by Zoey Derrick
“That was a lot of fun. We should do that more often,” he says into her hair as he kisses the top of her head.
She snakes her arms around him, holding him close. “At least once a week?” she says and he smiles.
“At least.”
“The five of us ate a lot of meals together while you were gone, and tonight was the most interactive an animated we’ve all been for months. It was nice to let our hair down, so to speak.” She hugs him tighter.
“Good, it should be like that all the time. Are you ready for bed?”
She nods into his chest. He pulls back. Their eyes meet, and again, nothing in the world matters more than each other.
FORTY-THREE
“Marry me?” he breathes into her ear. They’re both sweaty from their roll between the sheets.
Vivienne’s breath comes shorter and faster than it did just moments ago when they finished. “Mikah, we’ve talked about this.”
“I know,” he says, and she can hear the slight disappointment in his voice. “I just thought that maybe you were brushing me off because I was in your dreams, or that you were uncertain of our future. Do you feel that way?”
She twists toward him, dislodging him from inside of her, and his breath hitches.
“I never felt that way,” she says. “I really don’t want to have Madison in the middle of our wedding ceremony.”
He brushes the hair from her face. “I didn’t say we had to get married right away. We can wait, I just want to know that you will be mine forever.”
“You need a ring to know that?”
He smiles. “No, sweetheart, I don’t. I just enjoy the idea of you wearing my ring, telling everyone that you’re taken and reminding you that you’re mine.”
She smiles at his logic. “Ask me again,” she breathes.
“Vivienne Alison Callahan, I promise to care for you, cherish you, and love you for the rest of eternity,” he says.
Tears well in her eyes.
“Will you do me the honor of being my wife?”
Seeming to come from out of nowhere, a ring appears between his thumb and forefinger, a beautiful heart-cut diamond ring with two smaller stones on either side. The band is braided. It’s beautiful in its simple elegance.
“Yes,” she breathes, and the tears spill over.
“Do not cry, sweetheart,” he says.
He takes her hand and places the ring on her finger. Once it is in place, he lifts his lips to meet hers, strong and passionate. “Thank you,” he says between kisses, and she smiles at his excitement.
His hands begin to roam her body once again, and she is instantly lost in his touch. Desperate to have him inside of her again. To show him that she loves him, unconditionally.
This time, though, he skips the fanfare, eager to slip back inside of her.
FORTY-FOUR
“Okay, three things,” Dr. Alston says as she removes the gloves from her hands. “First, her lungs look great, maybe even a little ahead of the predicted due date. Which ultimately means that you could go into labor any day now.”
Vivienne’s eyes widen fractionally, but then a smile of relief washes over her face.
Mikah feels it too.
“Which leads me to point number two. If at any time you feel pain or tightening in your abdomen, check the clock, see if another one comes. If it does, start timing it. Once they start coming about ten minutes apart, give me a call.” She hands Mikah a business card.
“Ten minutes apart?” Vivienne asks.
“Yes. Sometimes you can experience what are called Braxton Hicks, otherwise known as false contractions. Those are usually random. If they fall into a regular pattern, try moving around or taking a shower. If they stop, you’re okay. If they continue even though you’re moving around, odds are they’re real contractions.”
Vivienne nods her understanding.
“Don’t play down the pain. If you feel something, don’t hide it,” she says, looking at Vivienne.
“Okay, I will say something,” Vivienne says, and Mikah squeezes her hand.
“Lastly, your blood pressure is a little higher than I’d like it to be, but it is still within the normal range. So I’d like you to take it easy. Soak up the chance to lie around in bed, watch TV, read a book or two. Don’t do too much,” she says, raising her eyebrows at Vivienne.
“I don’t do much now. Walking and yoga, sleeping, and that’s about it.”
“Good, though I’d cut back on the yoga to once a week. Twice a week only if you feel it is helping you to relax. Otherwise, walking is okay, just take it slow.”
“No problem,” Mikah says.
“You’ve already started to dilate. Only about a centimeter or so, and that’s perfectly okay at this stage. Other than that, we will see you back here next week. Same time?” she says.
“Perfect,” Vivienne says as she tries to sit up. Mikah helps her up.
“Okay, I’ll let you get dressed and you’re free to go. Is there anything else?”
Vivienne shakes her head. “No, I don’t think so.”
“If you think of anything, just call me.”
FORTY-FIVE
“Jeez, Mikah, she has more clothes than I do,” says Vivienne, taking stock of their purchases. Mikah had a little more fun shopping than she expected, but it was so much fun to watch him.
“She deserves it. And it’s not just clothes.” He kisses her as he passes on the way to the dining room table, where all the other bags are. “There’s still about six more bags downstairs.”
Before he even finishes his sentence, Andrew and Celeste are halfway out the door.
Vivienne rolls her eyes. “You’re too much,” she says. As Mikah stalks toward her, she giggles.
“But it was so much fun.” He smiles at her.
“Yeah, I suppose I didn’t kick and scream too much.”
Mikah laughs at her. In fact, she hadn’t kicked or screamed at all. “You had fun.”
She smiles at him. “I did.”
