I Made You My First (29 page)

“Something
my mom said tonight.”

“Can you tell me?” I asked, rubbing the middle of his bare chest with my finger.
 

“She said I had to stop putting you in the backseat of our relationship and let you sit up front with me.”
  My eyebrows pressed together as I repeated the words to myself. “I think she was saying that I need to step back and let you stand up for yourself?”

We both lay there in the dark and thought about what he’d just said.
  Only minutes passed and Irish squeezed me again.  “Why, after how I acted at dinner tonight, did you offer to do what you did downstairs?” and I smiled knowing that he had been thinking about
that
.  He didn’t move; he just waited for my response.

“What happened at dinner had nothing to do with what happened downstairs. When I heard you singing tonight, it really touched me.  You’re really good by the way
,” and I rubbed his chest again.  “If you don’t mind, I think I’d like to be your number one groupie, or at least the president of your fan club.”

“Paul was rudely staring at me throughout dinner, but your mom’s right.  I should’ve said something to him, not you.  I’m as much to blame here as you are because I actually like your
 protectiveness.  Maybe I’ve let myself depend on it.  I guess it makes me feel really safe,” and I felt another squeeze from him.

“I want you to feel safe with me, Jurnee,” he said serious
ly. 

“I know you do, Irish, but he was only staring; that’s not really
threatening and I rolled away from him onto my side, pulling his arm with me.

He scooted up behind me and got comfortable.  “Well I absolutely want you to...” and I felt him take a deep breath. 

I waited a few moments and then asked, “Want me to do what?” and I froze, waiting for his answer.

“I want you to be my number one groupie,” he chuckled.

I closed my eyes and squeezed his arm.  Five o’clock would be here soon, so we both drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Irish protectively watched the truck driver load his car on the trailer, and then he loaded our suitcases and boxes into the back of the truck.  I sat on the sofa with my coffee, trying to wake up.  With my eyes closed clutching my cup as if it was going to get away from me, I heard a phone beep.  I opened my eyes to see it was Irish’s cell on the table in front of me.

Maybe it’s his dad
, I thought.  I reached for it and looked at the name on the screen.  It was Paris.  I set it back down on the table.
I’m not sure I’m ready for that
, I thought. 

At that moment Irish came through the front door.  “They’re on their way,” he said, giving me his wonderful Irish smile.  “Do you want anything to eat before I empty the refrigerator?” and I shook my head no.  “It’s going to be a long
 stretch before we get there, but if you’re sure that you can wait, we can eat in San Francisco,” he said disappearing into the kitchen.

“Did you rent a car?” I said loudly. 

Irish appeared holding a plastic bag of food in his hand, “No the limo’s going to drop us off at our new house,” he said, smiling at the reference to
our house
. 

“So we won’t have a car until the Mustang arrives then, right?”

“Oh we’ll have wheels; don’t worry,” and he went back to unloading the refrigerator.  I scrunched up my face, wondering what that meant, as I stood up to help him. 

M
emphis arrived at nine am on the dot, and we were soon on our way to the airport.  In the limousine on our way to the house, Irish took my hand and pulled it to his face.  I gave him a suspicious little smile and waited to hear what he was about to say.

“I never did get you anything for your birthday, and after beating myself up over what to get you, I finally came up with the perfect gift.”  I looked at him. 

He made me curious.  “So, what did you decide on?” and I watched his face, waiting for him to let me in on the secret.

“You’ll see when we get to the house,” and he grinned like a Cheshire cat.
 

“Really, you’re not going to tell me?” and I smacked his knee with my hand. When we pulled up to the driveway of the house, I had to squint to see through the tinted windows at what was sitting in our driveway, a car, with something red on top.  Finally it clicked and
 my head whipped around to Irish.  He had the most satisfying grin on his face.  I turned back to the driveway. 
Thank God I hadn’t asked
him for an elephant
, I thought smiling.  We both hopped out of the limo to look at my new car.

Irish had to be at work first thing in the morning, so we plowed through the afternoon trying to get everything hooked up or put together as it was delivered.  We stopped to open the gift from his mother.  It was a large glass globe, almost the size of a basketball, with a man and a woman walking hand in hand along a sandy beach.  The inscription on the base read:
“Walk together into the future side by side.”
  We knew his mom and dad wanted us to be happy and this globe symbolized our equal partnership.  

He finally ordered a pizza and when it arrived, we sat down to eat.
  Looking around the house we both smiled at the progress we’d made and at the gift from his mom.
It was
beginning to look like a real home,
I thought.  As we stuffed our mouths with the first meal eaten all day, Irish’s phone beeped with a text.

