A Future for Three (6 page)

Emma was fairly certain that she wasn't dreaming.

Her head pounded from way too little sleep, and her chest ached where her heart beat an erratic tattoo, so she was fairly certain that she was awake. Maybe she was delusional?

She'd woken to find them kissing, the beauty of their naked bodies entwined nearly breaking her heart with the perfection. The two of them belonged together, and finally they'd found each other.

Maybe she'd imagined Jason's words because her broken heart and muddled mind wouldn't accept the obvious.

"Emma? Honey?"

Casey's voice sounded so unsure, so
un
-
Casey-like,
that she turned to see her friend's face.

"Emma, I'm sorry. I thought you loved me too. Please don't leave. Stay and talk to us."

Emma took a deep, steadying breath. Somehow, she'd always known they'd have a conversation like this, but she hadn't understood just how it would weaken her knees with the cowardly need to stay with them or that her throat would threaten to close against the words. She swallowed hard, trying to dislodge the lump that tried to clog her throat.

"Casey, Jason, I do love you both, but I don't expect you to deny your own happiness just for me. You're good people and wonderful friends, but you don't need to include me in your relationship just because you think being together might hurt me."

They both wore identical looks of shock, and Emma shook her head sadly. Surely, they knew her well enough to know that she wouldn't accept their pity. She needed to move out and let them live their life together.

"Hurt you?" Casey's smile had vanished, a wounded look flashing across her face before she could hide it. "That's what you think this is about? Us trying not to hurt you?"

Jason wasn't quite so restrained.

"A pity fuck? You think you're a pity fuck? That we'd both use you like that just so we wouldn't hurt you? What the hell?" He sat back and ran an agitated hand through his hair. Emma's breath caught when she realized his hand wasn't quite steady.

"Emma?" Casey's quiet voice claimed her attention again. "Honey, did you like what we did together last night? Did you enjoy it?"

Emma felt the blush all the way to the tops of her ears. Of course she'd enjoyed last night. She'd made love to the two people who meant more to her than anyone else in the world, and she'd had more orgasms that she could count. Yes, she'd enjoyed every moment, but that didn't mean anything. She was still the third wheel, still the pathetic loser friend that they were looking out for.

She knew at this point that she should probably start lying, let them off the hook, tell them that she didn't really enjoy it, but thanks anyway.

Against her better judgment, she nodded her head.

Both Casey and Jason exhaled the breaths they must've been holding.

"Babe, we love you. I've loved you for a long time. I've lost count of the times I've tried to tell you that, tried to explain how much I want our relationship to move forward. How one day I want to watch you swell with my child." He wrapped his arm around Casey and pulled Emma onto his lap. "How much I want to watch both of you as you carry my children. I know I probably sound like the most selfish guy on Earth, but I can't let you go. Either of you. Please say you'll stay. Say you'll have my babies. Say you'll grow old with me."

Emma wrapped her arms around Casey even as she snuggled closer to Jason, tears flowing down her face as she realized her dream was becoming a reality.

"Yes," she whispered.

Chapter Seven

Eight months later

Emma smiled as she heard Casey come through the door. She'd been trying to peel vegetables at the sink like she'd always done, but with the big belly getting in the way, it got more difficult every day. Any moment now, Casey would waddle in and take her to task for overdoing things in her last trimester.

She snorted a little as she tried to hold back the laughter. As if Casey could lecture her on how to behave during pregnancy. She was further along than Emma, and yet she still worked at the bank, albeit on reduced hours, but still working a tight schedule.

Casey waddled into the kitchen, her belly leading the way.

"Emma…" she groused warningly, "you are supposed to be off your feet."

"I could say the same to you."

"That's why I'm trying to sit down."

Emma glanced over to the bench as she realized with a growing sense of horror that Casey was trying to lift herself onto the stool at the bench.

"No way." She pointed the vegetable peeler at Casey, thinned her lips in disapproval, and stared at her until she moved toward the kitchen table and then lowered herself onto the chair. It wasn't until the woman finally sat down that Emma realized what she'd been trying to hide by sitting at the bench. Casey's feet and ankles were so swollen that the skin had dimples where she should've had ankles.

"Oh, Case," Emma expelled softly, her love for this woman overwhelming her at the sight of the uncomfortable swelling. She walked over and pulled out the chair beside Casey, lifted her feet, and placed them carefully on the padded seat. "Hon, have they been like this all day?"

"No, just the last hour or so."

"Case, maybe you should take leave earlier than you were planning. This kind of swelling can't be good for you or the baby." Emma braced herself for the argument to follow. Casey loved working. She loved her job. She loved the challenge. Getting her just to take holidays had been almost impossible, so Emma wasn't really ready for Casey's next words.

"Already done. As of today, I am a stay-at-home mom. At least for a while."

Relieved, Emma wrapped her arms around Casey, an interesting exercise now that they both had baby bellies.

"Do you remember Jason's face when I told him I was pregnant? He looked like a man who could fly if he wanted to. He was so happy."

Emma nodded, remembering the day only a month later when she'd told her lovers the same thing. It had happened so fast. They'd been eager to start a family, but of course, as with the best laid plans, nature had thrown them way more than they'd bargained for. The news that Emma carried twins had thrown them all for a loop. Jason had joked that the babies were probably all girls. He'd lovingly grouched about having no sons to teach football and had made them both promise to keep having babies until he had at least one son, maybe two.

The broad grin on his face had shown just how much he loved the idea of a big family.

"I don't know how he's put up with us both being pregnant." Emma laughed softly as she remembered some of the hormone-induced arguments that she and Casey had had in the last few months.

