You're right.That's all the text from Nicholas says. Despite its terseness, I know exactly what he's talking about. We haven't spoken since our conversation about Homecoming a few weeks ago. I'd left him with lots to think about. But he's a good kid. His dad may be a dick, but stepdad Aaron's been around a while, and before that, my brothers and I made sure Nicky had good male role models. I text him back as soon as I pull into Quincy's lot and park my car.Me: I'm glad you think so. Now what are you going to do about it?Nicky: I asked her if she wanted to go on a real date with me. Before the dance. Me: And? Nicky: And we're going to the movies tomorrow night.Me: No expectations of sex?Nicky: Nope. I've been sitting with her at lunch a couple times a week. And we've partnered up in biology. She's actually really cool. Me: I figured she probably was. Now treat her like a lady and get to know the person she is with her clothes on before you wonder what she's like with her clothe
The first thing that pops up on the screen is a woman on a bed and a man is with her. With his head between her legs for a very long time. And now there's nipples, lots and lots of nipples. And his head is still between her legs."Still trying to convince yourself it's not high-budget porn?" I joke, trying to break the sexual tension that has sprung up again."Oh my god, this is so awkward," she replies, eyes still on the screen. Her ears turn bright red, which is apparently her version of a blush. She looks so uncomfortable. I sip my beer and munch popcorn, ignoring the woody in my pants from imagining that it's Quincy and me on the screen. When all else fails, insert humor. "Man, he's really going at it, isn't he?""Would you shut up?" She laughs and smacks my arm. "This is weird enough without you making jokes.""Sorry. I'll just sit here quietly while we watch the non-porn." She rolls her eyes but smiles anyway.Two hours later, Jamie and Claire have gone at it multiple times, all
"Daniel!" she yells as she trembles. I continue flicking and plunging, licking and tasting, until she goes still. It takes a few minutes for her to catch her breath, during which I kiss up and down her legs and back. Finally, she's coherent enough to speak again. "That was...." she says breathlessly. "That was amazing."I smile as I stand up and kiss the spot behind her ear, making her shiver. "That's just the beginning, too.""I guess it's my turn." I can hear the anticipation when she says it, but I have other things planned."Nope," I say. "I'm not done with you yet.""Watching high-budget porn turns you on, huh?" she jokes, still bent over the bed. I love that she hasn't changed positions or tried to cover up. She's not ashamed of what we've done or wanting more."Oh, it wasn't the porn. It was those damn shorts you had on." I kiss the back of her neck again, making her shiver. "And your soft, silky hair." I take a handful of it and pull her head back so I can kiss below her jaw,
I startle awake when someone slaps me across the face. My eyes are open, but nothing around me is registering.A bedroom. Not my bedroom, and not a hotel room. I get another smack, making me turn to look at my assailant. A toothless baby stares back at me, smiling and drooling.Last night comes back to me. We didn't have sex once. We didn't have it twice. No, we woke up two more times and ended up having sex three times. And it was all fucking fantastic. Even when we were half asleep.I shouldn't think about that kind of thing with a baby staring at me. That's kind of creepy, even for me."Hey, kid," I say. He really is a cute kid. "What are you doing in bed? Aren't you supposed to be in your crib?"He waves his naked arms and legs excitedly, like he's swimming. He's wearing nothing but a diaper."That exciting, huh?" He squeals. "Tell ya what, why don't we go find Quincy and see if I can't treat you guys to breakfast. What do you think of that?" He farts. I laugh. "I'll take that as
It feels like there's a sledgehammer in my head, and it's trying to demolish something, although I'm not sure what. Peeling my eyes open, the single ray of sunlight coming through my blinds makes the pounding worse. But something feels off so I power through it.I vaguely remember falling asleep while snuggling with Daniel on the couch and then waking up in the middle of the night to throw up. But the memory is blurry. Could it have been a dream?I roll over and look at the clock: 2:37 p.m.Not only have I been asleep all day, I was asleep all night. That means Chance hasn't eaten in… maybe as long as eighteen hours. Oh no!I jump out of bed, which, feeling like I do means I drag my feet over the side, try desperately not to vomit, and shuffle my way to the door. He's not crying, which makes my heart pound even harder. Oh god. I hope he's okay. How did I sleep so long? What is wrong with me? Maybe that blurry memory wasn't a dream after all. It's hard to think with my head pounding lik
"Okay, buddy, give me one second, and I'll get you a new bottle." I shift him on my hip as I balance his diaper bag, my gym bag, and the key to unlock the door to Quincy's apartment. He squeals and gets hold of my nose. "Yes, I know it's big. But it's not a toy." He lets go when his attention is diverted somewhere else as the door opens. "Here," I say as I throw everything on the couch and get him situated in his ExerSaucer. "You need to get some energy out. How about you bounce up and down for a while?" Sure enough, as soon as his feet hit the floor, he starts moving them as fast as he can. It looks like he's running without actually going anywhere. One of my nephews used to do that. It cracks me up."Quincy?" I call. I check her bedroom. The shower is running so I assume she's feeling well enough to clean up. That's a good sign. I strip the sheets off the bed and throw them in the washer, making faces and farty noises at the baby when I walk by.We're guys. I know how to entertain h