Before too long, Andrew and Celeste return with the last of their shopping spree.
“I’ll pull all the tags and get everything washed up,” Celeste says to Vivienne.
“I’d like to do it. If that’s alright with you?”
Celeste smiles at Vivienne and nods. “Of course. But make him lift all the laundry.” Celeste points her thumb at Mikah.
Vivienne laughs. “I will, don’t worry.” She smirks at Mikah, who seems all too eager to dig into what they bought today. Andrew and Celeste take their cue and leave.
Mikah starts to pull things from the bags. “We got clothes in different sizes. Should we separate them by size?”
“That sounds like a plan.” She walks over to Mikah and wraps her arms around his midsection from behind. “Thank you.”
Mikah turns in her arms to look at her. “Of course. Hey, what’s wrong?” He asks in response to a shift in her demeanor; she almost looks sad.
“I’m scared.”
“Oh, sweetheart, of what?” he says as he takes a seat in a chair, pulling her toward him. He places his hands on her hips and kisses her belly.
“Of everything. That she won’t be healthy, or that she’ll come too soon, or that something will go wrong, or that I’ll do something wrong.” By the time she’s done talking her tone is nearly hysterical.
“Oh, sweetheart. You’ll do amazing. And anything that could happen, we will deal with when the time comes. But don’t stress yourself out over something you have no control over. When she’s ready, she’ll come.” He kisses her belly again and reaches up to brush the back of his knuckles against her cheek. “It’s been a long day for you. Why don’t you go lie down for a while. I can work on getting this stuff sorted out.” He stands, taking her hand. “I’ll separate everything and then, when you wake up, we can go through it all.”
She nods and he leads her into the bedroom. He turns down the bed and she climbs in.
She reaches over for one of the other pill
ows and tucks it underneath her belly and between her legs. He smiles, realizing that last night she slept the exact same way, only it was him she wrapped herself around, not a pillow.
He tucks her in and kisses her.
“I love you,” she breathes against his lips.
“As I love you.”
FORTY-SIX
Vivienne and Mikah spend the next few days dividing their time between laundry, organizing, and putting everything away to get ready for Madison’s arrival. Mikah notices that Vivienne has less and less energy each day and is taking longer, more frequent naps.
One afternoon she wakes up and all she can seem to do is organize and reorganize Madison’s room, and he realizes that she’s started nesting. He watches her work, mainly because she refuses his help and insists on doing it herself. After a few hours of reorganizing, she stops and takes a break to have lunch with Mikah.
“You okay?” He asks her as they sit down to eat her favorite, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
“Yeah, why?”
He doesn’t want to embarrass her, but he looks down and her gaze follows his.
“Well, crap,” she says, and he busts out laughing. “I guess it’s time to get the pumping thing going.” She smiles.
“I could help with that.” The tone in his voice is suggestive.
“Wha—? How would...?” She wrinkles her nose, trying to understand what he’s implying. “Isn’t that kind of gross?” she says innocently, and his eyes dart away from her. “Mikah!” she says, laughing, and she throws her napkin at him.
“What? They’re just so much fun to play with, it just kind of happens when I suck on them.”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, why didn’t you tell me?”
He laughs harder. “And spoil my fun? Never,” he says as he places a potato chip in his mouth.
“How in the world did I not notice that?”
He wiggles his eyebrows at her and she blushes. You’re usually otherwise...” He clears his throat. “Occupied.”
She has no argument for that.
Mikah watches her as she mulls over what he’s just told her. It’s rather cute to watch the little furrow appear in her brow when she’s thinking about something.
The rest of their lunch is filled with playful teasing. Mikah notes that when he pointed out the fact that she was leaking, she hadn’t jumped right up to change. He also notices that she isn’t wearing a bra. He finds it very distracting.
As she stands to clear their plates, he stops her. “Leave those and come here,” he says as he reaches for her hand, pulling her closer to him. When she’s standing next to him he rubs his hand over her belly and breathes hotly across her nipple. She squirms as her nipple cools and peaks.
“You’re so bad,” she breathes as she feels him tug on the hem of her t-shirt. He lifts it to expose her belly, which he kisses sweetly before continuing to lift her shirt higher. She raises her arms and bends forward so that he can pull it off.
Now she stands before him completely topless. Her breasts are swollen, nearly double the size they were yesterday, and his erection throbs. He leans in, takes one of her nipples into his mouth and sucks hard. She moans, and he is treated to a warm gush of milk across his tongue.
“Okay, I felt that,” she says with a Cheshire grin.
He releases her nipple with an audible pop. Then he stands, takes her hand and leads her into the bedroom.
While she’s still standing he slides her pants down, and she quickly returns the favor.
“Grab a pillow,” he says, and she does. “I’d like to try something. Crawl on the bed.” She smirks, already knowing what he wants.
She climbs onto the bed, staying on her knees, and leans forward to hug her pillow. She can feel the bed shift as he climbs on behind her, and then his fingers stroke her clit and then up her sex.
It doesn’t take much to get her worked up when it comes to Mikah. She is already ready for him.
Seeing her like this is almost too much.
