Chapter 9 Carmen Royal
CARMEN ROYAL
Afew weeks had passed since everything took place, and for the first time in a long time, it felt like life was finally starting to settle down.
Not completely because nothing in my world would ever really be calm for too long, especially not married to Dom, but enough that I could breathe again without feeling like something bad was waiting to happen again.
This place was perfect because sometimes a home could feel like a big expensive place just to live in, but I could truly say that this wasn’t that.
I smiled every time I walked into the massive walk-in closet.
My heels were lined up in the closet, and the rest of my things were organized perfectly.
In the other closet Dom’s sneakers and boots, clothes, and his watches sat in trays on the dresser.
My skincare products had completely taken over one side of the bathroom counter.
There were throw blankets on the couches, candles burning in different rooms, and little touches of me all over the place.
Half the guest rooms were already starting to fill up with baby stuff too because nobody knew where to put anything anymore.
We had so much baby stuff already that it was ridiculous.
Since we didn’t want to know the sex, everything was unisex with cream blankets and gray onesies, even tiny little shoes the baby wouldn’t fit for months.
We had books, stuffed animals, and little neutral outfits that we loved.
O’Shynn had already bought designer baby clothes because apparently my unborn child needed a wardrobe better than most grown adults.
Candy D bought old school baby stuff like she thought I was about to raise this baby in the nineties, but it was the cutest and she bought a new blanket every time she stepped inside a store.
Even Dique had randomly shown up one day with a giant stuffed elephant almost as tall as him because he said the baby ‘needed some real gangster shit in the nursery’.
He also was stopping by dropping off other gifts and most of the time had had Keondra with him even when Amour wasn’t.
I had been meaning to ask him about that, but he hadn’t been moving like that was just the mother of his child if you asked me.
The baby had started moving a lot too and I was in pure bliss because the movements were so strong now.
I couldn’t believe I only had three more months to go and was carrying exceptionally well.
Every day it felt like there was something new with full-on movement that would make me stop in the middle of whatever I was doing and put my hand over my stomach without even thinking about it.
Dom was just as obsessed as me and every night he had his hand on my stomach. Every morning before he got out of bed, he’d roll over and touch my stomach first like he had to make sure both of us were still there. Every time the baby moved, his whole face changed and he would kiss my belly.
That morning I had every intention of sleeping in because I had worked late the night before and I was tired, but Dom clearly had other plans.
I was half asleep, all wrapped up in the blankets, when I felt his hand slide slowly up my thigh under one of his old t-shirts I slept in.
That was another thing, because I was used to going to bed cute in a silk negligee or gown but the later I got in pregnancy I wanted comfort.
“Get up wifey,” he said.
I opened one eye and saw him standing beside the bed already dressed in a pair of black Prada jeans, the matching fitted shirt, his hat on, as well as his thick gold Cuban around his neck.
I could see that his edges had been tapered crispy and so was his beard.
He smelled like a million bucks as his Aventus Creed filled my nostrils.
I groaned and pulled the blanket up higher. “No.”
He chuckled and gently tugged at the blanket. “Yeah... come on ma.”
“No Dom, you look good and you smell even better, and I would love to just jump all over you right now but I’m tired.”
He stood there looking down at me for a second like he was debating whether he wanted to argue or just physically remove me from the bed. “We going out.”
“I don’t wanna go out.” I said.
“You been in this house all forever ma, it’s time to move around.”
“I have a job. You made me stay here and do it, remember?” I chuckled from under the covers. Seriously I was just too tired to move.
“And today you got a husband.”
I looked up at him from under the blanket. “That was smooth.”
“I know.” He smiled, which wasn’t something he did much of. He walked away to grab his guns, tucked them where they needed to go and came right back.
“You practiced that?” I teased.
“Nah. It just came to me.”
I laughed softly and rolled over onto my back. “Where are we going?”
“You ask too many questions.”
“You kidnap people. Questions are fair when it comes to you.” I replied with a yawn stretching my arms above my head.
