Committed Passion (7 page)

“What’s wrong?” I demanded.

“Don’t panic. You sound like you’re panicking. It’s nothing awful,” she assured me. “In fact…you might think it’s good news. Or not. I don’t know. That’s why I’ve been waiting, because I was trying to find the right time. But I just now realized there
is
no right time. And we said no more secrets between us, so I’m just going to lay it out there.”

She sucked in a breath and exhaled. “I’m pregnant.”

“Huh?” I struggled to comprehend the news. How the holy fuck had that happened? She was on the pill. I’d used condoms until after we’d both been tested and the pill kicked in. There was no reason in the world for her to be pregnant.

 My supportive response made Leah frown. I hurried to add, “That’s…that’s amazing. I was just thinking about what our kid would look like someday. Not ugly, that’s for sure. A baby. I can hardly believe it.” I blurted words while the entire world shifted around me.

“You’re upset. I was afraid you might be,” Leah said. “I know it’s too soon. We haven’t even been together a year, and we’re struggling financially. We have things to do to get to the right place to even think of having a family. I know this is terrible timing. But I can’t stand the idea of an abortion.”

“No. No, I wouldn’t want that either. I mean, we planned to have a kid or two. Just not right away.” I gulped for air and pulled myself together. “Well, your news pretty much makes my thing seem not so huge after all. In fact, it kind of goes hand in hand with my thing.”

“What are you saying?”

I got the ring out of the box, grasped Leah’s hand, and put the ring in it. “Will you marry me? I’ve been carrying this thing around for days wondering if it was too soon to ask. It’ll be a relief to have it out of my pocket and on your finger—if you want it there.”

“Oh!” It was more of a gasp than a word.

I pushed on with the proposal I’d rehearsed, wanting to convince her I would’ve asked even if she weren’t pregnant. “We kept talking about ‘someday,’ and recently I thought someday couldn’t come soon enough.” I studied her eyes, wishing she could see me and the ring that was my promise to her, that she could see everything around her. Sometimes I ached at her loss.

“When I was overseas,” I continued, “I realized—I mean really realized—how fragile life is. And short. I want to spend every minute of mine with you.”

“Oh,” she said again as tears welled in her eyes. Her fingers moved over the ring, feeling the band and the stone. “I can’t believe this. I mean, yes. Yes!” Now she was crying and handing the ring back. “Put it on me.”

She held out her hand, and I slipped the ring on the proper finger. I’d sized it from one of hers so it fit perfectly.

“Does Gina know? Did she help you pick it out? What does it look like? It feels pretty.”

“Gina doesn’t know. I kept this to myself. It looks like…” I stared at the small sparkling stone in the silver setting. “I forgot what the jeweler said the cut is called. I didn’t know what to get, because they all looked fine to me. Gina will have to describe it to you.”

She laughed at my inability to describe the diamond, then pressed it to her lips. “Thank you.”

“No. Thank
you
for saying yes.” I paused. “Your parents are going to love all our good news.”

Leah wrinkled her nose. “Don’t remind me. They were just starting to accept our decision to live together. But, I don’t know, my mom may actually be pretty excited about the prospect of being a grandma.”

Grandparents. This kid would have two that doted on it and showered it with attention and gifts. By the time he or she was born, my dad would be gone. But there would be uncles and aunts on my side. I’d spent a portion of my relationship with Leah feeling not quite good enough for her. My family was poor and dysfunctional. Hers was wealthy and well-adjusted, if a little too controlling. I’d grown past that. I could see the good in my brothers—and in myself. The Wyatts were a family my kid could be proud to be a part of.

Leah leaned toward me, and I met her halfway, kissing her, then drawing her close and holding her tight. We might have made out more, but Travis woke from his doze in front of the TV and started clamoring for our attention again.

“This is what it’s going to be like,” I pointed out to Leah. “A lot less private time together.”

“I can hardly wrap my head around the idea of an infant, let alone an active kid like Travis. I’m scared to death.”

“We’ll be fine. Everything will be good, and we’ll make it work.” Simple reassurance was what she needed right now, and I could give that to her. “We’ll hire an aide if that’s what we need. You’ll be a great mother, and I’ll be a good dad.”

