Chapter 1 #2
“You should come by to see Cat, it would be nice for her to see someone from her family that’s actually happy for her. And not make her feel like she’s the dirt underneath their fingernails that needs to be scrubbed away.”
“I will. Tell her I said hello. I’ll give her a call tomorrow.”
“I will. Bye, Sophie.”
“Bye.”
The first thing I do when I get home is kiss Cat. It feels good to come home to her and hold her in my arms. After we eat dinner, I go to my office to finish working. She showers and knocks on the door before she walks in, wearing cotton pajama shorts and a sleeveless top.
“Can I come in?”
“You’re already in.”
“Yeah, I am, smartass.”
She’s smiling at me when I look up from my papers. I push my chair back from the desk and hold my hand out for her to come to me. She sits on my lap and I kiss her stomach; her hands play in my hair, and my thoughts start to go south when my hands make contact with her skin, inching up her shorts.
“Nick?”
“Yeah ?” I answer, kissing the side of her breast through her shirt.
“This morning you said you wanted to tell me something.”
Damn. I have the papers in my drawer. We haven’t had sex in a long time and I was getting turned on. Good thing she reminded me, I’d almost forgotten about that. I pull my hand out of her shorts.
“I want you to consider giving me power of attorney for you medically.”
She looks at me with a furrowed brow. “Why?”
“God forbid, but if something happens to you, and you’re in the hospital, I won’t have any say in what happens to you. Your parents would. If we were married I would, but we’re not.”
She stares at me and doesn’t say anything.
“You don’t trust me?” I say to her.
“I do. This is a big decision to make.”
“It is. I don’t want your life or our child’s in the hands of your family. Especially after hearing what your mother had to say last night.”
“She really didn’t know I was this far along.”
I hold my head down, press my teeth together, and hold back before I answer.
“Don’t get upset.”
“Don’t say another word to defend her.”
“I wasn’t, I wasn’t defending her.”
I let a breath out and hold my head back up.
“I don’t want your family making decisions that will affect our lives.
” I bend down and pull a drawer out, reaching for the papers.
“I had the papers drawn up when I went back to the office yesterday.” She looks at them on my desk.
I can’t tell if she’s mad. I know she’s not happy. “All you have to do is sign them.”
“That simple, huh. Sign them. Put my life in your hands alone.” It’s not a question but she’s looking at me as if it’s a question she needs to ask.
“It’s your choice. Look over them. If it’s not in my hands, it’s in theirs, and so is the life of our child, until he’s born.”
She takes the papers off my desk and leaves the room, leaving me wondering what she’s going to do. Does she trust me with her life? I trust her with mine.
The next morning I’m dressed early. I have to go in to prepare for a case. I make sure not to wake Cat before her alarm is set to go off.
I put my coat on and grab my briefcase off the counter. I turn to open the door and see her.
“I don’t want my family coming between us. You’ve always taken care of me, even when I didn’t want you to. I trust you with our lives.” She walks over to the kitchen table, placing the papers there, and walks back toward the bedroom.
“Cat—” Walking to her, I put my hands on her face and kiss her. “I’ll see you when I come back from work. I’m going to be late tonight, but I’ll call you today.”
She smiles and nods her head. “Good luck in court today.”
“Thanks.”
Cat
Bathing suit, check. Sunscreen lotion, check.
Shades, check. That’s everything on my list. I know Nick packed all his stuff already, so I don’t need to worry about Mr. I Like To Be Prepared.
“Oh, shoot.” My passport. I better have that, or I won’t be going anywhere tomorrow morning.
The doorbell rings and I go to see who it is.
“Shawn, hey.” He has a big smile on his handsome face and a look of confusion when his eyes move down my body. He rubs his eyes and blinks.
“What the hell happened to your stomach?”
The look on his face is comical. I bite down on my lip and smile. How did he not hear? “I’m pregnant.”
“I can see. I don’t believe it, but I’m seeing it.”
“I’m six months next week. Come in.” He’s holding a big manila envelope.
