Chapter 12 #2
Finally, JJ drifted off to sleep and Dosia and Pumpkin snuck their way out of the room.
Dosia had added a baby monitor system to the kids’ room when it became evident that Pumpkin and SJ were going to be spending nights here more often than not.
They had a permanent monitor in her room and could also access the feed from an app on their phones.
It seemed like forever since the words “we need to talk” came out of Dosia’s mouth until Pumpkin closed the door of her bedroom and they were at last alone.
Dosia walked to the end of her bed, visibly took a deep breath, and then turned to face him. “Pumpkin, I?—”
“Wait,” he stated. Coming forward, he took her face between his hands and kissed her, languid and passionate.
Letting everything he hadn’t yet said to her bleed through the kiss.
Pulling slowly away, he kissed her nose and then her forehead.
“Whatever you have to say changes nothing,” he promised her.
Dosia took another shaky breath, but he noticed how she was holding onto him.
Like he was her lifeline. Pumpkin would never take that for granted.
He wanted to be everything to this woman.
Her lover, her best friend, her guide, her confidant, the father of her children…
He would be everything she needed and more, because she deserved no less.
“It changes everything,” she confessed. Taking a step back, she indicated to the bed. “Sit, please.”
Pumpkin would rather stand for something like this, but he’d left his cane downstairs. Reluctantly, he took a seat, but kept her close. He widened his legs so she could stand between them.
She looked down at him, resting her hands around his neck. Because of their height difference, she wasn’t that much taller than him even though he was sitting.
“I talked to Calliope tonight.”
Not where he thought this conversation was going to start, but okay. “That’s good. How is she?” The women might be having a tiff, but they were still family and Pumpkin knew that Dosia still cared for her aunt greatly.
“Good,” Dosia repeated with a small smile. “She’s almost got the new store ready. She’s still hoping to finish in time to open next week, but she’s got a last-minute list a mile long.”
“I’ll grab some of the guys and we can help her out this week,” Pumpkin offered.
“I don’t think that’s necessary. She won the bid of one of your brothers this afternoon.”
Pumpkin raised an eyebrow. “She did? Which one?”
“Starbucks,” Dosia told him. She didn’t look too thrilled about it, but then Starbucks had taken the rank of the club player after Cage had gotten himself hitched.
He wasn’t sure Dosia would know that though.
“Technically, he was auctioning off a date, but she told Harper when she paid that she would prefer the four hours of labor, if he’s agreeable. ”
“I’m sure he will be,” Pumpkin said slowly. Calliope had turned down a date with Starbucks ? He wished he’d been there to see his brother’s face when Harper told him, because he was pretty sure Starbucks had never been denied by a woman before.
“I told you about Calliope, how she’s Wiccan and has visions?”
He didn’t quite understand the difference between being Pagan and Wiccan, nor was he sure he believed in Calliope’s claim that she saw the future, but he nodded anyway. Arguing the existence of the supernatural would only delay whatever it was Dosia really wanted to talk to him about.
Dosia continued, “She had a vision about me. Well, us . She, uh…” Dosia made a face and then blurted out, “She says I’m pregnant.”
Pumpkin’s mind went blank for all of two seconds.
“Pregnant?” His eyes dropped down to her stomach like he had suddenly developed x-ray vision.
He swallowed hard, and for the second time in the span of several weeks, his brain tried to do some very quick math.
“We were only together once four-ish weeks ago.” He wasn’t an expert but he didn’t think that was soon enough to take a test. “Have you missed your period? ”
Dosia shook her head, her cheeks flushing a little. “No, but I’m also not due for another few days.”
“I was wondering…” They’d been sharing a bathroom, after all.
Dosia stiffened. “You were wondering about my period?” She looked like she was both shocked and repulsed by that.
Pumpkin raised an eyebrow, tightening his hold on her hips so she couldn’t back away.
“Baby, I was raised by a single mother. I know how a woman’s body works.
Even helped my mom prepare her heating pad when needed.
Your period neither scares nor disgusts me.
And when JJ’s old enough, I’ll be able to help her right alongside you. ”
Dosia’s grimace fell slightly. “That’s…kinda sweet, I guess.”
“It’s also not the topic of this conversation,” he pressed. “If you haven’t missed your period, why do you think you’re pregnant?”