Leah visibly relaxed, her tense shoulders drooping and her worried expression easing. My own anxiety about the new responsibilities I’d soon face grew.

Chapter Seven

Leah

I closed my eyes and leaned back against the pillows, focusing all my senses on the feeling of J.D.’s hand cradling my foot and the light flick of the fingernail polish brush stroking my toenails. I pictured the cranberry-red color he was applying, but it had been so long now since I’d seen my own feet, I couldn’t quite get an image. My perception of things these days was so filtered through sound, smell, and touch that I “saw” things in a different way in my mental pictures. The physical had become simultaneously more esoteric—concepts rather than images—and more real than ever. For example, each tiny flick of that brush and J.D.’s breath blowing on my toes inflamed my desire stronger than if I could see him, because those feelings were all I had.

“The girls are going to be waiting for me,” I mentioned as I lazily flexed my other bare foot, but I didn’t really care, and I certainly didn’t want him to stop.

“They’ll wait.” He gave my pinkie a wiggle, then applied polish with deft strokes. For all I knew, he was botching the job, but it didn’t matter. I’d happily have clown toes for the sake of enjoying this small personal service J.D. did for me.

I listened to him capping the polish bottle, then his breath blew on my foot again. I moaned softly and wiggled deeper into the pillows, glad we had a bed in our own room to share. And I grew even happier about it as J.D. kissed my foot, my ankle, my calf, blazing a trail up my leg with his mouth.

We shouldn’t. We didn’t have time, as everyone was probably already gathering downstairs and ready to leave for the bachelor and bachelorette parties. Besides, we were in someone else’s house. But I didn’t protest one bit when he pushed down my panties and nuzzled between my legs. Oh, there! Right on that spot. I arched up into his touch.

As his tongue found the perfect rhythm on my clit and his fingers delved inside me, I forgot myself and groaned louder. J.D. reached up a free hand and pressed his fingers to my lips. “Shh.”

I swallowed the pleasured moans I wanted to let escape. I’d never been so vocal during sex with any partner before J.D. Maybe that was another part of going blind, I made up for the lack of sight by expressing how I felt—loudly. And how I felt right then was amazing. The weight of worry over my unplanned pregnancy was so much lighter when shared with J.D. It would be tough, financially, emotionally, and probably in other ways we couldn’t yet foresee, but together we’d be all right. And we
were
together on this. The ring, which had slipped around so the stone scraped my index finger, reminded me of it.

I’d almost climaxed from J.D.’s steady lapping when he stopped and moved up to cover my body with his. His breath gusted against my cheek as his cock pushed into me, filling and easing that needy ache between my legs. My body was running wild with hormones. I’d read enough to expect I’d be moody and my sex drive would increase, but I hadn’t counted on how
much
I craved sex. Now that I wasn’t so freaked out about the little life growing inside me, I could once again relax and appreciate the way our bodies meshed.

The weight and bulk of J.D.’s muscles flexing under my hands and against my body never ceased to thrill me. I wrapped my legs and arms around him as we became one, pushing, pulling, thrusting, and rising closer and closer to the edge.

Mine forever
, I gloated, so happy I could hardly contain my emotions. I had J.D., and soon we’d have a tiny little person in our lives. A family unit. As scary as that was, it was also wonderful. My fears were starting to crumble under the weight of joyful expectation.

J.D.’s cock speared deep and hit a point that made pleasure burst through me. I bucked underneath him and pressed my mouth against his arm to stifle my cry.

Knowing the others were so nearby and having to keep quiet was kind of a turn-on. They couldn’t hear and wouldn’t know what we were up to here in our bedroom. This quick, secret sex was like a pact, signaling we were both in for the long haul—on the engagement and the baby, all of it.

Soon we’d celebrate with everyone, but these few minutes were for us alone, my fiancé and me.

*

Gina

“Good God, do they think we can’t
hear
them?” I asked Rianna, who was sipping her first cocktail of the night, but certainly not the last. We sat on the living room couch right underneath the guest bedroom Leah and J.D. were using and waited for the pair to finish up and come—pun intended. “Maybe the guys are oblivious, but I can’t ignore the thumping.”

