Page 104 of Beautiful Life

“I’m proud of you, honey. Congratulations.” She leans into kiss me. Keeping her big smile, she goes on, “We’ll celebrate tonight, do something special. Does your job change?”

“Not really. I wasn’t expecting it this soon. I guess I have Richard Blaton to thank for speeding my career along.”

“Stop it. You worked hard, don’t diminish it. You saved their company and brought in tons of new clients. You deserve it.”

“Whatever. I’m all up for celebrating though.” I pull her into me again, tucking her tight in between my legs.

After many long moments of silence, I tug lightly on her hair that I’m twirling in my fingers. “You okay?”

She pulls in a deep breath and I feel her slump a little in my arms while looking out to the yard. “Today was my due date.”

I crush her to me with my arms and legs. “I’m sorry, gem. I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have left you.”

“It’s all right.”

“You sure you’re okay?”

“I guess. I didn’t want to dwell on it but I can’t help but think about it, especially now.”

I give her another squeeze. “Why now?”

She turns in my arms and gives me her emerald eyes. “I’m pregnant.”

I feel myself go solid and then blink in slow motion as I stare at her. “You’re pregnant?”

Her face turns softer and she smiles small. “Yeah.”

I pull my hands up to cup her face and I repeat, “You’re pregnant.”

This time she nods as her smile gets bigger and I pull her to me to kiss her. Finally letting her go, I have to lean my forehead against hers, still trying to take in what she just told me.

“Tony?”

I open my eyes.

“My life couldn’t be more beautiful.”

I inhale again and press my lips against my wife’s. “Neither could mine, gem. Never more than this.”

Epilogue

Tony

“I’m late. I’m meeting Leigh Carpino, can you point me in the right direction?”

The receptionist looks down at her computer and flips through a few screens. “They should be under way. Go through that door, take a left, and it will be the third on the right. Room one-o-seven.”

“Thanks.” I tap my hand on the desk and move fast through the door to get to Leigh.

I find the room marked “Sonogram” on the plate outside and go right in. Through the darkened room I see the back of a woman sitting at a computer screen moving a mouse around. Leigh’s lying on the patient bed with her medium-sized, bare belly sticking up. Even through the darkened room, I see her head turn toward me, immediately giving me her emerald eyes.

She smiles. “We’re just getting started. We waited as long as we could.”

Moving to my wife, I go to the other side of the bed and lean down to kiss her forehead. “I couldn’t get out of my meeting, sorry.”

Still smiling, she turns back to the monitor where the sonographer is measuring the blob on the screen that is my child. “Everything looks great so far. We just have a few things to check before we get to the fun stuff.”

Minutes later after watching her measure our blob on the screen in a million different ways, I squeeze Leigh’s hand as I feel her relax and I blow out a breath when the sonographer turns to us both. “Everything looks good. You have a healthy baby. Everything is measuring right at twenty weeks.”

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