by Ash Johnson
I’ve tried to keep Ada in bed, but with her morning sickness and her itchiness to get up and do something, it’s been almost impossible to keep her bedridden. I had her come with me to the gym while I trained today. That way she gets out of the house and I can have her in my sights. It’s a win-win.
I know that the threat is gone with Rob and Millie each awaiting trial and a twenty five year sentence for attempted murder if found guilty, but somehow my mind isn’t convinced that she and our baby aren’t out of harm’s way. It could be the guilt I’ve still been carrying because she got taken at my fight, but I just want to have her where I can see her and I think she knows that, so she appeases me.
While I train and exercise for five hours, I catch glimpses of Ada reading on her eReader, sometimes she’s smiling and others her brows are pulled together in concentration, but her hand is always splayed out across her nonexistent baby bump over her blue tank top while her casted leg is propped on another chair.
She told me that she’d downloaded some pregnancy books so that she could find out what was coming, but really I think that she’s terrified of being pregnant because she gets an anxious look in her eyes when we talk about the baby. She tries to hide it from me, but even though she’s ecstatic about being a mother, she’s still nervous.
I haven’t actually told her about the house idea yet, but I plan on doing that as soon as I’m done with training today. My dad told me that there is a model house matching the layout plans I loved, that was just built two blocks away from Elle’s house and he would meet us there to look it over and see what Ada thinks.
The second I lift her up into the Jeep, trying not to bump her hot pink cast on anything, I get butterflies in my stomach thinking about her reaction. I’m nervous the entire fifteen minute drive toward the house, wringing my hands on the steering wheel while Ada looks out the window.
When we drive past Elle’s house I have to turn my head toward my window to hide my smile as I see Ada point at her house as we fly by it; like I forgot where Elle’s house is and she has to point it out to me.
“Jay, we missed Elle’s house.”
“Thank you Captain Obvious,” I say, smirking at her and flinching when she lifts her tiny hand up and lazily swings it down, barely hitting my forearm.
“Ouch babe, I didn’t know you were so violent. I don’t want you to use those hammers on our children.”
“These bad boys are only reserved for you, bear,” she smiles, holding up her fists and pretending to hit my bicep. I chuckle and grab her fist, bringing it to my mouth to lightly kiss it.
“Okay so where are we going, then?” Ada asks, looking at the houses around us, but her focus stops on the house I’m taking her to as I slow the Jeep down and park in the driveway.
“We’re here,” I say softly, watching her reaction. She takes a deep breath and shifts her eyes over to me. I start to panic when I see that her eyes are filled with tears, but then relax when she breaks into a huge smile.
“Why are we here Jay?” she asks, her smile getting bigger by the second.
“Because we’re meeting my dad here,” I answer immediately with a straight face, trying to be funny, but then instantly feel like a dick when her smile falls. I forgot about her pregnancy hormones. I reach over and grab her hand, pulling it to my mouth to kiss her knuckles again before I add more to my sentence.
“We’re meeting my dad here so he can go over the specs of this house with me. I wanted to make sure that you liked this house before I had one built for us,” I squeeze her hand softly and wait for her reaction.
I wasn’t expecting her to launch herself at me, but I luckily caught her before she could move her body a lot. She’s still having pain in her ribs and since she is pregnant, she’s limited to her pain medication. She still doesn’t like to take it even when she’s in pain.
“Baby, slow your roll, I don’t want you to hurt yourself or the baby. Do you want to go in and see this place?” I ask, hoping that she’s happy with this idea. Ada nods enthusiastically, making me chuckle. I lean over and plant a few pecks on her lips before I get out and run to her side of the Jeep to hoist her down. After grabbing her crutches out of the back seat, we slowly make our way to the front door.
The rambler is a light gray on the outside with white shutters around all of the windows and a two car garage attached on the right side of the house. There are huge rock covered pillars on either side of the porch, with a small white railing enclosing a large porch that has two white rocking chairs strategically placed. I open the enormous bright yellow front door and both Ada and I release a hefty breath.