Her question gives me pause. I know I should want Geni to come over and relieve me as soon as she can. I mean, I have to work again tomorrow. And we're just dating, not in an official relationship or anything. But strangely, I don't want to leave her like this. I want to stay and take care of her and the baby. It's a strange feeling. "Uh… I think we'll be okay for one more night. I have an out-of-town game this weekend, so I definitely can't stay past tomorrow.""I'll take over for you starting tomorrow night. Will that work?""Perfect." The thermometer beeps, and I pull it out of Quincy's mouth. She settles in on the couch again as I read it out loud. "One oh two point seven.""Damn," Geni says."I gotta go. I need to get some more medicine in our girl and feed the baby before my mom gets here with dinner.""Your mom is bringing you guys dinner?" Geni sounds overly excited by this tidbit of information."Her chicken noodle soup."Geni laughs. "Quincy is gonna kill you when she's coher
"I'm so glad I got my flu shot," Geni says over the sound of her clippers. "You looked terrible.""Uh-huh." I pretend to ignore her and sweep the hair from my last client into a pile on the floor. Geni's been making it a point to lecture me all week about how dumb it was not to get vaccinated. Never mind that it's the only time I've been sick the entire five years I've known and worked with her."I'm serious," she says. "I've never seen you look so bad. You're lucky Daniel was there to - "Her voice is drowned out when I start up the vacuum to get rid of the hair. The timing doesn't go unnoticed by her, and she glares at me. I glare right back. "I'm just saying," she says as soon as the noise dies down, making me huff in annoyance. She's not going to let this go. "It's a good thing Daniel was there to take care of you. I don't know how I would have been able to do it without him. Don't you think it was dumb for her not to get her flu shot?" she asks her client, Mike."I haven't had a
The snick of the lock unlatching when I wave my key fob in front of the door is the first real sign that life is going back to normal. Well, as normal as life can be after a new little human has come into the world. But as I step through the door and into the newsroom, I realize nothing has changed. The scanners are still squawking. Reporters are still making calls and typing. Televisions still glow with every local station and CNN ready to be monitored. The only difference is the person at the assignment desk."Hi Tom," I greet as I grab a huge stack of mail I'll need to sort through upstairs. There's too much to go through down here."Tiffany." He tips his head at me and goes back to his business. Tom took over for Caleb when he moved upstairs. He's a little older than everyone else in the newsroom. His hair and neatly trimmed beard are almost gray. He's pleasant enough, just sticks to himself. We definitely don't have the same kind of rapport Caleb and I use to have.That also mean
Rowen makes sure we're all settled before kissing me on the top of the head and throwing on his sweats. "What do you want to eat? My mam brought bangers and mash.""I'll leave that for you," I joke, knowing it's his favorite. "But do we still have any of that grilled chicken salad? I don't know why but it sounds really good.""Yep. I'll go grab it for you."The last three months have been an adjustment, but overall, it's gone really well. Cace is a great baby, but I didn't expect anything less with him being Rowen's child. Well, that's not exactly true. A part of me always remembered Ryan is his grandfather, so I know there's some ornery in there waiting to come out. But for the most part, he's very docile. Cries when he's hungry, fusses when he's wet, but otherwise even-tempered. And my in-laws have been wonderful. Sure, the men argue all the time about the safest way to hold the baby or the best cleaning products. Denise and I just laugh at the ridiculousness and let them hash it ou
"Keep doing that," I moan, grabbing Rowen's hair and pulling him closer to my core. His tongue still does magical things to my lady parts and today, he's going to town. Licking, nipping, and sucking as he inserts two fingers inside me, hitting just the right spot. "Oh, that's it. Right there… ohgod…"My orgasm hits me fast and hard, just the way I like it these days. He continues to suck on my clit as the waves overtake me, riding me to that sated feeling I love. But he's not done yet.As soon as I've come back down to earth, he kisses up my body, paying special attention to the scar that now mars my abdomen. When I look at my stomach, I see flabby skin that hasn't tightened up yet and a knife wound. But Rowen tells me it's beautiful. That it's a reminder of the sacrifice I made to give him the best gift he's ever received - our son. Coming from anyone else, I'd say they were full of shit. But coming from Rowen, I know he means every word. Because of it, I still feel beautiful. It al
