Mother Hens

Hannah

^SEVEN MONTHS LATER^

As I watched the numbers on the screen climb, I knew I was about to be scolded again.

“Hannah, seriously?” Lincoln sighed from my right.

“What?”

Glancing over Linc’s shoulder, I could see Jordan on the floor trying to teach one of the new members how to use the TRX straps.

His methods were a little different than they had been with me; he stood off to her side and used his fingertips to make small corrections to her posture.

My handsome fiancé had been busy with new members in the last few classes, which made it easier for me.

He was always the mother hen.

“You’re going to get us in trouble,” Parker whined from my other side.

My two bodyguards were equally obnoxious, always getting on my case for pushing myself too hard.

“I’m fine. The numbers are still within the acceptable range,” I shot back snarkily as I pointed up at the monitor.

Jordan called out the next interval over his headset, and I pressed the incline button, increasing the angle of the treadmill as I walked.

“I’m gonna spank you.” Lincoln pressed the down button a few times.

“You guys are the worst. My OB said I could keep working out.”

“He said you could walk.” Parker raised an eyebrow at me.

“I am walking!” I insisted, raising my voice.

“Calm down, look at that heart rate spike,” he said, holding his hands out to me in a placating gesture.

My eyes found the box on the screen with my name inside, and I sighed as I saw the ring light up a color I wasn’t supposed to be in.

Jordan was still distracted, but I knew that I’d have to slow down if I didn’t want him to give me a hard time.

“Deep breaths,” Lincoln coached.

“In... out...”

“I’m not in labor, dumbass,” I rolled my eyes. “Quit with the weird breathing.”

“You’ve gotta take it easy, Han,” Parker scolded. “Nobody wants to see you pop that giant baby out on the treadmill.”

“Wow,” I mused with a laugh. “That’s a stunning visual.”

“Yeah... ew...”

Giggles erupted out of me as I looked over at the disgusted look on Linc’s face. He had been very vocal about wanting the details of pregnancy and birth to stay a mystery.

“You two don’t have to walk with me,” I rolled my eyes. “They are making this more awkward than it needs to be. I have to take it easy; they don’t.

“Uh, yes, we do,” Parker's voice was snarky, his hand on his hip. “You can't be trusted. The second we get distracted, you're going to be sneaking again.”

I felt a little stirring in my belly and placed my hand on my lower stomach, adjusting the maternity belt I’d been forced to wear for the last few weeks.

“Are you in pain?” Lincoln worried. “Do we need to stop? I can get Jordan…”

“Would you chill out!” I snapped back at him. “I’m not in labor. Jordan is busy, and we are just fine. He just moved a little.”

“Have you been doing your kick counts?” Parker asked seriously.

“Oh my God, Parker! You are worse than Jordan. Stop reading those damn baby books.”

He rolled his eyes at me and stuck out his tongue. “There’s nothing wrong with being excited; my nephew is almost here.”

I knew he was right, but I was uncomfortable a lot of the time, and the walking helped.

Of course my six-foot-four almost-husband would have to put a giant baby in me. He already measured at full term but was showing no signs of vacating his cozy home.

When I’d been to the doctor a few days ago, she’d been surprised that I wasn’t dilated…at all…still firmly closed up down there. Another mother in the office had been almost to term with twins, and my belly rivaled hers.

“Well, he’s obviously like his father, taking his sweet ass time.”

A long arm pressed the stop button on my treadmill, and it slowed as his other arm loosely wrapped around my ginormous belly.

“Are you bad-mouthing my child again?” Jordan held his hand out for me to step back off the edge of the belt.

“Aren’t you working?” I teased as he leaned down and kissed my cheek.

“We’re switching stations, I’ve got a few moments.” He shrugged with an indulgent smile. “You were too busy over here gossiping to notice I called out the end of the block.”

“More like these two were hovering,” I grumbled, giving my best friend and his partner the stink eye.

Jordan placed the palm of his hand low across my abdomen, and the baby gave a swift kick to his palm. “I’m going to miss this part.”

“Well, I guess it’s good that you will because the novelty has worn off,” I told him honestly.

“You’re going to miss it too.” He was right. I was going to miss the kicks and the rolls, listening to his heartbeat at the doctor’s office... but I was not going to miss the heartburn and insomnia.

I especially was not going to miss the tiny feet prodding at my ribs.

“Why don’t you go hang out with Mom at the desk for the next block?” Jordan suggested. I knew he was just trying to be helpful, but it was annoying.

“Are you trying to get rid of me?” I narrowed my eyes up at him.

“No. I just know you can’t reach your own feet sitting down, so there’s no way you’re getting strapped into a rower anytime soon.”

I glanced at the empty rower next to me forlornly, and Jordan squeezed my hand, trying not to laugh.

