Page 81 of Moving to Love
She sat at the table. “What brings you guys here this morning?”
Emily patted Joci’s hand. “We were on our way home from church and wanted to see how you were doing.”
Joci smiled warmly. “Thank you, Emily.”
After making comfortable small talk and assuring themselves that Joci was okay, Emily and Thomas left. As soon as the door closed, Jeremiah picked her up in his arms. She squealed and wrapped her arms around his neck to hang on. “I’m sorry I ruined your night last night, Jeremiah.”
He walked with Joci in his arms into the living room, reclined on the sofa with her lying on top of him.
“I told you—everything I needed to do, I did last night. You didn’t ruin anything. And I didn’t properly thank you for the video. You did a fabulous job putting that together, Joci. Blew me away. I want a copy of the last picture for my office and my computer and my phone.”
She giggled. “Is that all?” She sat up and tucked her hair behind her ears. “They’re your pictures. I have the video and the pictures on a zip drive for you to load on your computer. Let me know what else you need.”
Then she took a deep breath before confessing, “I have to tell you, I cropped a few of them to make them look nicer. And I cropped you out of one because LuAnn was looking at you like she wanted to eat you.”
He sat up and cradled her in his arms. He took a deep, shaky breath.
“You have nothing to worry about with her, honey. I saw her follow you to the bathroom. What did she say to you?”
“Just more of the same. You’ll get sick of me. I’m plain compared to her, won’t be able to keep you happy for long. The usual.”
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It’s not true. None of it.”
“I know.” Joci sighed. “It hit me last night while I was talking to her.” She turned to face him. “I know. It’s freeing.”
He squeezed her and kissed her temple.
“Do you think you might be pregnant, Joci?”
She took a deep breath.
“Joci. We need to talk about this. Do you think you might be?”
“I don’t know, Jeremiah. I’ve never missed a day of my birth control pills. This is so different than when I was pregnant with Gunnar. I had morning sickness until about the end of my third month. I was tired but not so emotional. My periods have been different, which is why I went back to the doctor. She just thought I had been on the same pills for too long and that sometimes that happens. She switched my prescription. I thought she did a pregnancy test. I’ll call tomorrow and find out.”
“If you’re pregnant, I don’t want to wait until the end of September to get married. I want to do it right away. I don’t want to risk anything happening.”
“Jeremiah, let’s wait until we know for sure.”
“I want to be your husband. I want you to be my wife. Dammit, I don’t want to wait. And if you’re carrying my child, I want it legal that you’re both mine. And I don’t want you to have too much stress while you’re expecting. It should be a happy time for you to grow a happy, healthy baby. I can’t even process all the emotions. I have to marry you, because if I don’t, my life will be empty and meaningless.”
She turned in his arms and straddled him. Her tummy growled, and she giggled.
“Let’s go and get you two something to eat,” he said.
“Jeremiah. Don’t get too emotionally attached until we know for sure. I would hate for you to be let down.”
“Too late. I already feel it. Mom does, too. That’s why they stopped by this morning. You know the ginger tea she made you last night was the same tea she made all of her daughters-in-law when they were pregnant. It’s helped them with their morning or evening sickness. It has to be, Joci. All of your symptoms lead right to you carrying my child.”
“At my age, having a baby will be difficult. Losing the weight afterward will be impossible. Jeremiah, you don’t understand the toll this will take on me and us. We’re at a point in our lives where our kids are self-sufficient. We can come and go as we want when we want. With a baby, we’ll be starting all over again.”
“Yes. We’ll start over together. We have my sisters-in-law, my mom, Jackie, all of the nieces and nephews, and three strong, loving boys. Plenty of babysitters and help.”
He pressed his lips to hers. “You worry too much, Joci. I’ll love you no matter what. The little things, a few pounds, being tired—those are all meaningless in the whole scheme of things. What matters is that we’re together. I’ve never been happier.” He chuckled. “If you need me to gain a few pounds to make you feel better, you got it.”
She burst out laughing.
Chapter 35