We step into the foyer and after a few steps we see a large living room to the left with an entrance to the kitchen immediately behind it. Ada’s breathe catches when she slowly moves the country style kitchen with a huge farm sink and springy faucet attached.
We walk to the right side of the house to find three bedrooms, the master with an attached bathroom that has a large jetted tub in it and separate shower, and a mudroom off of the garage entrance.
Ada is stunned into silence when we finish walking through the house, and as soon as we make it back into the living room to take a seat at the built in bench seat in the front bay window, my dad walks through the front door smiling.
I told him about Ada being pregnant a week ago and he was beyond happy to be a papa. As soon as he shuts the front door, he skips past my open arms completely and walks straight to Ada, who clumsily hops up on one leg, wincing the entire time, to hug him.
“Hello beautiful girl, how are you and my grandbaby doing?” he gushes, still ignoring my presence.
“Hey Dave, we’re doing really well thank you,” she says, placing her hand on her invisible baby belly and smiling. Finally, my dad shifts his vision over to me quickly and holds his hand out for me to shake.
“Hello son, how are you doing today?” my dad says, looking back at Ada’s belly with a smile plastered to his face.
“Nice of you to notice I’m here, Pop. I’m alright, how are you?”
“I wonderful Jayson, just wonderful!” he says and then finally pulls me into a hug. He must be happier to be a papa then I thought he was. I haven’t seen him this happy in a long time, since before we lost my mom. After he breaks our hug, he finally looks at me and smiles, his brown eyes shining with pride.
“So kids, what did you think of the house?” he asks. I look to Ada, who has the biggest smile I’ve ever seen on her face as she nods subtly. I smile back before I turn back to answer my father’s question.
“We really like it dad. Do you have any properties around here that we could build on?” I put my hands on my hips to prepare myself for the information that’s about to come flying at me, but Ada interrupts us before we can both start rattling off useless information.
“Can’t we just buy this model home? I love everything about this place, especially where it’s at,” she says pointing out the window to a couple of little kids playing across the street with some toy cars in their front yard.
“I love the idea of little kids playing all around the neighborhood until the sun goes down,” she smiles and then absentmindedly rubs her flat belly. My dad and I glance at each other having a silent conversation which consists of eye brow raises and shoulder shrugs, before he answers her.
“Sure baby girl, you guys can have this house if you want it. I’ll have to talk to the realtor to sort everything out, but if you want it then it’s yours.” Ada looks back to us and then smiles, but then her smile fades and I can see the questions forming in her head.
“How much does this house cost? Can we afford it Jay?”
“Yes baby, we can afford it. It will be paid off before we even move in,” I smile at her when her jaw drops.
“How? I don’t make a ton of money and your fights pay a lot, but you only fight every few months,” she mutters, I think embarrassed to be talking about our finances in front of my dad. Ada and I haven’t talked a ton about combining o
ur finances, but it will happen at some point. I look at my dad and smile somberly before I answer her.
“When my mom died, dad put her life insurance into an account for me. I have all of that money saved away and I add to it with the money I make from my fights, so it’s added up to more than enough to pay for this house if that’s what you want.” My dad smiles at me and then claps a hand down on my back.
“I’m going to pay for half of the house Jayson. It’s a real treat to see you so happy son, and I want you, Ada, and that grandbaby of mine to have the best. So it would be a real honor if you would let me pay for at least half of the house.” I smile and hug my dad tightly, grateful that I have such a wonderful father.
We both look to Ada who has tears streaming down her face. Both my father and I pale and start walking toward her, thinking something is wrong, but she waves her hands frantically in front of her face and then wipes the tears from her cheeks.
“I’m fine it’s just my hormones going crazy and the fact that we also have a house that I haven’t contributed to. Please let me help pay for it,” she says, concern in her voice.
