Page 46 of Interception

My heart is beating wildly in my chest as I pull up outside Coop’s place. It seems like a lifetime ago that I was standing at his door for the first time with my mouth agape at how holy hot he is. And by the same token, it feels like yesterday.

As I shimmy my belly out from behind the steering wheel, I think I’m going to throw up. Not because I’m pregnant, but because I’m terrified about the grand gesture I’m about to make. I take a few deep breaths and pop the trunk to grab my bag. Before I can lift it out, Coop is out the front door, coming to greet me.

“Hey, beautiful. Perfect timing. I just got back with Chinese takeout and all the fortune cookies you can eat.” He pulls me into his arms, barely able to get his arms around me at this point. Two babies equal a whole lot of belly. “Are you feeling okay? Your heart is pounding.”

“I’m fine.” I’m not fine.

“Good. Now I don’t have to feel bad about fully appreciating how your breasts look in that top. They could make a grown man weep.” I shove his arm, but I have to give him credit where credit’s due. He’s managed to put me at ease with one little compliment.

“You’re going to be sad when they go back to normal size, aren’t you?”

“I’ll take you and your sexy chest any size, any day, any time. I’m an equal opportunities lover. Now, let me grab your bag, and let’s get you inside, fed, and naked. In that order.” He goes to the trunk and pulls my case out. “Jesus, Zee, what have you got in here? Rocks?”

“Just the essentials.”

“Essentials. This thing weighs a ton. You shouldn’t have carried this down from your apartment.”

“I took the elevator, and the doorman lifted it into the car if you must know.”

“Good. I’ll be leaving him a big fat tip the next time I’m at your place. It still doesn’t explain why you brought so much for a couple of nights. I have all your creature comforts here, or at least I try to.”

“You do.”

He slams the trunk shut and wraps his free arm around my shoulder. “Fuck me. You planning on staying for weeks?” He says with a chuckle. “You’re lucky I’m so strong and manly.” I shrug out from under his arm and step in front of him as he drags my suitcase.

“What if I did want to stay for a bit longer than a few days?”

“You know you’re welcome to stay here whenever you want, beautiful. Mi casa es su casa. How long are you thinking? I know it adds time to your work commute, but you know I love having you here.”

I take a deep breath, my heart almost galloping out of my chest. “I was thinking… maybe… if you’re okay with it… I might stay… permanently. If you still want me.”

He stops dead in his tracks, the furrow of his brow concerning me as he searches my face for I don’t know what. “If this is a joke, it’s not funny, Zee.”

“I’m not joking. That night at the batting cages, you asked me to move in. It could’ve been delirium from taking a baseball to the groin, but on the off-chance that you meant it, I want to give this a try. Us. You, me, and the babies.”

Before I can dig a bigger hole for myself, Coop drops my suitcase and sweeps me up into his arms as if I weigh no more than a bag of sugar. “Hell, yes! My baby and my babies under one roof. You won’t regret this, Zee. I’m going to make you so fucking happy.”

“Put me down. I’m all for celebrating, but spinning a pregnant girl in circles only leads to one thing.” He immediately stops, setting me down with as much care as he can muster in his over-excited enthusiasm. I rather unceremoniously puke my guts out on the driveway outside his house—our house now. That’s going to take some getting used to.

“Shit. I’m so sorry, Zee. Baby daddy fail. I’m just… fuck… I have never been happier than I am right now. This is going to be amazing. We’re going to be amazing, I promise.”

When I’m done retching, I stare up at him and smile even though my stomach is still churning. He has the goofiest grin on his face.

“This isn’t playing out the way it did in my head on the way over.” I retch one last time to add to my utter mortification. “There was a lot less of my lunch on your driveway, and I seemed sexy as hell in my head. Imagine Marilyn Monroe saying she wants forever with you.”

Coop scoops me up into his arms, leaving my symbolic suitcase in the driveway. “Forever? I’ll hold you to that. Marilyn couldn’t hold a candle to you, beautiful.”

“I’m all gross and pukey. I can walk into the house.”

“It’s customary to carry you over the threshold when you enter our house for the first time.”

“That’s after weddings.”

“Same shit, different shovel.” He slyly winks at me, and I can’t help but smile.

“Shakespeare, eat your heart out. Who needs a sonnet when I have your romantic declarations?”

“He needed all that fruity language because he wasn’t rocking a cock like mine. Tell me you wouldn’t rather have my mouth put to better use.”

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