If I meant to say more I couldn’t have. Something shifted into his eyes and stayed there. Something peaceful and warm and so beautiful, looking at it, I couldn’t breathe.
“Crash,” Joe whispered back and I blinked.
“What?”
“That’s the sound of my side of the scales, buddy,” Joe said and my hand left his at my stomach and went to his scarred cheek.
“Joe,” I whispered again.
“Kid’ll be beautiful,” Joe whispered back.
“Joe,” I repeated.
His hand pressed in at my belly again, a slight movement, a sweet one. “Gorgeous,” he murmured.
“Aren’t you gonna kiss me?” I asked.
“Yep,” Joe answered but didn’t move.
“Well?” I prompted and Joe grinned.
Then he moved but he didn’t move toward my mouth. His hand slid up the tee I was wearing and his head moved to my belly. His arm wrapped around my hip and I watched his dark head bend and felt his nose slide along my skin and then his lips rested there.
That’s when I felt the tears slide out the sides of my eyes.
“You happy, baby?” I whispered my question and his arm at my hip convulsed but his head came up and he looked at me.
“Yeah,” he replied, the word was heavy and it was thick.
Both my hands went to his face and I smiled through my tears.
“Good.”
His head bent again and with my hands still at his cheeks he kissed my belly once more. Then he moved up and rolled, his arm at my hip taking me with him so I was on top. One of his hands slid into my hair and the other one slid into my panties and over my ass.
“Mawdy! Joe!” Kate shouted, Joe’s hands stilled and my head came up but Joe’s eyes went over my shoulder to point in the direction of the door he couldn’t see. “Taylor’s got boogie boards but the water’s cold and he says we need wetsuits. He says there’s a surf place in town where we can get them. He’s gonna take us there. Is that cool?”
“How much do wetsuits cost?” I shouted back and Joe’s hand tensed on my ass and I knew he didn’t care how much wetsuits cost firstly because he tended to get the girls anything they wanted even after we’d had several conversations about him not doing this (conversations he totally ignored) and secondly because them going to town, which was a twenty minute drive away, meant we’d have some serious alone time.
“Don’t know!” Kate shouted back.
“Ask Taylor,” Joe ordered, “my wallet’s on the kitchen counter. Grab the cash you’ll need.”
“Cool!” Kate shouted.
“Joe!” I hissed, looking down at him.
“Baby,” Joe grinned, smiling up at me.
“Oh!” Kate kept shouting. “I sussed it this morning! Taylor’s got the hots for Keirry. Just so you know. I’m Little Miss Matchmaker!” she declared proudly.
At these words Joe got tense and then he knifed to sitting, me astride him. His eyes were pointed at the door and they were narrowed. One look at him and I knew that he hadn’t quite cottoned onto the beach frolicking and teenaged flirting likely because Keira was Joe’s little helper and even though logically he knew she was a teenage girl with a gorgeous face, fantastic hair and a body built for a bikini, illogically he couldn’t conceive of these same things and couldn’t abide a boy-man named Taylor who lived next door acting on liking them.
“Joe,” I murmured as we heard the door slam.
Suddenly Joe shouted, “Kate!”
I jumped at his shout but he set me aside and knifed out of bed at the same time he grabbed his jeans from the floor.
“Joe, Keira’s fifteen,” I reminded him as he pulled up his jeans.
Joe ignored me, stalked to the door buttoning his jeans and repeated, “Kate!”
“Joe!” I yelled but he was gone.
That’s when I realized, even with a new baby, Keira wouldn’t stop being one, fifteen years old, thirty or a hundred and five.
And that’s when I fell to my side, curled my knees into my belly and burst out laughing.
I stopped laughing and smelled Joe’s hair on the pillow, his scent all around me and the bright sun shone down on our bed through the many windows. Then I heard Joe’s indistinct deep voice and Kate and Keira’s not indistinct giggles.
I put my hand to my belly and tilted my chin down to look at it.
“Crash,” I whispered to Joe and my unborn child.
Our baby didn’t reply but that was okay. I figured, in our family, she’d one day learn the way to make her opinion known.
*
Five minutes later Joe came back and he told me the girls were gone with his cash, his ATM card and his PIN number.
Before I could protest this, he also told me that Taylor had been given the Joe Talk and knew if he fucked around in his Jeep or did anything else to piss Joe off, there would be badass-alpha-male-father-figure retribution (this was not Joe’s description, it was mine).
Before I could protest this, he took off his jeans and rejoined me in bed.