“Hurricane Rosalyn has just made landfall on Key West. This is the first major storm to hit the area since Hurricane Wilma in 2005. The National Weather Service reports that Rosalyn is expected to be just as, if not stronger, than Wilma. The entire island has been evacuated except for a few strong-willed locales. This is Natalie Marzalez. CNN. Stay tuned.”
I turned off the TV and looked out the window as a hard rain fell against our windows. We were surrounded by moving boxes. Leave it to Nick, but two days after we got home from our honeymoon, he went out to get some gas and came back with a printout of the house of our dreams.
“Maybe this is what our voodoo lady meant when she said ‘Beware August,” Nick said. He was sitting on the floor with Brooklyn. She was sitting up all by herself. She began to babble and wave her hands in the air in complaint as his attention turned to me. With a laugh he turned back and grabbed her hands, covering them in kisses.
“Today was supposed to be our wedding day,” I said thoughtfully.
“I don’t think we would have been able to get married,” Nick said. “It would have been almost impossible to have a wedding with the whole city evacuated and six foot waves hitting the beach.”
“True,” I said. Nick scooped Brooklyn up and tossed her in the air. Her arms spread out wide as if she were an airplane. Her laugh was identical to Nick’s. It was absolutely contagious.
I rested a hand on my stomach. Our doctor’s visit the week before had gone great. Still, Dr. Tresher was airing on the side of caution. There was no way to completely eliminate the chance of early delivery or low birth weight because of my pregnancies being so close together. Even though I felt better at this point than I had the first time around, I still worried.
“How you feeling?” Nick asked. His eyes strayed to my belly.
“Not too bad,” I said. It was nice to have a day with just the three of us at home. Since we came back from our honeymoon, an endless stream of visitors had come in and out of the house. I wear wearing one of my tank tops, enjoying feeling pregnant and not worrying about hiding it.
“You up to packing a little bit more?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’m going to start working on the kitchen.”
Nick put Brooklyn in her pack-and-play, keeping one eye on her while starting to pack up the living room. I rummaged through the kitchen making neat piles and labeling boxes.
My mom had thought I was nuts when I had passed on a wedding shower, but with everything that happened during that time, having a party and acquiring more stuff was the last thing Nick and I wanted. Instead, we just encouraged our friends to come and celebrate the day. For the most part, everyone had listened, except Brian and Leighanne who had given us a beautiful set of new china that I still had in the box.
“I know Nick swears by paper plates,” Brian had told me. “But if he’s growing up enough to get married, he can have some nice plates.”
About thirty minutes into packing, I ran upstairs to go to the bathroom. Our downstairs bathroom was in a shambles. On my way back downstairs, I got sidetracked into packing up a few more things in Brooke’s nursery.
I must have been sidetracked for longer than I thought. When I hit the bottom step, my eyes widened in surprise; my mom was sitting in the living room. She turned in my direction; the look on her face was priceless. Her eyes strayed down my tank top.
“Oh my God, you’re pregnant!”
Nick looked over at me helplessly. So much for a warning.
“Hi mom,” I said lightly.
“Don’t hi mom me,” my mom said. “What’s this?”
I picked up a lamp. “A lamp?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Huh? Oh this?” I said, pointing to my stomach. “It’s a baby,” I said lightly.
“That’s not a honeymoon baby,” my mom said.
“Not quite.”
“When are you due?”
“February.”
“February?”
I winced.
“How did this happen?”
Nick held up his hand like a school kid. “I can explain that.”
I pointed a finger at him. His mouth snapped shut; his hand lowered.
My mom didn’t look upset; she just looked worried.
“Are you okay?”
I smiled. “I’m fine. We had a little surprise, but we like surprises. Right Nick?”
He glanced at me as if double-checking he had permission to talk. Finally he nodded. “We love surprises.”
“How in the world are you going to go on tour with two babies?” my mom asked. I shuffled my feet.
“Well, we haven’t figured that out yet. We have plenty of time.”
“You have six months.”
“Six months is a long time,” I said.
“Does anyone else know?”
I shook my head. “We’re kind of keeping this a secret.”
“Even from me,” my mom said. I could see she was hurt.
“Mom,” I said gently. “We didn’t want to get excited just in case…in case anything happened.”
“You were going to be the first one we told,” Nick added. Mom smiled at him; Nick had her wrapped around his finger.
“Well,” she finally said. “I did tell you I wanted more grandchildren.”
“You ask, we deliver,” Nick said. “Ta-da!” I heard Brooklyn laugh from her pack-and-play. Nick had begun to play the ‘Ta-da!’ game with her, leaping out from around corners. Instead of being scared she thought it was hilarious.
After that, the ice was pretty much broken. Mom stayed and played with Brooke, helped us pack, and kept glancing over at me like she just couldn’t believe it. When she was ready to leave, she hugged me tightly.
“For someone that couldn’t have babies, you’re sure laughing in that doctor’s face,” my mom said.
In that split second the only thing I could think of was a drunken Nick talking about his “super sperm.” I grinned.
“I sure am,” I finally said.
I walked her to the door and watched her take off down the drive. After I closed the door I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.
“Sorry. I thought it would look funny if I ran up the stairs screaming ‘Your mom is here! Put on another shirt!’” Nick explained.
I smiled. “It’s okay. Plus, you were right. She was going to be the first person I told.”
“I know,” Nick said. He sighed. “She did have a point, y’know.”
“About what?”
“Touring. We’re aiming for a March 6 release date. By the end of March we’ll be overseas. There’s no way we can take a newborn trekking through Europe. And we’ll be overseas through May.”
The thought of two months without Nick killed me. But there was no getting around it; this was his job.
“You know what they say,” I said softly. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
“Not for me. My heart can’t grow fonder,” Nick said.
“We’ll be able to hit the road with you guys for the U.S. and Canada leg,” I said.
“July and August,” Nick said with a nod. “But, we plan on doing two complete trips around the world,” Nick explained. “That will bring us up through 2013 and our 20th anniversary.”
“So, that just means I won’t be able to come with you to Europe this time around, but by next year you’ll have the whole Carter clan along.”
Nick smiled. “You haven’t lived until you’ve seen me in a kilt in Scotland.”
It was such a random image that as soon as he said it I had a hard time getting it out of my head. I laughed.
“You’ve given me something to look forward to,” I said sweetly. Nick rolled up his jean leg.
“These legs were born to sport a heavy plaid skirt,” Nick said. He waved his hairy leg in my direction. I grabbed it and pulled playfully. He laughed and teetered forward. He took my hands and pulled. Somehow after a few minutes of playfully wrestling, I ended up on his lap.
“What am I going to do with you Livvy?” he said. His arms tightened around me. I stroked his face.
“Love me?” I whispered. Nick’s lips curved into a smile that would have made the Mona Lisa green with envy.
“I don’t even have to try,” he whispered back. “Loving you is as natural to me as breathing.” He held up his hand, his wedding band glistened under the light.
“For as long as we both shall live,” he added.
I felt tears spring to my eyes. My fingers wrapped around his hand and I kissed his ring.
“And then some.”
Nick lifted my chin with his fingertips and kissed me passionately.
As I lost myself in Nick’s kiss, I couldn’t help but think that with eternity stretched before us, that even I could stand to be apart from Nick for a couple months.
Besides, I would have two pieces of him with me. Anytime I needed to, all I had to do was look at Brooklyn to see Nick’s eyes or hear his laugh. And even though Nick wanted another girl, I had a strong instinct that this time around we were going to be buying a lot of blue.
It was time to give the world a new heir to the Carter throne.
Find out in the exciting continuation of the Coaster series with Book Four – Babies and the Band.
