“Can I ask you something?” Chrissy said. “But I don’t want you to get mad, or throw your tea in my face or anything.”
“I promise I won’t throw my tea in your face,” Ryann said. She was fairly certain she knew what was coming.
“Did you and Donovan …?”
“No,” Ryann said emphatically before she could get the rest of it out. “No.”
The younger woman’s shoulder’s relaxed a little. “I never know with him.”
“He really just wanted you to find something that you could be passionate about. And if I flirted with him—I know I did—it was inappropriate and I apologize. It was unprofessional and … spiteful of me.”
“What would you have to be spiteful about?”
“Your husband would have been a big client for me,” Ryann said frankly. “I guess I saw you as the only thing standing in the way of me and a world of new contacts.”
Chrissy looked impressed. “Thank you for saying that. People in this town …” She shook her head. “Never say a word they mean.”
“Where are you from, originally?”
“Orlando, Florida. But not the theme park, neon Orlando. I’m from the trailer park, hand-to-mouth Orlando. The underbelly of Disney World.” Sighing, Chrissy took another bite of her muffin. “Twins, huh? Wow.”
“Yeah. Spencer is very excited. I just want …”
“Spencer! That’s his name! I met him the night of the party too, didn’t I?” She gave Ryann a sidelong glance. “Well damn. With all that at home why the hell would you be interested in Donovan?” She laughed and slapped a hand on the table. “Go ‘head, girl!”
Ryann smiled. “He’s a good guy.”
“He could be the Devil incarnate. Looking the way he does, I’d work with it.”
Ryann smiled wider. She actually liked this girl.
“I have to run back to the office,” she said. “But if you’re interested, maybe you’d like to come to a little get-together this weekend? It’s at Spencer’s sister’s house … just small, a few people …”
Chrissy looked stunned, and then touched. Poor thing obviously didn’t have many—or any—friends. But who was Ryann to talk?
“Sure,” she said in a small voice. “I would …”
“Let me put my number in your phone, and text me for details,” Ryann said. Pretending not to see the girl’s eyes mist over, she reached for Chrissy’s iPhone sitting on the table between them.
Chrissy unlocked and handed it to her, and Ryann entered her details, handing it back. Shoving herself to her feet, she offered one last smile.
“It was nice running into you. I hope you can make it this Saturday.”
“I’ll definitely try to make it. Should I bring …”
“Oh God, girl, no. It’s my baby shower. There’ll be plenty of crap I don’t need.”
~31~
“After the fiasco of the Fourth of July, I’m sitting this one out,” Joyce said. “I think I’ve had enough of family reunions for the time being.”
“Suit yourself, Joyce. But it’s a shower for my kids’ mother, and it might not …”
“Your kids’ mother,” Joyce said, snorting. “Just go ahead and say your baby momma, Spencer, because that’s what she is.”
“Whatever. I get it. You’re married and I’m not. So, you comin’ or what?”
“Not. But we’ll send a gift. And not that anyone cares, but Misty and I are moving ahead with the adoption. Maybe we’ll have our own shower.”
“You should,” Spencer told her, as he pulled into Ryann’s driveway. “Maybe it’ll help you get rid of the damn chip on your shoulder.”
“Excuse me, but I don’t have a …”
“Yes, you do. But I’m not going to apologize for not giving you and Misty my sperm, and for deciding to use it the old-fashioned way, to make my own damn family. And while we’re at it, I think it’s about time you stop expecting our mother to apologize for being who she is. She doesn’t love that you’re gay, but she loves you. So maybe it’s time you just … try to have whatever relationship with her you can.”
Joyce was quiet for a few moments, and Spencer waited, cutting off the engine and trying to calm himself.
“How am I supposed to react when this shower of yours is the day after tomorrow and you’re just calling me?” Joyce said. “I don’t think you even really want me to come.”
“Yeah. Saturday. At May’s. Two to six. And of course I want you to come. But I had a feeling we’d have this exact bullshit conversation, so I guess I put off asking.”
Joyce exhaled. “I’ll see,” she said.
Ryann was in the kitchen when he went in, and looked up as Spencer entered, offering him a smile like no other. On some days, when her mood was like this, Ryann was like the sun.
“Guess what came today?” she asked in a sing-song voice.
“What?”
“The first delivery of the new meal kit service I’m trying.”
“You’re trying a new meal kit service? What happened to the old one?”
On the kitchen center island, she had ingredients neatly laid out with recipe cards nearby. It was only then that Spencer noticed she was wearing an apron, just over her bump.
“Did you know I was comin’?” he asked. “Or are you punking me?”
Ryann rolled her eyes. “No. I didn’t know you were coming, and no, I’m not punking you. But I was thinking the other day that I need to know how to cook. I mean, before you know it, two babies become two children and then what? I raise them on Hamburger Helper? The other service was a little too complicated. I think this one will be better, so …”
Spencer pulled her toward him and kissed her before she could finish her thought. Pulling back, he gave her a peck on the nose.
“That’s okay,” he said. “Their Daddy will cook.”
“But I want to cook as well. And not just for them. For you sometimes, too.” She said that last part shyly, and just as she was pulling away from him.
