Chapter Thirty - Caden
Caden
Lilibeth stood back and clapped.
“Oh my gosh, Caden, it’s even more beautiful than I thought it would be!”
The nursery was finally done, and I had to agree with Lilibeth. The outcome was even better than what I’d envisioned.
Gatlin and I had put wood planks on one wall, which Ensley had then painted white. The rest of the room was painted a soft creamy white. The crib was placed in front of the windows, with a pink mesh canopy hanging around the sides and back.
Opposite the plank wall, I painted branches of a tree, and with the help of Rhett, Katie, and Jimmy, we all painted woodland creatures I’d drawn onto the wall. Lilibeth cried when she saw the four of us painting them and declared she’d never paint that wall ever again.
“It looks good. You happy?” I asked, as Lilibeth lifted the hem of her shirt and started scratching her stomach. She’d been doing it all day. I read in the book she’d given me that Mom’s belly might get itchy from the skin being stretched.
“Itchy?” I asked, walking up behind her and rubbing her stomach.
“So itchy!”
I stopped moving my hands and started to kiss along her neck. She hummed, and I was about to move my hands up to her breasts…when I felt something.
We both stilled.
“Caden—did you feel that kick?”
I gasped, and Lilibeth spun around to face me, a wide smile on her beautiful face.
“You felt it, didn’t you?”
“Holy shit! I felt it. I felt our baby!”
Lilibeth had been feeling the baby move for a few weeks, but I never could feel a thing. I dropped to my knees and put my hands on her belly again. Moving my mouth close to her stomach, I began talking to our daughter.
“Hello, princess. Can you let Daddy know if you can hear me?”
Another kick.
I looked up, and Lilibeth was smiling down at me.
“Can she hear me?”
She nodded. “I think so.”
Kissing her stomach, I began talking again, and felt yet another kick. “She can hear me!”
Lilibeth’s hands brushed through my hair. “She can, and she’s trying to let you know.”
I stood, and when my eyes met Lilibeth’s, hers instantly filled with tears. I knew it was in response to my own tears, which were now streaming down my face.
“I felt her. I felt our baby moving.”
She nodded and wrapped her arms around my neck. I wasn’t sure how long we stood there, holding each other. When I stepped back, I took her hand in mine and walked us to the bedroom.
As I slowly began to undress her, I peppered her body with soft kisses. When she was completely naked, I dropped down and placed a kiss on her stomach.
“How can you love someone so deeply that you haven’t even met yet?”
A soft laugh was followed by, “I don’t know. But what I do know is this little girl is going to be loved so much, by so many.”
Glancing up, I smiled. “She is. But right now, it’s time to show her mommy a bit of that love.”
Grinning, Lilibeth turned, walked over to the bed, and lay down. I quickly stripped out of my own clothes and joined her.
“Turn onto your side, Lili.”
She did, her back to my front, and I drew her closer to me. I lifted her leg and put it over mine, then found her already wet and ready when I slipped my fingers inside of her.
“Oh, Caden,” she whispered, her body moving to get closer to mine.
“Do you need to come, Lili?”
“Yes. Please.”
I worked my fingers in and out of her as she moaned in pleasure.
“Do you want my mouth between your legs? Will that make you come faster?”
“I want you inside of me, Caden. Now.”
I adjusted my body and positioned myself at her entrance. We’d been experimenting with different positions for sex. So far, Lilibeth’s favorite was her on top, riding me.
“Oh yes,” she sighed. “That feels so good.”
Slowly moving in and out, I reached around and found her clit. It had become super sensitive as the pregnancy went on. I touched it softly, and Lilibeth gasped.
“Does that feel good?”
“Yes! I’m going to come… Caden!”
The feel of her squeezing my cock instantly made me follow her orgasm with one of my own.
“Fuck, Lilibeth! I’m coming!”
She reached back and grabbed me as we both got lost in the pleasure. I’d never enjoyed sex as much as I did with Lilibeth. And something about her being pregnant with my child made her even more attractive.
We lay together in a comfortable silence until I kissed her back. “Do you want to take a shower?”