He hugs me and looks at my stomach again. “Why didn’t one of you tell me you were pregnant and living together?”
“I think you were left out because we weren’t telling anyone until a few weeks ago, including my family. Sorry, it wasn’t intentional.”
“I knew you guys were together. But wow! Seeing you like this is blowing my mind.”
“Not only yours. It’s blowing everyone’s minds.”
“I bet. If you have any trouble keeping Nick and Jay apart, give me a holla. As an NYPD detective, I can’t guarantee I won’t have to restrain and cuff one of them. I can guarantee they won’t go to jail for assaulting each other.” He cracks a smile.
“I’ll keep that in mind. I’m sure I’m going to need you.”
“That bad?”
“Worse. We’re dealing with it.” I shrug.
“Don’t let them stress you out. When my sister was pregnant, she went into early labor. She said it was stress induced. Take it easy.”
“That’s what I plan to do. We’re going to the Bahamas tomorrow morning.”
“I wish I was going. Bring me back a key chain.”
“I’ll bring you back a T-shirt.”
“Even better. I came to drop this off for Nick, for a case.”
“I’ll make sure he gets it.”
“He must have forgotten he told me to drop these off.”
“Yeah. He’s been busy.”
“I have to get back to work. You look good.”
“Thanks.” He kisses me on the cheek.
“I’ll call Nick and bust his balls later. You’ll have to keep me in the loop. Not a good look when a detective doesn’t know what’s going on right under his nose with his own friends.”
I laugh, walking him out and lock the door.
I call Nick after I finish packing to tell him about Shawn. “Why didn’t you tell Shawn I was pregnant and we were living together?”
“We weren’t telling anyone. The last time we talked was before we told your family. We’ve been e-mailing back and forth.”
“I’ll accept that answer. He dropped some papers off for you.”
“I forgot he was bringing them over. I’m working on a case and he was supposed to drop them off for me. I’m working late tonight too.”
“You’ve been working late a lot. Are you sure that’s all you’re doing?”
“What else would I be doing?”
“Are you sure you’re not picking up some buxom blonde?”
“What? No! Why would you say that?”
“You haven’t touched me in a long time.”
“I touch you all the time.”
“Not in the way I want you to. You know what I mean. My doctor said I was fine, I know you talked to him.”
“You know?”
“I knew you would call him. I told him it was okay, that if you called to tell you everything.”
“It’s not that I didn’t trust you.”
“I know. I hope I have something to look forward to on our getaway. Do I? Or are you going to leave me high and dry?”
“I promise you I’m going to have you wet and ready up until the time we get back on the plane. The word dry is going to be wiped clean from your vocabulary with a thorough sweep of my tongue.”
“With talk like that, I don’t know if I can wait another day.”
“Too bad, you’re going to have to. I’m working late by myself, don’t wait up.”
I put the phone down after I tell him bye and lie back on the bed against the pillows when we finish talking.
Keeping up with Nick’s sex drive the first few months of my pregnancy was like running a mini marathon at times.
I was not fully prepared. But I miss the feel of him filling me, being all around me and in me at once.
There is nothing like it when he brings me to the brink and watches me fall over the edge. No fear, just pleasure, pure pleasure.
He’s the one that told me he likes bringing me to the brink and watching me fall.
I can’t wait till he gets over his fear of hurting me and the baby.
It’s been a while since I’ve been to the brink and fallen.
Bahamas, here we come. When we come back I should be a full-fledged member of the mile high club.
By eight Friday morning, we’re on a private plane headed to the Bahamas.
I asked him why he chose the Bahamas. He said it’s what I asked for: crystal clear, turquoise water.
It was a choice between there and Mexico.
The Bahamas was a safer bet with me being pregnant.
Lower crime rate. I hate to ask him what he’s going to do when the baby’s born. I mean, really.
I fall asleep on Nick during the entire flight while he works on his laptop.
I tell him he better put that thing away during our trip.
The only thing he’s allowed to have is his phone and only for work-related emergencies.
If I hear him talking about work, I’m going to slap it right out of his hand.