Cherished by You

by Steph Nuss

  Since he had all the right music and knew how to cut it, Cash was my emcee for tonight. “Great! I’ll wait for them outside.”

  “I’ll be out there in a minute.”

  “This is going to be awesome,” Maverick stated, taking a seat at the bar with Seghen in his arms.

  Harper laughed. “Elly is going to be so excited.”

  I smiled at all of my hard work, eager to see all the guests enjoying themselves with finger foods and alcohol. While waiting for our guests of honor to arrive, Justin pulled me to him, anchoring me between his thighs.

  “This is really great, Tessa,” he whispered, kissing me beneath my ear.

  His stubble tickled my skin, causing a shiver to dance down my spine. Before we started dating, I wondered what type of guy Justin was. Would he hate public displays of affection, or would he participate in them freely? Now that I knew he wasn’t averse to some PDA, I took pleasure in letting everyone know he was mine. So, I turned around in his arms and drew him in for another kiss. “Thank you.”

  As our kiss deepened and Justin’s hands skated down to my ass, Bayler stated, “Nice to see he woke up and smelled the pussy!” I glanced over at her, and she had her cocktail raised in the air to us. “It’s about fucking time!”

  “Amen!” Maverick and Fletcher said in unison.

  Justin chuckled against my mouth. “What is she talking about?”

  “I’ll explain later,” I laughed, resting my forehead against his. “I have a party to host.”

  “Okay, go host.”

  I smiled at the gang and headed out the front door, where I found Cash standing with Elly and Carter, who were wearing their customized tees with jeans.

  “Why are you making us stand out here in the cold?” Elly asked, rubbing her hands together. “And why did the lights in the bar just go out?”

  The red and blue spotlights came on, highlighting the entrance to Judge’s.

  I laughed. “You have to make a grand entrance, right?”

  Cash hit the play button on his remote. The bells rang inside and sports announcer Michael Buffer’s voice boomed over the speakers, welcoming everyone to the event as 2 Unlimited’s “Get Ready For This” started playing. I took Elly and Carter’s coats and nodded at Cash.

  He opened the door for Elly. “Weighing in at one hundred and sixty-five pounds, standing at five feet, seven inches! Due on or around February 23rd, 2015! Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for Ellyson ‘Mommy Milk Maker’ Jennings!”

  Elly waddled—yes, she waddled—into the bar, showing off her huge baby bump as she went, slapping the hands of guests who held them out to her.

  “And now, weighing in at one hundred and ninety pounds, standing at six feet, two inches. The sperm donor who probably hasn’t read a single baby book! Folks, I give you, Carter ‘Daddy Diaper Changer’ Jennings!”

  Carter ran in after his wife, high-fiving guests and waving. He met Elly at the bottom of the stage and helped her walk up the steps. Cash and I walked in as the lights came back on. The crowd clapped for Elly and Carter as they took the stage together hand-in-hand.

  Cash lowered the music’s volume when we joined them on the stage. He let the cheers and clapping die down before he took to the mic again. “My name is Cash Donovan, and I’d like to welcome you all to the first-ever Jennings Olympics!”

  More cheers and whistles sounded throughout the room as people raised their glasses in the air.

  “Tonight, the gender of Baby Jennings WILL be revealed!” he continued, rousing the crowd even more. “But first, our expecting parents will have to complete three obstacles to find out the gender of their baby! Put your hands together for your host tonight, Tessa Wilder!”

  Clapping ensued as I took the mic from Cash, laughing at his fun antics. “Cash Donovan, everyone!”

  The cheers grew louder for him as he exited the stage.

