by Kari Alice
Lexi sat next to Caleb at the crumb-soiled table. She was always by his side.
Missy pushed her chin-length blond hair behind her ear while looking at her cell phone. Her eyes seemed glued to the screen without regard to how rude she was. As Missy gazed downward at the phone, it buzzed, and she grinned. She’d been dating Miles for the past few months. After things broke off with Tony, Miles was apparently there for her.
The scent of black coffee drifted through the break room as Dr. Hale poured a cup. The coffee was several hours old and bitterly scented the air. Lexi’s stomach lurched at the odor. She tried to breathe from her mouth, but there was no relief. She discreetly put her wrists down on the cool surface of the table, hoping that the coolness would help alleviate her nausea. There was a growing weight in her belly, and though she generally reveled in it, lately her morning sickness had taken its toll. Caleb seemed to sense what was happening, and he gently caressed her lower back to try and soothe her discomfort. After the wave of nausea subsided, she instinctively cradled her hand over her belly. She’d been vomiting on a daily basis for several weeks and was so drowsy that she could hardly keep her eyes open at work. She didn’t want to draw attention to herself, but it was a daily battle.
Lexi and Caleb broke the news of their honeymoon baby to Ashley, Mike, and Mr. and Mrs. Avery just a few weeks before at a family dinner. Their secret had to be revealed since Lexi’s appetite had been so dramatically altered. She insisted on waiting to at least twelve weeks to break the news to their coworkers, even though it’d been difficult to hide her symptoms.
With the summer weddings, Lexi had forgotten to schedule her Depo-Provera injection. The injection had altered her periods, and so she’d stopped tracking them, as there was no real need. While on vacation in Bermuda, she hadn’t felt right. Nothing could be pinpointed until the missed injection was finally recalled. Caleb purchased a home pregnancy test, and soon their vacation became memorable for reasons other than the spectacular beach at Horseshoe Bay. The pregnancy was unplanned but welcome.
Since their return to Maine, Lexi had been examined by Dr. Ives and was assured that everything looked normal.
As the meeting closed, Caleb spoke up. He looked at Lexi as she nodded her head in permission to proceed.
He cleared his throat as he prepared to speak. “I just wanted to let everyone know…” He spoke to the room, but his eyes were only on Lexi. “Lexi and I are going to have a baby!” Caleb said proudly.
At home Lexi lay down on the bed. Her exhaustion finally won its battle. Benjamin purred loudly on the end of the bed, with his eyes closed and his furry body nestled into a loose ball. Caleb carried Lexi’s dinner on a tray, which held a slice of chocolate pecan pie and a glass of whole milk. Luckily, Mike’s restaurant had a variety of desserts, so Caleb was able to get Lexi just about anything she craved. All she could tolerate at this point was dessert. Savory food gave her intense bouts of nausea. After Lexi ate, Caleb moved the tray off the bed and pulled her to him to rest against his body. He pulled her shirt up and caressed the small swell of her belly.
“I love you so much, sweetheart,” he said into hair.
Lexi closed her eyes and focused on his attention. Once the baby arrived, she’d be too busy to rest and enjoy her husband like she was able to now. “I love you too.” Her forehead creased. “Do you think we’ll always be this happy with each other?” she asked. She constantly harbored fearful thoughts of loss.
“Why do you doubt it? You’ve got to stop living like you only get an allotment of happiness,” Caleb said as he made a figure eight pattern on her belly with his index finger.
She laughed, his light touches tickling her overly sensitive skin. “It’s just that I didn’t think I would ever have any of this, you know?” When his finger stopped moving on her belly, she grabbed his wrist to encourage him rub her some more.
“I know…me neither…but then again, I didn’t know that it was even possible to feel this way about someone.”
The tension in her brow eased. “I didn’t know that it was possible either.” She’d always thought that bad things happened to her, and that was her unfortunate luck. She hadn’t thought that the opposite was even possible. Now that she had a taste of the optimism, she wasn’t going to let it go without a fight. Caleb wouldn’t let what they had together vanish either. Their love mattered.
“Have you thought about baby names yet?” Lexi asked in a dreamlike voice.
Caleb glanced across the room and studied the graphite drawing that hung on the far wall. The drawing was an original Alexis Avery and one that Caleb had gotten framed so that they both could enjoy it. The image was of their wedding day, but in the background stood her parents along with the whole wedding party.
Caleb smiled. “I would like to name her Alizabeth. You know, a mix of your name and your mom’s.”
Lexi’s voice caught in her throat. She hadn’t thought of many names, or at least none that she really liked. The name he’d suggested was different and perfect in every way. Lexi’s mother was named Elizabeth, and clearly Caleb had considered Lexi’s feelings on this topic even before she’d thought about it herself. With tears in her eyes she said, “This is why I love you. I ask you a simple question, and you blow me out of the water.”
Caleb pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. She turned to face him, and his mouth was on hers, kissing her tenderly. He calmed her in a way that she hadn’t known before and excited her like no one else ever could.
As he pulled away to speak, he said. “My heart only began to beat when I first saw you. You are my heart, Lexi…”
About the Author
Kari nearly faints at the sight of blood, so after ten years of nursing, she said good-bye to her patients and turned to her true passion—creating stories. She writes full time, and since she took the leap, she’s never looked back. Because that would make her dizzy.
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