After You

by Sam Mariano

  Stomping down the hallway, she stops in the doorway. Her flowy flag-print dress swings as she plants a hand on her hip and scowls at me. “I don’t want to wear that one, I wanna wear the sparkly one with the pom poms.”

  “And I want an unpacking fairy to poof into existence and put all my clothes away,” I tell her. “Sometimes we don’t get what we want.”

  I’m still wearing pajama bottoms at the moment, but Cassidy eyes up the white lace shirt I have on. “That’s pretty.”

  “Thank you.”

  Plopping down on our bed, she swings her legs. “Daddy hid it, didn’t he?”

  I bite back a smile. The day Cassidy and I brought home her weird headband, Derek immediately vetoed it. “I think your daddy is afraid of aliens,” I inform her.

  “It’s not an alien headband,” she insists.

  “What I’m saying is, you should tell him that you understand why he hid your headband, since he’s so afraid of aliens. Tell him it’s okay that he’s a scaredy cat, you totally understand, and you’ll wear the headband you don’t like as much so as not to scare him.”

  Understanding dawns and she grins, hopping off my bed and running down the hallway to torture Derek.

  I grin to myself and go back to searching through boxes.

  As expected, he comes into the bedroom a few minutes later. His strong arms wrap around me from behind. I’ve found the shorts, now I’m moving hangers in the closet, trying to find my red blazer.

  “Scaredy cat, huh?” he asks.

  Shrugging my shoulders innocently, I tell him, “I call ‘em like I see ‘em.”

  “I am not afraid of aliens. I mean, if someday they invade the planet and enslave all of us, I won’t be a big fan, but I am not afraid of them.”

  “Of course not,” I murmur, patting his hand reassuringly.

  “You’re a pest,” he informs me, moving my hair away from my neck and pressing his lips there. “Good thing you’re so sexy.”

  Chuckling, I murmur, “Otherwise you’d get rid of me, huh?”

  “Mm.” His lips move along the curve of my shoulder and he looks down the front of my low-cut top. “Jesus Christ, your boobs look amazing in this. I think we need to hit the brakes on getting ready and ‘make the bed’ again.”

  “We’re already late,” I remind him, untangling myself from his embrace and plucking my red blazer off its hanger. “And Cassidy is already mad at you for not wearing appropriately patriotic clothing; let’s not further aggravate her by keeping her from the cook-out even longer.”

  “I’m wearing blue,” he says, vaguely defending himself. “Blue is one of the three colors you two dorks are wearing.”

  Turning to look at him while I shrug my red blazer on over my white top and pull my long hair out the back, I lift my eyebrows. “Do you really think calling me a dork is the best way to get laid?”

  His eyes rake over my body lazily, a smile spreading across his handsome face. “God, you’re beautiful.”

  My insides go soft and I sigh, pressing my body to his, winding my arms around his neck, and brushing my lips against his. “That’s much more likely to work.”

  “Yeah?” he asks with interest.

  “Maybe I’ll let you cash in on that bathroom quickie we never got around to at the last cook-out,” I suggest.

  “Maybe we could never talk about that terrible day again,” he counters.

  I smile, pecking him on the lips again. “Will Mallory be there today?”

  “I don’t know. Probably. Are you still gonna be mean to me about it?”

  I shake my head and hold up my left hand to show him my beautiful ring. “Nope. I’ve got this now; she’s the one who’s going to be mad.”

  When we get to party, Cassidy immediately abandons us to go play with her friends. Her flag print dress goes flying as she runs, her long dark hair bounces, and her pom pom headband catches every glint of sun. I smile as Derek’s hand settles around my waist and he murmurs, “I maintain she looks like an alien.”

  “The cutest alien ever,” I add.

  All the same people from the pool party are at the 4th of July bash. I could still take or leave most of them, but Joanna is just as friendly now as she was the day I left Derek at the party. I don’t foresee close friendships developing with most of these women, but I can maybe see myself becoming friends with Joanna. I know Derek enjoys friends more than I do, so a life with him is going to mean more socializing than I’m accustomed to. Cassidy is the same way, so as the sole introvert in this family, I’m going to have to compromise.

