Teasing in Texas (At the Altar Book 10) (9 page)

“Throwing your mother a bone?”

“No, I thought you’d genuinely enjoy it.”

“And would you enjoy doing it with me?”

Jenni bit her lip. “Sure I would. It’ll be fun.”

“All right. You call me when you’re all settled in, and I’ll come over. We’ll decide exactly what we want to do with the space. It’s too bad you won’t know if you’re having a boy or girl yet, because we could pick a nursery theme if you did.”

“We can pick a nursery theme anyway. I’d love to do Mickey Mouse.”

There was silence. “I was thinking something more along the lines of blue or pink.”

“No, I want Mickey Mouse. Then it won’t matter if it’s a boy or a girl.” Jenni hadn’t really thought about it, but now that she was considering it, she was definitely warming up to the idea.

That night as she lay in bed with her head on Tony’s shoulder, she told him her worries. “I know it’s a big deal to my mom to help me with the decorating, but I’m a little afraid she’ll try to take over. I know you don’t want anything super fancy.”

He sighed, rubbing his hand over his face. “I don’t want anything fancy at all. We don’t need anything spectacular. We just need a place where we can be comfortable. I don’t ever plan on doing the kind of entertaining your mother does.”

“I agree. I want a place where our children can grow up and be happy. I was never really allowed to play in the house, because I could trip and break Great Aunt Esmerelda’s priceless Ming vase. I want my children to be able to be kids in our home.”

“I agree.” He stroked her hair. “Did you really have a great aunt Esmerelda?”

“Yes, on my mother’s side.”

“That’s crazy,”

She grinned, tracing small circles on his chest with one finger. “What’s so crazy about it?”

“Esmerelda? I didn’t think anyone was actually named that unless they were a character on a silly sitcom from the sixties.”

“Oh, trust me. There are some very interesting names in my family. Pretentious doesn’t begin to cover it.”

“How did you get so lucky to have a name like Jennifer then?” he asked.

“I didn’t.” She couldn’t believe she was married to a man who didn’t even know her name. Had it never come up in conversation?

“It isn’t? What’s your name then?” He frowned down at her. Did they know
anything
about each other? He knew they both worked a lot, but they’d been married for three months and were expecting a baby. He should know her name! Of course, she’d always used Jenni for everything legal, so how could he?

“Jenessa.” She’d always kind of liked her full name, but it had been shortened since she was a little girl, so she’d never complained. She’d thought about going by Jenessa when she started college, but she couldn’t remember to introduce herself that way, so she had remained Jenni.

“That’s really pretty. Why did I think it was Jennifer?”

“Because that’s what Jenni is usually short for, I guess. I just happen to have a more unusual name than that.”

He was quiet for a moment, obviously thinking. “Have you thought at all about what you want to name our baby?”

“No idea. Kaya would say we should name it Matt if it’s a boy and Mattea if it’s a girl.”

“Mattea?”

She shrugged. “She has this thing for the name Matt and any variation thereof. She thinks everyone in the world should be named Matt.”

Tony frowned. “Have I mentioned yet how strange your friends are?”

“Once or twice. Although, I do kind of like the name Mattea if it’s a girl.”

“How long before we know the gender?”

“Twenty weeks is what Heidi said when we talked about it at work today. How excited is your mom?”

“She hopes it’s twins so you can have one, and she can take one home with her.”

Jenni sighed. “Like I’d give up one of my babies.” She kissed his shoulder softly. “I knew this girl when I was a kid, because our parents ran in the same circles, and she was afraid of twins. Like identical twins creeped her out. It was a phobia of hers.”

“That’s really strange,” he told her, frowning. “You don’t share that phobia, do you?”

She shook her head. “No, but I can’t think about twins without remembering how afraid Amber was of them.” She sighed. “You may know of Amber. Have you heard of Amber Knight? She’s on the show
Lazy Love
.”

“I’ve heard of the show, but not of her. Do you watch it?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I have it set to DVR, and whenever you work late, I watch it. It’s the only show I really care about.”

“Wasn’t there some kind of scandal about the show last month?”

