"Oh, David." She rolled over to face me and cradled my face in her hands. "Isn't it amazing, my love? We made that." She gave me a soft kiss, then pressed her forehead to mine. We stayed like that for several minutes enjoying this moment.
"Could we make the baby's middle name Ford?" Natalie asked out of no where. "I really want him to have my brother's name." We hadn't discussed any names yet, and I had an idea for a first name, but hadn't really given his middle name much thought. I thought Ford for a middle name was perfect. Her brother and I had become pretty close in the last few months, and I considered him a friend now. It still shocked me, considering he had been the bully who made most of my high school years miserable. Ford was a great guy, and an even better brother to my Natalie.
"That's perfect, Natalie," I said softly. "Absolutely perfect."
"Have you thought of any first names?"
"Well, I was thinking of my grandfather's name," I answered as I ran my fingers down her side in a soft caress that made her shiver. "His name was Danilo, but I thought Daniel would be better since that's the English version."
"Daniel," she said slowly, getting a feel for the word. "I like it. Daniel Ford Mazur. It sounds good too."
"Especially when you say it, sweetheart." I felt gooseflesh flow across my skin from the sound of her saying our son's name for the first time.
"We just named our baby, didn't we?" she asked in an awed tone.
"Yeah, we did." I took her face between my hands and kissed her with slow deep sweeps of my tongue. And even though it was late, and I was tired; I made love to my Natalie again.
***********
"Can I help you, sir?" a pleasant female voice asked. I turned away from the crib I was looking at, to glance at the young woman behind me. She was attractive with long blond hair and bright blue eyes. She had a badge on with the name of the baby store I was in on it.
"I'd like to get this crib and the matching changing table," I told her, ignoring the way her eyes skated down my body before coming to my face. If she kept that up, the woman was going to piss Natalie off when she came back over here. I took a quick glance down the aisle to see Natalie waddling around in her long green sundress and strappy sandals. She was zapping item after item with the registry bar code app on her phone with a happy smile on her face.
"Alright," the clerk said with a wide smile and a nod. "Let me go see if we have them in stock."
"Thanks." I nodded as she walked away, and turned back to watch Natalie. At thirty weeks, she was starting to get huge, but she was no less beautiful to me. She was radiant, her face glowing and happy as she ran her fingers over the different nursery bedding sets on display. She looked my way, as if she could sense my eyes on her. A huge grin lit up her face, and she waved her hand beckoning me over to her excitedly.
I returned her smile and walked over to stand next to her, my hand reaching out to caress her belly unconsciously. "What do you want?" I asked in mock annoyance as I continued rubbing her baby bump.
"Look, David," she pointed at a package of bedding on the shelf in front of her. "This is perfect for our little peanut."
I looked closer and saw that it was a Superman bedding set, with bright reds and blues and yellows. A grin spread across my face. "Yes, it is." I picked it up off the shelf and tucked it under my arm.
"You don't want to look at any of the others?" she asked with amusement.
"Nope." I leaned in and gave her a gentle kiss.
"Nerd," she accused me with a gleam in her eyes.
I shrugged unapologetically and winked at her.
"Did they have our crib in stock?" she asked as she stepped closer to wrap her arms around my neck, her belly bumping against me. It was getting more difficult for her to hug me like this as her abdomen grew, but I didn't mind. I liked her belly close to me, and it turned me on, which she was well aware of.
"Someone is checking on it for us." I stepped back a little before I got too worked up. I didn't want to sport an erection in a baby store. She gave me a wicked grin and ran a hand down my abdomen. Even this far into her pregnancy, Natalie still had the sex drive of a sixteen-year-old boy. I wasn't sure how I had been managing to keep up with her. Recently, we had to pretty much stick to spooning when we were intimate, since anything else made her uncomfortable, but I was fine with that. It was actually less work for me, and I'd take her any way I could have her.
I grabbed her errant hand as it traveled a little farther south than was appropriate in public. "Stop it," I murmured unconvincingly.
