Deep in the Woods (23 page)

“Dave, what is it? Talk to me.”

“That night in the woods, when we chased you…the night before you went to Overton…”

“Yes?”

“After we fucked there on the ground, in the woods, after I stood up and sent you running off again, I looked down and realized the condom had broken. I meant to tell you next time I saw you but then you flipped out with Ryan and I forgot about it. I remembered again on the way to the airport the next day but then everything with Barry happened and it just…it just completely slipped my mind until now. God, Sophie, I’m so sorry.”

“Sorry? Why? You think I might be pregnant?”

Dave traced her breasts again, the curve of her hips. “I just noticed tonight that your body is changing. Your breasts are getting fuller. Your nipples are getting darker. Have you been feeling sick at all?”

Sophie swallowed down panic. “I have been, but it’s just because I haven’t been eating. I haven’t been feeling right since a couple weeks ago…” Her voice trailed off as the import of her words sank in. “God. Really, Dave?”

“Oh, Soph.” The way he looked at her made her heart ache. As if she could be angry with him, as if she would blame him. If she was pregnant, it was just an accident, an unfortunate twist of fate. She realized then that her situation with Barry had been the same. She had no control over what Barry had done to her that night, no more control than Dave had over a broken condom. “It wasn’t your fault,” she said, stroking his hair.

“But if I had remembered, we might have done something. You could have taken one of those morning-after pills.”

“Morning-after pills? You mean that morning I found out I lost a baby? The day after I almost died?”

“Oh, Sophie. I guess it wasn’t the best time to bring it up, but I shouldn’t have forgotten altogether. This is my fault.”

“It’s not your fault. It was an accident. I’m not upset with you.”

He sighed. “If you decide you want an abortion, I’ll live with it. I mean, I don’t want you to, but I’ll understand—”

“Dave, we’re not even sure I’m pregnant, so don’t go scheduling any abortions yet. Besides, there’s no way in hell I’d ever want to get rid of your baby. This wasn’t exactly on the schedule, but…”

Dave looked up at her, hopeful again. “God, Sophie. We could make it work, I swear. We’ll do whatever we have to. I’ll work a second job so we can get a nanny and you can stay in med school—”

“Okay—”

“We’ll figure out a way so one of us can always be home with the baby. My schedule is really flexible—”

“Okay—”

“And if we have to ask your parents for help, God. I guess we will, if we have to—”

Sophie giggled and put her hand over Dave’s mouth. “I said okay. I’m sure everything will be fine. But before you flip out any further, maybe I should actually take a pregnancy test.”

They found a twenty-four-hour pharmacy and Sophie took the test right there in the restroom, neither of them willing to wait another moment to find out. She brought the completed test out to show Dave—two pink lines, dark and solid. She smiled at him, her eyes alight. “I guess you were right.”

Dave threw his arms around her and started whooping right there in the store, bringing a look of alarm to the cashier’s face.

In the car on the way home, Sophie hugged herself, feeling emotional and excited. Another pregnancy. A new chance at life—again. It was amazing how life kept throwing her second chances. Into the woods and back out again, and again.

“What are you thinking about?” Dave reached for her hand.

Sophie squeezed it and sighed. “You know, it’s really weird. I lost a baby on the ground, in the woods on a dark winter night. And now this baby, it was conceived—”

“On the ground, in the woods on a dark winter night. I know. Believe me, I’ve been thinking about that too.”

“Do you ever think this is all just…I don’t know…fate? I mean, if I’d had that baby, Barry would have used it to keep me with him. I never would have met you. Who knows how things might have ended up. Me and the baby would probably both be dead by now.”

“I know what you mean. I think about that all the time. It’s like, life sends you on this path or that path, and you never know where you’re going to end up, or why things happened the way they did. It seems so random, and yet…when you come out on the other side…”

“Mm-hm,” Sophie agreed. “Totally random. You never know.”

“But I know this,” he said, kissing her hand. “For me now, forever, all paths lead to you. However we got here, I’m so happy with you, honey. I’m so happy with our life together.”

