After a quick diaper change, I sit back in bed and whip out my boob. He grunts as he eats like someone’s going to steal his nipple. It’s adorable. I run my finger over his forehead and nose. Over his little ear. “You and your brother were worth every contraction. Worth every time I puked. Worth every single day I was on bed rest.”
I look up to see Olly smiling at me with so much love in his eyes, it makes me emotional. “I wrote the tagline.” The words come out of nowhere. When he doesn’t say anything, I start babbling. “‘Wouldn’t you like a Heavenly Hunk underneath your mistletoe?’ I wrote that.”
He nods slowly. “It’s clever.” After a moment, he chuckles. “My family gave me so much shit about that line. Gramps gave me boxers for Christmas with mistletoe on it.”
“That’s… weird.”
“You’re a part of my family now, so you might as well get used to this, but Gramps is a perv. Surprise.”
His lightheartedness about the whole thing makes me cautiously optimistic. “You’re not mad? I didn’t have anything to do with the design or pics chosen. Although… I should tell you that when I realized you were going to be on the billboard, it did cross my mind to make some nice color copies and stick them under your windshield wiper.”
“I’m not mad.” He stands carefully, never jostling Jude, and sits next to me. “I’m sorry I flipped out on you. I was an ass. There will never be a day that goes by where I don’t readily accept that you’re too good for me.”
“Don’t say that.” I reach for his handsome face, and he leans close. “You’re exactly what I need. You make me crazy some days, sure, but I love what we have.”
We talk it out. About how I was half-asleep and tongue-tied and scared he’d be upset with me. How he was sleep-deprived and overwhelmed with losing the endorsement and the crap the blog was posting about him and Vanessa being behind it.
As I think back to all of the terrible stories she posted there, I want to track down that girl and kick her ass.
I grab his hand. “Considering how much stress we’ve experienced this year, I think we’re doing okay.”
“It’s because you’re an amazing woman who can juggle a million things.” He laces his fingers through mine. “Before I forget, my parents want to know if they can swing by tomorrow. They want to clean and make us a few meals. Mom and Dad know you can’t go to the game, obviously, but they’d like to watch it here with you. If you’re okay with that.”
“Don’t they have tickets?”
“Yeah, but they’d rather watch it with you and the boys. They said they want to split their time evenly between us and Kayla, and the game gives them a reason to make the drive sooner.”
Olly’s sister just had her daughter. I’m so excited for our kids to grow up together.
“But they’ve never missed a game before.” His mom always brags about that.
He shrugs. “I told them I wanted to check with you first.”
“If they don’t mind me looking like something chewed me up and spit me out.”
Wrapping his free arm around me, he tugs me close. “You’re more beautiful now than ever before. I’m in awe of you growing our babies and giving birth. I’ve never felt luckier than the day we had our boys.”
I lean my head against his chest while we cradle our sons. “I can’t believe you left at halftime. Football means everything to you.” It makes me choked up to say it.
“You, Levi, and Jude mean everything to me,” he says quietly. “Football is a sport. It’s fun, and sometimes it’s work. But it’ll never replace my family.” Leaning over, he kisses our babies, one then the other, then turns to me. “Thank you for this incredible gift.”
“Pretty sure it takes two to tango.”
He lifts an eyebrow. “Can I just say I can’t wait to ‘tango’ again?”
I laugh and lean up to nip his ear. “That makes two of us.”
But once again, sex is off the table as I heal. While I can’t envision doing that right now while everything below the waist aches, I miss that closeness.
In my head, I’m counting down the days.
71
OLLY
I’ve been rushing around all afternoon, trying to get everything done. Someone cries from the stroller. I glance down at two sleepy faces, one of which glares back at me.
“Hang tight, Jude.” I wheel them into the coffee shop. “Mama needs some empanadas, and then we’ll head home.”
