Until the End
Page 33
Sienna
My emotions were already raw. The hormones in my body had hit pregnancy insaneness. So seeing my bigger-than-life man cry over the fact that his nephew had just asked to call him Dad was too much.
I burst into tears and covered my mouth on a sob. I felt Micah’s little hand on my back instantly. “I’m sorry, Mommy. I didn’t mean to upset you. I don’t have to call him Dad.”
I shook my head and gasped for a breath. “No. Yes. I mean, I want you to call him Dad if that’s what you want. I’m just happy. These are happy tears. I’ll do a lot of this while the baby is in my stomach. I did it with you, too.”
Dewayne’s big form closed in on us, and he bent down and pulled both me and Micah into his arms.
“We have our work cut out for us, bud. She’s gonna be a handful,” Dewayne teased, and Micah giggled.
Dewayne held us like that for several minutes. It was perfect.
***
Micah was late for school and I was late for work. But Micah and Dewayne had decided that they needed to fix me breakfast, and then they decided they needed to pack my lunch. It was cute. But if they tried to smother me like this for nine months, I would have to put a stop to it. My eating toast and drinking orange juice was not the most important thing in the world.
I didn’t want to tell Hillary or the others at the salon yet. I was just now getting used to the idea that Dewayne and Micah knew. Ever since the sticks had shown me those two lines, I hadn’t been able to accept it. My last experience with pregnancy had been bad. Really bad.
My boyfriend was dead, and my parents had shipped me off from my home to live with my aunt, who had treated me like a mere acquaintance. I had made it through morning sickness all on my own. No one had held my hair back and washed my face. No one had made me breakfast and packed my lunch. Those weren’t things I had even thought about. Until now.
Micah had been mine. I had suffered through the bad times to be gifted with a beautiful baby boy who made fighting worth it. We had made it together.
Seeing Dewayne and him working together and talking about the baby and taking care of me this morning touched something in me I couldn’t explain. I knew we were a family now, that our two had become three. And I loved having Dewayne in our little world. He made it complete.
The idea of having Dewayne’s baby and knowing I wouldn’t be alone, that he would be there through everything, almost scared me. Or it did scare me. Because it made me want that so much that I was afraid of losing it.
Dewayne
I held Micah’s hand in mine as we walked across the street to see my parents. After picking him up from school today, I had taken him to one of the shops in town that had baby stuff. I had given him the mission to find something for the baby that we could give to his grandparents. He was supposed to hold on to the gift that was tucked in the brown bag until his mother got there.
It was Tuesday night dinner with my parents. Momma lived for Tuesdays, and for Sundays, when we came over to eat lunch. Micah made it over there for cookies almost every afternoon, but she liked having all of us together.
When she saw the ring on Sienna’s hand the first time, she burst into tears and clapped, then went to hugging the breath out of Sienna. I could only imagine what her reaction to this would be. Sure, we weren’t married yet, but I was dealing with that tomorrow. I wanted to enjoy this news first before pushing up the date of the wedding. I wasn’t waiting another two months. I wanted Sienna to be my wife now.
“When will Momma be here?” Micah asked as we walked up the steps to the house.
“In about”—I paused as Sienna’s car pulled into the driveway—“now,” I finished.
Micah made a whooping noise and let go of my hand to run over to her. “Guess what we got!”
Sienna smiled at him as she stepped out of the car. Her hair was pulled up in a knot at her neck, and the deep scoop of her top gave me a sweet little flash as she bent down to hug Micah.
“I know what you got. Dewayne texted me a picture of it. Very good choice,” she said, kissing his face, then lacing her fingers through his before standing back up to look at me.
Her smile turned soft and sexy. That was the smile that was mine alone. No one else got that smile. And they never f**king would.
“You ready for this?” she asked me as they walked over to join me.
I chuckled. “Yeah. They’re gonna be thrilled.”
She stood on her tiptoes and pressed a quick kiss to my cheek. “Need to kiss both my fellas when I get home.”
