When I'm with You (Hope Town #3)(86)

“Why don’t you let Kaylee play with her sisters without my makeup,” I add in Quinnie’s direction. “I need to show you something.”

He still looks beyond confused, but with one more kiss, he places her on her feet where she joins her sisters and Chuck as they dance around the living room. I grab Nate’s hand and pull him into the kitchen, giving us a moment of quiet so I can talk to him.

I walk around the island, using it as a shield between us and slide the little rectangular card toward him. He looks down, and I see it the second he registers what’s written on the card.

“Oh, hell no!” He looks up, and I can see that he is about as far from happy as one could get. Not that I blame him.

“Now, listen to me, honey.” He opens his mouth to complain, but I give him the same look that I give the girls when they’re out of line. “We agreed you would take care of this. Our family is complete. It’s time, big boy.”

He places both his hands on the island and gives me a hard glare. “It is most certainly not! I’m not letting some jackass cut into my cock when I still have work to do with it.”

I roll my eyes. “You’re being unreasonable.”

“Uh, no. I told you last week when you brought it up that I wasn’t getting fixed. No f*cking way. Not until I have my boy in your belly. You need to call and cancel this appointment.” He picks up the card, and like the very presence of it offends him, he walks to the sink and shoves it down the disposal before turning the water on and flipping the switch. The whole time it’s making its shredding noise, he looks at me as if he’s won.

Oh, how wrong he is.

“Nate,” I warn when he shuts everything off and stomps over to me. “Don’t you dare.”

He, of course, doesn’t listen, and before I can get another word in edgewise, he has me over his shoulder—gently—as he walks into the madness where our girls are still laughing and playing. They stop instantly when we walk in, and I’m sure if I could see them, they would be standing there just waiting to see what crazy thing their daddy is doing now.

He places me on my feet, and I open my mouth to give him some attitude, but it comes out as a squeak when he spins me and I’m looking at the gray wall.

“Five minutes, Ember. Time-out for trying to keep my boy from me.”

“Oh, Mommy is in trouble!” Quinnie laughs.

I hear Brooklynn snicker, but I just start to count as a huge, happy-as-hell smile pulls at my lips. I start counting out the minutes in my head, playing into Nate’s craziness as I enjoy his grumbling behind me.

Over the years, with each birth of our children, achievement with the club, or with my artwork, our love has just continued to grow. We rarely fight, and when we do, it is usually always about when we will stop having children. I think, if Nate had his way, he would continue having them until I physically couldn’t, but I knew it was time.

Especially now.

And since I love seeing him get all riled up, I figured this would be the funniest way to bring it up. And if everything goes as planned, I’m going to enjoy the benefits of provoking him later.

I hit the three-minute mark and turn my head to the side. I see the painting of A Beautiful War that Nate had bought all those years ago and my eyes mist. He made sure that was the focal point in our family room. Luckily, we have the space with our vaulted ceilings because it takes up the whole top half of that wall. I let my mind wander to the large photo canvas that is over our bed, my heart filling with love.

Nate surprised me a few weeks after our wedding with a canvas portrait I didn’t even know was taken. It eerily looks just like the painting in our living room; only it’s a picture of us on our wedding day.

The center being our hands, clasped together at our hips as we both look to the side and into each other’s eyes. You can’t see anything else but half our bodies as we hold hands and look at each other with so much love.

“Honey?” I call from my spot in the corner, having had enough, and I’m ready to knock my handsome husband down a few pegs.

“What?” he snaps.

I turn and look over at where he is petting Chuck with Kaylee hanging on his back.

“I don’t need to cancel that appointment.”

He stands and puts his hands on his hips. Kaylee giggles and I have to fight with my desire to look at the way his muscles always bulge when he does that.

“I don’t need to cancel because I never made one. I picked up an appointment card when I was leaving my gynecologist last week. She shares an office with the urologist.”

“I’m not following.” He looks so damn hot that I struggle not to rush into his arms and kiss him hungrily.

“The way I see it,” I continue as if he hadn’t spoken. “If you get your boy this time, we can make the appointment then. If not, we’ll talk about you giving up on that boy and enjoying a house full of women.”

His eyes widen, and he woodenly starts to walk over to me. Kaylee still laughing and squealing on his back as she continues to act like she’s a monkey. When he’s standing in front of me, he reaches out and I feel his knuckles brush against my belly before reaching up to take my face between his hands.

“My boy is in there?”

“Or girl, but yes.” I smile through my tears. Even though this will be my fourth pregnancy, I’m still overcome with emotion when I think about how far we’ve come together as the proof of our love grows in my belly.