El will be mad. I know it. I feel it in my bones as I tiptoe up the stairs. The house is quiet, everyone has gone to bed. It was a long drive, the traffic made it worse. I open the door to our bedroom and pause.
It’s empty.
No fucking way am I sleeping alone. I want to cuddle. Until last night, I had never been spooned from behind. I like it very much. I spin on my heels and cross over to her room. It’s locked. I knock. I get no response at first, then the shuffling of someone behind the door and the handle finally twists open.
El yawns. She stands in the way so I can’t get in or even hug her. I pout. I want my wife.
“Baby.”
She slaps my hands. “I’m not your baby.”
Laughter trickles out of my lips. She’s cute with her bonnet and scowl. I rest one hand on the door while the other tries to draw her in for a hug. She slaps my chest, once, twice till she’s raining punches on me.
“I told you not to go anywhere and you le
“Baby.”A smile curves my lips. I roll to the side without opening my eyes to reach for my wife.“Good morning, baby,” I mumble through the haze in my head, giving up on the search for El.I wait for the kisses, the hugs, her warm body pressing to mine but nothing happens. I touch something soft, one eye opens and I sit up once I see the twins. Her side of the bed is still warm but El is missing.Someone said baby. I’m sure of that. Squinting at them, I ask, “What did you call me?”“Baby,” Wyn answers.She is sporting the same gown as Bren. It has been months since they matched outfits and my heart warms at the sight. I inch closer to pull them in for a hug, they break away from it fast with a frown.Bren sits on one side of me, Wyn takes the other side. I am blessed among girls. “Why does Mummy call you baby?” Bren looks so serious asking
We are in our cocoon of happiness when El says, “I like you, Brandon.” She brings my hand to her chest and I touch my forehead to hers. We still need to talk about the diary, Brianna’s future. “I really do.” “Love,” I correct. “You love me, El.” “I love you, Brandon.” Her eyes close, she breathes me in. I feel like an ass for ruining the moment but we cannot truly move forward if she doesn’t know the truth. I fear she will reject Brianna. But I shouldn’t be scared. This is El. “I owe you an apology too,” I say. My fingers run through her hair and she hums in approval. El wraps herself around me, hides her face in my chest. My jaw rests on her head, the position lends me strength I didn’t know I needed and my shoulders fall in relief. This shouldn’t be hard to talk about. “For what?” “For what I said. You were not the reason my life was falling apart at that point.” It was as a result of my mistakes. If I didn’
“So Vincent gave you this?” El holds up the worn-out diary. I nod. She stares at it in shock. “Wow.”“He wanted to see Brianna,” I explain.“Because he’s her uncle,” she finishes for me. “I cannot believe this.” Neither did I at first.She flips a few more pages and raises her head. “He has seen Brianna, right?” Another nod. Her curiosity is cute as she devours the content of Nicole’s diary, something I have not been able to bring myself to do. I know the most important bit already. “Do you need to seek his permission before adopting her?” “Dunno.” But I will most likely not be doing that. El adjusts her legs on my lap and pushes herself up the pillow with one elbow. I don’t know why I’m reluctant to tell her the truth of his death. “Are you done?”She raises the diary and shrieks. “Done?
Our first stop is Joshua’s house. El presses the horn so hard I have to plug my fingers in my ears. She’s one wild woman. My wild woman. The front door of Joshua’s house flies open. He doesn’t look happy.Why is he at home anyways?Joshua storms to our car. “What the fuck, El?”She opens the door for him. “Get in.”Joshua sends me a careful look. We don’t get to meet bossy El often. We don’t know how to handle her. Joshua slides into the backseat without a word, he fixes me a stern frown through the rearview mirror. I shrug. I have no idea what’s going on yet except for our location. Yeah, she is driving us home.We resume the drive, at intervals, El’s eyes dart to the GPS. I should be driving but the stubborn woman won’t let me. Joshua’s eyes bore holes into the back of my head but I’m uninterested in putting him out of his misery. He didn&r
El is quiet.She doesn’t tell me what Mother told her. I maintain my facade of ignorance throughout the ride home. Joshua spares me worried glances through the rearview mirror as El curls against me in the backseat. She’s in shock.On her order, Joshua stops at a supermarket for her to get some stuff. It takes only a few minutes and she returns to the car with a paper bag she makes both of us swear never to touch without her consent. Once Joshua drives into our compound, she shoots out of the car without so much as a backward glance.El’s not changing her mind about us making babies, is she? If she doesn’t want more kids, I can learn to live with it but I would appreciate it if she told me that. We need to communicate better. I’ll listen to her.Joshua gets out of the car at the same time as me. He hugs me tight. I hug him tighter.Questions linger in his eyes but he doesn’t voice any of them ou
El won’t stop squirming. Maybe because I am fingering her. Her eyelids flutter as she tries not to make a sound, the naughty part of me takes that as a challenge and I push another finger inside her vagina. She glares at me through the mirror, her nails sink into the drawer but I don’t stop. I don’t want to stop.We’re getting ready for the doctor’s appointment. We need to make sure before we announce it.El’s phone rings. Her mother. Mischief crawls into my eyes, my leg goes between hers to separate them. The warning in her eyes inspires me to be naughty, I unzip her skirt and drag her panties down her ass.“Pick,” I whisper into her ear. I cup her ass. “Pick, baby.” She moans in protest and I spank her. “Pick.”The phone stops ringing, El heaves a sigh. I chuckle when the phone begins ringing. My dick pokes her cunt, a whimper leaves her lips and she flattens her h
El’s stomach is covered in a clear gel. I wink when her head rolls to my side. The doctor runs a hand held object over her belly while paying attention to the screen. At first, there’s nothing on the screen, then I see it. A white blob on the black screen. His finger halts on the screen, directly above the blob. “Can you hear it?” he asks. I dart a glance at El. “No?” He moves that object on her stomach again and my hand tightens around hers. “If you listen closely, you can hear the heartbeats.” I nod at the screen, paying rapt attention to what he is trying to tell us. Then I hear it—the gentle sound of a thumping heart. El does too. I palm her hands between mine. Our baby. “Nails start to form at this point, see?” The image on the screen is a bit blurry like we are watching a movie on a black and white TV. I don’t see nails or hair or anything he talks about. I just see my boy or the tiny human that’s my boy. He looks big.
“Are you tired of me yet?” I tease.Ava doesn’t find the humour in my statement. Her face is void of emotions. It’s weird because this is my first time seeing her without a hint of a smile. She drops her notepad on the stool beside her couch.“A bit.”My expression dampens. It prompts her to sit up and offer me a small smile.“You missed my calls. Ignored my texts and emails.” Hearing her list them out makes me sound like an asshole. “We have discussed this before. If you need a break, it’s okay but you must inform me before going MIA. We were making such great progress and you disappeared without a word.” It feels like I am getting scolded by my favourite teacher. She lets out a small sigh. “I was worried.”I kick out my legs. “I’m sorry.”“It’s fine. How are you?”Perfect and living my best life. It has