“You’re a really good man,” she said, gaze shifting to study my face. Her hand came up and patted my cheek. “And a good friend.”
It wasn’t everything I wanted, not by a long shot but it was enough for now. I was a patient man. This foundation of mutual respect and friendship was a base built of steel. It wasn’t going to break. “You have a beautiful future in front of you. With the kids. With me. It’s just a different one than you thought it would be.”
The corner of her mouth turned up. “Yeah, I never envisioned this particular future. If you had told me after John died that I’d be having a baby with a professional football player who makes millions and millions of dollars and is younger than me I would have laughed my butt off.”
“I guess some things are just meant to be.” Before she could protest that point, which I knew she would, I added, “Speaking of butts, move yours. You’ve been impaling me with your elbow for going on ten minutes now.” I rolled her from her back onto her stomach so she lay across my lap and chest.
“This is worse,” she said. “I feel like a newborn trying to hold my head up just so I can look at you.”
“But it lets me do this.” I placed both hands on her ass and rocked her against my cock.
“We can’t have sex. The kids are twenty feet down the hallway.”
“I know. We can still get each other off with our clothes on.”
Sera gave me a look. “So I’m pregnant and no one knows it and we’re going to quietly dry hump on the couch? What are we, sixteen?”
“My bank account doesn’t say sixteen.” I stopped squeezing her ass and kissed the top of her head. “I will never, ever be unfaithful to you. You could stop having sex with me and I still wouldn’t be unfaithful to you. I make a commitment and I honor it. Just so you know.”
“Why the hell would I stop having sex with you?” she asked, like that was the stupidest thing she’d ever heard.
That made me laugh.
“Shh,” she said, covering my mouth with her hand. “You don’t want Marigold to come out here.”
“Because we’ll be dry humping?” I asked hopefully, nipping at her hand so she would move it.
She started to giggle. I’d never heard Sera giggle and it made me laugh softly too.
“Why are you laughing? I was serious.”
“I know you were. That’s why I’m laughing. I can’t believe we both just said the phrase dry humping. That’s so bad.”
“We could go in the bathroom and turn on the shower to mask the sound,” I said.
She started laughing harder. “No!”
“What about the garage?”
“Ew. What, like on a tarp on the floor? I’ll break my back.”
“I didn’t mean on the floor. I was thinking the backseat of your car. Or just standing up.”
“Stop. Each idea is worse than the last.”
“How do parents have sex?” I asked, completely bewildered. “This is insane.”
“I’m assuming either in bed or when their kids aren’t home. It’s been so long I can’t remember.”
“This is why we need to live together. This is torture.”
“You went a whole year without sex before Mexico. You can’t go a few weeks?” She gave a look that said she wasn’t buying it.
Considering she was asking that question while lying full on top of me, I thought the answer was obvious. “That was before I knew how good it is with you. Now you need to either move or be prepared to come very, very quietly.”
To my disappointment, Sera sat up. I was about to pursue making her come anyway, when she tucked her hair behind her ear. “I have to ask you something important.”
“Okay.” I had no idea what she was thinking about so I waited. I resisted the urge to touch her.
“You wanted to know if John was going to be an issue between us. I need to know if you’ve considered that, if we’re together, if we make this relationship work, that this is it. This is the only baby I’ll be able to give you. How do you feel about one and done?”
That was definitely less serious than what I had been anticipating. But it was a fair question. “What makes you think it has to be one and done? You said you couldn’t have this one and yet here we are.”
“But realistically, this is probably it. Don’t make this decision based on the small chance that I could get pregnant again. Besides, five kids? I don’t know if I can handle that. So just think about it. Is one enough for you when you’re not even thirty yet?”
“I’m going to have our baby. I’ll have Ava, Johnny, Marigold. And I’ll have you, Sera, and trust me, that’s more than enough for me.” Did I want more future kids after this baby? Yes. But I was getting a hell of a package deal and I was happy.
“Are you the kind of man who wants to keep trying for a son?”
“No. I want a healthy baby. That’s all I care about and all I need.” That was the God’s honest truth.
“Don’t you want a son to play football with?” she persisted.
“Are you going to allow that?” I joked. “Look what trouble I got into when I was tossing the ball with Johnny.”
“I’m serious, Cash. I don’t want you to have regrets.”
I sat up, because it appeared fooling around was officially off the table. “Who says I can’t play football with a daughter? If we have a girl, she’s going to be a little badass, you know. Tall, tough, a straight shooter. If she loves sports, I’ll play sports with her. If she loves dolls and dress-up, I’ll play those. It’s all good. Besides, what makes you think that a boy will automatically want to play football? I’m not forcing my son to do something he doesn’t want to do.”
She nodded. “Okay. I trust you.”
“Good.” A thought popped into my head that had nothing to do with the gender of our baby. I smiled.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, voice dripping with suspicion. “That look is how I wound up pregnant, I swear.”
“We don’t have to use a condom. You’re already pregnant.” Now that was going to be a good time.
“That’s why you’re grinning?”
I grinned and nodded.
“You need to go home now. Before I let you talk me into behaving like a teenager even more than I already have. I refuse to risk getting caught by the kids.”
I bent down to pull my boots on. I knew when I was beat. “Next date is going to be at my house. In my king-size bed.”
“Fine. But I can’t spend the night.”