The Journey Home(71)
Author: Kelly Elliott

I looked at her, confused. Turning the envelope over, I opened it. I pulled out the folded piece of paper and began to open it. There was another paper wrapped up in it. A sonogram picture. I just stared. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the tiny peanut in the middle of the picture. I looked up and Maddie had tears falling down her face.

“Maddie…are we?”

She nodded and wiped away her tears. “Yes. We’re about eight weeks along.”

My eyes stung with tears as I felt the emotions build. My lips quivered and my heart did the same crazy-ass thing it did the first time I ever laid eyes on Maddie. Pregnant. Maddie is pregnant with our child.

A sob escaped my lips and I didn’t even care that my ribs were screaming in pain. “Maddie. We’re gonna have a baby? This is our baby?”

She laughed. “Yes. I’m so sorry you weren’t there for the first sonogram. The doctor wanted to do it as soon as possible. I haven’t told anyone else, since I wanted to tell you first. I kind of think Jack knows, but he hasn’t said anything. Tim knows. He figured it out the day of your accident.” She looked at me with such sadness in her eyes.

“Baby, it’s okay. I’ll be there for everything else, I swear. Now, will you please move these trays so I can kiss the mother of my children?”

Maddie froze. Something moved across her face…an emotion I’d seen before, but slightly different. She stood and set her tray on the dresser, then reached for mine and did the same. She crawled back onto the bed and was about to kiss me when she stopped just short of my lips and smiled the biggest smile I’d ever seen.

“I could never in a million years tell you how that just made me feel. I love you, Cale Blackwood. I love you so much.”

Placing my hand on her cheek, I brushed away a single tear before sliding my hand behind her neck and pulling her lips to mine. Our kiss was passionate, and full of love.

She pulled away and giggled. “Our dinner is getting cold.”

I smiled and whispered, “Let it get cold. Where is that vibrator?”

“YOU KNOW, YOU really can’t do that anymore.”

I turned to see my father standing in the doorway of the baby’s room, shaking his head. “If Cale saw you standing on that ladder, he’d be furious.”

I laughed. “Help me down?” I asked as I held out my hand. My father held my hand as I stepped off the small ladder. “Daddy, you know I was only two steps up?”

“Doesn’t matter. Just because you’re not really showing, Maddie, doesn’t mean you’re not pregnant. If you need something done in the nursery, just ask one of us to do it, sweetheart.”

I saluted my father. “Yes, sir.”

He kissed me on the forehead as he chuckled. “Where is my granddaughter?”

I looked around the nursery and smiled. We’d decided to use the guest bedroom downstairs as the new nursery. I had no clue if I was having a girl or a boy, but I had a feeling that it was a girl. So I’d started decorating in a French country theme. Cale thought I was crazy, but something in my heart told me I was having a girl. Plus, I had been insanely sick the first three months, and Mary assured me that meant it was a girl.

“She’s with Cale and Mary,” I said. “They took her to the park so I could rest, but I couldn’t sleep, so I started messing with the baby’s room.”

“How are the plans for the second wedding going?” My father asked, walking out of the nursery and toward the living room.

I slapped at his arm as I passed him by to sit on the sofa. “You’re so mean. How’s your wedding plans coming along with Michelle? You know, Mom called me the other day and was asking all kinds of questions.”

He sat in the recliner and rolled his eyes. “I hope you didn’t tell her anything. With the amount of money I gave her in the divorce, I figured she’d just stay in Paris forever.”

I giggled. “Daddy, that’s so mean.”

He had a serious look in his eyes when he asked, “You don’t agree with me, Maddison?”

I held up my hands. “Now, I didn’t say that! I wasn’t surprised when she took off for Paris. She always loved it there, and said she wanted to live there.”

He let out a gruff laugh. “Well, she can stay there forever as far as I’m concerned.”

My cell phone rang and my father jumped up and grabbed it from the sofa table behind me. When he handed it to me, I saw that it was Jack. My heart beat faster.

“Hello?”

Jack yelled, “Her water broke! Her water broke!”

I stood up quickly. “What?”

“Her. Water. Broke. They’re coming. Finally!”

I smiled at my dad and gave him a thumbs-up. “Okay, Jack, calm down. Where is Monica?”

I could hear Monica in the background talking. “I’m heading on out to the car. Honey, grab my makeup bag, will you?”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with her, Maddie. She’s too calm. She’s about to give birth to twins and she is so chill. She walked to the bedroom, changed her clothes, grabbed a towel and told me to meet her in the car. And she wants makeup. Why does she want makeup?”

I tried to hold back my laughter. Monica was so ready to give birth to the twins. She was nine months pregnant and they’d told her she’d deliver earlier. She hadn’t, and she’d been one pissed off pregnant woman the last three weeks.

“Jack, just grab the makeup bag and head to the car. Did you call the doctor yet?”

“Fuck! I forgot. Son of a bitch.”

Then my phone beeped. I pulled it away and looked at it. “He hung up on me,” I said to my dad. “He didn’t even say goodbye. He just hung up. What the hell?”

I heard Mary and Cale come in through the front door. “Maddie!” He yelled.

“I’m in the living room with Dad.”

Cale came rushing into the living room. I could tell he was still having a bit of trouble with his leg.

“She’s in labor,” Cale said. “We have to go.”

He walked back down the hall and all I could hear was Cale rummaging through the hall closet. I looked over to my father and then to Mary who was holding Lily. She set her down and Lily quickly made her way to me. I kneeled down and took her into my arms. She smiled at me and then gave me a slobbery kiss.

“Mom, James? Can one of y’all watch Lily while we go to the hospital?”

I stood up and Lily screamed excitedly and pointed to Cale. I stood there, staring.