Chapter 23 - Cookies & Ovens, Oh My!

I don’t know what had come over me.  Frankly, it had to have been my raging pregnancy hormones.  I’m up, I’m down, I’m all over the place and it’s driving me mental.  Christian was being a complete dream with me.  Sure, everything was moving quite quickly; it seemed almost too quickly but Christian was right when he said, we have the rest of our lives to catch up to all of this rushing about that’s been going on in the past few months.

It had been a month since we had received the news that we were expecting.  Summer was slowly coming to an end and the days are starting to get shorter.  We were now reaching mid-September but you wouldn’t be able to tell what with the unbearable heat wave that had sprung on us over the last couple of days.  I spent my days in tiny sundresses because my clothes felt like they were melting to me.  The air conditioning simply wasn’t cutting it for me.  While Christian and Aiden hung around the house with pants and sometimes even sweaters over their t-shirts, I was pealing off as many layers as possible, while remaining decent.  I now had a firm bulge starting on my belly.  At nearly eleven weeks of pregnancy, we figured we’d go ahead and let Aiden and Christian’s parents know.  We had decided to hold off because of that scare.  Thinking that we were nearly a week short of being clear from the danger zone where miscarriage rates were at their highest, we figured we’d share our little surprise.  I was looking forward to seeing the Masterson’s reaction but it was Aiden that had me itching to scream it from the top of my lungs.  I knew he’d be fabulous as a big brother; that boy had so much love to give.

“I can’t wait to see his reaction.”  I told Christian in bed, this morning.

“Me too.  I’ve been dying to tell him since the day we found out.”  He tells me as he’s lying beside me, his hand on my belly; face next to mine and eyes trained on me.  After our talk about things moving quickly, there had been no more talking about getting married; much to my chagrin.  I found it weighing on my thoughts from time to time, mostly when I was home alone.  Aiden was now in school and Christian worked his Monday to Friday job at the real estate office which left me loads of time to ponder the facts of life.  It was a Saturday morning and I was thankful that today was the day we were breaking the news to everyone.  This will definitely be a barbeque dinner to remember.

I had been in the kitchen, attempting to finish up with a batch of cookies my men so desperately desired.  I figured I’d make a double batch and bring one of them along with us for dessert tonight.  Mrs. Masterson always went out of her way to make everything and I felt like giving her a little treat in return.  It wasn’t much but I knew these chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies were delectable.  I felt large hands wrap around my waist and Christian’s body leaning into my back, warming me from the outside down to my core.  Sometimes I wondered if this man knew of the effects he had on me with the simplest and smallest of touches.

“Are we ready to go soon?”  He kissed my neck and tried to reach out and sneak a cookie.  I slapped his hand away.  “Hey!”

“These one’s are for your parents and yes, we are almost ready.”  I tell him as I gently pat my belly to emphasize the word ‘we’.  As I finish up with stowing the last of the cookies in a serving plate and covering the goodies with some plastic wrap, I also made sure that I had the fancy bottle of champagne I had bought for everyone but Aiden and I.

We were in the back yard, after dinner, when Christian came back from inside the house.  He nodded and I got up with him.

“Mom, Dad, Aiden,” he began.  “Amelia and I have something that we need to tell you.”  His mother’s hand flew up to her mouth; his father smiled at both of us.

“What is it Daddy?”  Aiden chirped and jumped off his chair, skipping over to his father’s side.

“Well?”  Christian then turns and looks at me.  “How do you feel about becoming a big brother?”

“You’re pregnant?”  Gloria jumps up, excited in her seat, hugging her husband as I had nodded in response all the while blushing.

“How can I be a big brother when there’s no baby?”  Aiden asks, making everyone laugh.

“Because, he or she is growing in my belly, Sweetheart.”  I explain to him.  His eyes enlarge and an amazingly glowing smile spread over his face, lighting up all of his features.

“So it’s kind of like baking cookies?”  He asks.

“What do you mean?”  I asked him with my best straight face that couldn’t really hold for the life of me because I knew he’d come up with something that would make us all howl in laughter.

“It’s like cookies because you know they’re coming but we have to side there and watch them bake until they’re ready to come out of the over?”  He explains himself.  In truth, the concept is kind of right, what with, if I were the oven and the baby was the cookies.

“Babies take much longer than cookies, buddy.”  Christian says as everyone is laughing.

“This is fantastic news!  Now I understand why you brought the champagne!”  Phillip, Christian’s father stands and helps Gloria up.

A bunch of kisses and hugs, well wishes extended and one really excited Aiden later, I had excused myself from the table and headed to the washroom.  One of the things I came to quickly realize and loath shortly after we had found out that we were expecting was the innumerable times we pregnant ladies have to empty our bladders.  Quickly washing my hands and checking myself in the mirror, I head back outside to find Christian standing there by himself, smiling at me.

“Come take a walk with me.”  He says and extends his hand and I took it.  He led us toward the tree-line.

“Where are your parents and Aiden?”  I asked him.

“Gone for some ice cream.”  He tells me and he must have noticed the look on my face that screamed I could have used a dose of the stuff myself.  “Relax.  I told them to bring you back some.”

“Good man you are.”  I joked as I squeezed his arm to my body.  Before we knew it, Christian had walked us toward our old fort in the woods.  “Why are we here?”  I asked him.

“It seemed like a great spot to come to.”  He told me.  “We have a lot of memories here and hopefully, lots more to be made.”  I nodded as I looked everywhere around me. I started to walk around the clearing, finding myself looking at our old fort.  Someone had given it a new paint job since the last time we had been here.  I found myself crouched downward looking inside, wondering if anything had changed in there too.  I heard shuffling behind me so I stood up and turned to look at Christian.  What I saw was more than just my man; it was my entire life flashing before my eyes.  Before me, on bended knee was the man that I had fallen madly in love with; the one I would always say ‘yes’ to.  As my hands flew up to cover my gapping mouth, my knees gave out and I stumbled down to my knees directly in front of him.

“I know we’re doing all of this life stuff in weird stages but then again, no one truly has a map or a list of directions on how life should go.”  He starts telling me.  “From the first day I met you, when we were six, I knew that there was something special about you.  And I was right.  I adore you, worship you, I love you.  You’re everything to me.”  My eyes were betraying me by crying and I didn’t quite appreciate it considering all I wanted to do was watch his beautiful face as he spoke these amazing words to me.  “For reasons, I don’t know completely why, we’ve lost each other and have found our way back to become stronger than ever.  If that isn’t a sign that we belong together, I don’t know what else could be.  You were made for me, Mia, just like I was made for you.”  He paused and took out a beautiful sparkling number and held it out to me.  “Marry me, Mia.  Marry me like you’ve once said you would.”  I chuckled as I wiped at my tears, remembering the conversation we had that one night.

“It took you long enough.”  I told him and then threw myself forward into his arms, holding him so tightly that I’m sure I might have been on the verge of chocking out his air supply.  “You know, my answer is still yes.”  I whisper into his neck as I pull away to look at his eyes; those mesmerizing emeralds for eyes of his that knew how to pierce my blue ones and reach deep down into my soul, wakening every fiber of my being that had been asleep for far too long.  Parts of me that I hadn’t been able to fathom ever submitting myself to, letting myself fall and embrace again instead of running like I had become great at, programmed to do so would be the best description there was.