A groan falls from my lips as I try to sit up and fail at it magnificently, feeling a slight discomfort in the small of my back where the muscle twitches.
Eddie’s hazel eyes immediately find me from across the room, taking long striding steps toward me to make sure that I’m alright. He gives me a little bit of space until I looked across at him and nod my head at my husband in a way that serves to reassure him that we were fine.
“I think someone’s having a little wriggle today in mommy’s belly,” I chuckle as Eddie sits down at the edge of the bed, watching me closely as if I’m about to break at any moment. “They haven’t really ever been this restless before. I don’t know what’s going on today, and I don’t think I’ve done anything to make them uncomfortable.”
I’m propped on a mountain of pillows at the headboard, yet Eddie still worries that I’m not being gentle enough with myself.
He’s a big softie at heart.
Our twins have kick-started his emotions into high gear, even more than mine during the pregnancy.
Eddie’s hazel eyes that are absolutely brimming with his concern continue to study me, with my Eddie fretting over me just as much as he usually does. Only now, there are three of us to worry about.
Ever since I told him that I thought I was pregnant with his baby, he’s kept a sharp eye on me, especially as the due date has slowly crawled closer and closer.
He barely leaves my side, preferring to have me where he can at least hear me if I yell for him. It’s very sweet but also very maddening.
“Maybe the twins just want a cuddle with their daddy to make them feel better,” he suggests, encouraging me with soft, warm hands to lay down on the bed in between the pillows as he crawls onto the bed, too, moving his head as close to the swell of my belly as he can get it.
He refuses to put any weight on my belly, though.
“That seems to help a lot,” I tell him with a soft smile. I continue, “I don’t know what it is about you holding onto them like that, but it seems to do the trick just about every time. They quiet down when you’re near, giving mommy time to recover.”
Eddie’s strong, tanned arm soon drapes over the top of my belly, drawing over it gently with the tips of his fingers like he always does, hoping that our babies can feel what he’s doing too.
“Are you feeling better now, baby?” Eddie asks me, obviously still a little worried about the pain I’d been feeling just moments earlier. “I can go and get you a cushion or something if you need it for your back or your belly.”
I shake my head in reply to him. “No, it’s okay. I feel much better lying down again like this.”
I look at Eddie, admiring him in my sleepy haze. He’s wearing a red plaid shirt, unbuttoned very low, so I can see his chest hair and tattoos. If he keeps looking like that, we might have to make another baby really quick.
“If you need anything, then just tell me, and I’ll get it for you,” he tells me, bringing his eyes down to watch his hand that was drawing nonsensical shapes on my skin. “You know that nothing is too much trouble for me. I’ll do anything for you, Kat. You know that.”
I think I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard my husband tell me that nothing is too much trouble, chuckling to myself again and feeling warm at his sweetness when it comes to me.
“You know, one day,” I tell him, smiling as I run my fingers gently through his hair. “I’m going to figure something out that will be too much trouble. And then what will you do?”
“That would be impossible. You’ll never find anything that I won’t do for you,” Eddie says, kissing my hand with his soft lips.
“Oh, I’m pregnant. I can definitely find something,” I assure him, to which he smiles ruefully in response.
Eddie’s dark head of hair shakes defiantly.
He says softly, “If you can find something that is too much trouble for me to do, then I’ll do it because you think it might be too much trouble. I won’t ever stop doing things for you, Kat, pregnant or not.”
“Is this a challenge, then?” I ask him, tilting my head. “Because I’ve got plenty of time on my hands with this bump to do plenty of thinking. I’ll find something that you won’t be able to do for me. Count on it.”
“I bet the babies know that I’ll do anything for the three of you already as well,” Eddie murmurs, brushing off my challenge most likely because he thinks I might stress myself out about it.
My head shakes in defiance, but as Eddie begins to trace along the left side of my swollen belly with his rings lying on the bedside table, a sudden thud takes me by surprise.
Eddie’s hazel eyes look up at me as mine look down, both of us staring at each other to make sure what we both actually felt is what we think it is, and not some sort of dream for us both.
Eddie’s dark head nods at me first, keeping his hand exactly where the thud came from out of anticipation for another one to show up.
I can still feel one of our babies wriggling around in my belly, silently trying to encourage one of them to do what they just did again to make sure we both know that it had happened. I can’t help but grin.
“Did one of our babies just kick me?” Eddie asks me after giving himself a moment to let it all sink in and coming back with a new sort of urgency in his tone. Despite that, he sounds very excited.