“Baby, I love you and we share everything now, so my money is your money. You are paying for it. Plus, I can think of a few ways you can pay me back once we get you out of that cast,” I smile and waggle my eyebrows at her. I have to cover my mouth with my fist to hide the chuckle that escapes my mouth when she blushes a deep red before looking at my dad. She giggles when he just smiles and shakes his head.
Her eyes start to well up with tears again and I’m a bit confused at how she could go from laughing to crying in just a few seconds.
“Ada, are you okay baby? Are you still crying because of the house?” I ask, concerned that she might now be in pain. She nods slowly and then looks down to her entwined fingers before looking back up at me and shaking her head.
“I’m so happy about the house and having you two wonderful men in my life, but that’s not why I’m crying,” she mumbles. I tilt my head, wondering what’s going on. I walk over to her and take her hands in one of mine, trying to stop them from wringing, and use the other hand to tilt her chin up so that she’ll look at me.
“Why are you crying then baby? I don’t get it.” She lets out a huff of air and closes her eyes tightly before answering me.
“I’m crying because I have to pee and it’s going to take me a long time to walk across the living room and into the bathroom with my crutches,” she sniffles and starts to cry again.
I hear my dad burst out laughing hysterically behind me and I have to bite my lip so that I don’t laugh as well. I sweep her off of her feet and walk across the living room to the bathroom that is next to the bedrooms. I kiss her a few times before I put her down in front of the toilet and walk out, shutting the door behind me. I chuckle for a second and then walk back to my dad to talk about squaring the house away. Life is going to be so good here.
Chapter 35
Ada- six months later
I’m slowly waddling my way through the halls of the hospital, sweat dripping from my face and an almost unbearable pain shooting in my back. I’m making my rounds through each room and getting more and more pissed off when the patients keep asking me if I’m okay when I’m supposed to be asking them that. Of course I’m not okay I’m ready to kill someone.
I’m nine months pregnant, my stomach is the size of a beach ball, I’m in pain, and my boyfriend is sitting at the nurse’s station asking me every five fucking seconds if I’m ready to go to the labor and delivery ward. If he wasn’t so freaking hot I would have killed him by now.
I started having contractions early this morning, but they weren’t close enough to warrant a trip to the delivery room. Jay thought otherwise and took the day off work with his dad to be here with me.
He fought a few more fights after we found out that I was pregnant, but then one of his friends was seriously injured in the cage, so Jay thought it was a good idea to get out while he was ahead and take a steady paying job where he wasn’t getting hurt all the time. He is now a partner in his father’s business and actually loves it, but still goes to the gym to spar with his friends a few times a week.
Now he has been breathing down my neck since I made the mistake of telling him that I was having contractions.
I brace my arm against the wall in the hallway and look down to my watch as soon as a contraction starts, so I can time it. My last contraction was less than two minutes ago and it was about fifty seconds long. After I finish timing this contraction, one minute and ten seconds, I decide to appease Jay and have him walk me down to the maternity ward. He smiles and thanks me as we go.
After we make it there and Jay gets all of our paperwork done, one of the nurses asks me to remove my scrub bottoms so she can check to see how far I’m dilated. The most uncomfortable part isn’t her checking it’s that I eat lunch with her almost every night.
“Okay Ada, it looks like you’re dilated to an eight,” Sarah says incredulously. “How in the heck are you still up and functioning?” she smiles and hands me a hospital gown to change into.
“I had to work tonight. It’s easier to drown out my pain when I have to focus on other people,” I shrug and wait for Sarah to leave the room before I try to strip out of my scrub top and bra. It’s quite a bit harder to do with my enormous belly, so Jay stands in front of me and lifts my top off and then kneels down to kiss my bump a few times. He helps me get into my gown and then stoops down to lift me into the air and carry me to the hospital bed effortlessly.
As soon as Jay has laid me down, he runs his fingers along my cheek and kisses my lips softly.
