Saving Forever - Part 5 (Saving Forever #5)

by Lexy Timms

  However, she had grown to really like Margaret, and respected her opinion. The past few weeks had been fun. Charity couldn’t lie, she was happy Margaret had stayed at her father’s. There was awkward tension between Elijah and Margaret, the same way she had it with her dad. Similar, but different.

  She wanted to hear what Margaret thought of her relationship with her father. Did her dad talk about her? Or did he grumble and complain?

  “It’s not my place to parent.” Margaret tried a different approach. But have the two of you sat down and actually talked?”

  “We’ve tried a few times.” Charity thought back to Christmas dinner last year. “It usually ends up with one of us overreacting or misunderstanding something. It tends to be easier if we just don’t talk about it and go on like there isn’t a problem.”

  Margaret pressed her lips together like she wanted to say more but didn’t feel it was her place. She sat silent for a bit and then said quietly, “Maybe there isn’t a problem. Maybe you both just need to let go of the things you expected the other to be, and simply be content with who each of you are.”

  “I never…” Charity let her voice trail off. Margaret had a point. Her father wanted her to be a doctor. He was ticked when she dropped out of school. She had needed him when her mother was sick, but never considered how he felt. He dealt with disease, death, the dying every day and always had to take a step back to not be involved too emotionally. Maybe he didn’t know how. Maybe she had done the same in a way and blamed him for her own disappointments instead of just letting it all go. Love was something that should last forever, not be lost forever. “Maybe you’re right.”

  Margaret leaned forward and patted Charity’s hand. “I’m not one for giving advice but I’m going to let you in on a little guidance Elijah’s father once told him and I’ve always remembered it: You don’t need to be what anyone expects. Just be you.”

  “I like that.” She smiled ruefully and then stood. “And sadly, now I have to go back to work.”

  Elijah bounded through the door as soon as she spoke. “Mom! Glad you’re still here. I wasn’t sure if I’d missed you.”

  Margaret laughed. “I’m here for about another twenty hours. You can’t get rid of me that quickly.”

  Charity hugged Elijah. “I have to go. Spoil your mom for me?”

  He kissed her and then pressed his fingers to his lips before planting them on her belly. “Isn’t that her job? To spoil me?”

  Charity rolled her eyes jokingly at Margaret. “I’m not sure who’s going to be more of a child. Him or the baby.”

  Margaret snapped her fingers. “I forgot! The crib is coming in today.”

  “Crib?” Charity and Elijah said at the same time. Margaret had designed the nursery beautifully. The room was bright with white wood along the bottom of the walls and a soft pink on the top. She had bought them a change table and one of the rocking gliders. The closets had been fitted with shelves that now sat full of diapers and a million creams and ointments. A pack n’ play and stroller sat in boxes in the garage already as well.

  “Did I forget to tell you?” Margaret pretended to look confused. “I could have sworn…” She waved her hand. “Never mind. I know you two were going to go crib shopping, but last week Scott and I saw this beautiful sleigh bed style crib. It matches the change table perfectly and it can turn into a day bed and then eventually into a full-size bed. Wait till you see it.” She smiled, knowing she had them. “I couldn’t resist.”

  “Mom!” Elijah looked back and forth between Charity and his mom. “Don’t you think that’s something you should’ve asked us about? Charity might want to pick out her own.”

  Margaret ignored Elijah, turning her attention to Charity. “If you don’t like it, just send it back. Elijah’s going to have to put it together. Apparently in America the delivery men don’t set it up for you. Something about insurance liability or whatever.”

  “It’s the same in New Zealand, Mum.”

  Charity could see the tightness forming on Elijah’s face. “It’s fine. Your mom has incredible taste. I’ll enjoy watching you put it together.” She smiled at Margaret. “Thank you. That was very thoughtful of you to do.”

  “You’ll have to send me a photo or FaceTime me when Elijah’s almost finished so I can see it.”