“Not really about the show, and I don’t know if I’d call it a scandal. The two main stars got married. The scandal part was Valerie Dobson had only broken up with her boyfriend a few hours before they caught a flight to Vegas to marry. Did you know they film the show here in Texas?”

He shook his head. “Never really thought about it.”

“Well, if you’re not a fan, you wouldn’t.” She leaned on one elbow, looking down at him. “Are we okay? You’re not all freaked out that we’re having a baby, are you?”

Tony shook his head. “No, not really. I mean I wasn’t quite ready for the news, but I knew we hadn’t done anything to prevent a baby, so it shouldn’t bother me too much.”

“Are you worried about the money thing?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m still not sure how to feel about all that money. I’m sure you’ll want to spend it to give our child the best life possible, but I’m not sure that’s the best choice. I don’t know. I’ll think about it.”

“You want our child to have to earn everything on their own the way you did, don’t you?”

He nodded. “In a way. But I also want to give him the world on a silver platter. I’m torn.”

“As long as you’re torn and not angry with me or super worried about it, I’m good.”

“Why would I be angry with you?” Tony asked, his voice filled with disbelief.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d be angry that I was pregnant,” Jenni told him. “We just got married.”

“We did just get married. We also didn’t use protection, so that baby is as much my fault as it is yours.”

Fault.
The word sent chills through Jenni. She refused to think of their baby as a “fault.”

Chapter Nine

Once they were moved, and her mother had helped decorate, Jenni and Tony settled into a normal routine. As it warmed up, and her morning sickness waned, she spent every spare moment in their pool, determined to keep in shape even though she was pregnant. Swimming had always been her favorite sport, and she loved the time in the sun. She just wished he’d join her, but he never seemed to have the time.

Tony hadn’t made love to her since the night she’d told him she was expecting, and she wasn’t certain why, but whatever the reason, it was frightening her. She worried their marriage was ending before it had ever really begun. Now that she wasn’t so sick, she was actually feeling very good, and she missed their time together. He was working more and more hours, obviously avoiding her.

It was a late afternoon in mid-June when she was worried enough that she decided she just had to talk with him. He’d been attentive when they were together, and he’d gone with her to her appointments. The baby was growing, and they had yet to find out the sex. She just felt like they were becoming more and more distant as time went on, instead of growing closer.

She fixed a special meal, hoping they’d be able to have a good talk while they ate. He got home thirty minutes later than she’d expected, but she didn’t complain. She never did, feeling like she didn’t know how she’d handle it if he got angry with her. They knew so little about each other, despite being married and having a child, that it was just strange. Already she loved the man he seemed to be, but how would she know more about him if she didn’t make a real effort?

He hadn’t been able to change his days off to the days she was off, so they didn’t even have weekends to share with one another. What he’d thought would be a simple change of days had not worked out at all. She’d thought long and hard about working, and she knew she didn’t need to. Maybe it would be better if she did PRN work, and only went in when she was needed.

She had no real answers, but she couldn’t go on the way they were, and more importantly, she couldn’t let things get worse. No matter how busy they were, she and Tony needed to find time to spend together. It was important, because she wasn’t about to get a divorce, no matter how bad things got between them.

When they were seated at the table, she took a deep breath and started the conversation. “I’m worried about our marriage,” she began, knowing she needed to really get his attention. He seemed to be in his own world a lot.

Tony stared at Jenni, surprised by her words. “You are? Why? Have I done something wrong?”

She sighed. “Nothing wrong, exactly.” She shook her head. “We just never see each other, and we haven’t made love since we found out I was pregnant…”

He frowned at her. “It’ll hurt the baby, won’t it?” Of course he wouldn’t touch her, because he needed to be careful of her and their little one.

“Of course not. Why would it?”

“I thought…You mean, I’ve been being noble for months, and we could have made love at any time?”

Jenni wanted to laugh, absolutely relieved. “That’s really the whole reason? When I snuggled up next to you, what did you think I was doing?” She’d felt rejected by him night after night, and he’d been trying to be
noble
? She should have said something sooner!

