Page 111 of Best Man
God, I’m lucky,he thought, as he plunged into the tight suction of her warm and silky cheeks.
33
Paulina
Paulina was cuddled up on the couch with a book and a stack of pillows stuffed behind her lower back for support. She’d wanted to stay awake for Sasha, but it was already past midnight and she’d caught herself reading and rereading the same passage over and over again. She let her heavy eyelids shut for just a moment—
She woke a bit later when her phone vibrated on the coffee table, the screen glowing with a new text message.
“You up?” Sasha asked.
“Getting sleepy but we’re waiting for you,” she wrote, cradling her belly with her other hand.She, Sasha, and the baby were more and more of a “we” with every day that passed.
A little heart reaction quickly popped up below her text—he’d loved her message. “Our plane just landed,” he wrote. “Be home soon.”
“Can’t wait,” she wrote back.
Determined to stay awake for forty or so more minutes, she brewed a piping hot mug of herbal tea. Chamomile helped with heartburn, which was one of the many bodily discomforts as she rounded the corner into her third trimester.
Third trimester,she thought, still finding it hard to believe. The months were absolutely flying by—it was so surreal! She set her book aside and looked around her and Sasha’s beautiful home, reflecting on how much her life had changed.
Nine monthssoundedlike such a long time, but then again, she didn’t exactly have an entire nine months. On that fateful day she found out she was carrying, she was already a month and a half into pregnancy. One truism she’d learned over the years was that time always moved faster, never slower, so she shouldn’t have been surprised at how quickly this whole process was going—but still, it seemed like every pregnancy milestone came faster than the last. This baby wascomin’ in a hurry.
She knocked out several milestones on that very first day: first morning sickness, first positive pregnancy test, first prenatal exam, first time sharing the news. From there, things were quiet for a few weeks on the pregnancy front—but not so much on thenew relationship, new city,andnew jobfronts.
The next big milestone came at the end of her first trimester, when they announced the pregnancy to friends and family. She and Piper decided to tell their parents at the same time. With Jax and Sasha sitting next to them on the couch, the two couples got their parents on a video call:
“Hi Mom, hi Dad,” Paulina began.
“We have something to tell you,” Piper said.
They yelled in unison, “We’re pregnant!”
Which, as crazy as it sounded, turned out to be the best way to break the news. Because if either Mom or Dad were upset about Paulina’s pregnancy, they didn’t show it. They were way too jazzed about becoming grandparents withdoublethe babies.
As for living with Piper and Jax, well, it was great—when she actually lived with them, that is. She felt a tiny bit guilty because she didn’t spend a whole lot of time at their condo, because she stayed with Sasha at the Ritz most nights. But Piper wasn’t one to judge; she certainly understood. And hey, she was a married woman now—God knows she wanted some quality alone time with her man, too.
Besides, the sisters got to spend plenty of time together at work. Paulina never imagined herself working in an office, but then again, her gig at Soulmate wasn’t exactly the stereotypical soul-sucking office job experience. Working with Piper was a blast—the days flew by, the job itself was actually pretty fun, the laughs were nonstop, and Soulmate was growing as a company.
Then there was Sasha. He was by far the best boyfriend she ever had. (It felt strangely childish to call the man she was having a baby with her “boyfriend,” but, well, what else could she call him?) He was so good, so sweet, so caring and so very eager to spoil her. She wondered howin the hell she’d ever managed to date such loser scumbags before him—and man oh man, Sasha made those guys seemextrabad in hindsight, now that she knew what arealman was like. What was an even bigger head scratcher, though, was how one of those gorgeous models Sasha dated in the past hadn’t realized what a catch he was, and snatched him uplongbefore he ever made his way into her life.
But she wasn’t about to complain. It was their loss.
Truth was, her life with Sasha was better than she ever could’ve imagined when she pictured her new life in Dallas. Everything was so magical when he was in town, and they were always so busy. Sasha loved to take her out shopping (whether for her or the baby), or whisk her off to a fancy dinner on a whim, and there was always some kind of team party to attend, and they toured houses like it was their job. But their favoritedate night activity was when they didn’t have to leave his hotel suite at all. Yeah, they might’ve missed out on all that hot baby-making sex that Piper had talked about, but they did their best to make up for it with lots of equally hot and emotionally intense pregnant sex.
That being said, there was a bit of a catch in that paragraph—did you see it? The key phrase was,whenhe was in town. If there was any downside to dating Sasha, it was the travel. Dating a pro athlete was a fantasy come true, but the harsh reality was that they had to travel a lot, and boy, did it ever suck.It seemed like she only had her man for a day or two at a time—and then he was back on the road for even longer.
Thosewere the days, when he was gone, that the insecure worries began to seep in. She knew that in every city he traveled to, beautiful women would be throwing themselves at her man—was he staying true to her? In her heart, she knew he was a good man and trusted him—but what if he was a psycho liar like Scott, capable of living a double life? Late at night, when she had to sleep alone in her bed, was when those terrifying pangs of doubt crept in.
But every night he was on the road, he called her before he went to sleep and “tucked her into bed” with a phone call. He never failed to call. It was the little things he did that taught her to really trust again.
Yeah, the travel sucked, but on the positive side? She still had her sister! When their men were out on the road, she and Piper did everything together, sharing the ups and downs of pregnancy and indulging each other in their totally insane food cravings. Pickles and ice cream?Together?Sure … why not!
Just days into her second trimester, Paulina and Sasha’s real estate agent called, sounding quite convinced that she’d foundtheir dream house and they needed to view itnowbefore someone else made an offer. Paulina was immediately skeptical—the house was in Highland Park, a wealthy suburb of Dallas, and the asking price was twice the budget they’d agreed on. Regardless, Paulina begrudgingly agreed to look at the house, if only to appease their hardworking real estate agent, who had been busting her butt for weeks to find them their ideal house.
As soon as they pulled up to the house, though, Paulina knew she was in trouble. The gorgeous two-story home sat on a large and idyllic lot with soaring trees. Visions of their little one running around and playing in the lush grass immediately filled her head. Once inside, the house continued to chip away at her resolve to be frugal. The house was flooded with light, its styling tastefully modern and spacious. The updated kitchen was to die for.
It was love at first sight, just like it was between her and Sasha. But part of her stubbornly resisted, just as she’d resisted him—because it wastooexpensive, and the five bedrooms were more than they needed, anyway. Sure, ithad an outdoor pool, the big garage Sasha wanted, a gigantic garden she could grow plenty of vegetables in,and,believe it or not,an outdoor cedar sauna that looked like an adorable little wood cabin. But could shereallylive in such luxury when she’d gotten by with so little for so long?