  Charity chuckled. “I will.” Her sports watch dinged on the hour. “Shoot! I gotta get going! I’ll see you later tonight, Elijah.” She kissed him on the cheek, her belly rubbed against his arm as she went up on her toes. “Thanks for the tea, Margaret. It’s going to seem very quiet when you leave tomorrow.”

  “Then I’d better get my return flight booked. That baby’s going to be here before you know it. Another ten, maybe eleven weeks, it’s going to fly by. I’ll book my flight for two months from now. Just in case this baby wants to stay in a little longer. They tend to do that the first time.”

  Charity patted her basketball tummy. “I’m in no rush. She’s comfy cozy in there.” She couldn’t admit she was nervous about the baby’s arrival. Everything was going to change when the little peanut came out. It felt like they had just gotten married, and then she’d jumped back into finishing her residence when she found out she was pregnant. A year ago she had been running her own business, quite successfully. Now it wouldn’t be long before everything changed again. It was crazy. Enough to make her heart race, her breath fall short and her chest tight.

  “You okay?” Elijah asked.

  She smiled and forced the worry from her face. “New department today. From Cardio to Emerg. From the precise to the rushed.”

  “You’ll love it.”

  She laughed. “I know. I just have to pretend to hate it like the rest of the interns.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about the others. You’re oodles ahead of them.”

  Had she finished her residence after her mother died, she would be way ahead of the others. Now she was practically neck and neck, if not playing catch up on new procedures and the six-year hiatus. “I still have another two years, if not more, to finish my residency.”

  Elijah must have sensed she was beginning to panic. “You’d better get going.” He knew she would settle the moment she started working again. “Did you say you had ten minutes, about twelve minutes ago?”

  “Gotta go!” She stole one more kiss from him. “Love you, handsome.” She patted his bum hoping his mother didn’t see. “See you tonight, Margaret!”

  “Don’t work too hard,” Margaret called out.

  Chapter 12

  A rare night two weeks later, Elijah and Charity were both home. Elijah was in the kitchen cooking a fantastic smelling dinner while Charity cleaned the house and organized the nursery. Margaret had left a box of tiny clothes she had bought for the baby. Charity went through all the little adorable pink outfits, onesies, socks and teeny shoes. She organized and put them into drawers.

  “Dinner’s ready.” Elijah came into the room.

  Charity stood behind the new dresser putting the last few pairs of socks into the drawer. “Almost done.” Her belly pressed against the handle of the drawer and the baby seemed to like kicking against it like she was trying to push it out of the way.

  Elijah came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. They stood together, her back against him, her head resting under his chin and her hands entwined in his resting against their baby. “How are you feeling?”

  “Tired.” She smiled. “A perfect contently tired feeling. I do well with busy.”

  “I’m learning that.”

  She could feel him smile without looking up. He was exactly the same and she loved him for it. His hot, sexy body wasn’t too bad on the eyes either. She grinned slyly. They had the whole night to themselves. What kind of trouble could they get into?

  “Did you want to eat… or do something else?”

  “What did you have in mind?” Her stomach growled. Classic. She dropped her head. “Figures.”

  Elijah laughed. “Let’s eat f
irst.” He reached for her hand and walked her to the dining room. The table was set with candles, two glasses of wine, and their best china. A huge bouquet of white flowers sat in the middle.

  “Wow.”

  He pulled her chair out and kissed her. “Happy Anniversary!”

  “Oh shit!” She covered her mouth. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to swear.” She burst into tears. Who forgot their one year anniversary? Especially married to a guy like Elijah? She buried her head in her hands.

  Elijah dropped down on his knees beside her. “Hey,” he said softly. “Don’t cry. I mean, I know I’m beautiful but I’m not worth crying over.”

  She tried to laugh, but it just came out as a snort. She looked at her husband, her hands covering her nose and mouth. Her eyes were wet, her mascara probably giving her scary raccoon eyes. “I forgot,” she whispered. “Who forgets their first anniversary?” She shook her head, trying to wipe the tears away. “I was surprised when we both had tonight off. I figured we got lucky. You set it up, didn’t you?”

