Chapter 28
By the time she finished the story, my blood pressure was higher than it’d been since the shower. We were in our bedroom, the house finally quiet. Serenity knocked out in her room after insisting on “one more” bedtime story. Kori back at Kasey’s. The only light was the lamp on my side of the bed.
Sevyn was half-reclined against the headboard, dress swapped for one of my big T-shirts, braids tied up in a scarf. Her ankles were propped in my lap while I worked slow circles into her arches with my thumbs.
She’d just run me through the whole restaurant scene.
“I’m just sittin’ there with my salad,” she said, shaking her head, “and boom—bonus child. Again. At this point he need a punch card.”
I pressed a little firmer into the ball of her foot. “You okay?” I asked for the third time.
“I’m tired,” she admitted. “But yes I’m okay, I didn’t cry till I got home this time. That’s progress.”
“I still don’t like him talking crazy around you,” I muttered.
“He didn’t get the chance today,” she said. “Kasey handled the talking. I just…introduced myself.”
“I’m not letting him keep you spun up,” I said quietly. “Or the kids. He can drown in his own choices. I’m focused on y’all.”
Her expression softened at that. “I know,” she said. “That’s why I came home instead of going to the studio.”
I slid my hand up to her ankle, fingers wrapping gently around the slight puff there. “Feet still hurt?”
“They exist,” she sighed. “So yes.”
I kept rubbing.
We sat in comfortable silence for a minute. Her breathing evened out. The little knot between her brows that lived there whenever Troy was involved slowly loosened.
Then, out of nowhere, she said, “You know it’s okay for us to have sex, right?”
My hands froze.
“…What.”
She smirked, eyes shining. “Like, medically. You not gonna hurt the baby.”
Heat crawled straight up my neck into my ears.
“We’ve…been intimate,” I said carefully. “You know that.”
“I know,” she said. “I’m the one whose legs be shaking after.” Her tone was casual, like she was talking about grocery lists. “But ever since the bump got bigger you been real…selective.”
“I’m trying to be careful,” I muttered, going back to her foot like it was suddenly the most interesting thing in the room. “Your doctor said third trimester can be tricky.”
“She said positions matter,” Sev corrected. “She didn’t put you on punishment.”
“I just don’t wanna make you uncomfortable,” I said. “Or him.”
Her mouth curved. “He not paying bills yet. His comfort is secondary.”
“Sev.”
“I’m serious,” she said, sitting up a little more. “Look, don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy your mouth?—”
“Okay,” I cut in, ears on fire now.
“—on my pussy,” she finished anyway, unbothered. “But dick is okay sometimes too.”
I closed my eyes for a second. “You can’t just say that like you asking me to pass the remote.”
“Why not?” she asked, genuinely confused. “We grown and engaged. There’s literally evidence of us doing it sitting on my bladder.”
She had a point but it didn’t make it easier to hear her say it out loud with no filter.
“I just…” I exhaled, trying to explain what my body already knew. “You more…delicate now.”
Her brows shot up. “Delicate?”
“Not like that,” I amended quickly. “You’re still you, but he’s there, too and I feel…different. More responsible. Every time I’m about to—” I shook my head. “I overthink it.”
She watched me for a second, the usual teasing dropping out of her face.
“Come here,” she said finally, nudging my hands away from her feet and patting the space beside her.
I moved up and leaned back against the headboard. She swung one leg over carefully and settled sideways in my lap, belly pressing into my side, her hand resting on my chest.
“You not gon’ break me,” she said softly. “Or him. Your careful even when you not trying to be. That’s literally who you are, Kasen.”
I swallowed, fingers automatically tracing shapes on her thigh.
“And honestly?” she added, mouth tipping up. “I miss you. All of you. The ‘I’m in my head’ version and the ‘I forget how shoulders work when you say pretty shit’ version.”
“That’s…all the same person,” I said.
“Exactly,” she said. “So stop gatekeeping him.”
I huffed out something close to a laugh.
She leaned in, lips brushing my jaw first, then my mouth. It was the kind of kiss that usually unraveled my carefully organized thoughts in under thirty seconds.
When she pulled back, her eyes were softer.
“We can go as slow as you want,” she said. “Change our minds if anything feels weird. Stop if you even think something off, but don’t take it off the table like you don’t want me.”
I met her eyes. “I always want you,” I said before my filter could catch up.
She smiled, satisfied. “Cool,” she said. “Then next time I say I want more than your mouth, don’t act like I asked you to rewire the Pentagon.”
“That’s actually easier,” I muttered.
She laughed, full and bright, the sound vibrating against my chest.
“Then consider it a challenge, Batman,” she said, kissing me again. “You good at those.”
My hand slid up to the small of her back, holding her closer as our son rolled once under my palm.
She kissed me again before I could overthink it, slower this time, like she had all night and nowhere else to be.
Her fingers slid up into my locs, nails grazing my scalp. My whole body reacted even though she wasn’t doing anything wild.
“See?” she murmured against my mouth. “He not complaining.”
“He got no respect for his father,” I muttered, feeling our son roll right where her belly pressed into me.
She laughed, the sound soft and warm. “He like affection. Wonder where he get that from.”
“You,” I said without thinking.
Her eyes softened. “We both know that’s a lie.”
She moved a little, careful of her stomach, and eased my hand down to rest where he’d just kicked.
“Talk to me,” she said quietly. “Not just as a man. As his dad. What are you scared of?”
I stared at our joined hands for a second.
“That something I do now…messes him up later,” I admitted. “That I push too far, or not enough. That I miss a signal. That I’m so busy trying not to be him that I forget how to just…be me.”
“Him” didn’t need explanation.
She knew who I meant.
She let that sit there a second, thumb rubbing slow circles over my knuckles.
“You’re not Troy,” she said. “You not my daddy. You not your daddy either, even if you picked up his good parts. You get to choose what kind of father and husband you be. Every day. That’s all this is. Choices.”
She tapped my chest lightly.
“And the man I’m looking at right now?” she went on. “He’s already showing my daughter what consistency look like. He’s already willing to throw hands when somebody play about me. I promise you, our son not gon’ wonder if he loved.”
My throat tightened.
“I just don’t wanna…rush you,” I said. “With anything. Your body doing enough.”
She arched a brow. “You think I don’t know my own limits?”
“No, I?—”
“Batman.” She cut me off gently. “You never rush me. You pull back before I even get the chance to say stop. That’s why I feel safe enough to say more.”
Silence settled again.
I exhaled slowly, some of that tightness in my chest finally loosening.
“Okay,” I said. “We’ll…figure it out.”
Her smile turned wicked at the edges. “Oh, I know we will.”
I shook my head, but I was smiling too.
She slid down a little, tucking herself more securely into my side, her leg draped over mine, belly nestled against my ribs.
“Not tonight, though,” she said, already sounding sleepy. “I just emotionally fought a secret baby mama in Olive Garden.”
“That was not Olive Garden,” I said. “It had cloth napkins.”
“Same energy,” she mumbled.
I laughed under my breath and reached to turn off the lamp.
Darkness wrapped around us.
A few minutes later, her breathing evened out, head heavy on my chest. Our son moved once, then went still, like he’d finally decided we were done for the day.
I lay there in the quiet, one arm around my fiancée, the other resting over both of them, and realized the fear was still there but so was trust.
Hers in me and mine in us.
If we could survive her ex, my inexperience, three baby mamas in one city, and a Batman-themed baby shower brawl…We could definitely figure out how to make love in a third trimester body without breaking anything.