “Sure, but I still wish you would start calling me Sandra!”
“I will,” I shouted back, “when you start calling me Nic!”
I heard her laughter follow me out to my car, and I slung my suit jacket on the back seat and climbed in, starting her up, quickly pulling out onto the road.
The heat of the summer evening was getting to me. The sky had turned a deep blue grey, indicating a storm on the way and there was a heat rising in me too, a need, a desire that had to be sated.
There was something quite tragic about the fact that I was almost twenty three and I had never had a relationship, a real relationship, never had a girl in my bed. Still…the way things were suited me perfectly. In my everyday life, I was Nic Machvaya, holding down a business, raising my siblings like they were my children, thinking of nothing but bills, shopping and endless school, work and household commitments. But I was human too, a red-blooded male with other needs and I told myself all the time I shouldn’t feel guilty for that.
The ordinarily short drive seemed to take longer than normal, and I hit every red light along the way before finally pulling up outside the apartment block on the sea front.
I stood outside for a minute or two, running my hands through my hair in an effort to tidy it up a bit, and suddenly wishing I had at least had a shower. I would be lucky if I even got through the door looking like this and smelling like this.
I frowned and for a split second contemplat
ed getting back in my car and going home. In the end, like most men if they are honest, I was guided not by instincts, or the desire to do the right thing by me or my family, but by my cock and the almost overwhelming desire to let off some serious steam.
I knocked on the door and stepped back, loosening my tie a little. After a moment, it opened to reveal Maggie standing smiling at me.
I looked her up and down and involuntarily licked my lips. She was wearing the black lacy underwear I had bought for her last week, insanely high stiletto heels…and nothing else. Her long blonde hair sat loose over her left shoulder.
“You know…” I said, “I could have been a salesman or something for all you know…”
She grinned and shrugged. “Call me intuitive, but I just knew it was you…Friday evening, long, stressful week…” she stepped forward and put a hand on my chest, twisting my tie around her manicured fingers playfully. “I knew you’d come.”
“I need a shower…” I blurted. Why did I say that?
She smirked. “Sure we can arrange something. So…what am I this time? Business meeting…bank manager…client…supplier…?”
I swallowed and shrugging apologetically. “I have an appointment with the headmistress.”
She raised her eyebrows, grinning. “Oh really? That’s a new one. You know…somewhere in here, I have a cane and everything…I could be a headmistress…”
Somewhere in the distance there was the first rumble of thunder, and it matched my mood perfectly. The pressure was building within me, and I needed my release, my own special kind of therapy.
“Is that so…?” I croaked. My mouth was suddenly like sandpaper.
She put a hand on my crotch, clearly pleased to discover her words had had the intended reaction and nodded, biting her lip.
This was what I liked about Maggie. I was, generally speaking a fairly quiet guy, not forward sexually at all, usually quite reserved. Maggie was the total opposite – she knew what she wanted, and what I needed and she was not shy at all in getting it, or selfish in giving it. She had told me many times, she got her pleasure from giving me mine. Those words alone would be the undoing of any man. And she brought out a different side to me, a side that wanted to take control, make her scream.
Gypsy Kiss: Book 1: Micah (The Gypsy Kiss Series) Page 43