Page 65 of Courageous Yearnings

Hopping into the bed, she flipped on the television and did the ‘Mirror Image’ from her phone to the Apple TV, waiting a brief second for her video to appear on the screen. Hitting play, she stared at the screen smiling, watching her gorgeous husband work that guitar, sing, and dance. She ignored his groan of awareness in the distance, letting the video play through deliberately and then heard it.

“That’s your amazing Daddy, my little squishy.”

Her voice was loud and clear on the television speakers, and it took all of two seconds for Lance’s face to appear in the doorway, the toothbrush hanging out of his mouth and his lips covered with foam.

“Pway dat again…?” he ordered; his dark eyes were huge.

“Hmm?” she said innocently, fighting back the urge to smile and dutifully hit play once more. He stood there, waving his hands impatiently as if to hurry along the three-minute video, and when the song was over, he flung his hands wide to make sure everything was silent, staring at the screen.

“That’s your amazing Daddy, my little squishy.”

“Squishy? We’re dunna hab a squishy?”

Blythe laughed as a big ol’ blob of toothpaste rolled down his chin.

“Go rinse your mouth…”

Lance reached down and grabbed the plastic wastebasket, spit and chunked his toothbrush in there like he was spiking a football.

“Don’t do that…!” she yelped – but it was too late. He was already climbing onto the end of the bed, scrambling up to her and smiling from ear to ear before he tackled her against the pillows.

“Omgosh, if it’s a girl – we are naming her Stacy, ‘cause you know Stacy’s mom has got it going on…”

“Don’t even,” she interrupted, laughing as he tickled her stomach.

“Where’s my baby Squishy?”

“Lance…”

“I don’t see her…”

“What if it’s a boy?”

“Bahhh – boy’s are pests.”

“How are you going to feel chasing off some boy when our daughter is seventeen.”

“Lucky for you, I do look good in prison orange,” he chuckled tenderly, kissing her as she laughed, not bothering to hide it. “Stop giggling. It makes it hard to do some serious neckin’, woman. I wanna celebrate.”

“I think you ‘celebrated’ several times which is why I’m pregnant.”

“I forgot,” he taunted, grinning playfully. “Time to refresh my memory.”

“Oh my gosh, you are terrible…”

“I’m amazing, and you love me.”

There was something there in his voice that made the both of them stop wrestling and playing around. She met his warm, tender gaze and touched his cheek, neither moving.

“I never dreamed that life could be so good,” he whispered intimately, and she felt such a bond, something so magnetic and indescribable between them as her thumb caressed his cheekbone.

“I love being a part of your world.”

“I can’t believe we’re going to have a little piece of us to love on and hold. It almost seems surreal, like this is some dream.”

“If it is, I never want to wake up…”

“Then dream with me forever, darling,” he invited, his lips brushing against hers as she arched into his kiss.

---