Page 85

Story: Forgotten

“You do?”

I took his hand and placed it, palm first, on my stomach. He looked at me strangely for a moment, and then, slowly, a dawning realization crossed his face.

“I didn’t want to say anything and upstage Amber’s moment. She was already so gracious to not be upset that we announced our engagement right before their wedding.”

“Is it… are you… is this…”

I nodded.

“I’m pregnant,” I said. “I found out today. Last night, I guess. That’s when I took the first test, but I wanted to be sure. I had to wait until this morning to go get a few more. But things were so crazy, and I was so busy with Amber, I couldn’t tell you. And I didn’t want to tell you and distract you anyway. I wanted to wait until it was just us.”

“We’re going to have a baby?” he asked, his voice soft with reverence but tinged with excitement. “We’re going to have a baby?!”

I smiled and nodded again, and he lifted me in the air. Pressing his lips against mine, he kissed me and sat me back down.

“Oh my God, I can’t believe it. I’m going to be a dad! You’re going to be a mom!”

“I know,” I said, sharing his excitement and feeling myself finally experience it myself.

I’d spent the whole day worrying. It was silly, but I worried about how he would react. That it would burst the bubble we’d developed between us. That it would ruin our wonderous union and everything we’d built with a serious responsibility that would be too much for him.

But watching him dance excitedly in the room, occasionally grabbing me for another kiss and then dance some more, was delightful.

“We have to keep it a secret,” I said. “Just for a little while. A couple of weeks, max.”

“Are you kidding?” he said. “I can’t keep this secret. I’m too damn excited.”

“You have to, silly,” I said. “For your brother’s sake if nothing else.”

“Ahh, dammit,” he said. “All right. All right. But if I am going to keep a secret, I will need your help.”

“How can I help?” I asked, laughing. “What can I do for you?”

“I need you to distract me,” he said. “When I get excited and want to tell the world, I need you to find a way to get my mind off blurting our secret out.”

“Oh,” I said. “So something like this?”

I reached down and lifted my dress, pulling it up and over my head. My breasts bounced as they fell out of the top, and I smiled at the reaction on his face.

“Yeah, that’ll do it,” he said. “Come here, you.”

He swept me off my feet, planting a kiss directly on my lips as he carried me to the bed. Gently, he laid me down and crawled on top. I pulled his buttons open as I giggled, and we both ended up just ripping each other’s clothes off. As the clothes hit the ground, he pulled the blanket up and over us, and I settled beside him, letting him lift my leg and settle between my thighs.

“This is how we got into trouble in the first place, you know,” I laughed.

“I know,” he said. “And I plan on getting into a lot more trouble with you for the rest of our lives.”

“Me too,” I said.