Page 9 of Independence Bae

“Oh, love.” I didn’t know what to say to her.

Without talking to Raven, I was flying blind. We hadn’t even had beginning discussions surrounding a plan. It was possible they’d ask us to broadcast from Chicago. It made the most sense from a logistical standpoint. They had the studios, equipment, and their corporate offices here—surely, they’d want us close by.

“I’m not going to lie and say there’s no way they’d want us to leave North Pole. I don’t have a definitive answer to that question. Would it be so terrible if we had to pack up and move? Chicago seems like a beautiful place to live.”

“But… North Pole.” It was almost a whimper, and it twisted me inside. I knew all that she said between that long pause. North Pole was familiar to her. It’s where her small circle of friends existed, and where all the memories of her mom resided. She’d endured a lot of change in a short period of time—between losing her mom, leaving the costume shop, really becoming an Etsy entrepreneur, dating me, getting engaged to me, and soon she’d be marrying me. I moved into her mom’s house with her—but I’d assumed she realized that was a short term solution, and we’d sell it after the wedding. Her mom’s house just wasn’t suited for us. I could see how the prospect of moving to Chicago would freak her out. It would be the equivalent of moving away from her mom, or the memory of her mom anyway.

“Nothing is certain, Marley. I still need to talk to Raven and see where her head is at. She might not even be interested in syndicating at all. For all we know she wants to move to Pennsylvania and find her happily ever after with Penn.”

I watched as she pushed herself off the bed and began to unpack our things. She seemed—different. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it-but she almost vibrated with nervous energy.

“Love, come sit down next to me.” I pat a spot on the bed. She paused for a moment as if considering not joining me, but acquiesced.

“Before I talk to Raven, I need to know where your head’s at. Do you want me to tell Raven the deal is off the table completely?”

“You know I can’t tell you to do that.” Her bottom lip trembled, and I’d steeled myself for a second round of tears, but they stayed at bay. “How can I possibly be the one to tell the two of yousorry you have to say no to your dream. I’d literally be the worst human being on the planet!”

“But if it didn’t make you the worst human being on the planet, you wouldn’t want us to take to the contract?”

I tried to phrase the question as gently as possible. I didn’t want her to think I was angry with her, but honestly how could I tell Raven let’s go for it, if Marley wasn’t on board? And wasn’t that the craziest fucking thing?

“That’s so unfair, Ted, you can’t put those words in my mouth.”

“Love, I promise—the only things of mine that belong in your mouth have nothing to do with talking.” I gave her a sexy wink trying to lighten the mood but she wasn’t having it. “I just want to know your thoughts. Good or bad. You can tell me anything. I hope you know that. You and I are a team, and that means never being afraid to speak your mind or disagree.”

It was times like this one that I realized how young Marley was to me in comparison. Not that it was bad on any level—but her life experience was pretty narrow thus far. She’d never experienced any life other than the Rockwell-esque existence of living in a sweet touristy hamlet like North Pole.

“I’m pregnant, Ted.”

The room ran out of air. It was as if we had been orbiting in space and my suit suddenly ripped causing the air to violently expel into the ether. I couldn’t even get my chest to expand enough to attempt to take air in. Pregnant.

Terrible thoughts flooded my head and I desperately fought to keep them at bay. I didn’t want to think about any of that right now.

“Pregnant?” My voice sounded tinny in my own ears, and I desperately hoped I was able to cover that with my smile and octave raised voice. “I certainly know thehowbut. Wow. Pregnant.”

Despite the darkness threatening to close in on my psyche the last thing I ever wanted was for Marley to have a memory that wasn’t perfection. I cradled her face and kissed her hard before pulling her into my chest. I could feel panic rising in my chest. My body desperately wanted to flee. To freak out in private. But Marley didn’t deserve that. Witnessing deep seeded fears that had nothing to do with my love for her and everything to do with the person I used to be.

“I am the luckiest man on the planet.”

That was the god’s honest truth.

“I have the most amazing woman who is going to marry me and have our child in…?”

“About six months, give or take a couple of weeks. Exact conception time unknown.”

“By the end of November I’ll be a husband, a dad—and who knows maybe a nationally syndicated radio host.”

Her worry melted into a genuine smile.

“Should I have waited? I planned to wait. I was actually going to rope Raven into surprising you on the air. You know since everything else has happened on the air. Maybe we can still recreate it. Or maybe we do not tell Raven and surpriseheron the air?”

“Marley, you are the very best thing that has ever happened to me.” I lead her into my lap wrapping her legs around my waist. “I don’t know what I did to get so lucky—but my life has been stratosphere level incredible since you crashed into me with your gingerbread cookies and sassy attitude.”

“Ted, you crashed into me.” She tried to school her features into a don’t fuck with me demeanor—her voice pitching into her lower register and clipped with a terse attitude. But the shell broke almost as quickly as she tried to execute it, genuine laughter bubbling up.

Discussions of contracts were tabled, for the moment. We had time before I needed to meet Raven for our pow-wow and I planned to spend every second of those taking an oral exploration of my soon to be wife’s body. Keeping her sighing and moaning would also allow me to focus on something other than thoughts I couldn’t give voice to right now.

Chapter Eight

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