24. Reed
Reed
Having three sisters has always been an experience, but nothing could’ve fully prepared me for having a wife who wanted to fight me at every turn.
I get she’s independent and has never needed a man, but this is different. It’s not just about her anymore. She has to think about the little one, our little one, that’s growing inside her. And for the most part, she has, but there are still days when she wants to fight about it.
“What are you doing?” she asks as she locks the door to her place.
I’m behind her, leaning against the wall, checking out her ass because the thing is a work of beauty. And I swear to fuck, it grows a little bigger every day. Who said there weren’t perks to pregnancy? Not me.
“Going with you,” I tell her, pushing away from the hall to come up next to her. “Your grandma invited me.”
“Of course she did,” Amelia mutters as she jams her keychain into her purse like it’s insulted her in some way. “She’s a busybody.”
“Everyone in your family is.”
Amelia glances up at me, eyes narrowed. She’s so damn cute. She reminds me of a kitten who’s ready to spit. All bark but no bite. “Don’t you have anything better to do?”
I shake my head. “What’s better than a home-cooked meal with my new family?”
Amelia’s lip curls. “My family.”
“Our family,” I tell her as I throw my arm over her shoulder and start to walk toward the elevator.
To my surprise, Amelia doesn’t try to move out from under me. “How are your parents?”
“They’re good. They’re coming in next weekend for a visit. They’re excited to meet their daughter-in-law.”
“They know the marriage was fake, right?”
“They know it was but isn’t anymore.”
Amelia almost trips over nothing, but maintains her balance, staying nicely tucked underneath my arm. “It still is.”
“Are we going to fight about this again today?” I ask, giving my girl a big smile. I like her feisty side. I like it a little too much.
We start every day the same way. She denies we’re anything to each other. She reminds me of how we began, but by the end of the night, I rub her feet for an hour, and we end up fucking each other’s brains out until we don’t have an ounce of energy left.
“Maybe,” she whispers as she presses the button to grab the elevator to take us downstairs.
Moving in next to her has worked out better than I ever could’ve imagined. Do I stay at my place every night? No, but that’s okay. I leased it for the proximity. I wanted easy access to my wife and child, and I got it and more.
“Did you sleep well?” I ask her.
“Yeah, after you left.”
I chuckle. “I didn’t know snoring meant you weren’t sleeping like a rock, sugar. You looked pretty damn comfy to me.”
I crept out of her place right after sunrise, wanting to get in a workout before I started my day.
She looked so peaceful when I left her and part of me wanted to crawl right back into bed with her, but I didn’t do it.
I had a sliver of self-control left, which isn’t easy for me to do when I’m around her.
“You’re like sleeping next to a furnace.”
“It’s handy in the winter. You’ll see,” I tell her.
“You may not be here by then,” she replies as the elevator doors slide open.
I drop my arm and stalk in before she does, turning to face her as she strolls into the elevator and takes the spot next to me. “Where am I going?”
She shrugs but keeps her eyes trained ahead, not looking at me. “Maybe back home.”
“This is my home.”
“Back to your work.”
“The bakery is my work.”
“Back to your family.”
“You’re my family now, sugar. You and the baby.”
She groans before her lips pinch like she ate something sour. “Do you know how insane you sound?”
“Me? I’m the one who sounds crazy?”
She nods with a shitty smirk, but I don’t care. I love every side of her, even her snark. “Uh, yeah.”
“You know what’s crazy?” I ask her as the doors open to the lobby.
“I don’t wanna know,” she replies as her face morphs into a friendlier expression in case there’s someone she knows.
“We start the day the same way. You pretend I’m a stranger and there’s nothing between us. And then every night—” I lean down, bringing my mouth to her ear so only she can hear me “—you end up underneath me, screaming out my name. Every. Single. Night. Now, that’s insanity.”
She peers up at me, her eyes narrowed. “You’re a jerk.”