Micah groaned and then pulled on her arm. “Let’s go!”
Momma had already seen us coming. The door swung open, and she came out onto the porch, beaming at us as she waved us inside. “Come on in here, y’all.”
Micah let go of Sienna’s hand and took off up the stairs and straight into the house.
“He’s so anxious to tell them,” Sienna whispered beside me.
“You should have see him deciding what to buy,” I told her.
She laughed softly, then laid her head on my shoulder. “Thank you. I want him to feel involved. Like this is his baby too.”
“It is,” I assured her.
“Stop. You’re gonna make me cry again,” she said, slapping my chest, then kissing my cheek again.
“Stop kissing and get in this house,” Momma said as we reached the door. She was smiling from ear to ear as she said it.
“They do that all the time,” Micah piped up. “Makes us late for everything.”
“Hey, now. Don’t be telling on us,” I scolded him, then winked.
“Can we give it to them now?” Micah asked, waving the bag around.
Momma’s smile turned to a confused one.
“Yeah. Where’s Dad?” I asked her.
“In the living room. Come on,” she said, leading the way. “Dave, the kids are here!” she called out as we approached the living room. “You should’ve met them at the door.”
Dad was in his recliner. He turned to look at us and smirked. “Why? You just about tackle them when they get here. Don’t figure they need me hovering over them too.”
Momma slapped his arm, and he winked at her as Micah headed to hug him. That little boy was the best thing that had ever happened to my parents. Especially my dad. He smiled a lot more now. He also got outside and played with him. It was nice to watch.
“We got y’all a present,” Micah announced, holding it up. “It’s a really good one too.”
“A present? Well, what day is it? Did I forget something?” Dad asked, looking up at Momma.
She shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
“Here.” Micah shoved it into my dad’s hands. “Open it.”
Dad glanced up at me, and I shrugged. But the grin on my face was hard to mask.
Momma walked over to stand behind Daddy. “Go on, Dave. Open it up.”
Dad held it in his hands like he was afraid it was about to burst into flames.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Open the bag,” Momma said, taking the bag from him and opening it herself. She reached in and pulled out the white box that was inside.
Sienna slipped her hand into mine as Momma lifted the lid.
She didn’t speak at first. Then her hand went to her mouth as she stared down at the bib Micah had chosen with care. When she lifted it up, she showed Dad and then burst into tears, laughing and crying at the same time.
Dad read the bib out loud: “‘I’m perfect. Just ask my grandparents.’”
Then he turned to look at us. His gaze dropped to Sienna’s stomach, and Micah couldn’t take waiting on them to speak. So he announced, “We’re going to have a baby!”
Dad’s face broke into a huge grin, and his eyes misted over. They had been robbed of this with Micah too. They would get to experience it all with this baby.
“I’m just so . . . ,” Momma squealed, then ran to wrap Sienna in her arms. “Thank you. Thank you. I couldn’t ask for a better mother for my grandkids.”
When she was done with Sienna, she grabbed me around the waist and held on tight. “My boy’s gonna have a baby,” she sobbed into my chest.
Dad walked up and hugged Sienna. “If this ain’t a surprise.” He chuckled, trying to hide the fact that he had gotten a little emotional.
“Dad, can we go eat now? I’m hungry,” Micah asked.
Both my parents froze from hearing Micah call me Dad for the first time. Honestly, it was a little intense for me, too. He was my brother’s son. But in my heart he was mine. “Yeah, kiddo, we can go eat now,” I replied.
Then my mother promptly burst into a new round of happy tears.
Sienna
When I jumped up from bed and ran to the bathroom two days later, Dewayne was right behind me. He had my hair pulled back and was wetting a washcloth by the time I hit my knees in front of the toilet. Yesterday I had made it through the morning until the bacon Micah had requested for breakfast wafted past my nose and had me running for the toilet. But today I woke up this way.
