All the Waters of the Earth (Giving You... #3)(38)

The End.

Delete.

Ugh.

I rapped my fingers on my desk.

Was I done? I never really liked to write "The End" on my stories, because in my mind, they were never done. There was always something else that the characters could do. My characters took on a life of their own, and I never liked to say goodbye.

I thought about it for a moment.

Yeah. I had finished my new novel. On deadline. And I was pleased with it. I started typing again.

The End.

Time to finalize and send it off to my editor.

After the birth of this creative project, I felt relieved and sated. But there were other things that I needed to do.

Like tell Rob that he was getting a new sibling.

And a stepdad.

I got up from my desk, my body achy from pregnancy, rubbing my fingers on my gently protruding belly. Having made it through the first trimester, I couldn't wear my fitted clothes anymore. Since I normally wore yoga pants to write in, so far I'd been able to hide my condition, but it was at the point where I needed to tell everyone. I'd managed to hide it from my friends and family by saying that I couldn't go out since I needed to finish my book. But now that it was done, I needed to show my face and start telling people. It was time to tell Rob about the baby.

I also needed to tell him about Jake and me.

Wandering down the hall, I walked into his room. It was the sweet spot of time after he'd arrived home from school and had finished his homework, but before dinner. I knocked on his open door to politely announce my presence. Rob sat inside, reading a book, his skinny frame draped with a t-shirt that hung from his frame, ankles hanging out the bottom of his pants. 

Yes, that was my son, nose in a book.

"Can I talk with you?"

"Okay." He reluctantly set the book down.

Again, that was my son.

"I have a few things to tell you and they're important." His dark eyes got big, and I took a deep breath and continued. "First of all, you need to know that I love you, and I have always loved you, and I always will love you."

He looked at me suspiciously and said, "Yeah?"

"What do you think of Mister Jake?"

"I like him."

"Me too, mijo. Me too. He is very special to me. In a different way than you are special to me."

"Are you going to marry him, Mom?"

Smart kid. It didn't surprise me that he'd figured it out. Kids know.

"Yes," I answered. "I am."

"Does that mean we're gonna live at his house?"

"Yeah, it does."

"Do I have to switch schools?"

"No. I checked it out. You don't." He visibly relaxed. "What do you think, mijo?"

"Okay, I guess." He shrugged his narrow shoulders.

I gave him a smile. "There's more news." Looking back up at me blankly, he set his hand on his book in a comforting gesture. "There's going to be a new brother or sister."

"Yeah, Dad already told me."

This surprised me. "He told you he was having one?"

He nodded. "He says it's a girl." Rob grimaced. "Great, a sister. Guess that will be okay, though."

"Roberto, I'm pregnant too," I said quietly.

My son's lower lip started to quiver and he visibly grayed under his tan skin. "No. No. You can't."

"What? Why?" I asked before I could help myself. Then I recovered. "Tell me what you're thinking, mijo." He shook his head and a tear stuck at the corner of his eye. I reached over and held him in a big hug, which he didn't return, his arms held limply down. "C'mere," I muttered into his hair. "Just because we have big changes coming up doesn't mean that my love for you will change." He nodded into my torso. "Are you scared that the baby is going to get all of the attention?"

"Both babies," he whispered.

"You're a smart kid," I said. "To figure out how you feel and to tell me. Babies do take a lot of time and things will change."

I leaned back so I could study his face and watched the tear threaten to escape his tear duct. But he wiped it away with the back of his hand.

"It's a big change," I repeated. "I am scared too. And it surprised me too."

"It did?"

"Yeah. But it's a good surprise. It just takes some getting used to." I pulled him back to me in a hug.

Rob nodded, and I continued, "Just think about it, mijo. Jake and I are going to get married by a judge next week."

"Okay. Can I read my book now?"

"Yeah." And I ruffled his hair.

Just then I heard the front door open. Jake was home. He knew that I was going to tell Rob today and he'd wanted to know if he should be there or not. I'd told him that I wanted to tell Rob by myself and he'd stayed away, even though he was in the habit of coming home earlier these days. I got up and kissed his forehead. "We can talk about it more if you want, okay?"

