Infinity(34)

Breaking our kiss, I lean down to her swollen stomach, raising her thin sweater and tucking it under her bra. Her abdomen is fuller than when I last saw it. It’s beautiful, breathtaking actually. Her body is able to expand itself like this to hold our child.

The skin is smooth, and stretched to the maximum limit across her abdomen. Her belly button is now flat, just slightly protruding, and there’s a faint brown line that runs from it to her pubic bone. Sexiest damn thing that I’ve ever seen.

I plant tiny kisses, starting at the top of the roundness exploring the stretched, taut skin with my lips and tongue. Our baby moves toward me as if he’s following my trail of kisses in his warm, safe spot. Then, the baby moves, and pushes with force against my nose. I look up at Charlie who’s staring at me with soft eyes and a glowing complexion. Love and happiness dance across her beautiful face.

“I think that was the baby’s bottom that got you.” She smiles. “I’ve been feeling a lot of arms and legs in my ribs lately. I also know that our little guy’s been sitting on my bladder.”

I look back at her stomach, watching our baby move just underneath her skin.

“The baby would get particularly excited with lots of movement when you’d score. I’m sure that I’m going to be sore tomorrow from the battering that the bean put me through.” She shares this with me as her fingers work through my matted curls.

All I want to do is be alone with her right now, in our bedroom. I want to be inside of her and fall asleep that way. Instead, I’m in a nightclub, after the biggest game of my career, listening to the bass line change.

As if she can read my mind, she says, “Just a couple more days of this, and it can be just the two of us before we welcome our child.” It’s uncanny how well she knows me.

I need her more than oxygen, food, and water. I need some alone being time with just her. I need her naked and pressed up against me. I need to taste her and hold her. God, I just need to sleep next to her again, and wake up with her warm heat cocooning me, her leg thrown over my hip. I need to be the one who cares for her, instead of Brad.

My eyes drift closed as her long fingernails massage my skull. I lay my head on her swollen stomach, inhaling her scent, which is honey and almond-butter from the lotion she rubs on her body, trying to prevent stretch marks.

“How are you feeling?” I ask in a raspy voice.

Her soft chuckle makes her belly dance under me. “Well, strangely enough, half the men here were wearing your cologne. Great for your sponsors, terrible for my nausea. As long as I stayed out of the crowds, I was fine.”

Poor Charlie. All of our Christmas shopping this year was done online because she couldn’t step foot in a mall. The cologne company has been pimping both the old and new scents because of our winning season—trying to capitalize on my success. It’s been great for our bank account/Lake Somerville house fund, but terrible for her body.

“Hopefully, it’s almost over, baby. And the contractions?”

“Still practicing.” She removes her hand from my hair, and tilts my chin up so I can see her face. In a more stern voice, she chastises, “Quit worrying. I’m fine. The baby is fine. I’ve taken good care of us while you’ve been gone.”

“I know that you have. I’ve just missed you so fucking much.”

“It was worth it. You’re a Super Bowl-winning quarterback and MVP. You know that there’s no one who’s happier than me. There was no place that I wanted to be more than on the field with you.” She pauses as her eyes dance. “I saw you were wearing your ring.”

I raise my left hand to her mouth, and she kisses the ring that she had made for me. The gold from her original engagement ring when I used to propose to her every single day. She ultimately asked me to marry her, and now, I see how perfect it really was to have worked out that way. “I wanted you to know that I was thinking about you.”

“Always, baby,” she confirms as I kiss her very simple infinity wedding band that I had made just for her.

“Go make your appearances. Do what you need to do. I’ll be waiting at home for you tomorrow. ’Kay?”

Sitting up, I lean against the back of the bench, allowing my head to bang against the wall behind me. “Fuck, I just want to go home.” For a man that just won the Super Bowl and MVP trophies, I sound like a pathetic whiney bitch.

“Go own this time. Honey, you’ve been working for this day since you were a little boy tossing footballs in the front yard with your dad. Tonight might not ever happen again. We have the rest of our lives to spend holding each other while we fall asleep. Go live it up. Soak in every second, because you’ve earned it.” She says just what I need to hear. Her quiet, even voice knows how to speak to my heart.