“Soon enough,” he assured. “I’m sure three or four months from now, you’ll be back on there like a pro.”

“That seems like forever,” I whined and fought the urge to stomp my foot. Being almost nine months pregnant made me revert to toddler behavior.

“Who would’ve thought that you’d ever be so eager to climb onto a rower?” he teased as he played with the hem of my flowy tank top.

“Well, I do have a certain fondness for them,” I said with a wistful smile.

He arched an eyebrow as he leaned down to whisper in my ear. “You stop that, or I’m going to be giving everyone in here a free show.”

“Fine…”

He laughed at my sigh and turned me toward the door to the lobby. “Go.”

Cynthia was seated at the desk, engrossed in a book. She had continued to fill in at the desk a few days a week even after the staffing situation had been resolved.

“Hey, dear. How are you feeling?” she asked as she tapped the open seat next to her and held out a bottle of water in my direction.

“Tired of people babying me. They all think I can’t handle normal activity.”

“The men in your life are just a tad overprotective. They don’t mean to be a pain in the ass, but I don’t think they can help themselves.” She laughed as she looked over my shoulder toward the three culprits.

“Thank God this isn’t a girl…” I sighed as I placed a hand on each side of my steadily growing belly.

“Oh dear, can you imagine? Although I’d love to see Jordan stuck playing tea party someday with a ridiculous hat and a feather boa.” She smiled widely.

“I’m pretty sure I have a picture of him somewhere from when the girls were toddlers. He was such a good big brother to them.”

“Maybe the next one.” I smiled as I rubbed my stomach absently.

“So you’ve talked about having more?” Her voice was curious, but also a little bit excited. I knew that she and Max would love to have a herd of grandchildren running around.

“Maybe. We’ll see how this one goes.” I smiled over at her as I took a sip of my water. “If he’s a little terror, then I reserve the right to change my mind.”

“You’d be surprised. Mollie was my little tornado, and she’s turned out pretty well. Mallory was always the docile, observant one.”

She stared off into space for a moment, probably thinking about all the changes that’d happened in the last year.

Mallory had finally turned a corner, but things had been rough for a while. She’d finally found her groove running the new studio with Ty; it had been open for a few weeks.

Jordan caved and handed over the reins when she’d proven she could handle the stress and maintain her sobriety.

It’d freed up a considerable amount of time in his schedule, and he’d gone back to teaching several classes a week, but our lives were about to change again in another few weeks.

“I just know that Jordan is going to spoil him rotten. The kid isn’t even born yet, and he already has every baby gadget imaginable.”

I rolled my eyes as I thought about the hours he’d spent on the internet researching baby gear.

“He’s not going to be the only one. You know Grandpa Max will be just as bad. And once he’s old enough, I can’t wait to see the trouble he gets into with Parker.”

“Ugh…don’t remind me.” I half groaned, half laughed. “Although Parker might wrap the poor kid in bubble wrap with how he’s been treating me lately.”

“They just love you,” she said softly, placing her hand on the side of my stomach. The baby rolled, and the look she gave me made all the weird belly touching almost worth it.

“And they love him too. This baby is so blessed already. They just want you to keep him safe for a little while longer.”

“I know they do, but I promised Jordan if I was pushing too hard that I’d slow down. I did that, and those two still won’t leave me alone.” I watched Parker and Lincoln trying to outpace each other on the rowers.

“Have you given any more thought to the wedding?”

Jordan and I had decided that a big wedding wasn't what we wanted.

“We've been looking at some resorts in California. I'm not sure I want to travel out of the country with an infant,” I honestly told her. There were too many unknowns when traveling with babies.

“The offer still stands for Max and me to take him for a little while after the wedding,” she earnestly told me. “You two will need some alone time. Babies are a lot of work.”

“I can't even imagine having two at once.” I shuddered.

“I'm pretty sure I blocked that part of their childhood out of my memories.” Cynthia laughed. “I was so tired, and their father wasn't the best at helping.”

“Jordan sleeps like the dead,” I sighed. Once he was out, he would sleep for hours.

“He'll wake up, trust me. Especially the first few weeks. There's something about being a new parent and an infant's cry that will bring you out of deep sleep in seconds.”

“If I even get to sleep,” I laughed half-heartedly.

It was already becoming a challenge to get a solid night’s sleep. Between the peeing and the baby pressing his feet into my rib cage in the middle of the night, sleeping more than a few hours was a miracle.

“Looks like they’re switching stations,” she nodded behind me. “You better get back in there before the mother hens come looking.”

Jordan was distracted when I got to my numbered station, which was luckily in the corner so my bodyguards didn’t completely corner me.

