Chapter 40 Bound To Be Hiccups
BOUND TO BE HICCUPS
“Arik,” his grandmother said when she answered the phone. “I didn’t expect to hear from you. Everything okay?”
Since Natalie was breaking the news to her parents, he was going to let his grandmother know.
“I wanted to check in and see how you were doing?”
“I’m fine. Happy about the nice weather. How is island living?”
“Great. Wonderful. I’m going to be a dad!” he blurted out. There was no way to ease into it and there didn’t seem to be a reason either.
He was excited and wanted his grandmother to know that.
“Excuse me?”
“I’ve put a bun in Natalie’s oven.”
His grandmother coughed on the other end. “You’re joking with me, right?”
Maybe he was going overboard. “That’s not something I’d joke about,” he said.
“I need to sit down for this.”
“It’s a good thing.”
“Maybe for you since you went there hoping to win her over. Was having a baby part of the plan?”
Put that way, it didn’t sound so great.
“What do you think?”
“I think my grandson hasn’t been acting much like himself for months. First you bring her to Nick’s wedding under false assumptions.”
“They weren’t false in my eyes. We’d been on a few dates and I knew things were going to progress. I knew how she made me feel and I was right. We talked about this already, remember?”
“How does she feel about you?”
“We love each other. And before you ask, it’s not just because she’s pregnant. I could see how she felt, but she was keeping her lips sealed tight. I made the first move and said it.”
“Seems to me you’re doing a lot of the first moves,” his grandmother said drily.
“Don’t be that way. I don’t need Natalie to find out. Things are working out exactly as I hoped. We felt something for each other before and never had the chance to explore it. It’s right now.”
“I won’t tell you it’s wrong. Your parents will do it enough. I told you before I liked her. Are you going to let them know?”
“Eventually,” he said. “We aren’t telling too many right now. She’s letting her parents know now and I’m calling you. No one else.”
“What’s the plan? Hope you like that island because you’ve said she won’t leave it and you won’t leave your child.”
“I won’t,” he said. “I already told you I love it here.”
“And you’ve got something to occupy you for now, but what happens when that’s done?”
“Then I’ll be a father. There are lots of stay-at-home dads. That’s going to be my job. I’m reading everything I can about it. I’ll be more prepared than her.”
His grandmother laughed on the other end. “Have you told Natalie that yet?”
“No. But I don’t think she’s going to care. She loves her job. I gently brought up she doesn’t need to work so hard and she bit my head off that she plans on working through and after the pregnancy.”
“Are you going to be okay with that?”
“Yep. I’m not forcing her to do anything she doesn’t want to. If she wants to stay home with me, great. If not, then I’m going to be the best dad ever. Better than my father was.”
He wouldn’t put his career before his child.
He’d be there for special events, happy milestones, and fearful first crushes.
He’d be the confidant that he’d never had.
Not from either of his parents.
Though his mother was around more, it wasn’t the same.
Too many years spent listening to his mother tear down his father instead of seeing her son. His needs, his wants, the emotional chaos he was trying to make sense of.
All those mistakes he’d witnessed growing up, he’d make none of them.
“It’s easy to improve on what you went through.”
“My thought exactly. Are you happy? You’re going to be a great-grandmother?”
“I’m always happy if you are. But there are bound to be hiccups a few months in together.”
“I expect that. We had one already. She’s a neat freak. But we got that taken care of.”
“You’re lazy, Arik. You’ve always been when it came to cleaning.”
“I admit it. There have been cleaners in my life for longer than I can remember.” Thankfully Natalie never saw his dorm room or she would have gotten a better idea of it back then.
“And you’ve been in hotels for years. Did you find a cleaner on the island?”
“I did. All set. It’s working out great. I can handle picking up the little things.”
Because he was trying. Natalie was making compromises so he was doing the same.
“Have you brought up living together yet?”
“I’m working on it. This place is temporary. It’s not a house I want to stay long term. There isn’t much reason for her to move her stuff in to only move it out again. I’ll purchase a place before the baby is born.”
The laugh from his grandmother told him sarcasm was going to follow. “Does Natalie get any say in that?”
“If I bring it up she’ll get her panties bunched up. I’ll look around and take it out of her hands. No reason for her to stress about it.”