“I love you,” Dewayne said so sincerely as he held my hair back while I dry heaved. If I wasn’t puking my guts out, I would laugh. This isn’t where most women expect to hear their men tell them they love them.
Once I was finished, Dewayne flushed the toilet and started cleaning my face for me. I was getting spoiled by this. He helped me up and began fixing my toothbrush for me.
“I can do it,” I told him.
“I know” was his response as he continued to put the paste on my brush, then handed it to me.
I laughed as he filled the glass with water for me to rinse and waited patiently like I was a child for me to finish.
When I was done and had dried my mouth, he took my arms and turned me around to face him. “Marry me,” he said simply.
“You already asked me that. I said yes.”
He gave me a crooked smile. “I mean today. Now. Tomorrow. Just soon.”
Today? Had he lost his mind? I couldn’t get the wedding together for today or tomorrow.
“Just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean we have to hurry up and get married. Two months isn’t that long to wait.”
He shook his head as if that was the incorrect answer. “I want a wedding band on your finger. I want your last name to be mine. I want to be able to say ‘Have you met my wife, Sienna?’” he said, looking exasperated.
“So I’m to be your trophy wife?” I teased because of his last comment.
He smirked. “Come on, babe. Marry me. Let’s not wait.”
When the most beautiful, perfect man in the world, who you loved more than life, asked you to hurry up and marry him, it was hard to say no. Especially when he was only wearing a pair of sweatpants.
“Two weeks,” I said, trying to sound firm.
He groaned. “Two weeks? That’s forever.”
Laughing because he sounded just like Micah right then, I slipped my arms around his waist. “Next week is a big week because we go to the doctor. I need time to adjust to the pregnancy and plan at the same time. I don’t want anything extreme, but even a little wedding takes some time.”
He sighed, then finally nodded. “Fine. Two weeks. But two weeks from today, you will be Mrs. Sienna Falco.”
“Agreed.”
One week and six days later . . .
I watched as Dewayne walked Micah over to his parents’. The little blue rolling suitcase that Mama T had given him was trailing behind them. He was staying with them for the next week. Tomorrow afternoon Dewayne and I would pledge forever together at a small, simple beach wedding. Then, for our honeymoon, we were going somewhere—but I didn’t know where because Dewayne wouldn’t tell me.
If Micah didn’t love Tabby and Dave so much, I wouldn’t have been able to leave him that long. But he’d be so taken care of and spoiled while we were away, I knew everything would be fine. Tonight Dewayne wanted it to be just us. If he didn’t get to see me tomorrow until the wedding, then he wanted to spend the night before with me. Alone.
Smiling to myself, I went to the bedroom and slipped out of the clothes I had worn to work today and turned on the faucet to fill up the bath. I needed to be clean. I felt yucky from working all day. Before Dewayne ran his wonderful mouth over me everywhere, I needed a bath.
Once the water was warm enough, I slipped inside and sank down. With a sigh I closed my eyes and laid my head back. Soaking in the tub was one of my favorite things to do.
The front door opened and closed. He was back. I would need to make this bath quick because, even with Micah there, he had been frisky this evening. His hands had kept slipping under my shirt while I cooked dinner.
I felt his presence the moment he filled up the doorway. Opening my eyes, I turned my head to look over at him. “I needed to get clean,” I told him.
He smirked. “I’ll take you clean or dirty, babe. In fact, I like you dirty.”
Laughing, I reached up with my toes and turned off the water. Dewayne walked over to the tub and picked up the washcloth lying beside me, then picked up my body wash. “But bathing you has its advantages too,” he said as he dipped the cloth into the water and ran it up my thigh while his eyes roamed over my body. “I’m looking forward to seeing that flat stomach get nice and round,” he said as he brushed the cloth over it.
Enjoying his touch, I closed my eyes and let him play all he wanted. His breath was on my face just before his lips touched mine. He licked my bottom lip, then nibbled on it before trailing kisses across my jawbone and down my neck. “Smell good when you’re dirty,” he whispered. “But I’ll make you smell better.”
