After the fireworks, the party continued on for a bit, but I started to get tired.
“You sure you’re okay?” Will asked.
“Yes. It’s been a long day.”
“Let me get Mollie. I think she’s crashed out in her room here.”
“Let her stay the night,” his mother said from behind us. “I’ll bring her home in the morning.”
Will looked at me. “Do you have plans in the morning with Mollie?”
I shook my head. “Nope. Tomorrow was going to be a lazy day for us. I wasn’t sure how’d she be after tonight.”
He stepped closer to me, a feral look in his eyes. “We’d have the house to ourselves tonight.” Then he frowned. “Shit, I’m sorry, you’re tired.”
I took his hand. “I wouldn’t mind a skinny dip.”
“You know I can hear you, right?” His mother said. “You’d think with all that time you have alone, I’d have another grandbaby by now.”
Will rolled his eyes. “Let’s give Mollie a kiss and head home.”
Twenty minutes later, I was taking my clothes off and walking down the steps of the pool. The water felt cool on my naked skin. The pool was built in a sunroom to keep the gators and other critters out of it, but we could open it up to enjoy the outside. I especially liked it at night when I could swim under the stars.
Will dropped his clothes on the pool deck and did a cannonball into the pool. The water made my breasts bounce in the waves he’d made. He came up right next to me, pulling me into his arms.
“Hey, a mermaid.” He kissed me.
“Is that your merman tail or are you just happy to see me?”
He grinned. “That’s my mer-dick.” He frowned. “Mer-cock?” Then he laughed. “I’m happy to see you.”
I looped my arms around his neck. “I’m happy to see you too.”
“I was proud of Mollie today,” Will said. He was a little taller than me, so I wrapped my legs around him and let him hold me as he moved to the deeper part of the pool.
“I was too. I’m so glad those earphones worked.”
“It was your idea.” He kissed my nose.
“I was inspired by how you always try to ease her into being brave.”
He smiled at me like I’d given him a gift. I’m not sure many people praised his parenting, but I thought Will was the most wonderful father. I hoped to give him lots more children.
“I’m sorry about my mom’s comment about babies. She just can’t help herself.”
“Are you saying you don’t want more kids?” We’d never specifically talked about how many or when we’d have more kids, but I was sure he wanted them as I did.
“I didn’t say that. But that’s between you and me.”
I nodded. “You know, I was thinking, maybe you should move your office from the third bedroom to the formal living area at the front of the house.”
His brows narrowed as if he wasn’t sure about the change of conversation. “Why are you kicking me out of my office?”
“The front living room has lots of light, and Mollie and I don’t spend time in that part of the house when we’re home. You wouldn’t be bothered when you’re working.”
He studied me for a moment like he was deciphering a coded message. “What’s wrong with the bedroom I’m in now?”
“I was thinking we could use it for something else.”
“You and Mollie have taken over half of the family room and eat-in kitchen, and now you need another room?” His eyes held humor. He sometimes joked about being outnumbered by females.
“It’s not for me and Mollie.”
“Oh. What’s it for then?”
Nerves flitted over my skin as the water lapped gently around us. “I was thinking we could turn it into a nursery.”
“So, my mom did get to you?” He quirked a brow.
“Actually, Will, you did. You got to me.”
It took him a moment to register what I was trying to say. I saw hope and excitement and love, and a little hesitance, as if he didn’t want to be misreading me. “Tell me what you’re trying to say, Ellie. I need to hear the words.”
“I’m pregnant, Will.”
He let out a breath as emotion welled in eyes. “We made a baby?”
I nodded. “I think in Cancun. Remember how I told you I forgot my pills, and you said you didn’t care.”
He held me tighter.
“I thought that meant you’d be okay with this. I hope you-”
“Okay? I’m fucking ecstatic, Ellie. Jesus…I love you so much.” His lips were on mine, so smooth and firm, making my whole body go warm with love. Then he moved me toward the steps, setting me on the top one and dropping down until his face was near my belly. He ran his hand over my womb. “A baby, Ellie.”
I ran my fingers through his hair. “Yes. Our baby.”
He looked up at me. “I love Mollie, but when her mother…her birth mother,” he corrected himself. “Told me she was pregnant, I felt like my world stopped. Like my future was gone. But this…hearing this from you, Ellie, I feel like the most blessed man in the world.”