"I know you'll be here when you can, Mom," I say through FaceTime on my phone. "Really, all we're going to do for the next few weeks is sleep and eat anyway. Maybe bathe."Stroking the top of my son's head, I watch as he suckles on my breast. Yes, the dull pain of breastfeeding is there, but that doesn't take away the surreal feeling of being a new mom. It's amazing."I know." My mom sighs. "I'm just mad at myself. Of all the times to fall down some steps and break an ankle, this is the worst."I giggle lightly. "I still can't believe you did it at the gym.""And right after my kickboxing class too! I had just shown everyone what a badass I am, and three steps took me out.""Any muggers with ill intentions better beware of running into you in a back alley. Unless there are stairs involved." "Well, hopefully in the next few weeks, the doctor will clear me for travel. Then I'll be on the first plane there.""Sounds good to me." Baby Cace squeaks and pulls away from my breast, nuzzling h
The thoughts are overwhelming. I've never been this happy in my life, and I've only seen him for a split second. Lifting my head, I look around trying to catch another glimpse. Apparently, I'm not as subtle as I think I am."Would you like to see your son? You can go over there."Nodding, I stand up and follow the person over to a small table where my son is lying down, clearly unhappy by being poked and prodded. I don't blame him. I wouldn't like if all my glory was on display in front of these strangers either."Can I… can I touch him?" I ask tentatively, not sure what I'm allowed to do right now."Absolutely," the person says. "And talk to him. Babies like familiar voices."Slowly, I get closer, still in awe that I'm looking at my son. My son. It feels like I'm walking through a dream. Reaching down, I touch his tiny hand which immediately stretches and grabs my finger. The contact makes me suck in a breath. He's real. This is real. It's not a dream at all."Hello there, mo mhac. I'
I have dreamed about this day for months. Thought about every scenario on how it could happen. Planned for any situation. Prepared myself in every possible way.Except this one.Not one part of me anticipated I'd be standing in the hallway of the hospital wearing drab green scrubs with a matching surgical cap, waiting to join my wife in an operating room. And yet here I am, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't more nervous than I've ever been in my life.It's not just the operation. Yes, that is my immediate concern. As much as I like Dr. Hermann, he's getting ready to cut Tiffany open and pull our son out through a gaping wound. I'm sure there's more to it than that, but it basically boils down to that, and it's scary. What if he cuts the wrong part and he can't stop the bleeding? What if he accidentally cuts my child? What if she gets a major infection? The horrific possibilities are terrifying.Taking a breath to refocus my thoughts, I try to remember all the positives. Tiffany won't
I can practically feel his surprise when he shifts, situating us face-to-face. Thankfully, my doctor and my father-in-law have started chatting again, so Rowen and I can have some privacy. "Tiffany, this is just a change in the play. You of all people know how easily it can happen. I know this isn't soccer, but it's not that different. We go into every match with a plan, but sometimes it doesn't go like we expected. There's an injury or a new goalie." I smirk at his reference to the issues the team had early in the season. "The objective is always the same, but how we get there doesn't matter as long as we do. It's the same thing here. It doesn't matter how he gets here as much as it matters that it happens safely for both of you."I sniff again, but my tears have all but dried up. "We've been deflected."He nods and smiles at me. "Exactly. It's a change of play. But in the end, when we're holding him and taking care of him, we'll forget about everything except that we won."I chuckle
A low murmuring pulls me from sleep. I know it's only been a couple hours, but I feel so much better than I did. Damn that epidural for being as amazing as everyone said it would be.Peeling my eyes open, I roll slightly onto my back to see Dr. Hermann and Ryan chatting like old friends. A few seconds of eavesdropping and I finally catch the source of their newfound connection - Ireland. Apparently, Dr. Hermann spent a summer backpacking through Europe and caught a couple games when Ryan was in his prime and playing in front of his hometown fans. I'm sure the tales are tall right now, but at least their relaxed chatter means nothing wrong is happening on my side of the room.Glancing around, I finally catch sight of my husband who is sleeping soundly. I'm glad to see him getting some rest. He's been trying so hard to be strong for me. It's not gone unnoticed. But at last count he'd been awake for thirty hours. It was wearing on him."Ah, iníon sa dlí, yer awake."Ryan steps toward me a
Another eight hours. Another one centimeter dilated. Almost. I may be rounding up out of my own feeling of desperation. This entire experience is not at all like I expected. Not that I knew what was supposed to happen. Sure, we'd taken a birthing class one Saturday, but that was months ago when our schedules allowed us both to be there. And it never told us what would happen if Tiffany's body refused to do what it should. At least Tiffany's sleeping now. About four hours after the Pitocin began, she started crying, saying she couldn't do it anymore. She'd been awake for almost twenty-four hours and had been in some form of labor for over half of it. Plus, once the drugs kicked in, her contractions went from being painful to downright excruciating. It didn't take much convincing for her to finally decide to have the epidural. But it did take my Mam physically moving me out of the way to help her through all her fears - fear of a needle in her spine, fear of the drugs hurting the baby,