“Okay, so what’re you cooking for me today?”
“This.” She handed him the recipe card.
“Seared salmon with pearl couscous and salsa fresca? Sounds a little advanced for a non-cooking …”
“Hey!” Ryann snapped the kitchen towel at him. “I’m learning. And this one is supposedly idiot-proof, so we’ll see.”
Spencer took a seat at the counter, still turning over in his head whether he should mention her mother. In all their passing references and discussions about the baby shower, she hadn’t mentioned whether she told her mother about it, and he didn’t want to risk darkening her good mood by broaching it now. But the shower was the day after tomorrow, and May had been asking him whether ‘all Ryann’s people’ would make it.
“And by the way, you’re not slick. Your sister told me about your little surprise baby shower plan. You think you’re funny, huh? A male stripper? Don’t forget your momma will be there. And thank God, May had the good sense to guess that I’m not one for surprises.”
“May’s got a big mouth. It was a joke. You think I’d invite some nasty-ass dude in a G-string to rub all up on the mother of my children?”
At the words “mother of my children” Ryann’s face colored and she looked away quickly. “That was only part of it,” she said slyly. “I don’t need any strange men around. Not looking the way I do right now.”
Spencer lifted his head. “C’mere,” he said.
She came. And when she was standing in front of him, Spencer palmed her stomach, holding it like a basketball. Smoothing his hands over its taut surface, unfastening the apron and letting it fall to the floor. Finding the hem of her blouse he lifted it; then, peeling down the expanded elastic waistband of her leggings, he bowed to kiss her belly.
“This,” he said, “is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. You, are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
He stood, hands still on her stomach, and Ryann stared up at him, a look in her eyes he hadn�
��t seen in a long time. Lowering his head, Spencer kissed her, and immediately, his body responded to the familiar taste of her even while, under his hands, she felt wholly unfamiliar.
“I want to see you,” he said.
Ryann moaned a little, tugging his lower lip between hers as she pulled away. Spencer raised his head a little, smiling.
“Let me see you,” he said again.
Ryann looked at him, her expression questioning.
“All of you,” he clarified.
In the bedroom, Ryann turned to face him, and with eyes fixed on his, lifted her blouse over her head. She was wearing a bra which she quickly unfastened and let fall. Her nipples had darkened, and grown large, and swollen. Watching as she peeled her tights over her hips, Spencer kept his distance until she was fully undressed. Ryann stood there, unashamed, and let him look at her.
Advancing closer, Spencer cupped her belly once again.
“So damn beautiful,” he said.
“It itches,” she offered.
Spencer looked at her bemused, and she nodded.
“Because of the skin stretching. And it changes shape throughout the day when they move …”
He had begun backing her slowly toward the bed.
“ … and when I wake up in the morning, they’re both crowded to one side, because of the way I sleep, so my stomach is lopsided …”
He removed his shirt and then worked on the button and zipper of his pants, taking that and his boxers off, and stepping away from them. The backs of Ryann’s thighs made contact with the edge of the bed and she sat.
“…and in the shower sometimes, when the water beats against my belly, they move around, and I can see an elbow, or a knee.”
Spencer smiled.
“Look,” Ryann said. “Now … look!”
His eyes fell to her middle, which was large enough to appear as though it was resting on her lap. Right before his eyes, it shifted and moved, a little wave of motion during which a shape he could have sworn was a baby’s butt made a brief appearance.
“Shit,” he said. “That was …”
“Amazing, right?” Ryann said. She put a hand down to cover her stomach and Spencer crouched before her, covering her hand with both of his.
“Yeah.” Beneath their palms, he felt a vague and distant stirring.
His kids, inside their mother.
Hands on Ryann’s shoulders, he gently pushed her back further, and lifted her legs by the calves, resting them on his shoulders before lowering his head. When he parted and tasted her, she was smooth and slippery beneath his tongue, soft and yielding. As he stroked her, the sounds she made mounted to a crescendo, and Spencer kept up the same steady pace, patiently, hungrily anticipating her climax. When it came, it was with a quiet but deep expelling of breath, and suddenly, there was more of her to taste. She stopped quivering, and Spencer kissed the soft skin on the insides of her thighs moving up onto the bed so he was lying alongside her.
Turning her head, Ryann kissed him hard, her tongue sweeping against and about his. Pushing her butt into his groin, she lifted her leg and hooked it backward to pull him against her. Sliding a hand around and over her stomach, Spencer laughed quietly.
“How the hell we gon’ do this?” he asked, contemplating the physical dilemma.
“I don’t care, but you’d better figure something out,” Ryann said, reaching back and grasping him in her fist. “Because what just happened … hasn’t happened in a while.”
They figured it out. The first time a little awkwardly, both of them on their sides, frustrated by the limited range of motion that wouldn’t permit them to get as close to each other as they wanted to be. But soon, they managed it, getting close, though never precisely close enough. Spencer’s mouth was on the back of Ryann’s neck; then open and breathing rhythmically in her ear, then clamped onto her shoulder as he grunted out his release.
