Chapter 23
Chapter
Twenty-Three
Zander
Three Weeks Later
Time had been dragging. It was like the days knew I had something to look forward to.
I’d been praying every fucking day that Navy’s period didn’t come.
Even if it did, I was still going to try my hardest to put a baby in her every chance I got.
I knew we were technically doing things out of order, but I didn’t give a fuck.
She was going to be my wife, so whether we had a baby now or after we got married, it didn’t really matter.
I’d stopped by her home because her parents wanted us to go to dinner with them. If nothing else, they stood behind family dinners. Navy could be at my place all week, but they would call for us both if she didn’t stop by for at least dinner.
Before we left, I convinced her to take a pregnancy test. We were going to her favorite steakhouse, and I knew her parents would expect her to have the same cocktail she had every time we went.
It would be suspicious if she didn’t. If there was no reason for her not to indulge, I didn’t want to have that unnecessary conversation.
As we waited for the results, we sat on the chaise in front of her bed. I held her hand and caressed it with my thumb. She said she didn’t really feel different, but I felt like she was in denial. I’d noticed the changes within her even if she didn’t want to admit them.
Navy had been more sensitive to smell and nauseous.
She was still tired, which sometimes made her moody.
She’d been acting like my big baby a little more lately, and even though I could handle it, I was desperate to know if it was because she was pregnant with my little baby.
I felt like she was, but I don’t think either of us wanted to believe it until we saw a positive pregnancy test.
When the alarm on my phone beeped, I cut it off and looked at her.
“Well,” I urged. “Do you want to look, or do you want me to look?”
“You look.”
“Aight,” I agreed through my chuckle before kissing her forehead. Her grip on my hand tightened, and that’s when I realized just how nervous she was. I kissed her hand and released it, then went in the bathroom.
I went straight to the tests and saw the word, but it didn’t hit me immediately.
It didn’t hit me immediately that my sweet girl was pregnant with our baby.
It didn’t hit me that I finally had the woman of my dreams and that we were building a life together.
It didn’t hit me until I felt the tears streaming down my cheeks.
“W-what does it say?” she asked timidly, carefully making her way into the bathroom. Navy looked from me to the tests, and her reaction was instant. With a gasp, she clutched her chest and hopped from one to the other. “Does that thing say I’m pregnant?”
Between the innocence of her question and the low hum of her voice, I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Yes, bae. It says you’re pregnant.”
“Hoooly shit!” she howled. We stared at each other for a few seconds before we burst into laughter. I picked her up as she dried my tears, then wiped tears of her own. “Holy fucking shit. You really got me pregnant! Oh my God.”
“Did you think I was playing?” I asked when I carried her out of the bathroom. “I told you to get on birth control if this wasn’t what you wanted.”
“I know, I know, but I can’t believe it happened.
I mean . . . I know how babies are made duh, but I just .
. .” Her eyes watered again as I sat on the chaise with her in my lap.
“Just can’t believe I’m pregnant.” Her sniffles started up.
“We’re going to have a baaabyyy,” she sobbed, and as funny as it was, I held my smile back as I kissed her tears away.
The more she cried, the more I cried. The more I cried, the more we laughed.
I don’t know how long we sat like that, laughing and crying and hugging and kissing, but when it was finally time for us to get ready to go, our eyes were swollen and red, we couldn’t wipe away our smiles, our hearts were full, and our spirits were light.
As I suspected, her parents peeped the fact that we didn’t drink during dinner.
Her mother caught it the second Navy ordered water for her drink.
Though we didn’t deny the fact that she was pregnant, we made it clear to them that no one else knew and that we wanted to keep it that was until she was out of her first trimester.
Luke joked about how difficult that would be since it was nearing the holiday season, and if our families did nothing else together, they turned the fuck up.
That was true. We’d have to be sneaky about the shit.
Otherwise, they’d know my sweet girl was pregnant the next time we all got together.
Ever since we found out Navy was pregnant a week ago, that truth sent my brain into overdrive.
Suddenly, I was looking at homes that were no less than five thousand square feet because my sweet girl loved spacious homes.
I started putting together a team I’d be able to lean on in the office so I could do more work from home.
I bought I don’t know how many baby books and gadgets and shit that we probably wouldn’t need but I didn’t give a fuck.
I’d rather be over prepared than unprepared.
It amused Navy and she usually let me be great, but when she found me sitting at the island looking at homes, she giggled and closed my laptop.
“Bae,” she called. “Are you really about to buy us a house already?”
“Hell yeah. I want you next to me every night and every morning. Finding out you’re pregnant just pushed the date up more.
I want to be there every step of the way, for everything.
I wanna be the first one to notice the changes within your body.
I wanna rub that belly and massage your feet.
I wanna make sure you’re as comfortable as possible.
No stress, no worries. Healthy mama, healthy baby, healthy delivery. ”
Her eyes watered as she wrapped her arms around my neck.
“This is really life for us huh?”
“It is. Best part is, it’s literally just the beginning.”
I caught a tear before it could slide down her cheek.
“Okay. Show me what you’ve found so far,” she almost whispered as she climbed onto my lap.
I kissed her neck and wrapped one arm around her before opening the laptop back up.
We spent the next hour or so looking at different houses in quite a few neighborhoods around the city.
I felt like she’d want something near her parents or mine.
Her parents lived near the office district and mine lived by the beach.
Our tribe was huge and I knew they’d be with us every step of the way, so I didn’t care if we were near them or not.
They’d come when needed . . . and when they weren’t needed.
We put a list of potential homes together and I sent them to my executive assistant so she could set up showings with the agents for the upcoming weeks. Hopefully, we’d be in our new home by the new year. If not, at least before the baby came.