Parker was distracted, so I grabbed the twelve-pound weights and started doing my low rows facing the mirror.

“Trying to be sneaky over here?” Jordan said in a low, scolding voice from over my shoulder.

Of course, he’d notice.

“It’s fine. I’m fine. Why do you all have to ruin my fun?” I pouted, making eye contact with him in the mirror.

“Only a few more weeks, baby. Then you can lift whatever you want when you come back,” he said. “Well, depending on the doctor’s orders.”

“I don’t think these are even doing anything.” I sighed after he pulled the twelves out of my hands and replaced them with eights.

“You can work your way back up later.” He kissed me on the cheek.

“I didn’t even try to grab the twenties. Can’t you just look the other way?”

“Han, stop with the pouting already.” He laughed as he stepped over and corrected my form, straightening my back and shifting my shoulders into a more comfortable position.

I could immediately feel the difference in the way my muscles pulled and hated that he could do that with just a few small adjustments.

“I feel like a petulant toddler around the three of you,” I confessed, the pout still firmly in place.

“You kind of sound like one too.”

I narrowed my eyes at his smug laugh.

“I thought you were supposed to be on my side,” I accused. “You’re my fiancé—aren’t you supposed to support me unconditionally?”

“I am and I do. But I’m here to look out for this little one too.” He placed his arm around my side and kissed my temple as his hand stroked down my belly.

“I know. I’m just tired.”

“We can relax in a little while. Mal is coming to cover my next class.”

He was getting used to changing over to the afternoon and evening classes. He wanted to be able to be at home during the early mornings after the baby was born.

He had also started training someone to be a fill-in substitute, so we didn’t end up with another situation like when Mal was in rehab.

Working insane hours back then was terrible enough. It just wouldn’t be possible with a newborn.

“Are you going to come to breakfast with us?” Parker asked as he put his weights back onto the rack against the wall.

“I think I may just go float in the pool,” I rolled my eyes at his concerned look. “Don’t worry. Not by myself. Jordan is working a split shift today. He’ll be home.”

“I was going to say we could join you. But I know what you two get up to in that pool,” Lincoln accused with a raised eyebrow.

“You act like it doesn’t have a filtration system and isn’t chemically treated.” I rolled my own eyes.

“Yeah, I meant in front of us. Y’all haven’t gotten any better at keeping your hands to yourselves.” He laughed.

“Oh my God, you walk into our house unannounced once,” I growled at him. “I can do what I want in my own house.”

I laughed as I watched them drop to bodyweight push-ups and double crunches.

Those I definitely was not allowed to do.

“In our defense, you knew we were coming over,” Parker shrugged.

“And I thought you’d knock on the door, not use the emergency key.”

“It was kind of hot if I pretended I didn’t know either of you.” He shrugged with a smirk.

“You are such a freak.” I shook my head at him.

“Honey, you knew that a long time ago.” Lincoln laughed.

“And yet I still continue to hang out with both of you.” I sighed in faux annoyance.

“Yeah, what does that say about you?” Lincoln bumped my shoulder.

“You’re the one living with him.” I laughed. “Joke’s on you.”

“Well, I happen to like him a little bit freaky.” Linc wiggled his eyebrows at Parker, and I pretended to cringe before I couldn’t hold in the giggles any longer.

“If the three of you are just going to distract the rest of the class…” Jordan scolded with a smirk as he stopped next to our stations briefly.

“Sorry, we'll behave.” I smiled guiltily.

“I'm sorry, Daddy.” Parker sighed and dropped his head forward.

Jordan rolled his eyes as he walked back over to the treadmills to start their next block.

“Stop calling him Daddy.” I narrowed my eyes at both of them.

“But he is a daddy.” Lincoln shrugged, pointing at my stomach.

“Yeah, and you both mean it in a dirty way, not the literal way.”

“Come on, you know you'd tap that.” He smirked. “Oh wait, you do.”

“That's how you ended up like that.” Lincoln laughed as he motioned toward my protruding belly.

“Ha, ha. You're so clever. Seriously. Stop perving on my fiancé.”

“If he didn’t want us to look, he wouldn’t wear the compression shirts,” Parker shrugged, looking over at Jordan. The coach shirt he was wearing today stretched tightly across his shoulders and hugged his firm biceps.

“Calm down, mama bear; your man is safe. He’s only got eyes for you,” Lincoln rolled his eyes.

“That man is so whooped you could lead him around on a leash and he’d be happy about it,” Parker laughed as he mimed cracking a whip.

“Who says I don’t?”

They both burst out laughing, and I pretended to bow, earning another amused head shake and an eye roll from Jordan across the floor.

“Maybe we should use the doorbell the next time, Park,” Lincoln laughed. “She called us freaks, but Han might be the freakiest of us all.”