Page 118 of Rebound

“You better hope you didn’t interrupt our summoning or the demon’s going to possess you, Patrick Joseph!” Millie threatens, wiggling her fingers at him.

He holds his hands up, eyes wide as he fights a smile. When our gazes meet, he winks and I shake my head. After another round of hugs and congratulations, my girlfriends head downstairs. I hear more voices and chatter, lots of laughter and happiness as I walk towards my future husband. The love of my life. The father of my child.

“You good, Lo?”

“I’m great, Trick. Today has been…amazing.”

He tucks my hair behind my ear and I smile up at him. This man, he’s my eve—whoa.

“What? What’s wrong?”

I grab his hands and place it over my stomach. It takes a few seconds and the baby kicks hard against his palm. Over the last few months, they’ve been extra active. It’s comforting to know our baby is healthy and every scan has only shown us positive things. But I would also love it if they weren’t kicking me awake minutes after I fall asleep. Carrying this kid around is exhausting and on top of that I’m barely getting any sleep. It’s less fun.

“Maybe a footballer, huh?” he teases and drops to his knees. With his hands on either side of my belly, he moves them in slow circles and the baby settles. “There you go,” Patrick whispers and kisses my stomach.

I drag my fingers through his hair as he keeps his head against my belly, whispering to our kid. If I could go back in time and tell him he’d be the perfect partner through all of this, maybe he would have trusted in himself a long time ago. This version of Patrick is exactly who I imagined when I pictured him as a father.

“And cut your mom some slack. She’s got two more months of dealing with you in there and I’m going to be travelling for most of it. So be good to her, okay?” I laugh and he presses a kiss to my belly button and whispers something else I can’t hear then stands. “Was that the worst?”

“None of it is fun, Trick.”

He chuckles and kisses my forehead, one arm sliding around my back to hold me close. We both missed the first two months of my pregnancy and while he’s been there for everything else, our schedule has changed. He’s in Rourkela?1 for the LHT games and other than this trip home, I’m barely going to see him. I have his schedule marked on the calendar so I know when he’s busy and we’ve planned it so he can fly home for important appointments between games. But it’s going to be hard managing the next month without him there every day.

“It’ll pass really quickly,” he says, reading my mind. “And before you know it, I’ll be back and we’ll have the baby in our arms.”

I nod, unconvinced it’ll be quick or smooth. Even when we weren’t together, I relied on Patrick for so much. He took care of my meals and ensured I was eating my vitamins. I’m a hundred percent certain if it wasn’t for him, I might not have made it through this pregnancy in one piece. It’s only one month, but it feels like forever.

“Tamara.”

His deep command draws my eyes to his and I’m suddenly reminded I’m not doing this alone. “I’ll…we’ll miss you.”

“Promise me you’ll be careful.”

“Eh, that’s overrated.”

“Babe,” he says with a heavy sigh.

“I promise, Trick. I’ll be careful.”

“Don’t spend all your time climbing up and down these stairs.”

I pout and he chuckles. Clearly he knew what my plan was. “How will I design this house if I stay down there?”

“Get other people to do the hard work. Please.”

“Fiiiiine.” His lips brush against my forehead as he laughs. He rubs my arms and I nudge his jaw with my nose. “Come with me.”

At his arched eyebrow, I lead the way out of the nursery and towards the fourth bedroom. I can’t remember what this room was used for, but Tessammai might. Right now, I have other plans for it. I push the door open and he peers inside.

“We have two guest bedrooms?”

“I was thinking more like a sex room.”

“Lotus,” he warns and steps in with me, closing the door behind him.

“I’ve got tons of ideas. We don’t need a flogging bench or a St. Andrew’s Cross or anything. We do need a place to keep all our toys so as the baby grows up, they don’t stumble onto any of it.”

He’s breathing heavily, staring like he wants to eat me. I nod and point at different parts of the room.