My emotions were already raw. The hormones in my body had hit pregnancy insaneness. So seeing my bigger-than-life man cry over the fact that his nephew had just asked to call him Dad was too much.
I burst into tears and covered my mouth on a sob. I felt Micah’s little hand on my back instantly. “I’m sorry, Mommy. I didn’t mean to upset you. I don’t have to call him Dad.”
I shook my head and gasped for a breath. “No. Yes. I mean, I want you to call him Dad if that’s what you want. I’m just happy. These are happy tears. I’ll do a lot of this while the baby is in my stomach. I did it with you, too.”
Dewayne’s big form closed in on us, and he bent down and pulled both me and Micah into his arms.
“We have our work cut out for us, bud. She’s gonna be a handful,” Dewayne teased, and Micah giggled.
Dewayne held us like that for several minutes. It was perfect.
***
Micah was late for school and I was late for work. But Micah and Dewayne had decided that they needed to fix me breakfast, and then they decided they needed to pack my lunch. It was cute. But if they tried to smother me like this for nine months, I would have to put a stop to it. My eating toast and drinking orange juice was not the most important thing in the world.
I didn’t want to tell Hillary or the others at the salon yet. I was just now getting used to the idea that Dewayne and Micah knew. Ever since the sticks had shown me those two lines, I hadn’t been able to accept it. My last experience with pregnancy had been bad. Really bad.
My boyfriend was dead, and my parents had shipped me off from my home to live with my aunt, who had treated me like a mere acquaintance. I had made it through morning sickness all on my own. No one had held my hair back and washed my face. No one had made me breakfast and packed my lunch. Those weren’t things I had even thought about. Until now.
Micah had been mine. I had suffered through the bad times to be gifted with a beautiful baby boy who made fighting worth it. We had made it together.
Seeing Dewayne and him working together and talking about the baby and taking care of me this morning touched something in me I couldn’t explain. I knew we were a family now, that our two had become three. And I loved having Dewayne in our little world. He made it complete.
The idea of having Dewayne’s baby and knowing I wouldn’t be alone, that he would be there through everything, almost scared me. Or it did scare me. Because it made me want that so much that I was afraid of losing it.
Dewayne
I held Micah’s hand in mine as we walked across the street to see my parents. After picking him up from school today, I had taken him to one of the shops in town that had baby stuff. I had given him the mission to find something for the baby that we could give to his grandparents. He was supposed to hold on to the gift that was tucked in the brown bag until his mother got there.
It was Tuesday night dinner with my parents. Momma lived for Tuesdays, and for Sundays, when we came over to eat lunch. Micah made it over there for cookies almost every afternoon, but she liked having all of us together.
When she saw the ring on Sienna’s hand the first time, she burst into tears and clapped, then went to hugging the breath out of Sienna. I could only imagine what her reaction to this would be. Sure, we weren’t married yet, but I was dealing with that tomorrow. I wanted to enjoy this news first before pushing up the date of the wedding. I wasn’t waiting another two months. I wanted Sienna to be my wife now.
“When will Momma be here?” Micah asked as we walked up the steps to the house.
“In about”—I paused as Sienna’s car pulled into the driveway—“now,” I finished.
Micah made a whooping noise and let go of my hand to run over to her. “Guess what we got!”
Sienna smiled at him as she stepped out of the car. Her hair was pulled up in a knot at her neck, and the deep scoop of her top gave me a sweet little flash as she bent down to hug Micah.
“I know what you got. Dewayne texted me a picture of it. Very good choice,” she said, kissing his face, then lacing her fingers through his before standing back up to look at me.
Her smile turned soft and sexy. That was the smile that was mine alone. No one else got that smile. And they never f**king would.
“You ready for this?” she asked me as they walked over to join me.
I chuckled. “Yeah. They’re gonna be thrilled.”
She stood on her tiptoes and pressed a quick kiss to my cheek. “Need to kiss both my fellas when I get home.”