She stuck out her lower lip and let out a disappointed whine. "You're no fun."
"I will be later," I whispered into her ear, purposefully brushing my lips against her earlobe. I watched her shiver, and I smiled in satisfaction. I ran my fingers down her long ponytail and stared at her face, completely enamored with her gorgeous sensuous mouth. I suddenly wanted to go home, so I could have my way with her.
She put her hand on the waistband of my jeans and started slipping her fingers under it. I growled and grabbed her hand, pulling it away again.
"Just so you know," I told her darkly. "I have no qualms with spanking a pregnant woman."
She leaned in close until her lips were almost touching mine. "I know," she whispered seductively, that damn wicked smile of hers making me shiver. I was just about to kiss her, regardless of where we were, when someone cleared their throat. I glanced over to see the clerk that had been helping me. I practically forgot about her.
"Um, we don't have either in stock right now, but we can get them by the end of the week." She was smiling widely at me, and her eyes strayed down my body again. I felt Natalie stiffen next to me. "I'm sure I could pull some strings and get them delivered to you," she said in a suggestive tone, like she was doing me a favor, and reached out to touch my forearm.
"Is that okay, sweetheart?" I asked Natalie, noticing the glare she was giving the clerk.
"Yes, that's fine," Natalie said in annoyance.
"If you'll follow me to the register, I can get your order in and get your address and phone number." There was that suggestive tone again, and she didn't even look at Natalie or acknowledge that she was present. Now Natalie was practically bristling with anger.
We followed the clerk over to a nearby register, with Natalie staring daggers into her back the whole way. I probably should have been trying to calm her down, but I was irritated with the woman too. I wanted to see what Natalie was going to do.
The woman got our order placed in the computer and rang up the bedding we were buying today, then asked for my address and phone number. She kept smiling coquettishly at me, still ignoring Natalie. I could feel the animosity oozing out of Natalie next to me.
"Well, that should be everything." The woman leveled a huge smile at me. "I'll call you when your items are in to set up a delivery time." She handed me our bag and receipt, purposefully running her fingers across mine. I pulled away from her touch, and opened my mouth to thank her, so we could get the hell out of here before Natalie went off on her.
"Do you make it a habit of flirting with your customers in front of the mothers of their unborn children?" Natalie suddenly asked in a harsh tone. "Or is my boyfriend just a special case?" Oops, too late.
The woman looked startled and immediately went into denial. "I...um...I wasn't...I wasn't flirting."
"Yeah right," Natalie snapped out. "I wonder what your manager would say if he knew this was going on. Maybe I should have a word with them about your behavior. What was your name again?"
The woman looked terrified now. "I...I..."
"Thanks for your help," I blurted out, grabbing Natalie's arm and pulling her with me as I walked away. She tried to fight me, but I was determined to end this confrontation before Natalie started yelling. Her mood was volatile at best right now with her surging pregnancy hormones. I'd rather have her angry with me than go off on some stranger in a store. She would be really upset later if she embarrassed herself now. When we were out of the cle
rk's ear shot, Natalie started ranting.
"Can you believe that shit?" she snarled. "Her fucking hands were practically all over you. What the hell? I'm going to email in a complaint. Her ass should be fired. Who acts like that?"
"Easy, Natalie." I reached over and grabbed her hand. "Calm down. It's okay. You scared the shit out of her. She'll probably think twice before she does something like that again."
"I should certainly hope so." Her eyes flashed with righteous anger. "I don't know who she thinks she is messing with my man." Her hand tightened possessively around mine. I had to fight from smiling at her. She was adorable when she got possessive over me, and I liked it, but I definitely didn't want her anger pointed at me if I could avoid it.
We were just about to exit the store when an older woman standing nearby, who was obviously an employee, stopped us.
"Would you like to sign up for our rewards program?" she asked us kindly. "You can get really good sale prices and save with the points you earn."
