Carter coughed on his drink. I laughed at him and took another bite of my sandwich.
Thirteen
My parents had driven down for Christmas and stayed with us for the long weekend on Beacon Street. We spent Christmas day at Carter's parent's house in Belmont where Carter's mom had pulled out all of the stops for dinner. I was thankful for many things in my life—one, I’d been blessed with a mother-in-law that had amazing skills in the kitchen. I let Carter spill the news around the table of our impending surprise.
Carter said he was thankful that we could all be together. He said family was a wonderful thing to be blessed with and I'd made him the happiest man alive when I'd agreed to marry him. He then proceeded to say the second happiest day of his life was the day he saw two tiny heartbeats on the ultrasound screen.
Everyone's eyes whipped to me, and my mother's green gaze looked terrified. She probably thought there'd been a mistake.
"Evangeline?" she whispered.
"Twins mom." A sob escaped my throat as she came around the table and held me in her arms. Congratulations spread around the table and we left that evening happy and exhausted.
It was now New Year's Eve and I was feeling better than ever. The morning sickness had passed, the constant peeing had subsided—at least for now, and I had more energy now than before I found out I was pregnant.
"Why are you all dressed up and looking delicious? I thought we were staying in tonight? I believe you said you required sweatpants and ice cream only?" Carter walked in the bathroom off our master suite.
"I have a surprise for you—reservations at Anthony's on the Pier. Jump in the shower. We leave in twenty."
His eyebrows arched in surprise. "I quite like this new controlling you." He wrapped his arms around my waistline and nibbled on my earlobe. I giggled and leaned back into him. His warm palms caressed my expanding belly and then one hand trailed up to the V-neck of my wrap dress. "I also quite like this dress on you. Are you sure you don't want to stay in tonight, Mrs. Morgan?" He fingered the edge of the fabric that revealed my ever-increasing cleavage.
"Later you sex fiend," I giggled.
"Or maybe round two at the restaurant?" He swayed me back and forth and I felt his growing erection against my bottom. I sighed as my body began to hum and my nerves tingled with desire.
"Can I persuade you to join me in the shower?" he whispered in my ear.
"No, now go." I turned and pushed him away from me, smacking his bottom as he turned toward the shower. I turned back to the mirror and ran a brush through my hair.
My eyes darted to Carter shrugging off his dress shirt in the reflection in the mirror. It dropped to the floor and he popped the button of his trousers and slid them down his hips. I moaned as his lean naked form bent over and twisted the knob in the shower.
"See something you like, Mrs. Morgan?" He'd turned and quirked an eyebrow at me in the mirror. My cheeks reddened in embarrassment.
"Always," I grinned. He shook his head with a laugh and stepped behind the glass door.
***
"Dinner was perfect, baby." He wrapped me in his arms as we stood on the chilly boardwalk overlooking Boston Harbor. We'd just stepped out of the bustling restaurant. Carter looked delicious in Oxfords, wool pants and a double-breasted coat, completed with a scarf around his neck. I stretched on my tiptoes and brushed his soft lips. The cold wind whipped around us as I tucked tighter into his form. Damn myself for wearing a dress in winter. I was wearing a wool knee-length white coat that blocked the majority of my body from the chill. Thankfully the winters in Boston weren’t as freezing as they were in Upstate New York.
We walked a few steps away from the restaurant and found ourselves alone overlooking the water.
"I have something for you." I stopped and looked up at him.
"Oh, yeah?" His eyes gleamed with love.
"Yeah." I reached into my pocket and pulled out a black box. His eyebrows rose in surprise. He took the box from my hand and opened it; I saw emotion pool in his steel blue depths. I took the box back from him and held the wedding band up in the light. The beveled platinum band shined in the light of the streetlamps.
"I love it," he grinned.
"It's engraved." I tilted the band. "It says, ‘You and Me. Always.’" I smiled up at him.
His eyes held mine and I saw love and passion reflected back at me. He held his left hand up and I slipped the ring on his finger, twisting it lovingly.
"It's perfect," he whispered.
"It's true." I wrapped my arms around him and snuggled into his warm embrace.