by Girard, Dara
“But—”
Nikki gently pushed Monica out of the room. “Just trust me. You’re going to love it.” She closed the door.
Monica shrugged her shoulders, resigned. Her sister had never disappointed her before, and she didn’t expect that to change. She went into her studio and worked for the next couple of hours on one piece but stopped and rubbed her lower back. It was getting more and more difficult to do some of her more intricate pieces with her stomach in the way. Monica washed her hands in the sink then halted and looked at herself in the full-length mirror.
At first she wasn’t sure who she saw. She definitely didn’t see sexy Venus with her killer figure and provocative beauty, but she also didn’t see dumpy Monica Dulane in her dull, loose clothes, hiding behind tinted glasses. What she saw was a woman beaming with good health and happily married (although she’d had to take off her wedding ring). She looked forward to wearing the ring JD had had designed for her again after the baby was born.
Monica slid her hand over the curve of her belly. The baby. That changed it. She’d no longer be in men’s fantasies. That status had been a source of strength and power for her at one time, and she had to let it go. She released a sigh of acceptance. She’d found she had strength in other ways, and she wouldn’t give up the life she and JD had created. But she couldn’t deny that her image had become a part of her and it was strange to see it disappear.
“Venus has left the building,” Monica said to her reflection as she cast a critical eye over her expanding figure.
“What?” JD asked, coming into the room.
She glanced at him over her shoulder. “I was just saying that Venus is gone.”
JD came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his hands on the curve of her stomach. “I don’t need a goddess. I like my women real.”
Monica raised an eyebrow. “And just how many women do you have?”
“One’s enough for me.”
“Hmm.” She leaned back against him, covering his hand with her own. “You better enjoy this moment, because you soon won’t be able to hold me like this for a while.”
JD kissed her on the neck and whispered, “I’ll always find a way to hold you.”
Monica laughed and turned to him. “You’re going to have to be real creative, because I’m only six months and I’ve already gained—”
JD stopped her with another kiss, this time on the mouth, and his persuasive lips swept away all her worries. When he finally drew away he said, “You just get more beautiful every time I look at you. I told you before—” he pointed to the ground “—in this room that I thought you were wonderful.” He lifted her chin with his forefinger and gazed into her eyes with love. “And that will never change.”
The newest arrival to the Rozan family made her appearance in the spring. She had a head full of ink-black hair and her father’s brown eyes. Crystalline wanted to call her Sapphire, Nikki thought that Nina had a nice ring and Donnie felt that Dawn would be perfect. But JD and Monica settled on Starla. She was born on a day that the azalea bushes came into full bloom, the breeze lifting their fragrance into the air, and she delighted all who saw her. She made her grandmother cry, her uncle laugh and her aunt sigh. Her parents just gazed at her with amazement.
She was a happy baby who loved to be rocked to sleep by her mother while her father played a soft lullaby on his guitar with the family dog curled up on the handmade knotted rug by his feet.
Monica looked at her husband, and his steady gaze showed her the pleasure of joy, the harmony of peace and the unwavering beauty of love.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-1438-5
ALL I WANT IS YOU
Copyright © 2011 by Sade Odubiyi
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