"Poor man must be completely insane to still be sleeping in the same bed with us. Between this baby kicking him and the twins rolling around, I doubt he's had a decent night's sleep in months."

"He has been rather brave when you think about it. How many men survive pregnancy with one wife without getting yelled at every other day? Maybe we should take some time to pamper our man before the babies arrive."

"Okay, as long as it can be done sitting down."

* * * *

Jason rushed to get home. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy work. It was just that his priorities had shifted somewhat in the last few months. He considered himself the luckiest man on the planet. After years of waiting and hoping for his future with Emma and Casey to begin, he suddenly had not one, but three babies on the way.

Emma glowed with her pregnancy. Even carrying twins, it was obvious that the woman was born to make babies. Casey hadn't fared quite so well. After months of morning sickness, queasiness, and vomiting, she'd found a few weeks’ peace only to end up with swollen feet, toes, fingers, neck—the woman had lived through so much just to have his baby that there were times when he wondered if she'd resent him for it.

His shoulders shook with suppressed laughter and he smiled as he remembered some of the arguments he'd refereed over the past few months. Both the women in his life had suffered hormonal swings but had spent most of their energy getting on each other’s nerves. He'd been lucky. Oh, he'd copped a hormone-induced lecture or two, but for the most part, he'd loved every change, every movement, every kick of both their pregnancies, and he wouldn't change anything of the past eight months.

Finally realizing they loved each other had been miracle enough. That they'd been blessed so quickly with the family they all wanted was a gift he would never take for granted. He slipped his key into the front door, a goofy smile spreading across his face when he heard the laughter coming from the kitchen.

"How are my favorite ladies?" He walked into the room, frowned at Emma standing at the sink peeling vegetables, and then walked over to kiss Casey. He didn't quite make it all the way to her mouth before he saw the state of her ankles. "Babe." He knelt beside her legs, his voice seizing in his throat. Her soft hand touched his face.

"I'm okay, Jase, just overdid it a little today."

"Oh, Casey," he said, carefully trying to conceal his need to order her to look after herself better. Giving Casey, or Emma, for that matter, a direct order never, ever went down well. "Maybe you should think about taking leave earlier than you were planning." He really did not want to look at the fury that would be written all over her face. Ever since she'd worked through the emotions of the holdup eight months ago, she'd taken a little more time for herself, but she still pushed herself just a little harder than she should, especially now that she was nearly eight-months pregnant.

"Today was my last day."

He sought her eyes, relief flooding through him when he realized that she wasn't messing with him.

"I'd rather stay home and have a healthy baby."

He lifted her into his arms and sat her on his lap before he captured her lips in a very thorough kiss. "Thank you, babe. It'll make it so much easier to worry about you both if you're together." He meant it exactly the way it came out, so the bark of laughter caught him by surprise.

"The way we've been arguing lately, are you sure having both of us home, all day, together, is going to lessen your worries?"

He turned to Emma's cheeky smile. She stood at the sink, her sassy stance lost behind the growing bulge where their twins grew. He watched as she waddled toward them and pressed a kiss to the mouth of the woman held securely in his arms. Yes, it would lessen his worries. No matter how many arguments they had, it was obvious that they loved each other just as much as he loved them.

Emma placed her warm hand against his cheek, kissed him softly, and stepped back.

"Why don't you two go lie down for a while? Dinner won't be for at least another hour."

Jason stood, lifting Casey high against his chest. Even eight-months pregnant, she was a lightweight. "Good idea. I've been dreaming of getting you naked all day."

"Ah, yes, so you can admire my lovely swollen ankles."

He laughed again, happiness filling him as he carried Casey into their bedroom. A quick glance around suggested that Emma had probably been pushing herself too hard as well. The room was spotlessly clean, not a thing out of place. Nesting instinct, she called it. Jason shook his head in defeat. What a fucking joke. If Emma kept this up, her ankles would be just as swollen as Casey's.

He lowered Casey to the edge of the bed, and carefully helped her to undress. She wore a simple maternity dress, and when he lifted it, he saw the angry red lines gracing her hips and buttocks.

"Casey," he said quietly as he knelt beside her and ran a gentle hand over several of the stretch marks.

"Yeah, ugly, aren't they?"

"I'm sorry, babe. I had no idea pregnancy would be so rough for you." He dropped his head for a moment, unsure how to say what he wanted, no,
needed
, to say. Her voice sounded so sad. The marks didn't detract in any way from her beauty, but if he'd been able to do something so that she could've prevented them, he would've moved heaven and earth.

He shuffled over so that he knelt in front of her and then smoothed his hand over the small lump at the top of her belly that the doctor had said was most likely the baby's knee. He lifted his other hand up to cup the side of her face, gently urging her to look at him.

"Sweetheart, I love you more and more every day. I love everything about you, including your stretch marks. I love that you love me enough to have my child, that you love Emma as much as I do, that—"

Casey placed a hand over his mouth and smiled down at him.

"I get it."

He could feel his face heating a little with embarrassment. He wanted so much for her to understand how she and Emma meant the world to him, how much he appreciated that they were willing to have his children so that they could all be one big, happy family, but the smile on her face held his words silent.

"I love you. Can you kiss me now, please?"

He laughed quietly as he lifted to his feet and pressed his lips against hers in a gentle kiss. It was Casey who deepened the kiss, Casey who wrapped a hand behind his head to hold him to her, and it was Casey who moaned in arousal.

He pulled away carefully to look at his beautiful wife, and, as was her habit lately, she wore that innocent, yet sexy smile that usually preceded demanding that he make long, slow love to her.