“Being affectionate?” He felt like a fool and a first-class jerk. “I hope I didn’t make you feel like I didn’t want to make love. I can’t look at you without wanting to grab you and drag you into the bedroom.”

“Really?” She’d worried so much that he was turned off by how big she was getting.

He nodded emphatically, taking her hand and bringing it to his lips. “I can drag you there now to prove it if it will make you feel better. I’m all about making you feel good.” It sounded like a really good idea to him. He was hungry, but not hungry enough to care about food if there was a wife to be had.

She laughed. “Maybe we should eat first.”

He looked down at his food as if just noticing it for the first time. “I guess I can do that.”

“While we’re on the subject…”

He frowned at her, not even sure what subject they were on except going to bed together. “Yeah?”

“I was thinking about cutting back on my work. I could get on the PRN list and not keep working the long hours I am.” She was always afraid to bring up any topics related to money with him, never knowing how he’d react. He wanted her to work to make money, but he didn’t want to use the money they already had. He truly baffled her most of the time.

“What’s the PRN list?” he asked, not recognizing the term.

“As needed. So I would agree to work Monday through Friday to cover for someone who was out sick, but that would be a day or two per week and not the kind of hours I have been working.” She put her hand on her belly, which was already huge. “I’m getting a little too big to be on my feet all the time anyway.”

Tony studied her for a moment. “Is that what you want to do?”

“I don’t know! I just feel like we’re never together, and I worry that without more time, our marriage is going to fall apart. We never see each other!” She was so confused about what to do, she didn’t have any answers.

“I don’t want you to have to give up your career so we can spend time together.”

“I don’t either,” Jenni responded. “I would be able to keep my finger in the pie this way, though. It’s not like we need the money.”

He frowned. “I don’t want to keep using your trust fund money. I feel like we should be using the money we earn to get by, not the money you have set aside.”

“Why?” she asked, more than a little frustrated with the topic. “I have more money than I know what to do with. I work because I need to feel like I’m going somewhere—like my life is worth something. Not because I need to.”

He shrugged. “I don’t feel like we should use that money for living expenses. It just feels wrong.”

“Why don’t you call my dad and see what the money was meant for? He was a trust fund baby too, and Mom has never worked a day in her life. Not real work anyway. She’s done the charity ball thing, but that’s about it.”

“But
I
should provide for us.”

“Why? Seriously, I don’t understand. If I was a famous singer, would you feel the need to avoid using any of my money I made? You’re making me crazy with the money thing. We have it. I’m not going to burn it, so we should use it.”

“How much is your allowance per month?” he asked, trying to get a real handle on what she could do with her money.

She sighed heavily. “We can take out thirty-thousand a month and the money will still grow. We have no house payment, so we should never really need that much.” She’d always gotten the impression he didn’t want the exact figure, so she was doing her best not to say it, but they could take a lot more than that out from just the interest on the money she had.

“What do you mean it’ll still grow?”

“I mean you don’t need to worry about money at all. Just trust me on this. Talk to Dad if you need to. The amount of money I have in that trust fund is more than I can begin to comprehend. You might be able to understand it given your line of work, but it’s just sitting there collecting interest. Let’s use some of that interest. I’ll stay home with the baby. I’ll do what needs to be done. You need to stop worrying about finances.”

Tony looked at her. “I don’t know if that’s even possible.” He’d worried about money for so long, it was a way of life.

She took his hand in hers. “Look, we could live for the rest of our lives on the interest from my trust fund, and we could live
very well
on that interest. I think it’s best for me to go to PRN for now. Is that all right with you?”

He closed his eyes and nodded. “Yeah, that’s fine.”

“What do you want me to do?” she asked, frustrated more than she could possibly express. “Give the money to a random stranger so we can work harder and raise our child with only what we make? I don’t know what you want from me!” Between them, they made decent money, but why should they throw away the money she already had?

“I don’t know either. I feel like I’m going against my principles by letting you pay for things that I think I should pay for, but I don’t think I should give up my children’s inheritance.” He shrugged. “I have no clue what I want. I wish I did.”

“You sound angry with me over the money situation, and I really don’t know what I should do. I feel like you don’t want me around anymore.”