Vivienne can feel the excitement growing in anticipation of feeling him inside her once again.
He doesn’t disappoint her. Before long she can feel the head of his erection testing her entrance. She smiles as he carefully enters her.
The sensation is so much she nearly explodes into orgasm before he’s even finished sliding into her. She notices that she is much more sensitive down there than usual. She slides forward and then back onto him, encouraging him to move his hips.
But he doesn’t need the encouragement. The second he enters her, he is overtaken by desire and begins to slide slowly in and out of her on his own accord.
FORTY-SEVEN
“Ow.”
Mikah’s eyes fly open, unsure of what’s woken him up, to see that Vivienne is sitting up in bed.
“What’s wrong?”
He watches as she slowly exhales and breathes back in through her nose. She doesn’t respond to him as she concentrates on breathing.
“Contraction?”
She nods.
He can tell the moment it stops because her whole body just kind of sags.
“I think so,” she says. “It’s the second one.”
“When was the first one?” he asks, a little bit of panic in his voice.
She gives him a half smile. “About fifteen minutes ago. I didn’t catch the exact time, it woke me up.”
Mikah looks over to the clock. It’s two in the morning. It has been a week since his return from Elysium, and today is their next scheduled appointment for Dr. Alston.
“What can I do?” he asks.
She turns to him, brushing his hair from his eyes. “Nothing. Yet. Let’s see what happens.”
She lies back down, turning toward him and wrapping herself around him, much the way she does with the pillow when she naps alone.
He starts to play with her soft, gorgeous red hair. She wraps her arms around him, and in a matter of moments her breathing settles into a calm rhythm, and he knows she has fallen asleep. He anxiously looks at the clock and watching the time tick by and waiting to see if she wakes up again with the next one. If there is another one.
Two oh five.
Two ten.
Finally two fifteen comes and goes without any sign that she’s having another contraction.
He continues to play with her hair, thinking about what’s coming in the next couple of weeks. Madison. He’s never been more excited about anything in his entire life. Not even his return from Elysium can compare to how he feels about Madison’s arrival.
Suddenly Vivienne stirs. She squeezes him a little tighter. He looks at the clock. It’s two twenty. She doesn’t wake, but he hears her groan and feels her squeeze him tighter still.
Twenty minutes, that’s not too bad, he thinks to himself as his eyes begin to close once again.
“Mikah.”
He stirs in his sleep.
“Mikah, wake up.” It’s Vivienne.
His eyes jolt open and he sits up rather quickly, but not before noticing that there is something wet and warm in the bed. He pulls back the covers to find a patch of clear liquid.
“Mikah, I think my water broke.”
He rubs his eyes and looks at the clock. It’s eight in the morning. “How are your contractions?”
“They’re about thirteen minutes or so apart.”
“When was the last one?”
“About ten minutes ago. It hurt, and shortly after it, I felt the water. That’s when I woke you up.”
She stops talking and her face scrunches up.
“Breathe, sweetheart.”
He takes her hand and she squeezes it. With his free hand he reaches for his phone on the bedside table. He presses two buttons and the line starts ringing. “Hey, Red. Can you get the car ready? Vivienne’s water broke.”
“It’s nearly ready for her appointment. I’ll have Andrew bring it around front. Do you need help up there?”
“No, I think we’re alright. We will be down shortly.
”
“Sounds good. Call me if you need us.”
“Will do.” Mikah hangs up the phone. “I’m going to call Dr. Alston. How are you?”
“That really hurt.”
“You’re doing great. Can you get up out of bed?”
“Yeah, once it’s over I feel fine, just a little weak.” She takes a breath. He can see the worry in her eyes.
“You’re doing great.”
He calls Dr. Alston’s number and she answers on the second ring.
“I had a feeling you’d be calling me this morning. How is she?”
“Her water broke.”
“Well, okay then. Where was she when it broke?”
“Sleeping.”
“Good, was the fluid clear?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, bring her on down and I will get them moving on a room for her. We’ll see you in a bit. How far apart are her contractions?”
“About twelve minutes.”
“Okay. Don’t panic, get dressed, grab her stuff and come to the hospital. See you soon.”
“Thanks, doctor.” He hangs up the phone.
“Shall I get you some clothes?” he says to Vivienne, and she smiles.
“Unless you want to show me off to the world naked.”
He snorts and climbs out of bed. “I’ll find you some clothes.
FORTY-EIGHT
“I can see the top of her head, so now, Vivienne, I want you to tuck your chin to your chest and push for about ten seconds. Then lie back, take a couple of deep breaths, and do it again. Okay?”
Vivienne nods.
Mikah’s hand is lightly rubbing Vivienne’s shoulder in encouragement.
For her part, Vivienne is ready to meet her daughter. She continues pushing. Mikah and Celeste are holding up her legs, but she can’t really feel that. After about five more pushes, Vivienne can finally see, in the mirror, the head and hair of her daughter.
“Okay, Vivienne, I want you to push for about ten seconds, relax briefly to take a deep breath, and do it again.” Dr. Alston nods in encouragement at Vivienne, who takes a deep breath and pushes.
