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“Oh, so you need to touch me? Mm. Why didn’t you say so?” I tease, just wanting her to smile. I suggestively run my hands down her back to her ass.
Even better, she laughs and shoves me away playfully. “Grant, don’t go typical guy on me. That’s one thing I like about you.”
I tilt my head. “You like that I don’t hit on you?” Not sure how I feel about that.
“Well, I mean, that’s what makes you you.”
“That’s not what I asked.” She needs to answer because I want to hear her say it.
Lucy crosses her arms over her chest defensively. “We’re friends, Grant.”
I pull her back to me, wondering if she truly thinks that's all we are. “I'm teasing, Lucy. Don’t go anywhere. I just got you back.” She wraps her arms around me again, and I feel her leaning into me as much as possible. “And your brothers won’t be mad. I don’t know why they would be, but they won’t be, okay? As long as you have Patrick on your side, you won’t need to worry about the other two.”
“He’s going to be mad too. The other day, he understood. He won’t understand me telling you and taking you where we’re going. They aren’t going to like that I’m spending the time with you over them either. Once, they could get over. Twice? Not so much.”
Sighing, I hook a finger under her chin to make her look at me. As I stare into her eyes, I wonder if I’m right in what I’m asking her to do. “You always leave me with too many questions.”
Lucy gives me a small smile. “You can ask one right now, if you want.”
“Why won’t they understand you telling me? Are you sure that you want to? Don’t let me sway you, Lucy. I don’t want to do that.”
“That’s more than one question, Grant,” she teases. “I’ll answer both.” She looks solemn again. “I do want to tell you, but they won’t understand because we don’t tell other people. We don’t really talk about it with each other, but we’re always together. I’m going against both of those things by doing this with you. It’s what I want, though.”
THAT GIDDY, HAPPY go-lucky mood is dead tonight. We lost, but it was a tough, well-fought game. It's better to go down fighting than to be on the ice like there isn't a hockey game in progress. So I'm not happy, but I'm not angry either. Only sore from a couple of hard hits and my mood is pretty mellow, really. I'm hoping Audra will still be in a good mood. I knock on the door and brace myself, just in case.
She opens the door with a subtle smile. Her long, dark brown hair is up in a ponytail and she's wearing sweatpants and a shirt that engulfs her figure. Yeah, she's pregnant, but there's still a body in there. And besides, I like seeing her belly.
“Hey, Neil,” Audra greets, surprising the hell out of me when she steps forward to hug me.
“Hey, Audra. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah,” she sniffs, not sounding okay at all. I lean back and cup her cheeks to see her eyes are a little puffy.
“C'mon,” I say gently, taking her hand and tugging her inside. We go to the living room, and I see a couple of Kleenexes lying on the table. I pull her down next to me on the couch and turn towards her. “What's wrong?”
“You're late.” That's all she says as if that explains everything. I am late because I forgot my work clothes at the house and had to go back to get them. So I'm only like thirty minutes late. Audra glances at me, sees my confusion, and starts rubbing her stomach, something I've learned she does when she's upset. “I tried to call you, but you didn't answer. I started to worry because I didn't know if you had gotten into an accident or got really hurt in the game or something and you suddenly died and then I wouldn't have any help and our daughter wouldn't have a dad.” Her voice cracks on that last word before she bursts into tears.
I pull her into a hug and try to soothe her. “I changed my phone to silent before the game and I did text you to let you know, but it must not have gone through for some reason. I'm sorry I worried you, Audra,” I whisper into her hair.
“I'm pregnant, you should never have your phone on silent,” she scolds through a hiccup.
“Won't happen again,” I promise, wishing she would go ahead and stop crying. Hate, hate, hate seeing pregnant women cry, especially Audra. She pulls back, wiping her tears away, but I tug her to me again. “You look tired. Do you want to go lay down?”
“No, I'm fine. How was the game?”
“We lost, so it's good that you didn't go.” I chuckle. “Here, rest your head right here and lay down. You'll make me feel better.” I grab the pillow from next to me and place it on my lap. Audra rolls her eyes at me, but lays down anyway. “How was your day?”
“Aside from my breakdown just now, pretty good. Yours?”
“The same.”
We're quiet for a few minutes before she speaks again. “When did you decide that you really wanted her?”
I clear my throat to buy a little time, but I decide to be honest. “I don't know when exactly, Audra. It was just obvious today.”
“We'll need to start childbirth classes soon.”
“Okay.”