He shook his head. “Of course I want you around.” Taking a deep breath, he nodded. “Give your notice at work and do the PRN thing. We’ll make it work.”

“Are you sure?”

He nodded, picking up his fork and pushing the situation to the back of his mind. “And eat your supper. I want some time in the pool before we got to bed.”

“You do?” She was surprised because he had been spending very little time in the pool with her.

“Yup. It’s ours. We own it. Why am I depriving myself of something I’d enjoy just because I didn’t earn it with my own two hands?”

She shrugged. “I’ve been wondering that for a long time.”

He loaded the dishes into the dishwasher while she changed into her bathing suit. They’d made a deal early on that whoever did the cooking didn’t do the dishes. When he went out to the pool, she was already swimming laps. He dove in after her, moving quickly to where she was in the pool.

“You really like swimming, don’t you?”

She stopped, treading water. “I was never athletic in any way, except for swimming. I was on the swim team in high school.”

“Not in college?”

She shook her head. “Nope. I was really devoted to my studies in college. I didn’t do a lot of extracurricular activities.” She hoisted herself up to the side of the pool and sat with her feet dangling, enjoying the slight breeze after the hot day. Even at seven at night it was over ninety degrees. “What about you? Did you do a lot of extracurriculars?”

He shook his head. “No, I went to college in Massachusetts, and I had two best buddies there. The three of us did everything together. One of the friends came up with this concept for an internet dating site, and all three of us worked on it for the rest of our college years. I kept the books. It was my role. I still fly out there on occasion to help straighten out a mess when necessary.”

“Really? I didn’t know that.”

“That’s how I know Seth, Slade’s twin.”

“That’s cool.” She frowned. “I feel like I barely know you at all. I didn’t know something as simple as whether or not you did extra stuff in college. Why haven’t we talked about those things?”

He shrugged. “It really bothers you, doesn’t it?”

“It does! I feel like I should know everything about you by now, and I know nothing. We’ve been married almost five months.” She patted her burgeoning belly. “There’s proof!”

He stared at her stomach for a moment. He’d been so careful not to have a lot of physical contact with her, and she’d worn such loose clothes for months, that he hadn’t really noticed how big she’d gotten. “I don’t even know what to say to that. I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

Jenni sighed. “The problem is, I don’t
know
exactly what I want to know. I just feel like I should know everything! So much of this stuff would have come out naturally during the course of dating, but we never dated!”

Tony climbed out of the pool to sit beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Do you regret marrying me?” He held his breath as he waited for her answer.

She shook her head immediately. “Of course I don’t regret marrying you. I’m just not sure what to do now! I regret not spending more time with you, but you were busy, and I was busy, and… I think we need more time together. A lot more time together.”

He nodded solemnly. “If you’re not going to be working on the weekends, why don’t we make Saturday night a date night every week. We’ll go out and do stuff. Maybe we can go out with Heidi and Slade. Seth says Slade does this really cool thing where he rides a mechanical bull standing up. I can’t imagine how anyone could really do that, but it sounds fun to me.”

Jenni nodded. “That sounds good. I’m going to give Vicki my written notice on Monday.”

“Vicki?”

“Yeah, she’s the DON.”

“What’s a DON?” Tony was constantly confused by her use of acronyms when it came to her job. It seemed to him that there were dozens of terms that were only for nursing.

“Director of nursing. She’s in charge of the entire staff for the nursing home.”

“Will she be upset?”

Jenni shrugged. “She won’t be happy. We’re always short-staffed, so it’s going to be a pain to have me quit, but having me PRN will help a lot, I’m sure.” She knew Vicki was always needing someone good to take over shifts, and it was easier to hire someone full time than it was to have someone who wanted to just work as needed.

“Okay. Are you sure that’s what you want?” He tilted her face up to his, looking into her eyes. “I’m worried you won’t be happy if you’re not working.”

“I won’t be happy if our marriage fails because we haven’t taken any time to get to know each other. I can still work on occasion, and see the people I love so much, but I won’t have to be there all the time. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and it seems to be the only good solution.”