The moment we walked into the barn and I saw the light coming from upstairs I knew something was up. I looked at Amanda and winked.
“You had this planned all along?” I asked her as I slowly set her down.
She nodded her head and bit down on her lower lip and started chewing on it. Clear sign she’s nervous about something. She slowly started walking backwards and over to the stairs. She didn’t want to…here? In Gunner’s barn?
I let out a small chuckle and started to follow her before I stopped. “Amanda…are you really wanting to have sex in Gunner’s barn? Baby, I love this new side of you and all, but…” I turned back and looked at the opening to the barn.
When I turned back around she was halfway up the stairs. Then I heard her let out a gasp and I took off up the stairs after her.
“What? What’s wrong…what did you—” I stopped dead in my tracks. “Oh wow,” I whispered. The loft was covered in white lights. Everywhere you looked were lights. The small round table that was up here was covered in a beautiful white tablecloth and there was a huge bouquet of white roses. As I followed Amanda, I noticed there was a tray of chocolate-covered strawberries and another tray that had fruit and cheese on it. Next to the table was a bottle of sparkling water and I had to laugh. I think I was the only one out of our friends who no longer drank. The two glasses on the table said “Congratulations” on them.
Holy hell. How did Amanda find out about my promotion?
Amanda put her hands up to her mouth and started crying. Why is she crying about my promotion? I thought she’d be happy. Shit.
I walked up behind her and wrapped my arms around her and asked, “Why are you crying?”
She slowly nodded her head and said, “They made it so special. They did this for us.” Then she began sobbing. I turned her around and pulled her chin up and looked into her eyes.
“Who made it so special?”
She wiped her nose in a not-so-romantic way and laughed. “Ari, Heather, Ellie and Jen. They planned all this for us.”
I shook my head. “How did they find out?”
She looked at me with a shocked expression. “What? How did they find out what?”
“That I got promoted at work?” I said. Amanda looked even more confused.
“You got promoted at work?” she asked, her mouth dropping open and her eyes lighting up.
I nodded my head. “Yep. I’m now going to be working mostly from home—
except for when I have to go in for meetings where they need me there.”
She slammed her hands over her mouth and started jumping up and down. “Oh. My. God! You’re going to be home with Meg and me? All the time?”
I nodded my head and she immediately fell into my arms and began crying harder.
“Thank you God. Oh…my…oh thank you, thank you, thank you,” she whispered in between sobs.
Now I was the one who was confused. I thought she knew about the promotion. I pulled her away from me and said, “Wait. I thought you knew about the promotion.”
She shook her head quickly. “No! How would I know about it? I didn’t think they were announcing it until after the first of the year. Oh, Brad. This is such wonderful news!” She went to hug me again but I stopped her.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts. “Wait, pumpkin…if you didn’t know about the promotion, what is this all about?” I looked at the crystal glasses. “I mean the glasses say “Congratulations” on them. What else are we celebrating?”
She bit down on her lip and began chewing on it again. I pulled it out and said, “Manda, stop chewing your lip off.”
“Sorry…um…well…um…” She looked into my eyes, and I swore the look in her eyes took my breath away. She reached into her back pocket and had something wrapped in a piece of Christmas tissue. She went to hand it to me but then stopped.
“I wanted to give you your Christmas present tonight. Alone. I asked the girls to help me come up with something and well…” she looked around and let out a chuckle. “They certainly helped me come up with something.”
She looked into my eyes and again as she handed me the tissue paper.
“Merry Christmas, baby. I love you,” she whispered.
I took the tissue paper from her and smiled. It was light as a feather. “Is there even anything in here? I asked.
She nodded and said, “Oh yeah.”
I started to open it up and unwrap it and that’s when I saw it.
Oh my God. It’s a pregnancy test.
I quickly looked at her and immediately felt the tears building in my eyes. I glanced back down and turned the test around.
I felt my legs starting to shake as I looked back up at her. She was crying and I was barely able to even say a word.
I whispered, “We’re pregnant?”
She slowly nodded her head and I dropped to the ground and began crying.
The next thing I knew she was on the ground with me, crying just as hard as I was. I got on my knees and pulled her to me and held onto her as tight as I could.
The only thing I could say was, “Thank you God…thank you God…” over and over. I get my second chance. I finally get my second chance.
I pulled back and quickly wiped away my tears, and then wiped Amanda’s away with my thumbs.
“I just found out two days ago. I wanted to make it special for you. That’s why I waited to tell you, even though I wanted to tell you so badly. I wanted to make it special for you,” she said as she began crying again. I placed my hands on her face and brought her lips to mine.
“I love you…my God, I love you so much,” I said as I kissed her with as much passion and love as I could. She did this for me. My God, this amazing woman did this for me.
“I love you too, Brad. I love you so very much.” She said as she pulled back from my lips.
I slowly shook my head. “I don’t deserve you.” She put her hand behind my neck and pulled me into another kiss. I could literally feel her love pouring into my body and I’d never felt so at peace in my entire life.
She started to stand up and I followed her. She looked up into my eyes and said, “Yes. Yes you do deserve me, like I deserve you. We were meant to be together Brad. For always. Nothing will ever come between our love…ever.”
I ran the back of my hand softly across her cheek. “You’re so beautiful. I knew something was different about you the other night…you were…you were glowing.”
She smiled and closed her eyes. I looked up and couldn’t believe what I saw. A bed? When in the hell did Gunner put a bed up here and why?
Amanda turned and looked and started laughing. “You are probably wondering why there is a bed up here.”
“Well, yeah I can’t deny I’m at a loss. And it’s a damn nice bed at that.”
Amanda turned back to look at me. “Gunner wanted a little place for him and Ells to sneak off to sometimes to keep things romantic. He had Josh build it and they must have put it in recently.”
I closed my eyes and laughed. “Damn. That boy is such a romantic son of a bitch.”
Amanda laughed. “When Ellie mentioned it to me earlier, I had to laugh. Then I said Gunner wasn’t going to be too happy about that bed being here when his kids get older.”
I threw my head back and laughed my ass off. “Ah hell…brings new meaning to sneaking off to the barn to make out!”
Once we stopped laughing, Amanda grabbed the blanket and started to walk over to the bed. It had a quilt on it already, but Amanda threw the blanket on top of it and then turned to face me. The moment she began undressing I wanted to fall to the floor. I was about to make love to my wife…and she’s pregnant with our child. My heart was bursting with joy.