He nodded.

Pausing a moment at the door to look at him, I steadied myself. I hadn't realized it, but my pulse had been racing the whole time and I'd felt flushed-not from the pregnancy. I'd been nervous to tell him. Things were going to change, and I was scared, too.



       
         
       
        

It was hard to be a parent when you wanted someone to hold onto yourself. I leaned my head against the door and heard Jake call out, "Lucy?" Some of the fear evaporated when I heard his baritone.

Righting myself, I went to the front door and got a kiss on the mouth and then a Jake kiss on my nose. "What's up? How was your day?"

Wrapping his arms around me, he lifted my chin and looked at me intently. He was my someone to hold onto. "How did it go telling Rob?"

"He needs to get used to it. But good."

He nodded and his eyes were dancing. I wondered why. "I'm glad you told him. Keeping secrets is stressful. It's a relief now." He paused. "Still gonna be an adjustment for us all."

"Yeah it is, but now we can tell everyone else." Like my parents. And my friends. The same feeling that I'd felt when I told Rob returned. I wasn't done with my uncomfortable announcements by a long run.

Then Jake spoke. "And I've got some more news."





"We had a meeting at work."

His eyes seemed to get deeper, a blue that was almost black. He looked like a kid dying to tell the answer in class, but who knew that he had to wait until he was called on. Well, a kid in a dark gray business suit with a blue and silver striped tie.

"What? Tell me." I gasped.

"A few things," he said, teasing me, making me wait. I put my hand on my hip in my classic sassy-Lucy posture. "We voted to make Amelia Crowley a partner in my law firm."

I squealed. "That's great! She totally deserves the promotion."

"She does. She's already taken over most of my cases. She put in her time. She's due."

I did a little dance, shaking my booty. Amelia, breaking the glass ceiling. He watched me dance until I stopped moving, and then I smiled saucily up at him. But I thought of something.

"She's not going to work too hard is she?" I asked, suddenly worried about my lawyer.

"No. We hired another young attorney, a woman, to help her."

Excellent.

"There's more," he continued, eyes still dancing.

I pushed his chest. Oh, yum, his chest. "Oh yeah? Hit me with it."

He leaned over and got right in my face, a beaming smile on his marvelous one. I almost expected him to do a happy booty dance. Heck, I wanted to see that. "I have a new job."

Awesome!

"What? Where?"

He wrapped his hands around my waist, pulling me to him. "The court has a program for helping people who don't have attorneys and a staff position opened up. It's got limited hours-ten to four-and I'll be helping people directly. People who can't afford lawyers." 

"That's fantastic!"

"It's a pay cut but I have money saved. I think we'll be fine."

I squealed again and jumped up and wrapped my arms around his neck. He swung me around, as jubilant as I was.

"I'm gonna have time, Lucy honey. Time for you, for Rob, for our baby." He paused. "Time to paint."

"Yay," I whispered, and he kissed me again, this time pressing me against the wall, his legs between mine, caging me in with one arm on the wall next to me and the other one on my ass, pulling my leg up.

When we broke apart, I wasn't breathing.

"That's too hot for right now," I said, whispering again.

"It's a promise for later," he replied, whispering back.

Just then Rob came out of his room, thankfully when we weren't entangled, and we set to work making dinner.

The next week, on Friday morning, Sara and Georgie sat on my bed, watching me dress.

"I still can't believe you didn't tell us you were pregnant," Georgie charged, a sassy-Lucy hand on her hip.

"I told you I was sorry, chica, but I needed to get things squared away with Jake before I could tell anyone. And then I wanted to get through the first trimester."

"But we could have helped you," Sara said sensibly.

I kissed the top of her hair. "You're helping me now."

My parents camped out in the living room with Rob, who I'd taken out of school for the day. My son had his hair slicked down, slacks and a dress shirt on, and his shoes shined. He looked sharp. Jake had already left for the Santa Barbara courthouse, bringing his dad with him. His mother, stepdad, brother, and sister were going to meet us there.