I place my hand on the small of her back, moving her toward the front door. I’m starving, and I know there’s going to be enough food at the bar to feed a small village. “Want to change it up?”
“No,” she snaps.
“You can get on top for once,” I tell her. “Break the cycle we’re in.”
“I’m doing you a favor, buddy. You can do all the work.”
“You have at least two orgasms every night. I’d argue that I’m the one doing you a favor, wife.”
“Thank God the bar is only two blocks,” she says, walking a little faster than before.
I struck a nerve, and it shouldn’t make me as happy as it does, but I can’t help myself.
“I think you make out pretty well on the deal,” she replies. “It’s not like you don’t get off too.”
“Never said I didn’t. I know what we are. You’re the one who keeps acting like we’re nothing.”
“What are we?”
“Married,” I remind her.
“Does this ever get old to you?”
“No, but check in with me in another fifty years, and I’ll let you know.”
She stops walking and looks up at me. “You’re not leaving, are you?”
I raise my hand and cup her cheek. “I’m not going anywhere, sugar. Everything I ever wanted is right here on the sidewalk with me, and nothing in the world could ever make me leave.”
“We were a one-night stand.”
“Were, but not anymore.”
She spins on her heel and takes off toward the bar, but I’m right behind her. If I weren’t so confident, she’d hurt my feelings. But I know how she really feels, even if she won’t admit it to herself.
“Do you really want me to leave?” I ask from behind her.
“Yes,” she says, but then her pace slows. “No. I don’t know.”
“You want to be a single mom? Do all the middle-of-the-night feedings by yourself? Change every diaper? Do everything by yourself? Just you.”
“No,” she whispers, her voice barely audible over the city noise.
I reach out and touch her shoulder, turning her to face me as soon as her feet stop moving.
“I don’t want that either. So, why don’t you stop pushing me away, Amelia?
I’m here because I want to be here. I want to be with you.
I want this baby. I want this life. I want everything, as long as you’re part of it too. ”
“Did you get bucked off a horse at a young age?” she teases when I’m trying to have a moment with her.
“Probably, but that doesn’t mean what I’m saying isn’t true. I’m right where I want to be.”
“I’m not an easy person.”
“I find that hard to believe,” I tease.
She shoves my shoulder. “Why are you so nice all the time?”
“I have a beautiful wife—what’s not to love about life and be happy about?”
“You really hit the lottery with me,” she says.
“I did,” I tell her honestly and take her hands in mine. “Can we stop fighting now?”
“We aren’t fighting.”
I laugh and shake my head. “Your family’s idea of fighting and mine are two very different things.”
“We’re Italian,” she says, as if somehow I forgot.
“Speaking of which, we’re going to be late.”
“You’re hungry, aren’t you?”
I nod.
“You’re always hungry,” she mumbles. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen another person who eats as much as you do.”
“You weren’t complaining last night.” I smirk.
She groans again, pulling her hands away from mine. “Let’s go, and no more sex talk. I can’t think about that while I’m with my family.” She takes off toward the bar but waits for me to get to her side before she really picks up speed.
“They have a bathroom there. We could break it in.”
“Trust me, it’s already been broken in by every person in the family. I don’t want to add my name to the list. It’s gross.”
I chuckle. “What about the bakery?”
“Knowing Tilly and Angelo, it’s not virgin ground either.”
“I really like your family,” I tell her as we make it to the block where the bar and bakery are located.
“They like you too, which hasn’t made things easier.”
“It’s better than if they hated me.”
“I guess. Do you think your parents will like me?” she asks, voicing that concern for the first time.
“They’ll love you. Hell, they already do. You’re giving them their first grandchild.”
“It’s that easy?” she asks.
“Your family wasn’t very hard either, but I thought they’d be.”
“You did knock me up.”
“I didn’t do it alone.”
“Do you remember any of that night yet?”
I shake my head. “Not a lick.”
“Or a fuck,” she replies and snorts. “Too much?”
