Then it hit me.
That was it!
The angel hanging in his car.
The winged women he drew who looked like they were part-angel, part-fairy.
“Why not Angel, then?” I asked.
He scratched his chin. “Hmm. I never even thought of that.” Rush looked at her for several seconds then smiled. “I think I freaking love that, actually.” He bent down to kiss her head. “My angel’s name is…Angel. It’s perfect.”That night, Rush must have thought I was asleep in my hospital bed when he began talking in a low voice to our daughter.
I was turned away from him and had been napping, so he couldn’t see that I was awake.
“I’m gonna screw up a lot, Angel. I just know it. I need you to bear with me, okay? I promise to try my best. I’m never gonna let you down intentionally, but it will happen unintentionally sometimes. I can guarantee you that.”
I couldn’t help smiling to myself as I listened to his one-sided conversation.
“Like…I’ll give you a prime example. I don’t know if you realize this…but I screwed up in a big way right out of the gate. I missed your birth. What father does that? You probably didn’t even know. You might have been a little too busy, you know, coming into the world and all to notice, but yeah. I wasn’t here. And I will always kick myself for that because I can never get that moment back. Ever.”
I could hear him kiss her.
“Someday I’ll tell you why I was late.” He paused. “Okay…you convinced me. I’ll tell you now. You know…your Mommy and I…we haven’t had an easy road to get to where we are now. There were lots of moments when I didn’t think we would make it. And almost from the very beginning, it was a crazy ride. Your mother has a dirty mouth, you know. It was one of the first things that attracted me. But I love that about her. I love everything about her—and about you. Anyway, I digress…got sidetracked thinking about your mom. I was telling you why I missed out on you being born. I wanted to plan something really special. I was out buying your Mommy a pretty diamond ring because I wanted to ask her to marry me before you got here. But I missed my chance because you came early. I had this elaborate plan of how I was gonna ask her. Did you know your Mommy wrote a book? I planned to surprise her with the first copy of it all nice and printed and then stick the ring inside as a double surprise. But I’m not sure that’s even good enough anymore…because look at what she did…she gave me you. I feel like I have to come up with the most amazing proposal ever now…something even bigger…even more spectacular than what I had in mind. What do you think? You think I can pull off the best proposal ever?”
I smiled and closed my eyes.
I think you just did, Rush.“Come on, just humor me,” I said.
Gia shook her head. “There is no way I’m gonna fit into that thing.”
“It’s not gonna fit you the same, but that’s why I want to see it…with all these curves.” I held my hands together in begging position. “Please? It’s my birthday.”
“Your birthday is next week.”
I raised my brows. “Early birthday gift?”
My mission today was to get Gia to try on her old yellow bikini. I had such fond memories of that thing, particularly the time she taunted me in it back before we were together. The problem was…she was eight-months pregnant now and didn’t think she could fit into it. Details.
I kept flashing her my puppy dog eyes until she finally gave in.
Gia sighed. “Alright.”
I fist pumped and not so patiently waited on the bed while she took it out of the drawer and slipped it on. With a view of her back, I gawked at the tattooed wings I’d managed to permanently ink onto her lower back right after Angel’s birth, before she got pregnant again.
Yeah, I sort of knocked Gia up again two months after Angel was born.
It wasn’t even intentional, I swear. It was an accident, but one I didn’t regret because it gave me nine more months of enjoying her gorgeous, pregnant body, this time with the added pleasure of knowing that I was the one who made her that way. It doesn’t get any hotter than that for an incorrigible preggophile.
We were under the impression that it was harder to get pregnant while breastfeeding. Whoops! And even though it would have been ideal to have more space between kids, in some ways, it was kind of nice to be having them close together. Then we could take a nice long break from having more, if she even wanted that. I knew I did, but it was her body, and that would be her decision. I knew she wouldn’t be getting pregnant for a long while after this, though.