Haunted(43)

“Yes, it really does. Play me something.”

I took her hand and pulled her to me and kissed her. I removed the clip from her hair, and all her curls fell down her back. I attached the clip to the bottom of her shirt. It was our thing. She would get ornery if she couldn’t find her clip in an hour or two.

I led her to the piano and made her sit with me. Ironically, a couple of days ago I wanted to learn how to play a certain song that made me think of her. I already had it memorized, so now was a good a time as any.

I splayed my fingers over the keys. The piano was tuned to perfection. I was sure the company came out here to tune it right after delivery. As my fingers stroked over the first several bars, I heard Beth’s voice hitch. I knew she would recognize the song. She was just that good. I started playing “Beth” by Kiss. It was the most beautiful song that Kiss ever made. The song was about a rock star working late into the night and his wife kept calling him to ask him when he would come home. I had often imagined that scenario would come to fruition in our future when the band was working on an album with a deadline looming overhead.

As I sang the song, she rested her head on my shoulder and sighed heavily, probably trying to hold back the tears. I leaned my head against hers and played the song “Forever” by Kiss. This was the second most beautiful song Kiss had ever written. I heard her sob. I finished the song and turned to her. I wiped away her tears and gently kissed her.

“Let’s go upstairs.”

She knew what I meant. I wanted to make love to her. She nodded.

“Meet me in the bedroom. I’m going to go touch base with Joey,” I said.

“Okay.” She was still a bit choked up when she walked away. I took the stairs and walked to Joey’s room, stopping in the hallway to knock on his door.

“Come in,” he yelled.

I walked in and saw he was in his bonus room playing Minecraft.

“You doing well?” I asked him.

“Yup. Can you come and play with me?”

“Tell you what. Give me about an hour with your mom, and I’ll come and play with you after that.”

He looked at me. “Cool, see you then, Ro.”

I looked at him, a little confused by the name Ro.

Joey looked back at the video game and spoke, “I have decided on Robodad. Your name is Roman, but everyone calls you Roman. You’re my dad, too, but I can’t call you dad ’cause it would hurt Dad’s feelings, so I went with Robodad. It’s your name and dad all rolled into one. But that’s a lot to spit out, so I will call you Ro. That way, it shows that you’re mine, and plus nobody else is allowed to call you that.”

My heart melted. He had put a lot of thought into it. I was touched to my core.

“Well, when I come to play, I want to play Lego Batman. Okay?”

“Cool.”

“Cool.” I smiled as I shut the door.

I walked down the hall to our room. I passed the empty room and looked inside. It was completely empty. Beth said no boxes would be stored in there. Empty boxes were for the basement. I knew she hoped for a baby, too, but I did know that due to our age, we might not conceive. I guessed that was what I sacrificed for living my lifestyle for too long, but I looked at it like this: If I had done it earlier, it wouldn’t have been with Beth. I didn’t want a family without her.

I went to our bedroom. Beth was waiting for me. She sat at her vanity. She stood, and I saw she was wearing a beautiful white negligee. She looked gorgeous with her makeup on and her hair curled. I walked to her and kissed her. Then I pulled her up into my arms. I carried her to our bed and laid her down. I quickly got undressed and laid beside her.

“Roman, I have one more surprise for you today.” She had a serious look on her face, which made me worry.

“What is it?” My tone was edgy, but I was eager to hear what she had to say.

“The reason I went out today—I had a doctor’s appointment. I had my IUD removed today.” She looked at me expectantly.

“What did the doctor say?”

“He said we could start trying. He said I was in good health considering what we went through in the basement. Also since I lost all that weight awhile back, it helps the odds, but with our age, we have a possibility of risks. But he also said that women are having babies a lot later these days.”

“So we are going to do this?” I hoped she would say yes.

“For better or worse?”

I knew she was asking me if I would love a baby if something went wrong. I understood her fear. Joey was autistic, and she believed part of that was genetics, whether from her or from Eric. Also we had a greater chance of having a baby with Down syndrome. I knew no matter the challenge; we would love that baby with all of our hearts. We were financially stable. The house was paid off. I still had plenty of money in savings, and I wasn’t planning on retiring anytime soon. We could do this.

“For better or worse!” I looked into her eyes and kissed her.

Her arms wrapped around my neck, and she rolled me on top of her while spreading her legs open for me. At first, I didn’t think much about it, except how wonderful it felt grinding myself against her. Then it hit me and I jerked up.

“Are you okay?”

She gave me a soft smile. She knew to what I was referring—Jason and the problems with her being on the bottom.