“Me too,” said Sophie, resting her other hand over her still-flat tummy. “God, me too.”

Epilogue

Nine Months Later

Sophie looked in the mirror to fix her lipstick, then combed back her hair, which had grown quite wild in the last year. It was amazing the changes pregnancy wrought, even now, almost two months since she’d given birth. She was finally starting to feel like herself again. And her big boobs, well…she hoped those never changed.

She heard baby Hunter start to whine in his bedside crib. Cerby thrust his big black head in the door to the bathroom and woofed softly at her.

“I hear him, Cerb. I’m coming.”

She took one last look at herself and went into the bedroom to find Cerby peering down at Hunter. She smiled at the dog as she picked the baby up.

“Where would we be without you, Cerb? How would we know when the baby needed something? Or when the baby was crying?” She was teasing the overprotective mutt, but he gazed back, smiling his happy canine smile. Cerberus was special to Sophie and Dave for many reasons, and his love for Hunter was just one more. Since the day they’d brought the baby home from the hospital, Cerby had never been more than a few feet from the newborn’s side. Every time Hunter shifted in his sleep at night, Cerby awakened and looked up attentively.
Baby okay?
Every time Hunter coughed or sneezed or made the tiniest whimper, Cerberus would nudge Dave or Sophie to be sure they knew it.
Yes, Cerb, we heard.

And when Hunter cried, which wasn’t often, Cerby would pace and worry until Dave or Sophie had the baby calmed down. It was endearing, if somewhat annoying. Sophie only hoped Cerby relaxed a little before it was time to send Hunter off to school. She smiled imagining the big dog with his nose pressed to the window of Hunter’s classroom, keeping watch all day. At least Hunter wouldn’t have to worry about bullies…

“Ready, hon?” called Dave from the living room.

“Coming.”

Sophie dressed Hunter in a soft blue velour crawler. They were taking a family photo for holiday cards and presents, and Dave had his tripod and digital camera set up and waiting.

“I hope I look okay,” Sophie fretted as she came out. Dave had snapped hundreds of photos of her during the pregnancy and after the birth, and she thought she looked like a bloated whale in all of them, although he framed them all and mounted them in every room of the house, blown up to tragic proportions.
Gorgeous
, he sighed over each one. She couldn’t nurse Hunter without Dave whipping out the camera. That, at least, she understood. She loved the photos of Hunter nursing. She felt so motherly and content when she fed him. She loved all the photos, she supposed, just because she adored her baby boy.

Hunter had been born in mid-September, seven pounds even and healthy as a horse. They had originally toyed with the idea of calling him Forest, because of the way he was conceived, but it seemed too kitschy. They settled on Hunter instead. After the birth, Sophie’s and Dave’s parents had all descended on the household. They got along well, thankfully. Sophie barely had to do anything with all the help around the house, only hold her baby and nurse him when he was hungry. All in all it had been a wonderful experience, but Sophie and Dave both breathed a sigh of relief when the parents finally left.

Now they were settling in to being their own family. Dave, Sophie, Hunter and Cerberus, of course. Sophie and Dave had even resumed their D/s playtimes after the standard six weeks of recuperation—gingerly at first, but they were definitely picking up steam. Only the nipple clamps were verboten, for fear they might interfere with her nursing. Everything else they had played around with the last week.

Dave smiled at Sophie, perhaps remembering their early morning lovemaking, stolen moments before Hunter woke. She smiled back and sat on the sofa where he pointed. She arranged little Hunter on her lap and scooted right or left based on Dave’s directions as he focused the camera. He pushed a series of buttons that set off a blinking light and then came to sit at her side. He pulled her close just as the light blinked faster. With a flash, the camera took the photo.

“Oh, Cerby wasn’t in that one,” said Sophie.

“That was just a test, babes.”

Dave stood and checked the camera, chuckling over the photo. “You have to prop Hunter up a little, he’s all slouched down.”

Sophie rearranged Hunter and Dave beckoned Cerby over to sit between their feet. When he had Cerby where he wanted him he told him to stay, and once again set the timer.