  He cocked his head to the side. “If I say yes, is it going to make you cry more?”

  She giggled. “No.”

  “Then maybe I did.” He reached over and set the Kleenex box on the table by her. “You going to be okay?”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I’m sure you can think of some way to make it up to me.”

  “I love you.”

  “See. You just made it up to me.” He winked and then pressed his lips to hers. “I love you. Always and Forever. You make me happy.” He kissed her belly. “Incredibly happy.”

  She had the urge to cry again, this time for the complete opposite reason. She swallowed back the tears, tired of the way her emotions flew to so high and low. “I couldn’t imagine my life without you. Thank you for making dinner, and the flowers.”

  “The wine’s just grape and cranberry juice mixed together. It looks like red wine that way.”

  “And the make-believe wine. Thank you for that too.”

  Elijah stood. “Let me grab the steaks out of the kitchen. I picked up twice baked potatoes from the butcher you like too. They’ll be done now.”

  While he disappeared, Charity blew her nose and wiped her face. Elijah returned carrying two plates of food. He set them in front of each of them and then held up his wine goblet. “To our baby, who still doesn’t have a name.”

  She raised her glass. “To our nameless daughter and to hundreds more and thousands more years together.”

  “Thousands?” He raised his eyebrows.

  “And hundreds of more kids together.”

  “Hundreds?”

  “Maybe we’ll just try and make hundreds more.”

  “I’m down with that.” He grinned wickedly.

  She giggled. “Shouldn’t you be ‘up’ with that?”

  “You need to stop where this conversation is headed or we won’t be eating this lovely meal I prepared for us. I’ll be throwing everything off the table to lay you on it!”

  “Okay. I’ll be good.” She purposely picked up her fork and knife and began cutting into her steak. “We do need to name this child. She can’t be peanut forever.”

  “It’ll keep the boys away when she’s a teenager.”

  “Or have the exact opposite effect.”

  “Yeah, we gotta change it.” He took a bite of his steak. “Throw some at me. Let’s see what rolls off the tongue.”

  “Alexus, Danielle, Randy—”

  “We are not naming our daughter Randy!” Elijah shook his head emphatically.

  “What’s wrong with a girl having a boy’s name?”

  “It’s not that. Randy in New Zealand is horny. As in: Are you feeling randy tonight?”

  “Scratch that one off the list.”

  “Definitely.”

  “Sarah, Sally, Stephanie?”

  “Amanda, Becky, Chelsea?”

  “Evelyn, Francis, Grace?” A pattern began to develop.

  “Hannah, uh…” Elijah’s eyebrows pressed together as he searched for a name starting with I. “Iggy?”

  Charity laughed then blinked in surprise when she thought of a name. “What about Jamie?”

  Elijah paused. “I like that. Jamie.”

  “It was my mother’s maiden name. Sort of. Lynn James.”

  “Jamie Lynn?” Elijah offered.

  “Jamie Lynn,” Charity repeated, liking the way the name rolled off her tongue. “My mom would have loved that. She used to joke about how she hated her first name.”

  “Jamie Lynn Bennet.”

  She knew he was waiting to see if she would try and add Thompson. She had no intention. Her wedding license said Bennet. “I don’t need my last name to prove who I am. I only need it at the hospital to show who I am.” She laughed. “That makes no sense, does it? Our baby is a Bennet.”

  “That’s the best anniversary gift ever.”

  “You’re sad.”

  “Ah, but you love me for it.”

  “I do.” She rolled her eyes pretending to be annoyed. The smile etched on her face probably didn’t convince him at all. “That seemed too easy.” She patted her tummy. “What do you think, Jamie?”

  They ate a few moments in comfortable silence. Elijah checked his phone. “Speaking of the hospital. Have you set things up for mat leave?”

  “I haven’t been working a year. I didn’t think I was eligible.”

  “I don’t know about pay, but you need to make sure your residence doesn’t get knocked off. I mean, we won’t let that happen but if the paperwork isn’t in, you’ll hate to have problems due to a technicality.”