Deep inside her, she was softer, warmer, and more able to accommodate his size. Her body was preparing itself, and he could feel its preparation. It made him want her more, and harder, but Spencer instead made himself go slower, more gently.
Turning her onto her back, he opened her legs and positioned himself between her knees. He wanted to see everything, including the wide-eyed pleasure and wonder on Ryann’s face when they joined. That second time, they were less awkward, but there were beads of perspiration dotting her chest and neck, and puddling at the base of her throat. When she came, he did too, but he was still erect.
“One more time,” he said, trying to catch his breath. “Once more.”
Ryann nodded, unable to even speak, she was panting so hard. He knew he should probably stop, because he and she were exhausted. Because of the babies.
Because … because … because …
But Spencer found that he couldn’t stop. He wanted her too much, and had tamped down that want, for far too long. When, after the third and final time he spent, he collapsed next to her; and hand over her breast, felt her skin cool and damp; and the fluttering of her heart in her chest, like a trapped and frightened bird. As its rhythm slowed, he sighed and embraced the need to sleep.
“Spencer.” Ryann’s voice broke through, and he opened his eyes.
“Yeah, baby.” He pulled her tighter against him.
“In Chicago …”
“Ryann, it doesn’t ma…”
“… there was no one. I didn’t … What I said wasn’t true. There was no one. I had drinks with a colleague, but there was nothing else. We didn’t …”
Spencer kissed the back of her neck, relieved, and surprisingly unsurprised.
Ryann turned around so she was facing him. With sleepy eyes, Spencer regarded her. She, too, was half-asleep, her eyes cloudy and unfocused. Her hair, always perfect, was for once beautifully imperfect, mussed and all over the place. Her lips were fuller, and slightly bruised.
“Do you believe me?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Even then,” she said, taking his hand and placing it on her stomach. “Way back then, I loved you. I would have never …”
“You said you what now?” Spencer asked leaning in closer.
“Spencer …” she said, exasperated.
But it was a welcome sound. Before tonight, she hadn’t been comfortable enough with him to display exasperation the way she used to. She had still been just a little bit careful. Now, all that carefulness, all that politeness was shot to bits. And Spencer was glad.
“I’m just sayin’ … I’m half-asleep. I couldn’t quite hear what …”
“I love you,” Ryann said, ignoring his amusement. Her gaze was steady, her face serious. “I love you.”
“Hey. You goin’ to work today?”
“Yeah … later.” Ryann groaned and turned over when Spencer leaned in, and spoke against her shoulder. “I just can’t get started in the mornings like I used to. And then last night …”
“Yeah, last night …” Spencer agreed, letting his voice trail off into silence the way she had.
He had gotten up around five-thirty, showered and dressed, all without her showing any sign of hearing a thing. Now that he was ready to leave, he wanted to check in on her first. On her back, she smiled up at him with sleepy eyes, then reached for his hand, placing it on her stomach.
“Feel that?” she asked. “I want to sleep and they want to play.”
“We’d probably better get used to it.”
“I can’t wait,” Ryann said. “Can you believe it? Two. Some days I can’t even …”
“I know. We need to start thinking about names soon.”
“Names,” Ryann said, as though the thought hadn’t occurred to her.
“Yeah. Anyway, I gotta run, baby. Need to stop at the Coalition before I head over to the site. Jerrell’s back as foreman today, and I need to make sure he’s on point.” Kissing her one last time, Spencer stood upright again and turned to leave when Ryann’s voice stopped him.
“Last night? You didn’t say �
��I love you’ back.”
Spencer paused to look at her again. “I love you back,” he said. “And you know doggone well that I do.”
Smiling, Ryann turned onto her side again, a dreamy expression on her face as she shut her eyes and hugged one of the pillows. “Okay. You can go now.”
Spencer grabbed a banana from the kitchen as he left, putting all the meal kit ingredients—abandoned on the kitchen counter the previous evening—back into the refrigerator. As he did, he scanned the contents and made a mental note to pick some things up after work. Not just more food, but clothes, toiletries and other stuff from his place so he could spend more nights over without having to worry about stopping back at the townhouse in the morning.
What he really wanted, he thought as he pulled out of the driveway, was to broach the subject of Ryann coming to stay at his place. And later, after the babies were here, he would tackle the issue of there even being a ‘her place’ and ‘his place’. For now, though, he was just glad that he and Ryann seemed to be, once and for all, in the same place at the same time—physically, and emotionally.
He was halfway down the block when his phone rang, and he answered it.
“Miss me already?”
“Yes. But that’s not why I’m calling,” Ryann said. She paused, and Spencer waited for her to go on. “There’s something I wanted to tell … something I want to talk to you about. And I just wanted to make sure we make time for that, soon. Like maybe the day after the shower.”
“Uh oh,” Spencer said.
Ryann didn’t respond. Not even to say that it was nothing to worry about. Which made him think maybe he should worry about it.
“Why the day after the shower? Why not tonight?”
“Because it’s kind of … heavy. And I want to make sure we have a good time on Saturday.”
“Which reminds me. Did you tell your mother? May’s been worrying me about makin’ sure that …”
“This is related to that. My mother, I mean.”
The Lover Page 31