Page 37 of Capturing Hearts

“Prettiest whale I ever saw.” Then he adds with a smirk, “And our son is like his daddy. He likes to make you wait.”

My jaw drops and I cry out at his impudence, “Rude! That was a hard time for me.” He grins, and I lose the fake-shock to ask coyly, “Sexy husband?”

“Uh-oh.”

Laughing, I shake my head a little as I struggle to achieve the out-of-character tone again. Clearing my throat and batting my eyelashes, I very softly ask, “Would you pretty-please rub my feet? After all, you did do this to me.”

“Oh ho! I knew it! Put the blame on the man when the woman was the one who refused to use a condom.” He laughs and bends to lift up my legs by my calves, sitting down on the ottoman and putting my sore feet onto his lap. He grabs my ankles and tickles the sensitive bottoms of my feet as I cry out in laughter. “Who refused? I’m sorry, what? You did!”

“Stop it! Stop it! I didn’t, and you know it!”

He stops tickling me and argues, “We only talked about it once, and you weren’t into it…and then we never talked about it again.”

The words take an enormous bite into my insecurities and my face falls as he looks down to rub my toes. Brendan and I didn’t fall in love at first sight, to say the least. He was my crush long before he ever knew I existed and some things happened that I’d rather forget, during that time. It was years before he noticed me and then, when he did, the road was insanely rocky.

So now, when I’m a whole week past my due date, he’s going to bring up for the first time our neglect of condoms? I’m silent for as long as I can hold it in, but then I have to ask, my voice barely above a whisper, “Are you saying you didn’t want this?”

His eyes flash up and his smile vanishes instantly. “No! Annie, that’s not what I meant.” He leans toward me, holding my eyes. “Annie.”

“I’m sorry.”

He clasps both my feet tightly in his hands. “Stop it. You don’t have to apologize. I shouldn’t have joked about it. You know how happy I am with you. Can’t you tell? You two are my whole life.”

An ache pulls at my heart at the words. “I’m sorry. I’m just feeling emotional lately. It’s that music! Damn you, Bing Crosby!” I laugh, tears gathering in my eyes.

Brendan smiles and gets up to kiss me. I return the kiss with my hand on his cheek. He looks into my eyes and kisses my nose before returning to the ottoman. I point my toes and touch the zipper of his dark blue jeans.

“What have you got in here?”

Deftly grabbing my toe, he chides me, “Now, now. You want your feet rubbed, or something else?”

Ooooo. Tough call. “Feet first, please.”

He grins, digging his thumbs firmly into my arches until I groan and close my eyes, dropping my head back on the couch again. “Sooooo gooooooood.”

“Freckles?”

“Mmm?”

“I love you.”

The second he says it, I don’t know why, but I realize what I’ve not remembered to tell him.

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