  She leads me to the food table so I can put down the giant bowl of watermelon wedges we brought. The cook-out is hosted by Simon and Sienna, like the pool party was, but today everyone brought a dish to share. There are sealed bags of chips, a clear plastic container of brownies, bowls of macaroni salad and pasta salad, and an especially pungent cake pan full of some kind of dip that turns my stomach.

  Bracing a hand on the edge of the table, I close my eyes and will myself not to gag.

  Joanna lightly touches my arm, her voice laced with concern. “Are you okay?”

  “You didn’t bring that dip, did you?”

  She glances at the dip. “That? No.”

  “Good, it smells like garbage.”

  Startled laughter slips out of her. “I thought it smelled pretty good.”

  “It just smells… too much. I need to get away from this table.”

  Tapping me on the arm, she says, “You know what’s funny?”

  “Hm?”

  Chuckling to herself, she says, “Mallory made the dip.”

  ---

  After many hours of playing in sprinklers, running around with sparklers, eating grilled meat with summer sides, watching the men try to blow their hands off with fireworks they shouldn’t be handling while drinking beer, and socializing to the point of exhaustion, night has finally fallen. Now that it’s dark, Cassidy has made her way back to us. Derek put a blanket down on the lawn for us to sit on. I’m nestled between his legs with his arms secured around me. Cassidy plops down on the blanket in front of us, crossing her legs and putting her unicorn in her lap.

  “Princess Purple is really excited for the fireworks,” she announces.

  “Oh, is she?” Derek asks.

  Cassidy nods, her pom poms bobbing on her headband. “She told me so.”

  I smile as she starts talking to Princess Purple. Leaning my head back on Derek’s shoulder, I bend my head and pucker my lips for a kiss. He smiles and plants one on me.

  “Kissing under the fireworks is pretty romantic,” I tell him.

  “It is. I should’ve saved the proposal for tonight.”

  “It’s okay, you couldn’t stand to live another day unless you could be my fiancé. I fully understand.”

  “Mm, fiancé,” he murmurs, tugging me back and kissing me again.

  “For a little while longer, anyway,” I murmur against his lips.

  We’ve already discussed the wedding—more importantly, my lack of desire for one. I want to be married to Derek, but prancing around in a giant cupcake dress in a room full of people whose eyes will all be focused on me much of the time—that’s the kind of horror that causes me to jolt awake in bed, covered in a cold sweat. Derek suggested we could elope to Vegas, but Vegas isn’t for me. As much as I don’t want to say my vows in a room full of mostly strangers, I also don’t want to utter them in front of en Elvis impersonator.

  Instead, we’re going to have a quiet courthouse ceremony followed up by a small get-together at the park so the kids can play. Alex is now aware of Derek being in my life again, but he hasn’t met grown-up Derek, and he still heartily disapproves of the version he remembers. I figured since we’ve made it this far, we’ll just wait until the wedding so it’s too late for Alex to try to talk me out of marrying him.

  The fireworks finally start. Cassidy oohs and ahhs with every colorful pop that explodes in the sky. I haven’t watched fireworks in years; I’d fo
rgotten how loud they were. I feel every pop in my chest, and my accelerating heart doesn’t help. Derek may not have held onto his proposal to ask under fireworks for dramatic effect, but I held onto a little something.

  When the time seems right and the sky is stained with the aftermath of pink and red fireworks, I tilt and lean close to his ear. “You know what I think we should do this weekend?”

  “Naked bedtime stories?” he offers back.

  “Well, yes. I have a new book for us to start tonight. But no, that’s not what I was going to say.”

  “What were you going to say?”

  I wait for the next pop to sound so he’ll be able to hear me, then I tell him, “I think we should start looking for a bigger house.”

  Lifting an eyebrow in surprise, he says, “Now? We haven’t even finished unpacking all your stuff. I thought we were going to wait until next year.”

  “Well, yeah, that was the plan.” Another pair of consecutive pops in the sky. Leaning closer, I murmur in his ear, “But someone can’t keep his hands to himself during adult bedtime stories.”