When she didn’t answer me, I lifted my head to find her sleeping.
I smiled and gently got off the bed. I covered her up and stood there for a few minutes watching her sleep.
A part of me wanted to wake her up and make love to her again, but I knew she needed to rest. Leaning down, I placed a soft kiss on her forehead.
“I love you, Flower Child.”
She snuggled deeper into the pillow and mumbled something I couldn’t understand. With a light chuckle, I made my way out of our room, gently shutting the door with a soft click.
Week 32
“It’s so hot!” Emeline complained as she sat in a chair, a glass of ice water held to her cheek. “Why is it so damn hot?”
“Because Mother Nature hates us,” Lilibeth added, fanning herself with a Fourth of July fan.
Levi and I exchanged looks. I raised my brows, and he slowly shook his head. It was a silent warning not to say a word. Both women were miserable and clearly hot. They were both almost at thirty-two and thirty-three weeks.
“Are you positive you’re not having twins?” Ensley asked, as she walked up and handed Emeline the iced tea she’d asked for.
“Oh shit,” Levi whispered.
Emeline glared at our sister. “I’m not having twins, and you know I’m not having twins, because you know the sex of the baby. Now tell me what it is!”
My sister and Levi had decided not to find out the sex of their baby, but Ensley knew. They’d agreed that someone in the family should know, just in case.
Laughing, Ensley handed Lilibeth her tea, which she took, then drank almost all at once.
“I’m uncomfortable and I’m hot!” Emeline said to no one in particular, as my mother joined us, a smile on her face.
Leaning down to kiss Emeline first, then Lilibeth, she tried to placate her daughter. “Five more weeks to go and you’ll be full term.”
Emeline groaned. “Don’t remind me, Mom.”
“How are you feeling, Lilibeth?” my mother asked.
“Hot.”
“Do you want to tell everyone what happened the other night?” Ensley asked, winking at Lilibeth.
“No, I do not.”
I had to press my lips together tightly to keep from laughing.
“What happened the other night?” Emeline asked.
“Nothing,” Lilibeth replied, finishing off the iced tea.
Ensley clucked her tongue. “Be careful you don’t drink too much there, Lilibeth.”
She shot Ensley a dirty look. “Very funny.”
Emeline pouted. “Wait, I want to know what happened!”
Lilibeth looked at me, and I winked. “Your secret is safe with me, Lili.”
Putting her hands together as if praying, Ensley pleaded, “Please let me tell the story! Please!”
“Well, now I want to know too,” Mom said with a chuckle.
Rolling her eyes and sighing, Lilibeth tossed up her hands. “Fine. Tell the story.”
Ensley jumped up and turned to face everyone, rubbing her hands together. “So, you all know I stayed with Lilibeth while Caden went to the ranching convention in Denver with Dad, Uncle Mike, and Gatlin. Caden didn’t want Lilibeth to be alone.”
Heads nodded. My grandmother, Nellie, had now joined us, and she sat down next to Emeline, fanning her.
“I brought over a watermelon that Mrs. Harper asked me to bring for Lilibeth. It wasn’t huge, but it was a good size and one of those round ones.”
“Oh, I’d kill for some watermelon right now,” Emeline sighed.
“Well, you can’t have any of the one I brought for Lilibeth because she ate…the entire…watermelon.”
My mother’s hand covered her mouth to hide her smile. My grandmother flat-out laughed.
Emeline gave Lilibeth a commiserating look. “I’d have done the same thing.”
“Thank you, Emeline,” Lilibeth replied.
“Get back to the story!” my mother urged.
Ensley went on. “So, Lilibeth ate the whole watermelon. I was going to stay in the guest bedroom, but we got the idea to have a movie night, so I slept in Lilibeth and Caden’s room and we watched Steel Magnolias.”
“Such a good movie,” my mother added.
Ensley waved my mother off. “Yes, yes, Mom, we all know how much you love that movie. Anyway, I made us lemonade, because Lilibeth was craving it, along with her Sno-Caps.” Gesturing to me, Ensley said, “Good job, stocking up on those, by the way.”
I tipped my cowboy hat at her.
