Chapter 2 #4
As he lay panting above her, still clutching her hands, Maddie opened her eyes and let out a squawk when she found Thomas standing by the bed, teddy bear in hand, staring at her with blue eyes brimming with tears.
“Why is Daddy hurting you, Mommy?”
“Oh, Christ,” Mac muttered against her neck as he released her hands.
Maddie’s champagne buzz fizzled as mortification set in. She didn’t dare move out of fear of showing him even more and making it worse, as if it could get any worse. “Daddy isn’t hurting me, honey. He’s hugging me.” She put her arms around Mac. “See?”
“But you were crying. I heard you.”
Mac’s body shook with silent laughter.
Maddie pinched his rear, and he surged deeper into her. Fabulous. “Go back to bed, and Mommy will be there in just a minute to tuck you in.”
“Not until Daddy gets off of you.”
“I love Mommy,” Mac finally said. “I’d never hurt her. You know that.”
“Go ahead, Thomas,” Maddie said sternly. “I’ll be right there.”
When the little boy finally turned away and padded off to his room, his parents dissolved into laughter.
“Oh my God!” Maddie said, pushing at her husband. “Get off me! I have to go make sure he’s not scarred for life!”
“I told you to be quiet.”
“It’s your fault!”
He withdrew from her and rolled over. “How in the world is this my fault? I was trying to put you to bed, and you went all vixen on me.”
Maddie got up on rubbery legs and went to the closet to find a robe. “You made me scream.”
“Right. Okay. I made you scream.”
“You did!”
He rolled his eyes at her, clearly not buying her logic. “Want me to come with you?”
“No, I’ve got this.”
“It bums me out that he thinks I was hurting you.”
She went to him and bent to kiss him, patting his face. “I’ll take care of it.” Steeling herself for an awkward conversation with her son, Maddie went into his room to find him sitting up in bed and clutching his poor bear. “What’re you doing awake?” Maddie asked as she sat on the bed.
“I heard you crying.”
“I wasn’t crying, honey. I was laughing. Daddy was being silly.”
“It sounded like you were crying.”
“I promise I wasn’t, and Daddy wasn’t hurting me. We were just playing.”
“Why were you playing without your clothes?”
Maddie wanted to expire on the spot. “Um, we were snuggling. Sometimes mommies and daddies snuggle without their clothes.”
He wrinkled his little nose in disgust. “That’s yucky.”
“Yes, I suppose it is,” she said, suppressing the need to giggle madly. “We’ll snuggle with our pajamas on from now on.” She raised the covers. “Time to go back to sleep.” Tucking the covers up to his chin, she bent to kiss his forehead. “Honey, you know Daddy would never, ever hurt me, right?”
As he nodded, his big eyes were solemn.
“I don’t want you to worry about that. Daddy loves me so much. He loves me and you and Hailey. He’d never hurt any of us. I promise.”
“He’s a good daddy.”
“He’s the best daddy.” She kissed him again. “Have sweet dreams.”
He turned over and popped his thumb into his mouth—always a good sign that he was on his way to sleep.
Relieved to have survived the crisis, she got up and felt a surge of moisture between her legs. That’s when she knew what she’d forgotten earlier. She managed to maintain her composure long enough to check on Hailey and return to the bedroom where Mac waited for her under the covers.
“Everything okay?”
“We forgot to use a condom.”
His face sagged with shock and dismay. “Oh. Shit. I never even thought of it.”
“You were the sober one! You should’ve thought of it!”
“So this is my fault, too?”
“Yes!”
Grinning and shaking his head, he held out his hand to her. “Come to bed.”
“In a minute.” She went to use the bathroom and brush her teeth.
All the while, her heart beat an out-of-control rhythm as the possibility of another pregnancy left her flat-out terrified.
With her hands on the countertop, she let her head drop as the implications settled into a hard knot in her belly.
Mac came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, his face warm against her back. “I’m sorry, honey. You got me so worked up, I never gave it a thought.”
“I knew you’d find a way to make it my fault,” she teased.
He urged her to turn to face him. “Just because we slipped up once doesn’t mean you’ll get pregnant.”
“It’s been two weeks since my period,” she said, watching his face carefully as the information registered with him.
“Still, that doesn’t mean it’ll happen.”
“I hope not. I’m not ready to be pregnant again.”
“I’m not ready for you to be pregnant again either. I may never recover from the last time.”
That drew a small smile from her. “What’re the odds of something like that happening again?” she asked of their daughter’s wild home delivery during Tropical Storm Hailey.
“I have no desire to find out anytime soon.” He hugged her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “No matter what happens, we’re in it together, you and me. All the way.”
His words went a long way toward defusing the panic that had gripped her since she realized they’d forgotten protection. But the panic would gnaw at her until she knew for sure that she wasn’t pregnant. It was going to be a very long ten days.