“You’re too used to getting your own way, Arik. Relationships don’t work like that. Look at your parents.”
“I’d rather not. No good examples there. But you and Grandpa were married over fifty years.”
“That’s right, we were. It can happen. Does that mean you’re going to marry Natalie?”
“That’s my plan,” he said. “Just need to get her on board with it.”
He hung up with his grandmother after that, then walked around the house picking up anything he might have left behind in the past few days.
As much as he wanted Natalie to spend the night, she hadn’t done it once when she had to go to work the next day.
He got it. Her clothes were at her place. She had a routine she followed and he was in the way.
The front door opened just as he was laying the folded blanket on the back of the couch.
“Look at you tidying up.”
“I’m trying,” he said. “How did it go?”
Her head went side to side. She wasn’t crying and didn’t even look as if she’d shed a tear.
No frustration on her face or in her features.
Her body wasn’t tense and she didn’t toss her purse down, but hung it over the staircase banister like normal.
“Could have been worse. My mother was good about it.”
“And your father?”
“Old-fashioned but came around. They both understand these things happen, but I drilled home that we were in love and that you weren’t going anywhere.”
“Nope. I’m not. What’s your father’s problem? He wanted you to be married before kids?”
The flush on her cheeks said he hit that one out of the park.
He wouldn’t mind seeing a ring on her finger before the baby arrived, and having his last name next to hers. That would be even better.
“As I said…old-fashioned. He’ll be fine. I don’t want you to think I expect that.”
Since she was going there, he’d take the trip with her. “Maybe I want it.”
Her shoulders dropped along with her butt onto the couch. She patted the cushion. “Sit.”
Here it comes. Should have kept his mouth shut.
“Arik. There is no reason to rush anything.”
“Seems like fate is doing it for us. You know I love you.”
“I do, but love can fade.”
“Don’t even think of that. If you do it’s like you’re manifesting it.” He shivered and shook his arms. “Do you want to make me cry or something?”
She gave his shoulder a light shove. “Cut it out.”
“It’s not going to fade. If it had, I wouldn’t have pursued you when we saw each other again.”
It was as close as he could get to saying why he ended up here.
This would let him know her reaction to it.
When she laughed, he relaxed. “We always got along,” she said. “And we were trying to find what might have been before.”
“It’s working. Nothing is guaranteed in life. I’m not going to wait until we both feel we are in a spot where we can say there is a ninety percent likelihood everything will work. It doesn’t work that way. Nothing does.”
Natalie sighed. “I know that. But there is a greater chance of things not working if we rush.”
“The little bean in there is saying otherwise. He’s on a timer if you didn’t know.”
“Are you going to push or remind me daily of those things?”
He’d be stupid to do that and risk pushing her away. “No. We have to have talks at some point. If you need to draw up guidelines and contracts, we seem to do well that way too.”
She rolled her eyes and leaned onto his shoulder. He lifted his arm and let her snuggle in. “I don’t want to do that, but I don’t want to feel the need to always lay out a plan when we are together.”
“Wow, I guess you really have changed.”
“I’m trying not to be so rigid. Do we have a lot to work out? Absolutely. Am I going to run, hide, or bury my head with any of it? No. That’d be stupid.”
“Good. Because here are the things we need to discuss. Living situations. I’d like us to be living under the same roof, wherever it is, before the baby comes.”
“Agreed.”
Wow, that was easier than he thought. No need to push more there.
“The baby’s last name will be mine. If you want to open discussions about yours matching, I’m all ears.”
She lifted her head to look at his face. He dropped his lips to hers, the smile never leaving.
He was serious but could mask it behind humor.
“No problem on the baby’s last name. If or when mine changes, that’s something we can talk about later.”
“Are you open to it?”
“If I wasn’t, I’d say that, but don’t even think of making it a conversation now.”
“I’m getting to you,” he said, still throwing it out there as a joke. Sort of.
“You’ve been getting to me since you stepped foot on the island, Arik. Don’t doubt or question that. But I still need time to trust myself. And if you push more, neither of us is going to be happy.”
It didn’t sound great, but asking her to explain could end up sounding even worse. Especially if the truth was something that would cut deeper than silence.