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Chapter Eighteen
Josephine
Fourteen weeks into our build on our dream house, I’m thirteen weeks pregnant. We’re officially in the last week of our first trimester. I’m busting my ass around this house, desperate to have it complete in the next couple of weeks. The goal is to be in our home before Christmas, but it’ll be tough since I’m stretching my resources by having one crew wrap up our house while another finishes my parents’.
The house follows a typical mid-century modern design, which I’m fond of. The ranch is divided into three sections, with the main living area centered in the house.
The living room, dining room, and kitchen have an open floorplan. The powder room, pantry, and mudroom lead off one side, connecting the heated garages to the house by an enclosed breezeway. A large sunroom is off the back, opening to a covered outdoor patio and grilling station.
Our suite is on one half of the house along with my home office. The other five-bedroom en suites are on the other side of the house. A home theater is in the basement, along with a large open area designated as a kids’ play space. Storage space and a home gym leading out to the exposed basement make up the rest of the floor plan.
I’ve kept the walls a light gray, the trim and doors ebony, and the all-around esthetics masculine. Pale ash hardwoods cover all the floors aside from the black porcelain tiles in the kitchen, mudroom, and bathrooms. The house isn’t decorated yet, but natural fibers, brass accents, and walnut furnishings will stay true to the mid-century vibe.
It’s clean lines and elegant, but warm and inviting. It’s my dream home, and I hope it will be Maceo’s too.
The landscaping will have to wait until the spring. It’s too late in the year to plant. This saves me a week in itself. The finishing touches are being applied here and there with touch-up paint and last minute detail changes. I honestly didn’t think we’d make it as far as we have in such a short time. However, my crews have been pushing hard, encouraged by the holiday bonuses I promised if they made this happen.
Jared and I are gearing up for our next project, which is the upscale boutique downtown Fort Collins. My goal is to get through that remodel and deep into the restaurant renovation job before the babies arrive.
Babies.
According to Doctor Stoll, they’re roughly about the size of two lemons—giant, Miracle-Gro sized lemons. Thankfully, my morning sickness has subsided, but now I can’t keep up with my appetite. It’s like I’m constantly starving. Yesterday, I had to refrain from picking up my plate and licking it clean.
It’s safe to say the babies take after Maceo, which means my body is screwed. Goodbye, tight pussy—hello, loosey-goosey. Maceo laughs when I say that. He’s quick to reassure me that my body may be stretching like a rubber band, but it will return to normal after the birth of our babies.
Yeah, right. I call bull. I guess we’ll find out.
I’m vacuuming the dust in the finished basement while the rest of my crew works on finishing the main level. If I’m lucky, and everything goes off without a hitch, I’ll be moving furniture in next week. Nothing has been picked out for the nurseries yet. I’ve been waiting to find out the sexes of our children. But today is the day I’ll find out as long as the little bundles of joy aren’t camera shy.
Maceo won’t be available for this appointment. He’s been gone the last two weeks in South America following a lead on Esteban. Since he left, I’ve received one call, but only to tell me he loves me and is doing everything he can to get back home.
Yesterday was Maceo’s thirty-first birthday. All I could do was send him a video recording of me singing happy birthday with Hades and Runt howling along in the background. He’ll get a kick out of it. It doesn’t seem fair we had to miss celebrating his birthday together, but I plan on making it up to him when he comes home.
I’ve been secretly taking bachata dance lessons via zoom from an instructor in the Dominican Republic. It’s something I’ve always wanted to learn but never thought I’d have a dance partner to interact with. Then came the wedding, and I saw how Maceo moved around the dance floor…
Swoon!The man’s hips can move—I swear it's some kind of pelvic sorcery.
My mom and Simone accompanied me to my last two appointments, but Jared has been bugging me to get his turn. You better believe I confirmed with Doctor Stoll that this week would be an abdominal ultrasound since we’ve graduated past twelve weeks. Jared’s going to be my support partner today. Tony is tagging along since he’s my bodyguard, but he plans on sitting in the waiting area. He said he doesn’t have a death wish, letting Jared be the guinea pig.
I sigh, thinking of my husband, praying he and his men are safe. I miss him. I miss how he holds me in his bulky arms every night and how he wakes me with soft kisses every morning. I miss the way his massive hand always cover his heart when he lays eyes on me. I miss the fresh woodsy scent of his russet skin when he holds me against his hard body.
A light tap on my shoulder has me jumping with a shriek. “Jesus!”
Jared sniggers. “Sorry, Jo. Ready to go in for the big reveal?”
I check my cell. “Yeah. We better hit the road.”
It’s not long before I’m sitting in the exam room with Jared at one side of the table and the doctor on the other. He presses the transducer probe into my abdomen, pushing the gel around to get better images. I stare at the monitor, smiling as I catch glimpses here and there of the babies. Doctor Stoll asks his routine medical questions before falling into his studious silence as he takes his measurements.
“Are my babies growing good?”
“Absolutely. They’re strong and healthy-looking—and on the larger side. Must get it from their dad,” the doctor says, his eyes never trailing from the monitor.
Great.Giant babies are going to destroy my vadge. “Can you see one placenta or two?”
“I only see one, so the likelihood of them being identical is higher than fraternal. We’ll run a twin zygosity DNA test after they’re born.”
Anxious, I bite the inside of my cheek. “Can you determine the sex?”