  He couldn’t be more surprised. “You want to start trying?”

  I shake my head no and wait for the next pop before I tell him, “I don’t think we’re going to have to.” He frowns slightly, not quite connecting the dots. “Derek, I’m more than three weeks late.”

  Now understanding dawns and his blue eyes widen. “You’re pregnant?”

  “Shh,” I say, my gaze snapping to Cassidy. She is busy watching the fireworks, so she didn’t hear him. Looking back at Derek, I tell him, “I haven’t had time to take a test yet, but symptoms are starting to pile up, and I feel like I am, if that makes sense. And we did risk it a few times since you can’t be bothered to keep a steady supply of condoms.”

  “Oh, my God, Nikki,” he says, wrapping his arms around me and squeezing me tight. “Are you—I mean, are you mad, happy, not sure yet? This is kind of my fault.”

  “This is definitely kind of your fault,” I agree, smiling tenderly and kissing him on the lips. “But I’m happy. Really happy.”

  “We’re gonna have a baby,” he says, in mild disbelief.

  “Hopefully a girl, or there will be hell to pay,” I half-joke, nodding my head in Cassidy’s direction.

  Derek laughs, squeezing me again. “I can’t believe this. Holy shit. You and me… we’re gonna have a baby.”

  I nod my head. “I’d put a lot of money on it. We can’t tell Cassidy until I take a test and there’s solid evidence, but… I mean, if I’m not pregnant, I’m probably dying, because my body is not doing what it should be. When Mallory was eating that horrid dip in front of us earlier, I thought I was going to throw up all over her.”

  “Is that why you walked away? I thought you were just being salty.”

  “Nope, I was trying not to vomit. Not to spare her, of course, I just didn’t want to blow the pregnancy reveal when I knew there would be literal fireworks tonight.”

  “Always thinking on your feet,” he replies.

  “I know it’s sooner than we expected, but if we’re going to have a baby, I think it might be better to move sooner rather than later. My stuff is already mostly packed so we’d only have to pack yours and Cassidy’s. I know she likes her current bedroom, but now that my house sold and my Dreamcatcher royalties are coming at the end of this month, we can afford a much bigger, nicer place. She’ll have a bigger bedroom, maybe even a designated play room, a bigger backyard to play in…”

  “Yeah, I mean, I didn’t even want you for your money, but…”

  I narrow my eyes at his playful ribbing and elbow him. “Keep it up, Noble; I won’t let you have any of it.”

  Derek shakes his head, reminding me of the day I informed him we didn’t have to pay off a mortgage on my house, that aside from the fees, the price the new buyers paid is the amount that will be showing up in our new joint checking account. “Who pays for their house with cash up front? You’re a freak.”

  “I’ll make sure the house I buy for me and Cassidy has a nice big dog house just for you,” I inform him.

  “This is what I get for marrying a girl boss,” he states, shaking his head in mock disappointment.

  “You’re lucky you liked me when I was dirt poor,” I tell him. “Otherwise I’d make you sign a pre-nup.”

  Laughter shoots out of him and he squeezes my side. “You probably would.”

  “I still might,” I warn him, just to be cheeky. “I haven’t decided yet.”

  “Doesn’t matter to me. Now that I’ve got you, I’m never letting you go.”

  I lean my head back and steal one more soft kiss. “Damn right, you’re not.”

  Epilogue

  My whole world begins and ends in a pair of expressive blue eyes. Peace and love the likes of which I could have never imagined at one time flow through me now as I linger beside our shaded picnic table and rock my three-month-old son in my arms. Jamie Reid Noble—the little beam of sunshine that lit up every last darkened corner of my heart.

  It’s a perfect day to spend in the backyard. There’s no more than a light breeze, the sun keeps peeking out from behind the clouds, and Derek and Cassidy are playing on the elaborate playground while I keep the baby happy. It’s the easiest job in the world. Jamie is the happiest, most laidback baby imaginable. Most of his waking hours are spent stealing hearts with his big, ocean blue eyes, or doling out gummy, drool-laced smiles like he’s getting paid for them.

