With Me (33 page)

My cock is already starting to stir from wanting to be inside her, needing her again. I enter slowly this time, briefly stopping to look down at her. “I know the first time I asked you to marry me was for the wrong reason, but this time I meant every word I said. Even if you aren’t pregnant, I’m still going to marry you, Kasey, because I love you,” I tell her as I begin to make love to her.

“MOMMY, MOMMY, LOOK what I’ve brought you,” Josephina shouts as she runs up to me, shoving a candy apple into my hand, making me smile as I take her gift. Without hesitation I dig my teeth into it to take a bite, moaning to myself as I savor the sweet stickiness of the caramel mixed with the tanginess of the green apple below. I close my eyes enjoying my sweet treat when I feel Joseph’s body push up against my back, wrapping his arms around me, engulfing me with his body as he softly places a kiss on my neck.

“I thought you’d like that,” his deep husky voice whispers into my ear making me shiver, as it always does.

His hands come down to my large round belly, automatically starting to rub my stomach with his hands as I lay my head back to rest against his shoulder. My mind drifts back to the memory of the night he proposed. It happens when his hands caress our baby, making me remember that night. Although I still had doubts I was pregnant, the next morning Joseph made me take the pregnancy test to prove me wrong. Of course it was positive, leaving me dumbfounded. Being that we weren’t preventing a pregnancy, I shouldn’t have been surprised it happened.

Soon after that night, we got married. I didn’t want to wait any longer to marry Joseph. I may have had doubts about being his wife the first time he proposed, but I didn’t have them the second time. I’d come to fear he wouldn’t ever ask again. Especially after knowing I had made the mistake of saying no the first time.

Our marriage was simple and sweet, taking place at city hall. I didn’t want big or fancy. The only thing I needed on that day was my daughter and Joseph. Everyone else who attended was a bonus, including Mark and Ashley, and their new bundle of joy as our witnesses.

As I stand there thinking of that day, I feel my back tense up, followed by a sharp pain in my stomach. I force myself to breathe through it like I learned in Lamaze class, knowing it’s another contraction. I’ve been having them most of the night, but since I’d been having Braxton Hicks for the last couple of weeks, I didn’t think anything of these during the night. I simply brushed them off as another false alarm. The last thing I wanted to do was tell Joseph about them again. After the fourth time of him rushing me to the hospital at his paranoid insistence and being sent home, I learned my lesson. I awoke this morning telling myself they were another false alarm since my due date was still another two weeks away. They were probably from me being immobile for the last week, another demand of Joseph’s.

I wanted to get out of the house, needing some fresh air this morning from being cooped up in the house all week, so I insisted we come to the local Farmers Market to walk around. It wasn’t until an hour ago, when my backache started increasing, that I knew they were real. I just didn’t want to be rushed to the hospital to have to sit there for a whole day. My labor with Josephina lasted eighteen hours and I still remember every minute as if it were yesterday.

Leaning my weight against Joseph as he holds me, I close my eyes as I take deep breaths, feeling another contraction hit me almost immediately. This one makes my stomach tense up, causing Joseph’s hands to tighten on my stomach, as his body grows rigid behind me. “Kasey, what’s wrong?” he asks, the worry evident in his voice. I’m pretty sure if I were able to see his face right now, he’d look frantic.

“I’m fine,” I tell him.

Needing to concentrate on my breathing, I simply ignore him and breathe deeply. I don’t want to alarm Joseph. He’s been really over protective of me during my pregnancy. It’s almost as if he’s trying to make up for not being with me the first time, but it was driving me insane at this point. He was treating me like a crystal vase that was going to break at any moment.

Some days I loved it, others not so much. At one point he’d suggested I stop working during the course of my pregnancy, claiming he didn’t like the fact it required me to be on my feet for more than an hour. At that point I drew the line. My business was relaxing to me. It was a way for my mind to escape, as I got lost in my creations. If he took it away, I knew for sure I was going to grow stressed, especially now that my sales were increasing every month.

As another contraction hits me, breaking my thoughts, I have to hunch over, causing me to grab onto my stomach as I groan. When I’m finally able to stand upright again, Joseph is already standing in front of me, the strain in his expression making me feel guilty. “I think I’m having contractions,” I confess, preparing myself for the lecture to come.

“What?” he shouts, his eyes going wide as saucers, which is the reaction I was expecting. “How long have you been having contractions?” he asks looking as if he’s now stopped breathing, making me laugh.

“You think this is funny?” His panicky voice makes my laughter stop and I’m feeling guilty once more.