“Thank you for being such a strong woman. Thank you for this enormous gift you are about to give us. Thank you so much for choosing me, Ada. I love you more than you’ll ever know,” he says, his eyes glassing over as he smiles. I lean in and caress his cheek before pulling on his neck so that I can kiss him.
As soon as I break the kiss, the vice on my stomach tightens and I wince in pain. Jay grabs one of my hands off of my stomach and holds it tightly while he coaches me softly.
“Breathe baby, remember to breathe. You are so damn amazing Ada. I love you so much.” The contraction passes and Sarah comes back in to attach a fetal monitor to my stomach so she can keep track of the baby’s heart rate, and then places an IV line into my left elbow and attaches it to a saline bag.
“You’re too far along to receive any pain medication Ada, but Dr. Sue should be in here soon to check you, okay?” Sarah says sweetly and I smile back tightly, trying not to act like I wanted to kill her the second she told me I couldn’t get any pain medication.
Thirty minutes later my delivery doctor, Dr. Sue, who goes by her first name because no one can properly pronounce her last name, walks in. She’s smiling and putting on latex gloves.
“Hello Ada, how are you feeling?” she asks calmly as she sits down on her round chair and lifts the sheet that’s covering me while she pushes my knees apart, exposing my goods.
“Well Dr. Sue, I feel like a mutant is tearing my insides apart trying to find an escape route. How are you doing tonight?” I ask through gritted teeth as I try to breathe through the end of my contraction.
I was really trying not to be a bitch during this experience, but I’m in too much damn pain to care right now. Dr. Sue just laughs and checks my dilation.
“Wow, Ada you’re almost at a ten and fully effaced. Let me get my tools set up and we can get to pushing, okay?”
“You’d better hurry it up doc because everything inside of me is telling me to push right now and I don’t know how long I can wait before the baby just comes,” I growl through gritted teeth. Dr. Sue chuckles and pats my knee before walking out of the room and instructing a nurse in the hallway to get her prepped for delivery in room 3, apparently thinking that I’m being a bit dramatic at the fact that this baby is going to come shooting out any second.
After forty five minutes of pushing and basically passing out from
exhaustion in between pushes, I hear the best news I’ve heard all day.
“Okay Ada, one of the shoulders is out and I just need one more good push from you and you’ll get to see your baby,” Dr. Sue says through her surgical mask, nodding enthusiastically at me over the sheet. Jay grabs onto the back of my knee, hiking it back toward my chest and he smiles at me.
“Come on baby, you can do this. I know you can,” he nods at me and I nod back meekly, scared out of my mind. I’m so tired. What if I can’t do this?
When Dr. Sue yells to push, I put every ounce of energy I have left into it. I’m beyond exhausted and ready to see my little baby. As soon as I release the breath I had been holding while I was pushing, I hear a tiny whine and then Jay starts to chuckle. Dr. Sue looks down at the baby and then smiles.
“Congratulations Ada, you have a beautiful baby girl,” she says while leaning forward and placing my tiny new baby on my chest. I begin to cry tears of joy and Jay steps forward to take a peek at the gorgeous little miracle we made together.
“She’s perfect Ada. Thank you so much,” he chokes out and then kisses my head.
After the baby is all cleaned up and I am moved to a recovery room, Jay sits next to me on the bed and holds our little girl. She has a thick mess of dark brown hair with a small pink bow attached in the front and although she’s only opened her eyes once, I can see that they are both the same color so she won’t have two different colored eyes like mine. She has perfect heart shaped lips and a tiny nose.
“We still need to name her, you know,” Jay whispers before he bends down to kiss her head for the millionth time since he picked her up.
“Any suggestions?” I say, wondering what he has in mind.
“Well, I’ve always liked the name Maya,” he says quietly and then he begins running his fingertips through her hair. I smile, thinking that she looks like a Maya.
“I like that. Maya Jane Hunt sounds like a great name to me,” I smile at him.
“You’d give our baby my mom’s name for a middle name?” Jay mutters, sounding like he’s about to cry. I tilt my head up and smile at him.