Micah groaned and then pulled on her arm. “Let’s go!”
Momma had already seen us coming. The door swung open, and she came out onto the porch, beaming at us as she waved us inside. “Come on in here, y’all.”
Micah let go of Sienna’s hand and took off up the stairs and straight into the house.
“He’s so anxious to tell them,” Sienna whispered beside me.
“You should have see him deciding what to buy,” I told her.
She laughed softly, then laid her head on my shoulder. “Thank you. I want him to feel involved. Like this is his baby too.”
“It is,” I assured her.
“Stop. You’re gonna make me cry again,” she said, slapping my chest, then kissing my cheek again.
“Stop kissing and get in this house,” Momma said as we reached the door. She was smiling from ear to ear as she said it.
“They do that all the time,” Micah piped up. “Makes us late for everything.”
“Hey, now. Don’t be telling on us,” I scolded him, then winked.
“Can we give it to them now?” Micah asked, waving the bag around.
Momma’s smile turned to a confused one.
“Yeah. Where’s Dad?” I asked her.
“In the living room. Come on,” she said, leading the way. “Dave, the kids are here!” she called out as we approached the living room. “You should’ve met them at the door.”
Dad was in his recliner. He turned to look at us and smirked. “Why? You just about tackle them when they get here. Don’t figure they need me hovering over them too.”
Momma slapped his arm, and he winked at her as Micah headed to hug him. That little boy was the best thing that had ever happened to my parents. Especially my dad. He smiled a lot more now. He also got outside and played with him. It was nice to watch.
“We got y’all a present,” Micah announced, holding it up. “It’s a really good one too.”
“A present? Well, what day is it? Did I forget something?” Dad asked, looking up at Momma.
She shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
“Here.” Micah shoved it into my dad’s hands. “Open it.”
Dad glanced up at me, and I shrugged. But the grin on my face was hard to mask.
Momma walked over to stand behind Daddy. “Go on, Dave. Open it up.”
Dad held it in his hands like he was afraid it was about to burst into flames.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Open the bag,” Momma said, taking the bag from him and opening it herself. She reached in and pulled out the white box that was inside.
Sienna slipped her hand into mine as Momma lifted the lid.
She didn’t speak at first. Then her hand went to her mouth as she stared down at the bib Micah had chosen with care. When she lifted it up, she showed Dad and then burst into tears, laughing and crying at the same time.
Dad read the bib out loud: “‘I’m perfect. Just ask my grandparents.’”
Then he turned to look at us. His gaze dropped to Sienna’s stomach, and Micah couldn’t take waiting on them to speak. So he announced, “We’re going to have a baby!”
Dad’s face broke into a huge grin, and his eyes misted over. They had been robbed of this with Micah too. They would get to experience it all with this baby.
“I’m just so . . . ,” Momma squealed, then ran to wrap Sienna in her arms. “Thank you. Thank you. I couldn’t ask for a better mother for my grandkids.”
When she was done with Sienna, she grabbed me around the waist and held on tight. “My boy’s gonna have a baby,” she sobbed into my chest.
Dad walked up and hugged Sienna. “If this ain’t a surprise.” He chuckled, trying to hide the fact that he had gotten a little emotional.
“Dad, can we go eat now? I’m hungry,” Micah asked.
Both my parents froze from hearing Micah call me Dad for the first time. Honestly, it was a little intense for me, too. He was my brother’s son. But in my heart he was mine. “Yeah, kiddo, we can go eat now,” I replied.
Then my mother promptly burst into a new round of happy tears.
Sienna
When I jumped up from bed and ran to the bathroom two days later, Dewayne was right behind me. He had my hair pulled back and was wetting a washcloth by the time I hit my knees in front of the toilet. Yesterday I had made it through the morning until the bacon Micah had requested for breakfast wafted past my nose and had me running for the toilet. But today I woke up this way.