I reach up to cup his cheek to pull his face to look directly into my eyes. “Honey, I’m fine. I’ve done this before and I’m pretty sure if it is up to you, it won’t be the last time,” I say laughing at myself. “We have enough time. Why don’t you go and find Josephina, she’s probably off with Missy at the booth bugging her.”

He gives me a look as if I’ve lost my mind before he scoops me up, his head whipping back and forth as he searches for Josephina. Normally I would protest him carrying me, but right now I don’t feel like walking anyway, so I let him carry me off straight for the booth.

Missy is now one of my employees, along with another two wives of the Marines that worked with Joseph. Ashley wasn’t lying when she said the website was going to bring me more business than ever. Because of the increase in business, I had to hire them to help with production.

The booth at the Farmers Market was another thing I had to put my foot down with Joseph. He hadn’t liked the idea of me having a booth, thinking I would work the weekends again, but when I mentioned that the girls wanted to do it, and that I would allow them to keep the profits of the sales from that day, he couldn’t argue. Military families didn’t make a lot of money, especially being that both their husbands were lower ranking Marines compared to Joseph, so every extra penny they can earn really helped.

Soon we find Josephina, of course at the booth with Missy, but at Missy’s insistence we leave her behind. I couldn’t argue, I agreed with Missy, Josephina would be best with her instead of having to endure watching her mother giving birth. An hour later I’m at the hospital with Joseph at my side, another strong contraction hitting me, making me squeeze his hand tightly, and hunch forward in my bed. Grabbing onto my stomach as I groan out loud, I hear Joseph yelling at the nurses again.

“Will someone get the fucking
doctor,
my wife is in pain here!” His growls echo in the room as he shouts at the top of his lungs at the nurse who is currently checking my cervix.

Looking down at her in fear she might call security on him for shouting at her, she simply smiles at him when she says, “Mr. Mitchell, it’s too late for your wife to get an epidural. She’s already dilated to ten and the baby is starting to crown. I’ll page the doctor so he can come deliver your baby,” she calmly states as she removes her gloves and tosses them into the trash, walking out of the door.

I’m instantly hit with another contraction, bracing myself as I breathe through it. Once it’s over, I lean my body against Joseph’s as he pushes my loose hair off my forehead, placing a kiss against it. My body already feels exhausted and I haven’t even started pushing, yet.

When I look up at him, I see tears falling down his face. “Honey, why are you crying?” I ask him.

A tear drops onto my hand when I reach up to cup his face, forcing him to face me. It saddens me to see him this way.

“Baby, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there when you had Josephina. I should’ve searched the ends of the earth for you. I don’t know how the fuck you’re able to go through this pain again for me. I don’t deserve it and I don’t deserve you,” he says, making me cry now.

“Joseph, we can’t change the past, all that matters is we found each other again. What’s important is you’re here with me
this time
,” I whisper up to him.

Another contraction comes and this is the one that tells me the baby is coming, I can feel it. I’m about to panic thinking the baby is going to come without the doctor, but he is walking in as the thought crosses my mind. Three painful pushes later our baby is delivered into the world. When they hand me my son I see this little bundle of joy in my arms, I know all the pain I endured was worth every second for this little person. Just like the first time. Looking up at Joseph, he’s still crying, but this time with a smile of his face as he cradles my body against his chest, holding our son’s head in his large hand as he leans down to give me a kiss. I hold him there for several seconds, wanting him to understand how much I love him. He brings his forehead to mine as he says, “Thank you, Kasey. Thank you so much for my children. They are the best gift you’ve ever given me.”

I smile back at him. “I love you, Joseph.”

“I love you more, Kasey Mitchell, and I will love you until the day I take my last breath.”

Joseph gives me one more kiss before looking down at our son. “So what should we name him?”

We hadn’t chosen any names because we didn’t know the sex of the baby. I’d wanted it to be a surprise, like the first time, and although I didn’t know what I was having, I secretly had a name chosen since the day I found out I was pregnant.

I look down at him to say. “Edward. Edward Joseph Mitchell.”

Joseph chuckles above me as he rakes his finger across our son’s forehead. “You really like my name don’t you?” he asks, trying to keep his deep voice to a whisper to not awaken our now sleeping son.

The only answer I can give him is, “It’s the name of the first person I fell in love with. So I think it’s only fair I name my child after that person,” I say, looking down at our son.

Joseph places a kiss on my head, pulling me tighter against his chest as I close my eyes, letting the exhaustion take over me. As I slowly drift off into sleep, I can only think of how lucky I am to have found Joseph again.

The End

Read on to enjoy a sample chapter of Gabbie S. Duran’s debut novel
.

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