“Oh, we hear it. We just don’t mind.” Micah grinned at me from over by the sideboard, where Jonah was pouring them drinks. “Or maybe we’re a little more polite than you are and pretending not to hear it.”

“It’s fine. They’re happy and having a good time.” Rianna seemed more relaxed than she’d been since I’d met her as she stretched her legs and took another drink of her martini. “Seize the moment. I’m starting to think we should all live that way, because you sure never know what life’s going to throw at you next.”

“Absolutely,” Micah raised his glass as if in a toast, and Rianna lifted hers too.

They were right, I thought, recalling the unexpected addition of Micah to my life. Things really could change in a moment.

And I wasn’t really annoyed or grossed out by the sounds of Leah and J.D. making love. My flash of irritation may have had something to do with the ring Leah showed me when Micah and I returned from our pilgrimage to his one-time family home.

“J.D. proposed. What does it look like?” she’d asked breathlessly.

I described the diamond solitaire set in a braided white-gold band. Leah felt the stone and the setting with a smile that lit her face. Like Rianna, her recent tension seemed to have evaporated. “I have more things to tell you, but later. We should get ready now.”

We’d parted to go to separate rooms. I honestly wasn’t jealous. Micah and I simply weren’t at the same place in our relationship as Leah and J.D, but we were slowly getting there. Our next step would come when the time was right. Still, there was something about diamonds twinkling on every hand around me that pricked just a little. Like being up for an award you’re not too concerned about—until someone else wins it, and you realize you kind of wanted it after all.

At last J.D. and Leah came downstairs, flushed and grinning, and the guys and gals split up to go our separate ways. Rianna clung to Jonah for a moment before we left, rising up on her toes to put her arms around his neck and give him a kiss. They were cute together. I liked this girl who’d managed to bring grim Jonah out of his shell.

Then I felt arms around my own waist, and Micah nuzzled my neck. “Have fun, but not too much. I don’t want to have to hold your hair back later tonight.”

“Ditto. Don’t get your brothers into trouble,” I teased. “That’s only funny in movie comedies.”

He turned me around to face him. “Who, me? Now why would you assume I’d be the one instigating things?” He gave me a wink and a big kiss before we said good-bye.

As I watched the three Wyatt boys head toward Jonah’s SUV, all tall, broad-shouldered, and ridiculously handsome, I knew I’d landed the best of the lot. My sunny-natured, redheaded man was the perfect fit for me. No one got me like he did, and our matching senses of humor would keep us both entertained for years to come.

Before he got in the vehicle, Micah blew me another kiss. I caught it and slapped it on my ass with a grin.

*

Rianna

Cyndi and Abbie had driven up from Sawville and met us at the first stop on our bar hop. I didn’t have any good friends yet in Lexington. So this was the extent of my bachelorette party. But I was fine with that. I was nervous enough about bringing my stripper friends and my future sisters-in-law together.

I loved my girls, but Cyndi was crude, loud, and opinionated, while Abbie tended to ramble on about her sex life in way too much detail. Our backgrounds were similar, all of us leaving home young, choosing bad boyfriends, and barely getting by financially. Leah and Gina came from such stable, normal homes, I was afraid they’d see my friends as stereotypical hillbilly chicks and not look any deeper.

I shouldn’t have worried. Gina and Cyndi immediately clicked like sisters from another mother. They outdid each other telling dirty jokes all night, started doing shots early and ended up, many bars later, bellowing drunken karaoke at the top of their lungs.

I could hardly breathe from laughing so hard at the pair of them onstage. Cyndi’s bachelorette-party tiara barely clung to strands of her blonde hair and tipped low on her forehead. Gina had decided she hated shoes a few hours earlier—Leah took charge of them for her—and without heels, she was almost as short as Cyndi. They had their arms around each other, swaying back and forth and belting
I Will Survive
.

Cyndi threw up her arms, knocking Gina in the face. “Come on. Everybody!”

Most of the bar joined in.

“As long as I know how to love, I know I’ll be all right,” I sang along in a happy haze. I hadn’t been drunk since I’d become a mother, so even a little alcohol affected me a lot. The last thing I wanted was to suffer a hangover on my wedding day. When somebody bought us a round, I started passing my drinks to strangers. The bachelorette party at the table beside us was happy to accept them.