“I love you,” Dewayne said so sincerely as he held my hair back while I dry heaved. If I wasn’t puking my guts out, I would laugh. This isn’t where most women expect to hear their men tell them they love them.
Once I was finished, Dewayne flushed the toilet and started cleaning my face for me. I was getting spoiled by this. He helped me up and began fixing my toothbrush for me.
“I can do it,” I told him.
“I know” was his response as he continued to put the paste on my brush, then handed it to me.
I laughed as he filled the glass with water for me to rinse and waited patiently like I was a child for me to finish.
When I was done and had dried my mouth, he took my arms and turned me around to face him. “Marry me,” he said simply.
“You already asked me that. I said yes.”
He gave me a crooked smile. “I mean today. Now. Tomorrow. Just soon.”
Today? Had he lost his mind? I couldn’t get the wedding together for today or tomorrow.
“Just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean we have to hurry up and get married. Two months isn’t that long to wait.”
He shook his head as if that was the incorrect answer. “I want a wedding band on your finger. I want your last name to be mine. I want to be able to say ‘Have you met my wife, Sienna?’” he said, looking exasperated.
“So I’m to be your trophy wife?” I teased because of his last comment.
He smirked. “Come on, babe. Marry me. Let’s not wait.”
When the most beautiful, perfect man in the world, who you loved more than life, asked you to hurry up and marry him, it was hard to say no. Especially when he was only wearing a pair of sweatpants.
“Two weeks,” I said, trying to sound firm.
He groaned. “Two weeks? That’s forever.”
Laughing because he sounded just like Micah right then, I slipped my arms around his waist. “Next week is a big week because we go to the doctor. I need time to adjust to the pregnancy and plan at the same time. I don’t want anything extreme, but even a little wedding takes some time.”
He sighed, then finally nodded. “Fine. Two weeks. But two weeks from today, you will be Mrs. Sienna Falco.”
“Agreed.”
One week and six days later . . .
I watched as Dewayne walked Micah over to his parents’. The little blue rolling suitcase that Mama T had given him was trailing behind them. He was staying with them for the next week. Tomorrow afternoon Dewayne and I would pledge forever together at a small, simple beach wedding. Then, for our honeymoon, we were going somewhere—but I didn’t know where because Dewayne wouldn’t tell me.
If Micah didn’t love Tabby and Dave so much, I wouldn’t have been able to leave him that long. But he’d be so taken care of and spoiled while we were away, I knew everything would be fine. Tonight Dewayne wanted it to be just us. If he didn’t get to see me tomorrow until the wedding, then he wanted to spend the night before with me. Alone.
Smiling to myself, I went to the bedroom and slipped out of the clothes I had worn to work today and turned on the faucet to fill up the bath. I needed to be clean. I felt yucky from working all day. Before Dewayne ran his wonderful mouth over me everywhere, I needed a bath.
Once the water was warm enough, I slipped inside and sank down. With a sigh I closed my eyes and laid my head back. Soaking in the tub was one of my favorite things to do.
The front door opened and closed. He was back. I would need to make this bath quick because, even with Micah there, he had been frisky this evening. His hands had kept slipping under my shirt while I cooked dinner.
I felt his presence the moment he filled up the doorway. Opening my eyes, I turned my head to look over at him. “I needed to get clean,” I told him.
He smirked. “I’ll take you clean or dirty, babe. In fact, I like you dirty.”
Laughing, I reached up with my toes and turned off the water. Dewayne walked over to the tub and picked up the washcloth lying beside me, then picked up my body wash. “But bathing you has its advantages too,” he said as he dipped the cloth into the water and ran it up my thigh while his eyes roamed over my body. “I’m looking forward to seeing that flat stomach get nice and round,” he said as he brushed the cloth over it.
Enjoying his touch, I closed my eyes and let him play all he wanted. His breath was on my face just before his lips touched mine. He licked my bottom lip, then nibbled on it before trailing kisses across my jawbone and down my neck. “Smell good when you’re dirty,” he whispered. “But I’ll make you smell better.”
