comforting, soothing words.
Finally, I get my emotions under control and remember we’ve got an audience waiting to congratulate us. Tyler is the first one in my arms. “Why you crying, Mommy?” he asks, reaching up to wipe the tears still falling.
“I’m happy, Tyler,” I tell him. “Very happy.”
The next hour is spent letting everyone have a glance at the ring on my finger, which I still haven’t had time to really examine myself; besides my hand being pulled in all directions, my eyes keep finding Matthew’s and refuse to look away. As we finish our dessert, I realize just how much of the last couple days has been prearranged, though when I glare at him, Matthew quickly tells me the incident at the bar wasn’t part of the plans, but the spa day was.
As we’re leaving the restaurant, Matthew wraps an arm around my shoulder and I look up at him, smiling. “No fireworks?” I ask, trying to feign disappointment.
His eyes narrow briefly before an acute expression of mischief crossed with desire and promise appear in his eyes. “Wait until we get back to the house,” he whispers in my ear as he helps me into the car. “I’ll give you more fireworks than you can handle…”
3
Following yet another sleepless night, though this one for much better reasons, I wake up just as the bedroom door opens revealing Tyler entering, closely followed by Matthew carrying a tray of food. I grin sleepily at them.
“What’s this?” I ask, pushing myself up to rest my back against the headboard.
“We made you breakfast,” Tyler boasts, climbing onto the bed and crawling to sit next to me.
My grin widens as Matthew sets down the tray and I see the array of fruits and muffins and bacon and pancakes, and not an egg in sight. “Considering your reaction yesterday morning,” Matthew tells me as I scoot to the middle of the bed so he can sit on my other side, “I thought we’d forego the eggs until we figure out if they trigger the nausea.”
I reach up to kiss his cheek. “Very thoughtful, thank you.”
“Do you like it, Mom?” Tyler asks, pointing a finger at the pancakes that look as though someone tried to make them heart-shaped, but failed. They look more like kidneys… “I made those!”
Biting my tongue against a laugh, I nod, kissing my son’s forehead. “I love them, baby.” I see movement out of the corner of my eye and look over to shoot Matthew a glare as his fingers inch closer and closer to my bacon. “What do you think you’re doing?” I ask, trying and failing to sound cross.
Matthew only smirks, not bothering to pretend to steal my bacon anymore as he shoves a slice into his mouth. “Delivery tax,” he murmurs through a full mouth. Tyler laughs and reaches across me to take another piece of bacon, stuffing it into his mouth, making Matthew laugh.
“He was such a sweet boy,” I say wistfully, looking down at my son who is incredibly pleased with himself for his theft. “You just had to corrupt him, didn’t you?”
Scoffing, Matthew hands me a glass of orange juice. “He always had it in him. I just brought it to the surface,” he tells me proudly.
With a sigh, I try to maintain a stern façade; even though I can’t remember a time I was this happy. Everything is falling into place at this moment. Matthew and I are getting married again. Tyler has his father who he absolutely adores with every fiber of his being. I’m beginning to imagine what it will be like when the baby arrives and just the thought brings absolute bliss.
“What are you thinking about?”
I look up at Matthew who is watching me closely as I take a bite of Tyler’s kidney-heart-shaped pancake. “That I love you and that I feel like my life suddenly has meaning again,” I tell him honestly.
He smiles softly at me. “That’s exactly how I feel,” he says quietly, leaning in to kiss me briefly. I feel my eyes close as he pulls away, only to snap open again at the sound of crunching. Matthew