Page 47 of Midlife Woes (Ex)

The fact that she was older than me, had already been married, and was heavily pregnant seemed to be the topic on everyone’s tongue, and I didn’t try to hide any of it. I’ve never cared overly much about what anyone else thought so it was no skin off my nose.

Even if the two most important people in my life outside of her had objected it wouldn’t have made a difference, but Mom and Dad loved her off the bat. She was so stressed over the fact that she was a few years older than me that I didn’t tell her that my parents were the same until she met them and saw for herself.

That seemed to ease her mind on that score once she realized that they had been married for over forty years and were still stupid in love with each other. I wasn’t worried about any of it because I knew what I wanted, and what I wanted was her from the very first time I laid eyes on her.

She was worried about whispers over the fact that her divorce hadn’t even been a year before we got together and she fell pregnant; I told her that as long as we both know that we didn’t break any moral codes, we need not give a damn what other people said.

I never stopped smiling all day, which I’m sure was picked up by the cameras, and neither did she. I could finally breathe once the ceremony was over, and she signed the certificate, making her Mrs. Kincaid.

She doesn’t know it yet, but I’ve already got my lawyers working on her name change, so she doesn’t have to deal with that stress. She had a little bit of guilt over not having the same name as her kids, which I understood, but I don’t have it in me to give my kids another man’s name, so she was shit outta luck with that one.

I had my own private talks with the kids and reassured them that I understood if they felt a way about her not having their name any longer, but since it was their father who fucked up, I wasn’t about to let them or anyone else penalize her for moving on with her life. They assured me that they had no such feelings, so all was fine on that front.

In fact, I’m not sure they’ve forgiven their dad or were close to doing it from the things I’d overheard them saying. He was not only pissed about Jolene and I being in a relationship but the fact that his kids were now spending their off time at my place, and his Dad had been over a couple of times with her parents already.

I’m not sure what’s going on there, but that old man loves the hell out of his ex-daughter-in-law, something my Dad has been reminding him of since they met this weekend, that he was the new sheriff in town. Those two are about to have a pissing contest any day now.

I knew my parents were mostly overjoyed that they were getting a grandkid out of this because they’d despaired of me ever settling down since the Tara debacle, and they were right. It left a bad taste in my mouth, and I never wanted my mother to endure that bullshit again.

Since neither of us wanted her to fly since she was very pregnant, we decided to spend our honeymoon at the beach house Dalton had given her, which was just a few hours away by car.

We turned our phones off for the two weeks we were there and just enjoyed the surf and sun until it was time to go back home. By then, even I had to admit that her stomach was growing really fast, which I didn’t understand because she eats mostly fruits and vegetables these days and fish occasionally since the smell of meat still makes her sick. Luckily, we had a doctor’s appointment set up for two days after our return because she was starting to freak out.

* * *

The first thingI noticed once I turned our phones back on was the number of missed calls from an unknown number, which I chose not to call back right away because if it was important, they would’ve left a message. Probably some reporter looking for an exclusive.

She, on the other hand, had to deal with her screaming ex, who seemed to be claiming that she was responsible for everything that was wrong in his life. He was getting heat from his friends because she’d moved on so soon with a better catch, while he was with some chick whose morals were lax at best and who was only using him for his wealth at most.

I guess he didn’t expect her to land on her feet, or maybe he thought she’d have crawled back to him by now, and since things weren’t working out that way, he had become a petulant child. That was the last straw for me, and I had his kids start a group chat and add him after blocking him from contacting my wife.

That seemed to send him over the edge, but I didn’t really care. Since the kids they share were already adults there was no need for the two of them to be in contact that often. This way, if there was an emergency, he could contact all of them at once.

Jo didn’t say anything about this because, well, she couldn’t, and the kids didn’t either which I’m sorry, but I didn’t really care about. I’m sure no one was stressing their mama while she was carrying them, and there’s no way in hell they were going to do it to my kid.

Mind you; if they were younger when we met, I’d probably act the same way because even though kids are too young to understand divorce sometimes, as a man, I wouldn’t stand by and watch the man who destroyed my woman by cheating have any kind of power over her.

Anyway, we were back home now, loaded down with gifts and souvenirs for everyone we cared about, enjoying one last day of relaxation for me. Tomorrow was her doctor’s visit, and I was headed back to work the day after that.

That night, when we went to bed, I realized that her tummy had grown since the day before; at least it looked like it. She was no longer round but kind of oval-shaped, and I’m almost certain I saw a foot pressed against her stomach but don’t quote me on that.

“Are you in pain?”

“No, I feel fine, just full. I think maybe I’ll let them do the ultrasound this time, though, because it feels strange.” I touched her tummy, and that little fucker kicked me.

“Are you sure? I thought you said you didn’t trust them?”

She’d told me some horror stories about them giving people cancer that she’d read about somewhere years ago, and since I have no idea about any of it, I wasn’t going to argue with her, though in my mind, it wasn’t much more than an X-ray.

I had to do her from behind while she laid on her side with my hand on the kid who was playing in his own soccer match in there. Oh good, he’s going to be like his Daddy, a sportsman.

After she fell asleep, I called back that number, and a woman answered. “Hello!”

“Who’s this?”

“Damon, it’s me, Tara.” I sucked my teeth and hung up the phone before blocking her number; I had no interest whatsoever in what she had to say, and she should know that shit by now.

I knew why she was calling, of course. The magazine had done a beautiful spread of the wedding, and the story they’d published was straight out of a fairytale. Or it could be the fact that I’d called Jo the only woman I’d ever loved that got her tail in a twist.

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