“What is it, sweetheart?”
“I’m just so happy,” she announced and made a little wiggling movement in her seat.
I leaned across the console in the car and grasped her chin with my fingers, directing her head until her eyes were trained on me. “I’m glad, so am I. Norah will be extremely excited, too.”
I noticed the telltale sign of a tiny bead of tears welling up in her eyes, “I’m going to have a daughter?” she said as if she had just come to the realization. I had no doubt in my mind that Eden would be a terrific mother for Norah, it was just the type of woman that she was. Norah would be absolutely thrilled to actually have a positive female figure in her life, paying attention to her, unlike her own mother.
As we made our way towards her front door I heard the yapping of a little dog even before the white head poked out from in between the blinds. Just as soon as Eden’s key hit the lock, the dog’s head disappeared and its faint whimpering started to build until it was a full blown howl.
Eden just barely inched the door open and a little fifteen pound dog darted out and started spastically circling our ankles. “Petunia, settle down,” Eden said in a soft tone and bent down just in time to catch the white Westie in her arms. “Baylor, meet Petunia,” I leaned forward to let her sniff my hand before I began scratching behind her ears. “She’s only a bit rambunctious when I first get home. Within a few minutes she’ll have worn herself out and you’ll find her in her bed passed out for a nap. Isn’t that right, girl?” She cooed.
After Eden gave Petunia a minute of attention she bent over to let her down and straightened back up again. “So,” she said, slapping a palm on her hip almost as if she was a bit nervous. “This is my home, well, for now.”
I wiped my hands down my pants to try and dry my sweaty palms and walked further into the room so I could take it all in. The room was immaculate and decorated with rustic colors of gray and teal. She definitely held a woman’s touch and my house, our house, could use some sprucing up.
Our house.
Our house would soon be comprised of three people, two adults and a child. And adding a new dog to the mix, it would be absolutely complete. My breath became staggered as I tried to process everything that was occurring. Did I want this? One hundred percent yes but, truth be told, I was a bit nervous as well—not enough to end up in a panic attack but enough for me to break a sweat. Before when Eden and I were together there was always that looming expiration date. And now that it’d progressed to what I hoped in my heart was forever, would things still feel the same?
I tried to stuff my worries and insecurities to the back of my mind. I could allow them back out when the timing was right.
Several of the picture frames sporadically placed about her living room caught my eye. I took my time walking around to each of the few that were hanging on her wall, studying them as I moved along. There was one of her and Blaine in the studio, another was of her and the same blonde that was in the picture on her desk, and then one of her and Petunia as a puppy. She looked completely happy and carefree in each of the pictures. My heart panged with guilt at the thought of uprooting her so abruptly from her former life. I didn’t want her to regret this decision several years down the road.
A teal frame perched upon one of her end tables was what took my attention next. Something in the photo drew me in and I found myself picking it up to examine it closer. I ran my free hand along the ceramic swirls just taking in how happy the three people in the photograph were at that time.
Dean, with his goofy ass smile, was on the left and a much younger version of myself was on the right. Eden was sandwiched in between the two of us and she looked absolutely beautiful, with a twinkle in her eye.
“Graduation?” I asked, but it was already clear to me that it was. There weren’t many times that Eden willingly wore a dress back then and the royal blue unzipped gowns that we all had on sort of gave it away. I vaguely remembered Eden’s mom taking the picture but I had never seen it; given the circumstances I could understand why.
Seeing the picture itself made a lump form in my throat, but it was the phrase engraved on the bottom of the ceramic frame that threatened tears to well up in my eyes. I ran my rough fingertips over the cursive letters, feeling the smooth etching under my calloused skin, and released a pained sigh. So much fucking time wasted and for what? A bitch with a vendetta on our happiness?
“The Three Musketeers,” Eden said, approaching me, looking down at the frame that was now tightly grasped in my hands.
“You kept this out all this time? Even with the hatred that loomed inside?” I questioned, not sure that I was ready to hear her honest answer.
Her eyebrows furrowed and she looked perplexed. “Baylor, there was never hatred. Sadness, yes. Despondency, yes. Heartsickness, absolutely. But never was there ever any hatred towards either you or Dean. I kept this as a memory because at the time that’s all you were. I didn’t want to forget that happy-go-lucky girl in the picture with her two best friends, because it was that next day when my entire life changed, including my outlook. I’ve come to the conclusion that Kristina instilled all of this bitterness inside us because of her own unhappiness in her life. She wasn’t a people pleaser, she just molded and changed people to what she wanted them to be. And when you fought back against it by standing up and stepping into the family business she knew that she had lost.” She took the frame from my hands and replaced it back on the end table where it belonged and then ran a hand down the side of my face and across my jaw, “She’s gone now and not hindering us any further. Now is our time to be happy and I for one am not going to waste another minute of it trying to dwell on the past or what could’ve or should’ve been all along. I now have a fiancé who I love more than life itself, who has a daughter that I would love nothing more than to call my own.” Tears were swimming in her eyes, threatening to release, and my own heart was thumping loudly in my chest. “Sure, this is all happening very fast, but you have to remember I’ve waited fifteen years for this moment, and I know this will be an adjustment for all of us. But I’m done with waiting around; it’s our turn for our happy ending.”
I was so glad that we were on the same page as one another and she squashed my fears with her powerful words and positivity ensuring that everything would be all right. We needed to get away from the sadness and tears because it absolutely killed me inside seeing her cry, even though they would’ve been tears of joy. I grabbed ahold of her hips in my hands and pulled her flush against me, so she had to crane her neck just to look up at me. “So you have this fiancé now? I think I might go off in a fit of jealous rage because he’ll get to see you naked anytime he wants. I don’t want any other information, but please tell me this, is he as good-looking as me?”
An almost silent giggle escaped from her throat as she stood up on her tiptoes, trying to get closer to my face, “Oh but he’s more than just good looking,” she swooned seductively, “he is the sexiest man I have ever had the pleasure of laying my eyes on.” Her hand traveled up my forearm and bicep, all the way up to the base of my neck where her fingers began fiddling with the edge of my hairline. “And now, he’s all mine,” she said with a moan as her other hand moved to cup my ass through my jeans.
My dick sprung to life as she began grinding her pelvis into me and pushed her voluptuous breasts against my torso. I bent my body just a bit so I could scoop her up against me and into my arms. There wasn’t time to go searching amongst the rooms just to find her bedroom, so I chose the next best thing to her bed or any flat surface in the kitchen; I picked the couch. I carefully laid her on her back against the tan-colored microfiber cushions and reached behind me to pull my polo off over my head and discard it somewhere on the floor. Her breathing was already labored with the anticipation of what was going to occur in the minutes ahead and she immediately lifted her back clear from the cushion so I could remove her shirt and unclasp her bra leaving her entire torso bared to me.