  “I’m seven months now. There’s still lots of time to get everything sorted.”

  He apparently didn’t think so. “How about I get my office assistant to get you the forms?”

  “Sure.” She wasn’t going to argue.

  “What about time off? How much time are you planning on taking? You can take forever for all I care. We can just keep having babies.”

  Charity nearly spilled her cranberry-grape juice. “I don’t think so. I thought we said, we were just going to keep practicing.” She set her glass down. “Three months? Six months?”

  “I think you’re being naïve. When Jamie,” Elijah said and smiled, “chooses to show us how stinkin’ cute she is, you might never want to leave her side.”

  Charity pressed her lips together afraid if she said how she felt out loud it would make everything realer. She swallowed and took a deep breath. She loved Elijah more than anything, and she loved this baby too. “That’s what I’m afraid of. What am I going to do if I have her, and then don’t want to leave her with someone else?”

  Elijah shrugged as if the answer was easy. “Then you don’t. You stay home and raise her.”

  “It’s not that easy.”

  “Yes it is. You don’t need to be what anyone expects. You just be who you think you need to be.”

  Charity smiled.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Your mom said the same thing to me.”

  “She did?”

  “She said your dad told you that once.”

  “He did. Only piece of advice I ever listened to.” Elijah’s face turned serious. “Have you thought about what kind of doctor you want to be? Have you considered looking at being a physician instead of a surgeon?”

  Physicians examined patients, prescribed medicines, interpreted diagnostic tests. They counseled patients on preventative health care, diet, and all that kind of stuff. Surgeons operated to fix injuries, remove tumors, stop diseases. Charity was fascinated with surgery, and there was so much she still hadn’t even begun to explore. “I’m not sure what I want to do yet. Did you know what you wanted right away?”

  “I was a cocky know-it-all when I was doing my residence, but I had no idea what I wanted to specialize in. I still don’t. That’s why I love being chief of surgery. I get to do whatever I fancy.” He chuckled and took a bite of his steak. He reac
hed for her hand across the table and held it in his hand. “What do you want, Charity?”

  She answered without even thinking about it. “I want to have a healthy baby with you, and be an excellent surgeon, and…” She didn’t know what else she wanted.

  “Nothing.” Elijah finished. “Nothing else matters.”

  “Yeah.” He was right. Nothing else mattered.

  After they had finished dinner, they decided to go for a walk. The days were beginning to get longer and spring looked to have finally decided to pop its beautiful head.

  When they returned, Charity headed to the bedroom to change. “Want to watch a movie?” she called down the hall.

  “Pardon?” Elijah had gone into the kitchen to grab a whiskey.

  She slipped out of her long skirt and tugged her top off. The full-length mirror hid nothing. She stared at her reflection. Her breasts were nearly spilling out of her bra. Soft plump skin pressing against the black material. She had never been big breasted. She felt voluptuous now and wondered what they would look like if she popped open her bra.

  “What did you ask me be—” Elijah poked his head around the door. His eyes grazed hungrily over her as she stood near naked in the middle of the room holding her breasts in her hand and posing in front of the mirror. His mouth hung slightly open.

  Charity watched him and felt herself grow warm from his flagrant staring. She dragged her teeth slowly over her lower lip and slowly unclasped her bra, thankful the clasp was in the front. Her gaze never left his heated one.

  Her breasts tumbled out and she smiled when Elijah’s eyes dropped to them.

  She heard his breath catch. Raising her hand, she beckoned him once with her finger. It was all he needed.

  It took him three steps and he was less than an inch from her. It felt as if his hands roamed over every part of her as his lips crushed down against her neck. He licked, sucked and tasted his way to her lips. He tugged on the straps of her bra so it tumbled to the floor.

  Charity wanted him. Right now. She didn’t want foreplay. She wanted him inside of her, stroking and taming the fire burning deep inside of her with a heat she had never felt before. She grabbed the hem of his shirt and pushed it up, unyielding as she glided her palms against his tight abdomen and then his ribcage and over his chest.