Dosia’s cheeks flushed, “Because Calliope says I have a little pumpkin in my uterus. She says it was the same when I was pregnant with JJ. So I’m either pregnant or about to be, but she thinks I already am because of how defined the little pumpkin inside me is.”
Pumpkin scratched his forehead in utter confusion. “You’re going to have to run that by me again because I have no idea what you just said.”
Dosia sighed. “Sometimes Calliope has visions, glimpses of what’s to be.
Other times she sees symbols that she has to interpret.
When I was pregnant with JJ, she kept seeing a pumpkin grow inside me.
I thought that was why she always referred to JJ as ‘little pumpkin’ and why she suggested ‘Jacqueline’ as her middle name.
But now I know it was more than that. She knew it had something to do with JJ’s father,” she said pointedly.
“That’s what our argument was about. I felt she was manipulating me. Fiddling with my life.”
Pumpkin was trying really hard to follow along, but he only understood about half of what Dosia was telling him.
“Okay, we’re going to have to circle back to some of that.
But what you’re saying is that because Calliope saw a,” he grimaced, “little pumpkin inside you while you were pregnant with JJ and now she sees another one inside you that she thinks you’re pregnant? ”
Dosia nodded. “That’s the simplistic version, but yeah. ”
“Let’s keep it simple, please,” Pumpkin begged. “I’m not familiar enough with some of what you’re saying to entirely wrap my mind around it, and I’m already struggling with the fact that condoms just don’t seem to work for me.”
Dosia watched him carefully for a moment. “You… I mean, you believe me that it’s yours?”
Pumpkin’s eyebrows shot up. “Of all you said, I did catch the ‘pumpkin’ references.”
Dosia flushed. “It’s just that we haven’t been together long and we were only… intimate ,” she hedged, “once and I know a lot of guys would doubt the timeline. But I swear, I haven’t been with anyone but you. The last time I was?—”
Pumpkin put a hand over her mouth. “There’s not a lot in this world that will turn me murderous, but hearing about you and another man definitely will.
” Dosia nodded her head and Pumpkin dropped his hand.
“And as much as it would piss me off, the thought of you with another man, I don’t exactly have a leg to stand on.
You accepted SJ with open arms and an open heart.
So if you were pregnant by another man prior to us reuniting,” he made a face as the very thought left a sour taste in his mouth, “it would make me an ass of the highest order if I blamed you for that.”
“Some guys still would,” Dosia said quietly. “But I swear, I haven’t been with anyone. Obviously, I still have to take a test and we need confirmation beyond my witchy aunt’s word, but we can do a paternity test too, if you need.”
Pumpkin shook his head. “I don’t need.” He moved his hand from her hip to her belly. “What about you? Do you think you’re pregnant? You’d be about four weeks along now. I’m not familiar enough with pregnancies to know when symptoms generally start.”
Dosia gave a noncommittal shrug. “I’m not sure. I didn’t have the typical symptoms with JJ until I was closer to nine weeks. If it wasn’t for my missed period, I probably would have never known or figured it out for a few months.”
“But what do you feel ?” Pumpkin clarified. “Do you think it’s possible? ”
Dosia put her hand over his on her stomach. “Yeah,” she said softly. “I think it’s very possible.”
A smile spread his lips so wide his cheeks hurt. “You know what this means, right?”
Dosia shook her head. “What?”
“I have super sperm . Fuck Superman and his super strength. No condom made can stop my sperm.”
Dosia stared at him like he’d lost his fucking mind.
Then she started to giggle. Her giggle became a laugh, and she collapsed over him, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face into his shoulder.
Pumpkin pulled her close, elation bursting free from him as he laughed and kissed whatever part of her he could reach.
She sat up, and Pumpkin noticed how she was keeping her lower half off his legs. He guided her hips down so she was sitting astride him. There was no way she couldn’t feel his partial erection either, but he didn’t care.
When she started to protest putting her weight on him, Pumpkin cut her off with a kiss. “We’re going to need to get married.”
Dosia blinked, “What?”
“Married,” he repeated firmly. “Husband and wife.”
“I know what married means,” she said frustratedly. “I mean, why would we need to get married?”
“Well, for one, you’re pregnant?—”
“I’ve been pregnant before.”
“And we’re not talking about then,” Pumpkin insisted.
He would like to think he would have done the right thing if Dosia had told him about JJ six years ago, but frankly, he had his doubts, and that shamed him.
“We’re talking about now. You’re about to have our third child. I think it’s past time we get married.”