  “Okay,” I started, grabbing everyone’s attention, “the Jennings Olympics will include three obstacles Elly and Carter must complete to reveal the gender of their baby.” I led Elly and Carter over to the hanging tire on the left side of the stage. “Your first obstacle is the football toss. You both must throw a football through this hanging tire a combined total of twenty-three times to reveal your first word and move on to the second obstacle.” I walked across to the other side of the stage where I had an arcade-styled double hoop shoot set up. “Your second obstacle is the hoop shoot. You each must make twenty-three baskets to reveal the second word and move on to the third and final obstacle.” I motioned for them to stay put on the stage as I jumped down and ran over to the other platform. Pointing to the dart machine situated on the wall, I smiled, knowing full well they both sucked at darts. “In the final obstacle, you must take turns standing behind the designated throw line and play a regular five-oh-one game of darts, where you’ll both start with five hundred and one points and must work your way down to twenty-three points instead of zero. When you both hit twenty-three points, the gender of your baby will be revealed! However, if either of you pass twenty-three, you bust and have to start over.

  “Who’s ready to find out the gender of Baby Jennings?” I asked enthusiastically, heading back to the stage.

  Hoots and hollers lit up the room again. I looked over to the bar to see our gang causing most of the ruckus. Even Maverick had Seghen’s little baby hand cheering, gently waving it in the air.

  I took my place next to Elly and Carter and smiled at them. “Before we start, is there anything either of you’d like to say to the audience?”

  Elly grabbed the mic and laughed. “I’d like to apologize right now to our baby as well as everyone here for any expletives that may come out of my mouth once we get started.”

  Carter smiled and took the mic from Elly’s hand. “Yeah, what she said, but I’d also like to remind my wife …” He turned to Elly and smiled. “That we’re not competing against each other tonight. This is a team effort.”

  Elly rolled her eyes and took the mic back. “I know, so you better not slack or else you’re on diaper duty for the first month after birth. Sound reasonable, ladies?”

  The women in the room cheered her on, and Elly laughed as she leaned into Carter and gave him a kiss.

  “Okay, so we’re going to get you mic’d up—”

  “We’re really going to be wearing a mic?” Elly whispered. “I was serious about the cursing thing, Tessa.”

  I nodded mischievously and waved Cash back on stage, where he proceeded to wire them up with a small mic that clipped on to the neck of their shirts.

  “I think I’m going to need a drink,” Carter muttered, signaling one of our friends at the bar.

  “Make that a water for me!” Elly added.

  Their drinks were handed up to them, and I led them back over to the football toss. A football was handed to each of them. Carter spiraled his in the air, but Elly practiced, going through the motions of her throw.

  “Okay, when you hear the whistle, you can start!” I cheered, subtly nodding at Cash as I gazed out at the crowd. “So, grab yourselves a drink and some food—”

  “There’s food?” Elly quipped excitedly.

  “You can eat later,” Carter said, shaking his head.

  I laughed and continued. “Sit back and enjoy the Jennings Olympics!”

  Cash played the music again and the Quad City DJ’s hit boomed from the speakers. The whistle sounded and Carter tossed his football first, immediately scoring their first point.

  Elly went next and her ball ricocheted off the tire and fell to the ground. Cash tossed the balls back to them, and for the next few minutes, we watched as Carter scored point after point while Elly continuously failed to get the ball through the tire.

  “Seriously, Elly?” Carter laughed. “Could you at least try to get it in the hole?”

  “That’s what she said!” Fletcher quipped loudly from the bar.

  “I’ve never thrown a football before!” she exclaimed, brows furrowed.
“And that’s a small hole!”

  Carter fixed Elly’s hands on the ball, just the way he held it with his fingers on the laces, and he showed her how to throw it. “Just like that, babe.”

  “We don’t have time for a teaching lesson, professor!” Elly stated, shaking him off. She aimed, took a step with her left foot, and threw the football at the tire. Spiraling toward the hole, we all watched closely as Elly scored their final point.

  A banner fell from the ceiling with their first word and the crowd read it aloud: “IT’S!”

  Carter smiled at her, but instead of celebrating, Elly dragged him across the stage to the double hoop shoot.

  “Come on, come on!” she said, waddling in front of him. “Don’t you want to find out what we’re having?”

  “Yes,” he laughed. “But it’s not a race.”

  “Whatever.”

  The song changed to Tag Team’s “Whoomp! There It Is” as they took their places and grabbed their basketballs. They immediately started shooting, but this time the tables turned. Elly sunk every shot she took, while Carter’s ball hit the rim and bounced out.