"Sure," I said, looking for a distraction for Natalie in her worked up state. I took the clip board the woman handed me and started filling it out.
"How far along are you, honey?" she asked Natalie with a genuine smile.
"About thirty weeks." Natalie returned the woman's smile. Good, she was calming down. "We're due on July third."
"Congratulations," the woman said warmly, then made a fatal mistake. She reached out and placed her hand on Natalie's pregnant belly. Natalie's eyes lit up in angry green fire. She hated it when strangers touched her belly without permission, and she was already worked up over the clerk incident.
"Get your hand off me," Natalie snarled out and slapped the woman's hand away. "How dare you? I don't even know you. How would you like it if some stranger did that to you?" To my shock that was exactly what Natalie did. She stepped into the startled woman's personal space and put her hand on the woman's stomach. "How do you like that? Does that make you uncomfortable?"
"I...I...uh..." The poor woman didn't know what to do as she stared at Natalie in shock. I looked around and saw that we were drawing an audience. It was time to get the hell out of here.
"Time to go, sweetheart." I put an arm around Natalie's shoulders and handed the clipboard back to the woman with an apologetic expression. "Have a good day," I added as I ushered Natalie out of the building into the early May sunshine. She was practically panting with rage all the way out to the car.
I opened her door and helped her lower herself into the passenger seat of my Audi. I went around and got into the car next to her, then realized that she was sobbing now. She was holding her belly with both hands, and her head was bowed as tears streaked down her face.
"Natalie?" I reached over to touch her cheek.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I really embarrassed you in there."
"Shh, sweetheart." I turned and put a hand on hers over her belly. "I'm not embarrassed. Frankly, I think those two women deserved it, but I knew you would be upset with yourself if you went too far. So I got us out of there."
She turned to look at me and managed a wan smile. "You're so good to me."
"You deserve it, sweetheart." I leaned over and kissed her gently. She started sobbing again as she smiled at me through her tears.
"I want to go home," she said pathetically.
"Okay." I nodded. "We'll head over to the house to get your stuff, then I'll take you home." It was Monday evening, and she liked to stay at her apartment on Monday and Tuesday nights.
"No," she sobbed out. "That's not home. I wanna stay at our house, in our bed tonight."
"We can stay wherever you want, Natalie," I said softly, hoping that she was implying what I thought she was, but not wanting to pressure her about it. "My house or your apartment. As long as I'm with you, it doesn't matter."
"It does matter, my love," she said vehemently as she squeezed my hand in a death grip. "I don't want that apartment anymore. We're a family now, and I want to stay with you."
"Really?" I asked incredulously. I'd been waiting for this for so long. I had started to lose hope that she would move in with me before Daniel was born. Part of me was afraid she wasn't going to move in with me at all.
She nodded vigorously. "I'm ready to move in with you if you still want me to."
I let out a deep sigh of relief. The fact that she hadn't moved in with me yet was weighing on me a lot recently. "Of course, I still want you to live with me. I want that more than anything, sweetheart."
Her answering smile was glorious, lighting up her entire being. I pulled her into my arms awkwardly, due to her belly, and kissed her, softly at first, but it quickly became heated as I plunged my tongue into her mouth with abandon. My God, I loved this woman. She made everything in my life better. I ended the kiss reluctantly, and we were both left breathless and panting.
"Let's go home, Natalie." I told her with a warm smile.
"Yeah," she whispered as she returned my smile. "Home."
***********
"This crib can fuck off," Jensen blurted out in frustration as he stared at all the wooden pieces strewn across the floor in the baby's new room. I looked up from the instructions I was trying to make sense of and grinned at him.
"I don't know if we should be cussing in my nephew's new room," Ford said in amusement from the other side of the room. "What if it fucking wears off, and we turn him into one of us." He was standing on the other side of the room with a brush in his hand as he worked on the mural that he was hand painting on the wall.
"Fuck it." Ben, my oldest friend from high school, chimed in from where he was pulling the pieces of the changing table out of its box. "Profanity builds character. Look how much fucking character we have. It's oozing out of our fucking pores."