Clearing her throat to get everyone’s attention, Ensley went on.
“We watched the movie, ate our snacks, and went to bed. Around two in the morning, I feel someone poking my arm. I opened my eyes to see Lilibeth staring at me. I asked if it was morning, and she said no, but that she needed me to get up because she’d been dreaming that she had to pee.
In her dream, she made it to the bathroom and began peeing. ”
“Oh. No.” Now Emeline covered her mouth with her hand.
“Oh. Yes!” Ensley laughed. “She woke me up because she’d peed the bed and needed to change the sheets!”
Laughter erupted, and even Lilibeth chuckled as her cheeks turned a deep pink.
“It wasn’t my fault! Who would’ve thought you could dream you had to pee, make it to the bathroom in your dream, then really pee in real life!”
My mother took Lilibeth’s hand. “Sweetheart, that’s nothing.
When I was pregnant with Gatlin, I craved Nellie’s sun-brewed tea.
I filled up a gallon jug once and brought it to work with me when I was teaching.
I drank so much of it one day that while I was standing in front of the room teaching, I sneezed and instantly started peeing.
I peed so much, one of the kids thought my water broke and burst out of the classroom, sprinting to the office to tell them I’d gone into labor. ”
“Oh no!” Lilibeth said as she giggled.
“I remember you telling us that story,” Emeline said with a wide grin. “God, I hope nothing like that happens to me.”
My grandmother smirked at Emeline and said, “I craved spicy foods the last month of my pregnancy with Ladd. I ate so much of it. I remember I was around my due date, maybe had a week left, and I was at the store here in town, and Kaylee Miller—who was Janet Miller’s mother, and a huge gossip herself—stopped to ask me how I was feeling.
My stomach started to make this terrible noise, and I started to feel sick.
“I knew I needed to get to the bathroom or things were going to be bad. But I could not get Kaylee to stop talking. I tried to interrupt, but she wasn’t having it.
Finally, I just shouted that I needed to use the restroom.
Kaylee looked at me and must have seen it on my face.
She took me by the arm, and we started toward the public bathroom, but the moment I took a step—it was all over.
Lord, the sounds I made as I stood right there in the grocery store and shit my pants. ”
Everyone burst into laughter. I wasn’t sure what was funnier. The vision of my grandmother shitting her pants, or hearing her swear.
My mother had tears streaming down her face as she laughed. “I’ve…never heard…that story!”
Rolling her eyes, my grandmother went on. “It gets worse. It was mostly water, running down my legs. Kaylee ran off to get something to clean it up as I stood there, frozen in place. She started screaming, ‘I’m coming, Nellie! Don’t move or poo will get everywhere!’”
I was laughing so hard, my sides hurt.
“I’m going to go into labor from laughing!” Lilibeth said, wiping tears from her face.
“Once Kaylee got back, she tore open a bag of cleaning cloths, I think it was, and then she started to gag. The smell was…let’s just say it was awful. And once she started to gag, I started to gag. I was positive I was going to throw up.”
Ensley asked, “What happened?”
“Lilith showed up out of nowhere. She tied her coat around my waist, yelled for the store to get someone to clean up the mess, and guided me out of the store. She got me home, helped me get out of the shit clothes, then threw them away while I took a bath. We never spoke of it again.”
Once the laughter died down, Emeline sighed and leaned back in her chair. “I needed that laugh, Grams.”
“Me too,” Ensley said, still dabbing at the corners of her eyes.
“I miss Lilith,” my mother said softly, as she took Nellie’s hand. They both smiled at one another. “Just wait, girls,” she added. “This is just the beginning of motherhood. It’s a beautiful chaos.”
My father appeared with a plate full of hamburgers. “Come one, come all! Burgers are done.”
As everyone moved over to where tables had been set up, I reached my hands out to help Lilibeth stand. She laughed once she was on her feet.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“Nothing. I’m just blissfully happy. I’d gladly shit my pants and pee the bed if it meant this little angel was forever happy and healthy.”
Leaning down, I kissed her softly on the lips. “Come on. Let’s feed you two.”