  I leaned down to Elly’s NBA legend dad, who stood in the front row with some of his old teammates, smiling proudly. “Keith, any words of encouragement to your son-in-law right now?”

  He laughed. “A little more arch, Carter!”

  “More arch, my ass!” Carter shouted, shaking his head in frustration. “This is shorter than a normal free throw distance!”

  “Exactly!” Elly snapped, impatiently waiting for him to finish. “Which means you should be making them easier.”

  “You’re not helping!” he stated, shooting her a glare. “Some of us didn’t spend our youth winning free throw competitions.”

  She smirked over her shoulder at the crowd. “He’s right. I still have the trophies, too.”

  Finally, Carter made his twenty-third shot, and a second banner fell from the ceiling, revealing the second word. “A!”

  “IT’S A! …” Elly cheered, grabbing Carter’s hand as he helped her down the stage. She looked back at me and asked, “Do we have bets going for the gender?”

  “Of course we do, Mommy Milk Maker!” I said, pointing toward the bar. There was a chalkboard easel set up on the bar with the bet totals for each gender. “A majority of the crowd is betting girl, but someone did place a bet for twins!”

  “Oh, God!” she shrieked, throwing her head back in laughter as she rubbed her belly. “There’s definitely only one in here! We checked!”

  Carter helped her up on the platform and they took their places behind the throw line for darts. Cash handed them three darts each and smiled as Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock’s “It Takes Two” came over the sound system.

  Elly looked at Carter with a cringe as she cracked her neck and stretched her arms. “You ready for this?”

  “They know how bad we are at darts, right?” he whispered to her.

  “Yes, we do!” I answered. “Remember your mic’d, so we can hear everything you say, even the stuff you whisper.”

  “Fuck,” he muttered, smiling. “Okay, let’s do this.”

  For the next five minutes, Elly and Carter took turns throwing darts. They were doing surprisingly well, with Elly in the lead and thirty points shy of hitting twenty-three, which was much better than how they usually performed when we hung out and played darts.

  Carter got a triple, bringing his score down to thirty. Then Elly hit two fourteens and a two, completing her part of the darts challenge by reaching twenty-three. Her buzzer went off, firing up the crowd even more as she performed a happy dance and threw her arms around Carter.

  “Come on, babe!” Elly cheered, kissing him hard on the lips. “Only seven points to go!”

  He focused hard, studying the board closely as his face grew more serious. Looking down to make sure he was behind the throw line, he placed his left foot in front of his right and rolled his shoulders to relax.

  The more he concentrated, the more eager the crowd became. I could practically hear my heart pounding in my ears as the suspense of his next three shots boiled through my system.

  His first throw landed on a one. The second hit the board and fell to the ground, leaving him still in need of a six. Taking a deep breath, he cocked his arm back and launched his third throw. The room fell silent as we watched the dart fly toward the board and eventually hit the ten.

  The machine wailed in disappointment as the crowd sighed, and Carter’s score reverted back to 501.

  “Are you fucking kidding me!?” Elly shouted, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at him. “You were this close!”

  “Hey!” Carter retorted with a smile, pointing one of his darts at her. “You knew how terrible I was at darts when you married me. Don’t act like you’re surprised I fucked this up!”

  “Well, don’t do it again!” she said, gesturing toward the board.

  “You got this, Carter!” Maverick yelled from the bar.

  Fletcher raised his beer in the air. “Make that board your bitch, man!”

  As Carter started throwing again, Cash changed the song to Europe’s “The Final Countdown,” and the crowd went absolutely nuts. Bayler started clapping to the beat and everyone joined her, turning the bar into a powerhouse riot as they sang along to the 80’s classic.

  By the time the guitar solo started, Carter’s score was already down to fifty. Then he lowered it to thirty-six. When Cash dropped the vocals on the music and cranked up the instrumentals, we all watched intensely as Carter went for thirteen.

  The first dart hit a four. The second landed on a two.

  “Here we go, again,” Elly smirked. “Seven points, Carter!”