"Curse while you fucking can in here," I added with a laugh. "In about a month, this will be a profanity-free zone."
"I guess I'll never be fucking invited over here again after the kid is born then." Jensen grinned widely at me.
"Of course, you'll be invited over," I smiled wryly. "You just won't be allowed to talk."
Jensen glared at me with amusement dancing in his eyes as the rest of us laughed. "Ha, Ha. Thanks, brother," he added sarcastically.
We'd spent most of the day working on my son's room. I got Syd and Maggie to take Natalie for a spa day and some shopping, so I could surprise her with the finished nursery. Jensen, Ford, and Ben were more than willing to help out. Jensen let us use his truck to take all the guest room furniture that I didn't need to my storage unit. We got the last coat of blue paint on the walls this morning, and now after lunch, we were attempting to put the baby's furniture together while Ford painted his mural.
Ford had taken one look at the baby's bedding this morning, and giddily announced that he was painting a mural on the wall for his nephew. I wasn't going to argue. I'd seen his drawings and his tattoos. The man was crazy talented, and he could do whatever he wanted with my son's walls. We made a stop at an art store on the way back from lunch so Ford could pick up what he needed.
"I'm giving my eyes a break," Ford announced suddenly. "And I need something to drink. Anybody else want anything?"
Ben asked for a beer, and Jensen wanted a soda. I stood up and followed Ford out of the room to help him get everyone's drinks. I was happily surprised that everyone was getting along so well today. Jensen had never met Ford before, but the two of them hit it off immediately. Ben, on the other hand, I was worried about. Ford was a bully to Ben and me back in high school, and made our lives pretty miserable for two years. Ford and I came to terms with it, but Ben knew how to hold onto a grudge, and I wasn't sure how today was going to go.
However, I underestimated Ford. The very first thing out of his mouth to Ben was a sincere apology. Now they were acting like old friends instead of enemies. I imagine it was just as surreal for Ben as it had been for me to discover that Ford was nothing like the asshole that we remembered.
"Am I going to be able to talk you into t
elling me the baby's name?" Ford asked as he followed me out into the hallway. "Natie won't even give me a hint."
"Sorry, Ford," I told him with a shrug. "My lips are sealed." Natalie and I wanted to surprise Ford and Baba with our name choices. I wasn't going to ruin it for Ford if I could help it.
"You guys suck," he grumbled as we crossed the living room. I glanced back to see him smirking at me, with no real animosity on his face at all.
We walked into the kitchen, and I went to the fridge. I pulled out a beer for Ford and Ben and set them on the counter, then I grabbed a couple of sodas for Jensen and me.
"How are things going with your Dad?" Ford asked as he picked up both beers.
"Good and weird, I guess," I said as I turned to look at him. Ford was a great sounding board for my new relationship with my dad. He was a good listener, and he was one of the most sensible people I ever met.
"I thought you guys were getting along." He opened a drawer and pulled out my bottle opener.
"We are. It's just...I don't know," I shrugged as I watched Ford open both beer bottles. "It feels like he's more of a friend than a dad. I guess I thought we would have this inexplicably deep father-son connection right away. In a lot of ways, I still feel like I'm talking to a stranger when we get together."
"You've only known the guy for six months, right?" He slid the bottle opener across the kitchen island to me as I nodded. "Sounds like a case of unrealistic expectations. This isn't a movie, there's no magical father-son bond to come over both of you out of nowhere after thirty years. You're going to have to get to know him the old-fashioned way, by spending time with him."
"Well, I guess when you put it like that, I kind of feel like a moron." I snorted in disgust with myself as I opened the bottles of soda.
"You're not a moron," Ford said with a shake of his head. "You just hyped the whole thing up too high in your head. The reality can't measure up to that. Give it some time. Keep talking to him and it'll work out."
You Are My Life: Breathless Book 3 Page 25