“Nah. I like it. Clever,” I tell her as I open the door to the Hook & Hustle, letting her walk in in front of me.
The place is packed. It is every time the family gets together for dinner. Every Monday like clockwork.
“Reed,” Betty, Amelia’s grandmother, says, rushing over to greet us at the door. I don’t even have both feet over the threshold when she wraps her arms around me in a hug. “It’s so good to see you again.”
I swear Betty is my number one fan, and honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Amelia’s parents were nice to me at first, but they aren’t excited about us being in a relationship because of how we started.
I’ve quickly pulled them over to the dark side, especially with my protective streak when it comes to their only child.
But I quickly learned Betty had a thing for cowboys just like her granddaughter, even if she won’t admit it.
“It’s great to see you too, Betty.”
“Grandma,” she corrects me.
“Gram, let the man be,” Amelia tells her, pulling Betty away from me to hug her.
“Right, baby, sorry. He’s probably exhausted from you pawing at him all night.”
Amelia’s face turns the brightest shade of pink. “You’re too much, and he paws at me.”
“I think the pawing is pretty equal,” I say, winking at my wife.
“Let’s get some food in your mouth so you stop talking,” Amelia says to me over her grandmother’s shoulder.
“He’s a good man, Amelia,” her grandmother tells her. “Be nice to him.”
I smirk at Amelia. “Yeah, be nice to me.”
Amelia rolls her eyes.
“Come on, honey. I’ll get you a plate,” Betty says, taking my arm. “We need to keep those muscles strong.”
“I worked out this morning,” I tell her.
She squeezes my bicep. “Keep up the good work.”
“Mom, what are you doing?” Amelia’s dad asks as we approach the bar top, which is covered with food, and Betty’s hand is still clutching my bicep.
“Getting Reed some food,” she tells him. “What are you doing?”
“Eating,” he tells her, lifting his plate that’s full of food. “Can you give us a minute?”
“Sure, thing. Eat up, honey,” Betty says to me before she disappears into the sea of people.
I grab a plate, bracing myself for whatever he’s about to say to me.
“Things go well this week at the bakery?” he asks.
“No issues.” I glance down the bar, figuring out what I want to eat first while he talks.
“How’s Amelia doing? Any issues since that day?”
“She’s fine,” I tell him, not bothering to go into more detail because I don’t know what she wants her parents to know about us or our private life.
“You staying?”
I turn my head and stare at him. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m here to stay with my wife and child.”
“Do you love her?” he asks without a moment’s hesitation.
I think about the question for a minute. I haven’t uttered the words to her and she hasn’t said them to me, but I know how I feel. “I do.”
“Does she know?”
I shake my head. “Not yet. She’s still fighting me every single day.”
“Sounds like my wife,” he says with a small laugh. “She wanted nothing to do with me for the longest time.”
“So, it’s genetic?”
He looks around until he finds Bianca in the crowd. “It is, but they’re worth it.”
“That they are,” I say, glancing at Amelia as she laughs with one of her cousins.
“Be patient with her.”
“I’m treating her like a feral kitten.”
He chuckles. “She’s pretty damn close to one sometimes. But if you hurt her…”
“You’ll break my legs?” I ask with a raised eyebrow.
“Something like that,” he tells me, grabbing on to my shoulder and giving it a hard squeeze. A weaker man would’ve crumpled to the floor to have an ex-professional football player grip his shoulder so hard, but I am used to roughness.
“I only want to see her happy,” I remind him, because he knows exactly how I feel.
“Good man.” He releases my shoulder and slaps my arm. “Now, fill up, or my mother will lay into me for starving you. And you’re going to need your energy. The next few months are going to get rocky.”
“I’m ready for anything that comes my way.”
“You say that now, Reed, but you have no idea.” He laughs as he stalks away, leaving me to fill my plate in peace.
I know I’m in for a wild ride, but I’m ready for every single bump, curve, and dip in the road ahead with Amelia.