  From the top of the rock-climbing wall, Cassidy calls out, “Mom, watch this!”

  “I’m watching,” I assure her, watching as she runs across the cedar platform, plops down atop the yellow slide, and slides down with her arms in the air.

  “See?” she calls back.

  I smile at her. “Wow, you were so fast!”

  She nods her head, then goes over to the tire swing, hops on, and tells Derek to push her.

  Jamie makes a little noise, so my gaze snaps back to him. It’s a warm day, but when I had him in just a onesie, I noticed his chubby little legs were getting cold, so I wrapped him up in a blanket. “Are you getting warm, sweetie?”

  His beautiful blue eyes focus on my face and he smiles up at me. He’s too sweet not to kiss, so I bend my head and pepper his soft hair with kisses.

  “Mommy can never kiss you enough, did you know that? You’re just too kissable. What are we gonna do about it?”

  He grins up at me like I just told the best joke he’s ever heard. I grin and hug him closer, rocking back and forth.

  I have the best life.

  When I look back at the playground, Derek is looking at me, so I wave him over. He slows Cassidy down on the swing until she stops, then they make their way across the lawn.

  “I think it’s time to go inside,” I call out.

  “Aw, man,” Cassidy complains. “Just ten more minutes?”

  I shake my head. “It’s almost bath time for you, honey.”

  Derek makes it to me first, stopping in front of me and grabbing Jamie’s tiny hand. He places a kiss against the back of it and Jamie’s arms escape their blanket prison so he can reach out for Derek.

  “You want Daddy, huh?” he asks, smirking as he lifts him out of my arms.

  Sighing, I rest a hand on Derek’s muscular back and lean my head on his shoulder, peering down at Jamie. I swear, staring at his happy little face is an addiction for which there is no cure. I could do it every hour of every day and never grow desensitized to his intense levels of cuteness. “He’s so great,” I gush.

  “Pretty much the best male baby any Noble has ever helped produce,” he agrees.

  “I’m pretty fond of at least two of them,” I tease.

  Derek smiles and leans back, giving me a kiss. “You better be. I’ve got you on lockdown now.”

  “Keep telling yourself that,” I toss back, rolling my eyes playfully.

  Lifting an eyebrow and his left hand to show me his wedding band, he says, “Hey, I have a contr
act now. I’m pretty sure it stipulates if you ever try to leave me, I can lock you in our bedroom and refuse to let you out until you come to your senses.”

  “I think you should have read that marriage license a little more closely, buddy. Those were not the terms.”

  “I’m pretty sure those were the exact terms,” he disagrees. “Frankly, I think they’re generous. We have a nice, big bedroom now, so it’s not like you’ll be locked in a closet.”

  “And I’m sure you’ll bring me treats.”

  “My captive wife will be well-fed,” he assures me.

  “And books,” I add.

  “Adult bedtime stories will continue to be an institution.”

  I nod my head confidently. “Then I agree to these terms.”

  Cassidy shakes her head at us, then reaches up and rubs Jamie’s little foot. “They’re so crazy, aren’t they, Jamie?”

  Now he grins at her and his whole body stiffens with excitement because she’s speaking to him. Cassidy leans in and lightly pinches his cheek. He gazes at her like she’s the most interesting person in the whole entire world, his blue eyes following her every movement.

  It’s funny how much they already adore each other. When we first discovered the baby in my protruding belly had a penis, Cassidy was pretty bummed. We tried to get her excited about having a little brother instead of a little sister, but it wasn’t until Mike brought her to the hospital to meet Jamie that she warmed to the idea. Once we brought him home and he won her over with his cuteness, she started introducing him to her unicorns, dolls, and all the things she wanted to do with a little sister. She concluded she could probably do all those things with a little brother, too.

  She loves to be my little helper, too. Since Jamie is so young, he still sleeps a lot. During the week when Derek is at work, I set up Jamie in his swing or his bassinet in my office and work for as long as he’ll let me. Once Cassidy gets home from school, she’s my little errand girl if I need a new burp cloth or a change of clothes for him. She often reminds me to eat too, and brings me a snack when I get in the zone while he naps and forget about my own needs.