“Okay, here goes.”

Pause. Blink, blink, blink, blink.
Click.

Dave stood up again and checked the picture. “That was a good one. Let’s take a couple more, just to be sure.”

A couple more turned into twenty, and at twenty, Sophie thought Dave showed admirable restraint. After that, Dave suggested they go for a walk. It was a beautiful day for November, high sixties with a balmy wind. They put Hunter in the stroller and Cerby on a leash. At the door, Dave ran back to slip something into his pocket while Sophie made sure Hunter was bundled up tight.

“It’s so nice out, Soph. Don’t suffocate him.”

“He’s a baby. He’s not like you and me. They don’t regulate their body temperatures as accurately.”

“I’ll regulate your body temperature,” he teased, grabbing her ass. “I’ll regulate you ‘til you can’t take any more regulation.”

Sophie giggled. “Yes, I know you will.”

They walked to a small park at the edge of the neighborhood, just a cluster of trees and a gazebo next to a pond. Sophie pointed out the Japanese maples to Hunter. They were her favorite. They were vivid red, their branches still full of leaves while the sweet gums and oaks were already shedding. Dave and Sophie crunched yellow, orange and bronze leaves under their feet as they wheeled the stroller to the gazebo and hooked Cerby to a bench. Then they did what they always did in the gazebo, they kissed. And kissed and kissed. God, Sophie could kiss Dave forever and never get tired of it. Her handsome, wonderful man. To her delight, Hunter looked exactly like his father, down to his wispy head of chestnut-colored hair. And she was fairly sure his blue eyes were turning hazel. She pointed it out to Dave, asking if he thought so too. Dave gazed down at Hunter, who blinked back, already half asleep again.

“Hm. You could be right. They do look greener, don’t they?”

“It’s not really fair,” said Sophie, pretending annoyance. “Your hair color, your features and now your eyes. What about me?”

“Tell you what…” Dave kissed her again, running a hand up her leg to the apex between her thighs. “Let’s go home and start practicing for another baby. A girl this time, one who looks just like you.”

Sophie giggled into his neck, but she couldn’t help thinking of her other baby. Maybe she had been a little girl. Would she have looked like Sophie? There was no way to know now, and it didn’t matter. Sometimes life took you down a path from which you couldn’t go back. But now she had Hunter, and yes, perhaps more babies. But not anytime soon.

“Practice…sure.” Sophie smiled. “But no more pregnancy, not for a while, please.”

Dave laughed. “Deal. We’ll give you a few more weeks before I put away the condoms again.”

At her outraged expression, he dug in his pocket with a smile. “Anyway, first things first. We’ve already had one child out of wedlock.”

Sophie’s mouth fell open as he took out a box and flipped the top open. “God, I guess I’m supposed to kneel down or something, but that just feels weird.”

Sophie laughed as he fell to his knees before her. “This is a reversal for sure.”

“I’m already nervous, honey. Don’t make it worse.”

Sophie’s laughter roused Hunter from his catnap, but he drifted right back to sleep. She turned to Dave, smiling as she ran fingers down the side of his face.

“Don’t be nervous. Surely you know I’ll say yes.”

“And surely you knew all along I would ask you this.” He took her hand and squeezed it, then kissed her palm. “Sophie, will you marry me? I already feel married to you in my heart. It’s been forever for me ever since the day we met, ever since I held you in the dark that first night. Forever and ever and ever…”

His voice broke off, hoarse and emotional. Sophie bit her lip. “You’re going to make me cry.”

“Not for the first time,” he said with a crooked grin.

“And hopefully not the last. Of course I’ll marry you. I love you so much. You changed my life, Dave. You made it wonderful, and I want to be with you forever too.”

He slipped the simple, elegant solitaire onto her finger, and then Sophie pulled him up from his unfamiliar position at her feet. They stood together, two lovers in the middle of an urban forest, the trees blowing and leaves rustling in the late autumn wind. Cerby snuffled beside them as Hunter shifted in his blankets and sighed.