  “Come on, man!” Cash said, patting him on the shoulder.

  “Do this for your baby!” Elly encouraged him by grabbing his free hand and putting it on her belly. “Do you feel that? It’s kicking up a storm in here for you!”

  Carter laughed and pulled his wife in for a kiss. “I’m going to rub it for good luck.”

  He rubbed the bump and then turned his attention back to the task at hand. With only one dart left in his hand, he positioned it between his thumb and fingertips and took aim. He launched it into the air and everyone held their breath.

  It stuck on a seven, and the machine went wild! A shower of blue confetti fell from the ceiling as the last banner dropped, revealing the gender: BOY!

  “IT’S A BOY!” The crowd cheered. Elly wrapped her arms around Carter’s neck. He lifted her up, spinning her pregnant ass around in a circle and then carefully lowered her feet to the stage.

  “We’re having a boy!” he yelled, before tossing back the rest of his beer.

  Smiling, I walked over to them. I was completely thrilled that everything had gone as planned, with no glitches or injuries. Gazing into the crowd, I found Justin looking right back at me, and a swarm of giddiness fluttered in my belly. He was still sitting at the bar, drink in hand, as he gestured to the excitement around him and pointed at me proudly.

  “Names!” Bayler yelled through cupped hands. “We want to know his name!”

  I laughed, turning my attention back to Elly and Carter. “Now, everyone wants to know if you guys have a name picked out?”

  Elly shot Carter a knowing look, and he nodded. “We do.”

  The crowd zipped their lips.

  “We were inspired by our moms, the women who brought us into the world,” Carter said, smiling down at his mom in the crowd. “So, we went with their maiden names.”

  “If we were going to have a girl,” Elly stated, grasping Carter’s hand tightly, “We were going to use Lucy’s maiden name and call her Copelan Karen Jennings.”

  “But since we’re having a boy,” Carter continued, placing a chaste kiss on Elly’s lips. “We’re going with Karen’s maiden name: Cooper Keith Jennings.”

  “To Cooper!” Harper proclaimed, raising her glass in the air.

  “To Cooper!”

  Cash helped
Carter and Elly remove their mics, and then Elly asked for mine. “Carter and I just want to thank everyone for coming out tonight and celebrating with us. It means the world to us to have you all here, continuously showering us with your love and support. We also want to thank our good friend, Tessa, for putting all of this together tonight. The Jennings Olympics was absolutely brilliant, even if I did want to kill Carter toward the end there!”

  Carter laughed, taking the mic from her. “We had fun, and we hope you all did, too! Please stick around for more drinks and food!”

  “Ooh yeah, food!” Elly exclaimed, as she sauntered away from him.

  “And she’s off to eat,” Carter muttered, handing the mic back to me. He leaned in and gave me a hug. “Thank you for making tonight special for us.”

  “You’re welcome,” I said, patting him on the back. “It was my pleasure. Just a reminder, Olympics usually happen ever four years, so …”

  He laughed as he pulled away from me. “Let’s see how the first kid goes, and then we’ll talk about baby number two.”

  “I love his name,” I said, gazing over at Elly, who was hugging her dad.

  “I can’t believe I’m going to have a son,” he stated heartily, the smile widening on his face.

  “You’re going to be a great dad, Carter.” I started toward the bar to join Justin, but before I got too far, I glanced over my shoulder and added, “But you might want to let Elly teach him how to shoot hoops.”

  “Ha ha, very funny!” he smirked, shaking his head.

  When I reached the bar, Justin took me in his arms. I instantly felt like I was home again, melting into his warmth as I grabbed his face and pulled his lips down to mine.

  “I’m so proud of you,” he murmured, holding me tight.

  “Thank you.” I ran my fingers through his soft hair and cupped the back of his neck.

  His mouth found mine again, causing a fury of want and need to swirl deep in my belly as his tongue gracefully coiled around mine. I sighed into him and handed over the rest of my breaths as I deepened our kiss, delighting in the yummy tart taste of the whiskey sour lingering on his tongue. His hands crawled down my back and latched onto the globes of my ass.