Page 97 of Only for Tonight
I open up the app and right there on the top is the picture of the two of us skating side by side, her laughing, but my eyes go to the caption. “I guess he’ll do.” I can’t help but laugh at the caption. “All of a sudden, she’s a comedian.”
“I was always a comedian”—she wraps her arms around my waist—“it just took you a while to notice.”
“Touché,” I tell her as I put up my own picture and my own caption before turning it to her. “Now I feel better.” I see her smile getting bigger as she reads the caption. “Making her laugh since day one.”
thirty-five
Ariella
“Well,” I announce, walking out of our bathroom, “I think I’m officially pregnant.” I look down at my bare belly as I walk to the bed, wearing a sports bra and booty shorts.
“You think?” He smiles from our bed, leaning back on the pillows, watching the television. “You were officially pregnant a while ago, baby.” He is bare chested wearing just boxers, and even though I see him like this all the time, he still makes my mouth water and certain parts of me tingle. Parts that at this stage of the game should not be tingling at all.
I shake my head as I walk toward the bed, rubbing my hands over my belly. Gone is the small little baby bump, in its place looks like a small cantaloupe. “I just turned seventeen weeks.” I put my knee on the bed as I get on with him.
“You act like I don’t know.” He looks over at me with one hand behind his head and the other reaching out for me. “I have the calendar on the fridge.”
I lie next to him, kissing his neck. “I can’t believe we are already moved into the new house.” I look around the bedroom. “It feels like it happened in a blink of an eye.”
“It didn’t,” he deadpans. “The blink would have been faster if you had let me hire people at the beginning to pack our stuff instead of saying you could do it.”
“I could have.” I turn, propping the pillows against my back and leaning on them and reaching over for the bowl of fruit he brought up for me after he left me in the shower.
“You could have but you also work during the day, and I didn’t want you doing it at night when we could be cuddling.” He winks at me. “So it was the best of both worlds.”
I roll my eyes, popping a grape in my mouth, as I think about how crazy the last three weeks were. After the big fight with Angela, I found out Kirby kicked her ass to the curb. I also learned she was trying to worm her way back in, but she has since been unsuccessful. From what Jaxon said, he was done with her for a while; this was just the push he needed to be done with her for good. Besides, I’ve spent some time with him recently after the games and he’s come over a couple of times to hang with Jaxon, and he is better off without her.
Jaxon found a house in a matter of two days. We went to visit and I secretly fell in love with it. I tried not to show it, but when I stepped into what would be the nursery room, my face gave it away. Then the kitchen was just like the one we both grew up in, and I mistakenly mentioned that to him, and he put an offer in right away on the spot. It was accepted the day after, and three days later, we had the keys.
A week after that, he had movers at the house to move everything that was packed and ready to go. We left the formal living room set and took everything else. He’s renting it to one of the rookies who just signed his first big contract.
It’s been about two weeks since we’ve settled, and tomorrow the painters are coming to start the nursery, a gift from my parents, even though Jaxon tried to fight my father on it. “Love you, baby,” he says from beside me as I feel his fingers with mine in the fruit bowl.
I’m about to answer him when I feel it. “Oh my God,” I gasp, the tears welling in my eyes, “I think I just felt the baby kick.” The last couple of weeks, I’ve really felt movement and flutters, but this; this is one thousand percent a kick.
He sits up beside me. “No way,” he says and I move the bowl of fruit and grab his hand, putting it right where I felt it. “What did it feel like?” he asks me, his light-blue eyes lighting up even more as he places his other hand on the other side.
“It felt like someone just kicked me from inside my stomach,” I tell him.
It happens again and Jaxon shrieks, “I felt it!” He leans forward and puts his lips on my stomach. “Hey in there,” he says. The baby kicks again and his mouth and eyes both open wide. “It’s me, your dad.”
“And your mom,” I add and Jaxon rolls his eyes at me. “He knows you are here all the time. He doesn’t know I’m here all the time. What if he thinks you are doing all the work?”
I look down at my stomach. “I am doing all the work,” I huff out at him. “Also, that makes no sense whatsoever.” He shakes his head.
“Mom and Dad are both here,” he corrects. “We love you,” he adds and I just smile at him. “Also, if you’re a boy, kick once.”
“Jaxon.” I laugh at him. “We said we wanted it to be a surprise.”
“I think you getting pregnant was the surprise,” he jokes, not moving his hands off my stomach, where he stays for the next forty-five minutes, but nothing happens.
“I guess it’s a girl,” he pouts when he finally goes back to his side of the bed.
“Jaxon, you can’t base it off of ‘kick if you’re a boy.’” I get under the cover and turn to my side. “What if the baby is thinking, ‘my parents are annoying, so I’m not going to do anything.’” I close my eyes and then feel him get closer to me, pulling me toward him.
“My parents want to throw you a baby shower,” he states and I groan.
“Will they listen if I say no?” I look up at him and he smirks.
