“Look at you.” His hand frames my face, his eyes roam all over me. “Jesus, God is f**king playing a joke on me.”
“What?” I whisper.
“You’re so beautiful. I was not a good guy before you. God is getting even.”
I can’t help it, I start laughing. I grab his face and look into his worried eyes. “Honey, you’re going to be able to pick out the bad boys from a mile away. She will be a total daddy’s girl, and you will keep her safe. I love you, okay?”
He takes a deep breath and kisses me, bringing his hand to my stomach where we know our daughter is. His eyes come back to me. “I keep thinking that this is all a joke, that no one should ever be this happy.”
“I know.” I laugh, shaking my head. It feels unreal.
“So, I read in that book that you should wait to tell people until you’re twelve weeks. We’re past that so who do we want to tell first?” he asks with a smile.
“Ms. Alice,” I say right away. She has been so happy since me and Asher got together. I know that she will be excited to hear that we’re having a baby.
Asher smiles and I know that I chose the right person.
**********************
I was standing in front of the barbecue. I had the lighter in my hand and was getting ready to set the stupid pregnancy book on fire. It’s been four weeks since we went to the doctor and confirmed that I was pregnant. Everyone has been so excited. When we told Ms. Alice that we were having a girl, I thought she was having a seizure. She started jumping around in her chair, clapping and mumbling incoherently. Then she told me that I needed to go to her old house and pick up all the stuff for the baby’s room. I looked at Asher and he shrugged his shoulders.
After we left Ms. Alice, we went to my dad’s house and told him that he was going to be a grandfather. I think he almost fainted. Then he called my grandmother, uncles, and cousins, and had everyone come over so we could share the news. For Asher’s mom, I sent her a dozen pink balloons and a card telling her that she was going to have a granddaughter. When she called me screaming into the phone, I knew that she was happy. She made us promise not to tell James or her boys until that evening at dinner. When Asher stood up at the table and announced that he had, as he said, knocked me up, I thought I would be bruised from the amount of hugs I got from everyone. After that, the book started to make appearances like Chucky. Two days after dinner with his family, we went to Ms. Alice’s house to see what she was talking about. We found a beautiful antique baby bed, dresser and changing table that she had put up in the attic. They all needed to be refinished but even with the paint chipping and peeling, I could tell they would be beautiful. I told Asher that I wanted to repaint them but he’d read in the book that strong chemical fumes weren’t good for the baby. But he promised to get his brothers to help him refinish them in time, so I agreed without a fight. A week later, when all of Asher’s extended family came over for a big barbecue to celebrate our news, I had been getting ready to dig into a delicious looking tuna steak, when it was taken from right out under my fork. Asher told me that I wasn’t allowed to eat it due to the mercury in the meat. Again, I wasn’t happy about this, but I wasn’t going to risk anything happening to our baby, so I had a piece of chicken instead.
Last week, I had been outside looking around the area where they started digging for the pool, when Asher ran outside like the house was on fire. I stumbled and almost fell into the hole when he caught me and made me go back inside, saying that they had sprayed some kind of chemical in the area and I couldn’t be in the backyard. Once again, I agreed, but was noticing that the list of things I couldn’t do was becoming quite long. Then, this morning, I was on the phone with the salon in town, making an appointment to get my highlights touched up and to have a manicure and pedicure, when the phone was yanked out of my hand and Asher proceeded to tell the salon that I had to wait until after I had the baby to get my hair done, but that I could get a mani pedi. Then he kissed me senseless, and left the room before I could clear the fog and yell at him. Now he was out somewhere on the property, and I was on the back porch in front of the grill with a lighter and the book that seemed to be the root of all my problems. I was ready to kill him. I loved him, I was over the moon that he was happy about this baby and I knew that he meant well, but I swear, he wouldn’t be happy unless the doctor put me on bed rest for the rest of my pregnancy. The doorbell chimes and I look down at the book. I sigh and put everything down, planning on coming back to it as soon as I get rid of whoever is at the door.
“Stay,” I tell Beast as I go into the house through the sliding door. I walk through the living room and looked out the peep hole. I can’t believe my eyes. How the heck did she find me? I looked out the peep hole again, just to make sure that I’m not seeing things. Nope, not seeing things. My mother is standing on the other side of the door. I get off my tiptoes and take a step away from the door.
"Who's at the door, baby?" Asher asks loudly from behind me. I jump and spin around, putting a finger to my lips and using the universal symbol for ‘be quiet.’
“Who is it?” he asks again. This time, his eyes are narrowed. The doorbell rings again and my mom yells through the closed door.
"I can hear you in there."
"Crap," I hiss, glaring at Asher for blowing my cover. He walks to the door and unlocks it before I have a chance to block it or tackle him to the ground.