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I hadn’t actually been able to concentrate until Alex had come quietly into the room and sat down beside me on the bed. I didn’t think either of us had realized how raw we were still feeling until we’d settled into separate rooms to do our own thing.
“Hey, Hailey called me,” I said, turning my head to face him. “She was checking to see if we’re going to their Christmas party on the twenty-third.”
“You don’t celebrate Christmas, so we obviously won’t go,” he replied quickly.
“Nice try,” I said. “They’re doing a white-elephant gift exchange, too.”
“Oh, fun,” Alex mumbled. “We’ll come home with a popcorn popper we’ll never use and a personal massager that someone thought was hilarious.”
“I notice that you didn’t say we’d never use the massager,” I replied.
“Well, that’s useful,” he said innocently. “Your shoulders get sore after hunching over a computer all day.”
“I don’t hunch.”
“I love you sweetheart, but you hunch.”
I grinned. “You’ve never called me sweetheart before.”
“You like that?” he said, smiling back. “Thought I’d test it out, see how it felt.”
“It would have felt better without the hunching part,” I shot back.
“Your shoulders would feel better without the hunching, too,” he said with a shrug.
I laughed and poked him in the side, making him jerk.
“Are you ticklish?” I asked, my eyes wide with newfound power.
“Absolutely not,” he replied, stiffening.
“Yes.” I poked him again and got the same jerk in response. “You are.”
“This is a fight you’ll lose,” he warned, tilting his head to the side as he watched me. “Are you prepared for that?”
“I was born prepared,” I replied.
Alex’s laugh came out in a huff. “It’s ready, I was born read—”
I took advantage of his distraction by digging my fingers into his sides, making him practically leap off the bed. As he scrambled to get away from me, he fell off the side, ass first. I laughed so hard that my eyes began to water as his feet got tangled in the blankets and sheets so he was hanging awkwardly from the bed.
Knowing retaliation was coming as soon as he worked his way free, I slid off the other side of the mattress, still laughing.
“Funny, huh?” he asked, hopping to his feet. He was breathing heavily, and the hair on his head was sticking out at a million different angles.
I began to nod, and he chose that moment to leap over the bed.
I screamed in surprise and ran. I wasn’t even sure why I was running, but I was down the hallway, through the living room, and on the far side of the kitchen island in seconds. When I spun to face him, he wasn’t even chasing me.
“You’re pretty fast,” he said easily, walking down the hall. He’d somehow found the time to put his boxers back on. “But should you really be running like that while you’re with child?”
My mouth dropped open in surprise. “With child?” I asked.
“You’re also naked,” he said, raising one eyebrow and pointing at me, his hand making a little circle.
I huffed and crossed my arms over my breasts.
“Come on,” he said, reaching out his hand. “I won’t get you.”
“I don’t believe you,” I replied, staying on my own side of the island.
“Promise,” he said, his eyes crinkled with laughter. “I stopped thinking about payback when I was watching your ass bounce as you ran away.”
“You’re awful,” I said, moving toward him to lace my fingers with his.
“I have a healthy attraction to my wife,” he replied, wrapping his arms around my waist as he danced me around the kitchen. “Nothing awful about that.”
“I guess not,” I agreed.
Our dance slowed until we were swaying, our feet barely moving.
“Hey, Alex,” I said quietly.
“What’s up, sweetheart?”
“I don’t regret marrying you,” I murmured, kissing his bare chest. “I’m sorry for what I said at the hospital.”
He pulled me closer and kissed the top of my head. “It’s already forgotten.”
* * *
After moving past the stress of telling our families about the baby, I felt my excitement grow a little more each day. I couldn’t help it. My clothes were getting a little snug, and I hadn’t dealt with any nausea since my visit to the hospital. Even my exhaustion seemed to be getting better as long as I went to bed before eleven.
Alex and I grew closer every day. I was always learning new things about him, some that I liked (he always threw his laundry straight into the hamper) and some that I didn’t (his socks were almost always inside out, and I had to fix them before I threw them in the wash). He was unflaggingly easygoing. Nothing seemed to bother him. Even when I did something like accidentally wash a pen with his uniforms, leaving blue splotches on everything, he didn’t get mad about it. He’d just make a joke and move on even though I knew it must have frustrated him.
