Page 16 of Breeze and Melodie

The bathroom was full-size with a shower, but it wasn’t very big. However, Melodie managed to find enough room to pace.

“C’mere, baby. Why are you nervous?” I asked, pulling her into my arms.

“I told you I wanted to be married before having children. If I’m pregnant?—”

A pregnancy is almost ten months. Whether you’re pregnant or not, we’ll be married before then.”

“Breeze—”

“Do you want a long engagement?”

“We’re not even engaged.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“I’ve never thought about it. I guess it depends on how long it will take to plan the wedding.”

“Do you want a big wedding?”

“It doesn’t have to be a big wedding, but I want it to be nice.”

“How long do you think it will take to plan the wedding you want?”

She shrugged as she thought about it. “Maybe a few months. I guess it depends on venue availability. Breeze, we’re not even engaged.”

“Didn’t I tell you I came to Onyx City for you. I didn’t get my life together, step out of my comfort zone, and move twelve hours away from my hometown to make you my girlfriend. My plan was always to make you my wife. Do you understand?”

“Umm, yeah.”

“You don’t sound sure. You were always gon’ be my wife, Mel. I need to know you understand that. When I propose, I don’t want you to think it’s because you’re pregnant. Marrying you has always been the plan.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“It’s been more than three minutes. You ready to look at the tests?”

“No. You look and tell me what it says.”

“If that’s what you want.”

She turned away from the sink where she’d placed both tests on the counter.

I was nervous about what they’d say as well.

Mel hadn’t shown any physical signs of pregnancy, but I had a strong feeling in my gut that she was.

Her menstrual cycle had only made one appearance, and it was after we’d been together for two weeks.

Although I respected her desire to be married before starting this part of our life together, the incident with Sean delayed my proposal. I wanted to do something special for Melodie, and I couldn’t make that happen while she was healing.

I slowly looked down at the tests, and a huge smile graced my lips. Both tests read pregnant in dark, bold, capital letters. I picked them up to look at them more closely, not that it would make it any more real.

“What do they say?”

“You know what they say, baby. You ain’t had a period in two and a half months.”

“I know, but I thought it was because—wait!” She turned around and took the tests from my hand. “I’m pregnant?”

“You’re gonna have my baby.”

Her hands fell to her sides, and I wrapped my arms around her, trapping her in my embrace as her head fell against my chest.

“This is . . . wow! I’m . . . I’m having a baby.”

I released her and looked into her eyes. “Nah, you’re having my baby, baby. How do you feel?”

“This happened fast, but I’m excited. Are you?”

“Every time I nutted, I was trying to shoot my load to the promised land. I’m excited as hell.”

“Oh my God. What if me and Raine are both pregnant? Wouldn’t that be wild?”

“Honestly, that would be cool as hell. As you know, we didn’t grow up in a close-knit family. I would love for our kids to grow up like siblings.”

“Let’s go find out.”

She wrapped the tests in tissue and put them in her purse. After we washed our hands, she reached for the door.

“Hold up.” I stopped her, and our eyes met in the mirror.

“I love you.”

She smiled. “I love you .”

We shared a kiss before leaving the bathroom. Shyne and Raine were coming down the stairs as we stepped into the hallway. He was smiling like the Joker, and oddly enough, I couldn’t read Raine’s expression. She didn’t look happy, sad, or mad . . . Maybe she was in shock.

“Based on that big ass grin on your face, you must’ve knocked my sister up again?”

“You damn right.”

“Congratulations! I guess we’ll both be waddling around Black Reign in a few months,” Melodie said.

Raine gasped before smiling and pushing her husband out of the way to get to her best friend. “You’re pregnant?”

“Yep!”

“Oh my God! Congratulations. I’m so excited for you.”

They embraced and squealed with delight, causing Shyne to shake his head.

“You weren’t this happy a minute ago,” he said.

“I needed a minute to process how I let you trap me twice. Now that I know me and my bestie are in this together, I couldn’t be more excited. Let’s go tell everyone the news.”

The two walked away, arm in arm, as if we weren’t present and the reason they were pregnant. At no point did they turn around to see if we were following. Soon, we heard the door leading to the deck open and close, and this time, I shook my head.

“This will be interesting.”

“Fa sho.” Shyne agreed with a nod before we headed outside.

“We can’t buy all three, baby.”

“I know, but I can’t decide. The first house has the best family room, the second has the best patio and deck, and the third has the best walk-in closet. I wish I could roll them all into one.”

It was Friday, and it had been just under a week since we discovered Melodie was pregnant.

The following day, we sat down and compiled a list of must-haves for our future home.

Once the list was complete, I reached out to a realtor, and we’d taken today off to look at a few houses.

Although we’d only toured three houses, I was sure one of them was our future home.

“Do you want to keep looking?”

She shook her head. “No. It’ll only make our decision harder. I love something about all three and could see us raising our family in each of them.”

“I agree. The realtor said that others are interested, but no offers have been made yet. We can think about it for a few days, but I don’t want to wait too long.”

We continued to discuss different things we liked about each house as we headed to our first doctor’s appointment, which was the other reason we’d taken the day off.

“I’m a little nervous,” Melodie confessed as I parked in front of the building of office suites and turned the car off.

“Why?”

“I still don’t feel pregnant. What if the tests were false positives?”

“I won’t say that’s not possible because I’m sure stranger things have happened, but I don’t think that’s the case. Maybe our baby is taking it easy on you and showing signs that this will be an easy pregnancy. Think positive, baby.”

“My mom has always bragged about how easy her pregnancies were. Maybe it’s hereditary.”

“It is, and you’re worried for nothing.”

I got out and went around to open the door for her.

We held hands as we walked through the parking lot and into the building.

On the elevator, I leaned against the wall as she pushed the button for the sixth floor before pressing her back against me.

I wrapped my hands around her waist and rested them on her stomach, imagining how it would feel once she began to show.

The thought of watching my seed grow and transform her body made me excited.

We got off on the sixth floor and walked hand in hand down the hall and into the doctor’s office. Once inside, she checked in while I sat on the love seat in the corner. When she came to join me, I pulled her onto my lap.

“Breeze, this is not the place or time for this.” She pretended to fuss while I planted soft kisses on her neck.

“I can show my woman love at any time and in any place. If you’re not careful, I’ll have your panties soaked before the nurse calls us back.” I whispered the second part as my lips brushed against her ear.

“I don’t feel like walking around with wet panties, so I won’t even challenge you on that one.”

“Beautiful and smart. I hit the jackpot.”

“Melodie Norwood,” the nurse called out from the front of the office.

“You ready to see our baby?” I asked.

“As I’ll ever be.”