Nora is leaning back against the upper cabinets, completely surrendering herself to this moment. I feel her muscles tightening, squeezing my fingers as she gets closer to the edge.
“That’s right, baby,” I groan, “come for me… come in my mouth, beautiful.”
I’m about to explode too, concentrating all of my willpower on waiting until I feel the first spasms of Nora’s own orgasm.
Not that I need to rely on subtle cues. When she gets close, her thighs start to shake against the sides of my head and her hands ball into fists around the fabric of her dress. “Oh God, oh my God…” she cries, and then lets go.
Her entire body is overwhelmed with pleasure, shaking so hard she has to brace herself against the edge of the counter, and I eagerly lap at her sweet juices. I come hard just from enjoying the sight and the taste of her…
And then a second wave hits her, gushing onto my hand.
It’s a lot, and I pull her dress back from my head, surprised. “Babe, did you just squirt?”
She’s looking at me with shock on her face. “I don’t… I don’t think so. I think my water just broke.”
Now it’s my turn to drop my jaw. “Seriously?”
Nora looks sheepishly at me. “I’ve been having cramps all morning. I guess they were contractions.”
I stand and scoop her into my arms, careful of her belly. “Our babies are coming. That’s wonderful!”
The next ten minutes are a frantic whirlwind of activity. I have to call my superior officer to let him know I’m not coming in today, and get Nora’s hospital bag from the bedroom, and pull the car around to the front door so she doesn’t have to walk far. She changes into clean clothes and has to remind me to do the same before I realize my fatigues are wet.
By the time we get to the military hospital on base, I’m at least breathing normally again, while Nora is riding out another contraction.
“You got this, gorgeous,” I tell her as I come around to her side of the car to help her out.
A nurse is already coming out to meet us with a wheelchair, so I steal this moment with my wife—the last one we’ll have to ourselves before the babies are born—to hold her and kiss her and tell her just how damn lucky I am to have her.
“Me too, Nash,” she says, one hand on her belly. “Now let’s go bring these babies into the world. Let’s start our family.”
Epilogue 2
Nora
4 years later…
We had a boy and a girl that day in Italy.
We named them Rosalind and Jacques, the leads in As You Like It, as an homage to Nash’s mother and her love of Shakespeare, as well as all the great literature that has punctuated our own love story. We call them Rosie and Jack, and they light up my life on a daily basis.
At four years old, they’re also little terrors at times. Like today.
For the past year, we’ve been stationed in Nepal, where Nash is helping the citizens build infrastructure and I’ve been volunteering my expertise in early childhood literacy. It’s been some of the most rewarding work of both our lives, but we miss home, and Rosie and Jack need to know their family.
So we’re back in Golden Creek for Nash’s month of leave, and today was travel day. And when I say travel day, I mean we’ve been in the air for over twenty-four hours. With two four-year-olds, I honestly expected somebody to be standing in the airport when we landed, ready to give Nash and I medals.
What we got instead were Quinn and Chelsea, holding up a hand-lettered sign with all four of our names on it, smiling broadly.
“Chelsea, you’re so big!” Nash says the minute he sees her. “What are you, in high school? Are you going to be the one driving us home?”
“Uncle Nash,” Chelsea says, shaking her head. “I’m nine.”
“Coulda fooled me!” he says, scooping her into a fierce hug, then doing the same with his sister.
We reintroduce the twins, who are shy and a little sleepy after the flight. They’ve met Quinn and Chelsea before, but a year’s gone by since the last time any of us saw each other in person and they’ve all grown and changed so much.
“Mommy, I know Chelsea!” Rosie says, immediately letting go of my hand and latching onto her cousin’s. She idolized Chelsea the last time we visited, and I’m glad to see that hasn’t changed.
We all go to Quinn’s place and crash, sleeping off the jet lag for about five hours in the afternoon, and in the evening, the whole group of us go over to my parents’ house for a barbeque. They say they’ve got a surprise for everyone, and my youngest sister, Grace, has been hinting that it has to do with the endless renovations they’ve been slowly chipping away at over the years.