He smirked. “Brunch first,” he said while he reached down and tugged the blanket off me before I could stop him. “Then we gone see my parents. Then Tone been calling all damn mornin’ talkin’ about the baby doing something new every five minutes and Shona want us to come by.”
I sat up slower than I used to because my stomach was really there now. It was huge, but enough that I had to move different and enough that Dom noticed every little thing that’s why he always helped me even when I didn’t ask.
“You planned all this?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
He looked at me like I was asking something stupid. “Because you need a break.”
Moments like that still caught me off guard because Dom was still Dom, like still dangerous, still intense, still the same man who could make a whole room nervous without even raising his voice. But with me, he had changed in all these little ways that mattered more than anything ever could.
“You gon’ keep staring at me or you gon’ get dressed?” he asked.
I found myself giggle again. “I’m getting dressed.”
“Aight then.”
Brunch ended up being at GG’s by the water. The weather was nice today and warm enough for me to wear a fitted cream dress that hugged my stomach perfectly, with gold jewelry, Dolce & Gabbana sandals, and a pair of big framed black Chanel shades because the sun was disrespectful.
Dom sat across from me in all black looking exactly like himself and he was exactly who he thought he was with his shirt sleeves rolled up enough to show his Patek and tattoos.
He wore his dark Cartier shades even though we were sitting under an umbrella.
He looked like money and a man who wasn’t to be fucked with as our shadows sat at their own tables as if they were guest.
The waitress had been extra friendly too.
Every time she came back to the table, she somehow found another reason to stand too close to him or laugh too hard at something that wasn’t even funny.
“Can I get you anything else?” she asked him for the third time while she stood there smiling extra hard.
Dom didn’t even look up from his food. “I’m good.”
“You sure?” she asked, still standing there.
He finally looked up over the top of his shades. “I said I’m good.”
She gave this awkward little laugh after that and walked away, and the second she was gone, I looked across the table at him and laughed. “She wanted you.”
Dom picked his fork. “Yeah, well everybody think they want these problems till they get it. It’s only one woman who can handle this shit and I’m sittin’ with her.” He winked.
I rolled my eyes and took another sip of my orange juice. “You are so full of yourself.”
“You still here though,” he replied, finally looking up at me with that little smirk on his face.
Unfortunately for me, he was right. We stayed there for a while after that just talking, eating, and watching the water.
Dom kept reaching across the table to touch me for no reason too.
One minute he had his hand over mine. The next he was rubbing his thumb across the inside of my wrist. Then his hand would end up on my thigh under the table like he couldn’t help himself.
Every time the baby moved, I’d stop in the middle of whatever I was saying and put my hand over my stomach without even thinking about it. Dom noticed every single time.
“You felt that?” I asked after one hard little kick all excited.
His whole face changed immediately. “Where?”
I laughed and reached for his hand, pulling it across the table until his palm rested over my stomach. “Right here.”
He kept his hand there for a second, watching my face more than my stomach like he was waiting for me to react again and then the baby moved. His eyes lifted to mine immediately. “There go that little bad ass,” he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice even though he was trying to hide it.
“You say that every time.”
“Because my baby be in there fighting.”
“Maybe the baby just dramatic.”
He leaned back in his chair and looked at me. “Probably got that from you.”
After brunch we went over to his parents’ house, and the second we walked through the front door, his mama acted like she hadn’t seen me in six months. “My baby!” she yelled, coming straight toward me from the kitchen.
Dom moved out the way because he already knew better. Candy D wrapped me up in a hug, kissed both my cheeks, then immediately dropped one hand down to my stomach. “Look at you,” she said, smiling all big while she rubbed my belly through my dress. “You getting bigger every time I see you.”
“Everybody keeps saying that like I don’t own mirrors,” I said. “I feel lig a pig.”
“Because you are getting big but it’s all belly,” she replied. “And you glowing too girl. Don’t know daughter-in-law of mine look like no damn pig.”
Dom shut the front door behind him and looked over at both of us. “Y’all gone stand in the doorway all day or what?”
Candy D looked over at him and frowned. “Don’t start, you barely bring her over here as it is.”