CHAPTER
TWELVE
Mindy
“I can’t believe they left us alone to do our shopping, can you?” Jolie asks as we push our carts through the baby store.
I giggle and reply, “They’re busy trying to figure out how they’re getting the bedroom sets we picked out home, since neither of them want to pay the ridiculous delivery fee.”
“Knowing Dex, he’ll just go rent a trailer or something,” Jolie muses. “I can’t believe we’ve got a little over two months left, can you?”
“No, not really.” It reminds me that we need to decide on a color for the nursery. One of the things I love best about our home is that the nursery is an attached room to our bedroom. Once our daughter gets older, we’ll move her into one of the other rooms in the house, but that won’t happen for a little while at least.
Ever since the night when Clark came to our house, Cruz has been hovering. Even though Clark’s bond was revoked and he’s sitting in jail waiting for a trial date, my husband is takingno chances at all. The funny thing is, more women have come forward to say he raped them as well, which the detective handling my case was positively giddy about because it will help close about half a dozen cases, including mine, once we go to trial. So, while part of me wants to get this done and over with, I’d rather they geteverythingconcerning his nefarious deeds so he goes to prison for a long time, if not for the rest of his natural life.
“You’ve spaced out again, are you okay?” she questions, nudging my shoulder as we stop in front of a wall full of colorful onesies.
“Yeah, just thinking about the nightthatman showed up at our house is all,” I admit. “I swear, I’ve never been more frightened in my life. If he had come earlier, around six or so? I might have just let him in especially since he had his face somewhat covered. I would’ve taken him at his word, Jolie.”
“I don’t think you would’ve, Min. What happened has made you more cautious than you were before, but I did wanna say that I’m proud of how far you’ve come. Cruz has a lot to do with that, doesn’t he?”
Grinning at her, I remove one of the onesies that has caught my eye. “Look at this one, it’s kind of old fashioned with the tiny flowers, but I love it!”
“Grab one for me, too, please. And stop avoiding the question.”
“I’m not doing it intentionally, I just don’t know how to answer you,” I admit. “He makes me feel like I can accomplish anything and that’s done loads for my self-esteem. Plus, he’s so attentive to me with this pregnancy that it blows me away sometimes. I mean,” I lean in and whisper, “we haven’t even had sex yet,and he’s willing to shave my legs for me since I can’t maneuver correctly anymore!”
“What’s holding you back?” she asks, tossing in two more matching onesies into our carts. At this rate, our daughters will be lookalikes, kind of how Jolie and I were when we were kids. We loved wearing matching outfits and did it frequently.
Sighing, I shrug. “I don’t know. I really don’t. I think he’s waiting on me to initiate something, if I’m being honest with myself, but I have no clue how to do that at all!”
“Girl, just grab him by the dick and squeeze,” she suggests, as if it’s as easy as that. “If nothing else, it’ll get his attention.”
I can feel my face heating because thathascrossed my mind and I’m about to respond when strong arms wrap around me from behind and I hear, “What are you two cackling about now?”
Since he realized that I don’t recoil at his touch, he’s started doing little things like that, which help me more than he knows. He doesn’t treat me like I’m less than or broken, he treats me normally. Turning, I look up at my husband, something I still pinch myself over, and say, “You know us, we graze from topic to topic.”
“Dex went to rent a U-Haul for a few hours so we can get everything back home,” he says when I look around to see where Jolie’s hubby is standing. “He figured by the time he got back, y’all might be through.”
Jolie snorts and retorts, “Not a chance! Do you see all the great deals?”
“Aren’t y’all having a shower or something?” Cruz questions.
I snicker and nod. “Both Nonna’s and Abuela’s churches are hosting one for each of us. Well, we’ll have a co-shower at each of their churches. But we’re not buying newborn stuff, we’re getting stuff that’s a bit bigger because babies grow so quickly.”
“I’m thinking I may need to go check out another dresser,” he muses. His smile causes his dimples to shine and there’s something about his happiness that’s cathartic to my healing soul.
“Make sure you grab plenty of baby clothes hangers too!” I call out as he starts to walk away. He comes back and lightly brushes his lips over mine while Jolie watches with tears in her eyes.
With my lips now tingling, I look at her and say, “Not a word!”
She mimics zipping up her lip and tossing the key over her shoulder before she bursts out laughing. “You should see the look on your face, my friend! If I had to give it a name I’d say longing desire.”
“Stupid pregnancy hormones.”
“I like this color best,” I confess to Cruz. It’s a soft rose gold color and we’ll do the trim in a dove gray.
“What do you think about these?” he asks, pointing to a display that has large wooden letters carved that can be used to either spell out the baby’s name or their monogram.
