Epilogue-Bo
One year later…
“Is that straight, Baby?”
I was on my tiptoes, balancing the giant sparkling angel Gloria got for our Christmas tree when my beautiful wife turned around too quickly and almost toppled over.
“Whoa!” I said, letting go of the ornament and catching her before she fell.
“Oh, shit!” She laughed, and the sound was music to my ears.
“You better sit,” I grumbled worriedly, as I walked her to the sofa.
She was still giggling with her hands on her swollen belly and fuck, my heart squeezed every time I thought about the child she was carrying inside her.
Our child.
It seemed she was mistaken about the whole premenopausal thing, and we got pregnant just a few months into our New Year’s Day wedding.
“I’m okay, Sweetheart,” she said, cupping my cheeks and pulling me to her for a kiss.
“I know you are. But I worry. Humor me, okay?”
She nodded, and I kissed her forehead, grabbing her Yeti full of ice water for her. She never went far without that thing, which was fantastic, but also made her pee every five minutes.
I thought it was goddamn delightful. But she always snarled at me when I said that.
My vixen was quite the firecracker pregnant. And I swear to God, I loved her more with every second that passed.
“Oh, Bo! The angel is falling,” she said.
I turned just in time for the thing to fall and conk me right on the head. Good thing it was stuffed with just a tiny string of fairy lights decorating the wings.
I turned around when I heard snorting and frowned at my wife who was laughing so hard and trying, unsuccessfully, to be quiet about it.
“You think that’s funny?”
“I-I’m sorry, I do. Oh my God,” she said and laughed harder. “Oh no, I think I peed!”
“Serves you right,” I said, but I was already running to help her.
“Dammit,” she moaned, but something wasn’t right.
I helped her stand, and started to frog-march her to the potty, but I noticed with every step, more fluid was leaking out of her.
“Oh, God! Owwww!” Gloria sagged against me, and I knew what was happening then.
“Baby, I don’t think you peed. I think your water broke.”
Wide velvet eyes met mine.
“I think you're right. Oh, my God. What do we do?”
“We go to the hospital in town. We timed it. I can get us there in twenty-two minutes. Okay?”
She nodded, knowing the game plan as readily as I did. With her age and this being her first, Gloria wanted to deliver the baby at a hospital.
She wasn’t due for another two weeks, but it was Christmas, after all.
“Hold on, Baby,” I said, lifting her in my arms and snagging the to go bag that sat by the door.
I ordered Moose to stay and winked at Frou-Frou before fastening my wife securely in her seat.
If you asked me later on how exactly I made it to the Hospital four minutes faster than my best time, I couldn’t answer you. I just knew that two minutes after I carried her through the Emergency Room doors, Gloria delivered our daughter, and I wept like a baby.
“She’s so perfect,” I told my wife, cradling them both in my arms.
“She is. Oh, Bo, look at her.”
“I am. Thank you, Gloria. Thank you so much.”
“Don’t be silly, I should be thanking you, this is the best present ever.”
“That she is,” I laughed. “I think we should call her Angelina, after that little angel that conked me on the head and spurred her mother into labor.”
“I think that’s perfect,” Gloria replied with a grin.
“Is there anything I can get you, Slick?” I asked my beautiful, tired wife after I watched her perform an absolute miracle in front of my eyes.
I would do anything for this woman.
Anything at all.
She turned to me thoughtfully and took my hand.
“Yeh, actually. I was wondering if maybe you could get me another one of these next year?”
I grinned so widely at that, I thought my face might actually get stuck. Then I dipped my head and kissed her with all the love I had for her in my heart.
“Soon as the doc says it’s okay, I’ll get started, Wife,” I promised.
“Good. You know, I am so glad the generator broke that night or I might have left and missed all of this,” she said, and my heart grew another inch just filled with love for her.
It was time for me to come clean. I would never keep anything from my wife.
This magnificent woman. The mother of my children.
I needed her to know the lengths that I would go to for her.
“Actually, Slick, I have a confession to make. The generator didn’t break. I turned it off.”
“You what? But why?”
Gloria gasped, her soft brown eyes twinkling with amusement. She was perfect. My other half. The better part of me. And I would spend my whole life proving it to her.
“I had to make you stay so I could convince you to let me keep you, Wife.”
Her eyes went even softer as she gazed at me with adoration, and fuck, if I didn’t feel that look spark the same feelings for her inside my soul.
“You did that for me?”
“And I’d do it again,” I stated matter-of-factly.
“Well, I’m glad you did.”
I couldn’t wait another minute, I kissed her lips softly, pouring my whole heart into it.
“Merry Christmas, my love,” she whispered, soothing me in ways I’d never thought possible.
“Merry Christmas to you, my miracle.”
T he end.