Page 72 of The Virgin's Baby
I thought the same thing myself. But there was a niggling worry about there being more than one of them again. That had been one rough year with those three preemies.
And here we were, about to do it all over again.
“Dad, I did a flip, and you weren’t watching me!” Lucius shouted.
I turned to look at him. “Do it again.”
Elijah yelled, “Dad, look!”
Turning around, I caught the tail-end of his super high jump. “Wow! That’s really high, Elijah.”
“Daddy,” Arian wailed. “I bit my tongue!”
Turning to see my little girl, I found blood running out of her mouth. “Oh, shit!”
“Um, Dad!” both the boys scolded me.
Stopping all the jumping, I picked up Arian and carried her away as she started to cry and bleed all over my shoulder. “Come on boys. Jumping time is over.”
“Aw, man,” they both moaned.
Lucius whined, “Why does she always have to get hurt and ruin all our fun?”
Arian looked up at me with tear-filled eyes. “I’m sorry, Daddy. I do always ruin all the fun.”
“No, you don’t.” I gave my sons a look to let them know that wasn’t okay. “She didn’t get hurt to mess up your day, boys. I think you should apologize to your sister.”
“Sorry you got hurt, Arian,” Elijah said quietly.
“Yeah, me too,” Lucius echoed.
All I could do was sigh and wonder why it was again that Aspen and I were actively trying to have one more child.
Aspen
The triplets’ birthday party had drained me. Soaking in a hot bath, I let myself just breathe as Lucius and Ransom read the kids bedtime stories.
Chalking up my exhaustion to all the sex Ransom and I had been having, I didn’t worry too much about why I felt so drained. After all, my husband and I had been doing the horizontal mambo like rabbits for the last forty-six days.
My plan was to give it ten more days then take a pregnancy test. My period had been a no-show, but that wasn’t enough for me to consider myself pregnant.
The birth control pills I’d been on ever since the birth of the triplets made my period scarce over the last years. I’d only quit taking the pills on our third anniversary after Ransom agreed to have another baby.
I didn’t dare let myself think about being pregnant anymore after that first night of trying.
I’d really set myself up for a fall when I’d thought about that one time doing the trick. It wouldn’t help at all if I got discouraged when I took the first pregnancy test and it came out negative.
Why I yearned so much to be pregnant seemed a little weird to me. Especially after the birthday party. Not much longer after Arian bit her tongue, Elijah fell down and scraped his knees. As if two down weren’t enough, Lucius began throwing up. We figured he’d just eaten too much cake, and all the activity had made it come back up.
We’d been wrong we found out when all three of the kids began puking in the car on the ride back home. The pediatrician came by after we’d gotten home and told us a nasty virus was going around, and the kids had gotten it somehow.
At least he’d told us that it only lasted about twelve hours, and then they would start to feel better.
That was precisely why I took the long, hot bath. I knew there would be a long night ahead of us, and I needed to replenish my body and soul for that.
A soft knock came to the door and then Ransom stepped inside. “They’re all out. I do believe it’s from a combination of being worn out from all the activity and the virus.”
“I’m glad they’re all resting.” I felt a little nausea making my belly bubble. “I hope I don’t have what they do. My stomach just started hurting.”