Picking up his phone and looking at me, he said, “It’s from Paris,” and punched in his code.  I looked back at my pizza
, remembering that she’d tried to call him earlier today.  When it seemed that he’d been on the line forever, I looked to see him repeatedly roll his eyes while still reading what had to be several messages.  As he set it down on our new coffee table, it chirped. 

Irish bent down and answered it.  “Hello, Paris,” he said, looking at the floor. “Yes, I got your three text messages and
your voice mails, but I haven’t had a chance to talk to Jurnee yet.  I will say now that I doubt we’re going to be able to do that Paris, but I appreciate your thinking of us first” and his eyes flashed to mine. 

My curiosity was aroused. 
What would she possibly want him to talk to me about?

After a minute of silence he said, “Okay, I love you too,” setting his phone on the table.  He leaned back and crossed his arms behind his head and looked at the ceiling. 

“She and Paul want to move in with us and you had to get my permission first?”  I said teasingly.  He didn’t look at me or smile. 

Just then we saw our moving truck pull up front and Irish jumped up.  “If you want to read the messages she sent, go ahead,” he said, looking down at his phone, “Then we can talk about
 NOT doing it after I finish with the driver.”  He gave me a pathetic excuse for a smile and headed out the front door.

I wiped my hands on my napkin and picked up his phone. 

First message
:
Irish, I guess I messed up on my dates but the doctor says I’m four and a half months.  I can’t take care of a baby, so I thought maybe since you and Jurnee are settled and content, you could take it and raise it as your own.” 

Second message
:
Mom didn’t think it was a good idea but I told her that I was going to ask anyway.  I’ve been clean since I found out I was pregnant and the doctor says that if I eat right everything should be fine.

Third message
:
I’m going to stay here with mom and dad until the baby’s born so I won’t be tempted to do anything stupid.  Please talk to Jurnee and let me know your decision. 

My mouth hung open, but I couldn’t guess what the look on my face resembled. She talked about her child like it was a puppy she was
 trying to find a good home for. 
Oh hell,
I thought.  No wonder Irish had acted the way he did during her call.  I sat back on the sofa and picked up my slice of pizza. 

I looked up to see Irish holding the front door open for one of the movers.  “Love, do you want these to go in the empty room or out here in the living room?” and his question had caught me in the middle of a bite of pizza.  I waved my hand toward the back, and Irish, smiling at me
and watching me chewing a mouthful, showed the man to the empty room.

That must have been a pretty picture, Jurnee
, I thought.  I jumped up and held the door so Irish could help the two men finish and get on their way.  When the car was safely in the driveway and all the boxes had been moved, we sat down to relax and unwind from our long day of labor.  It was dark outside and our beautiful view of the water was obscured by nightfall.

“I really need to find the sheets I washed for the bed,” and leaned forward to go find them.  Irish leaned forward too but gently pushed me back on the sofa.

“I’ll help you in a minute.  Did you listen to the messages?” and I could tell this had been on his mind, maybe the whole time he was moving boxes.

“Yes.  I honestly don’t know what to think about it Irish.  What are you thinking?” and I was apprehensive, trying to read his face.

“I think that my sister is trying to get herself out of another jam, and I doubt that she’s thinking about what she’s asking in terms of the future.  I think she feels that this would clean things up all neat and tidy for her, but she isn’t looking ahead ten or fifteen years.”   I waited for him to finish and could tell he’d done some deliberating.  “I know we’re both relieved about the bullet we’d just dodged, but I also know we’d have handled it responsibly if things had worked out differently.  Paris is just thinking about Paris, but I do feel sorry for her child.”  

I could feel my eyebrows creep together and I bit my bottom lip, holding it between my teeth.  I looked at him trying to figure out his thoughts before I made a comment.

“She said it was a girl, by the way, when she called.”

“Do you think we’re in a position to adopt and raise her child?  Is that something you think we can handle right now?”  I was staring at his face and holding my breath, waiting for his response.

“I don’t know, Jurnee, that’s why I’m discussing it with you.  I know I couldn’t and wouldn’t attempt it by myself because I’d be working.  I‘d be putting most of the responsibility on you.” 

I took a deep breath and let myself fall back in my seat.  When I looked at Irish, he had a calm look on his face. 

He sat there waiting for me to say something.

“What if we did this and a year from now Paris decided she’d changed her mind?”

He answered way too quickly.  “I’ll call my mom and have her talk to Paris.  We’ll have the papers all written legally so that would never be an issue; she’d be our child, Jurnee,” and he leaned over and reached for my hand.  Pulling it up to his mouth, he gently kissed it. 

I watched him now, trying to picture him as a dad.  He’d turned out to be an amazing husband, so being a dad might be easy for him too. 

I lifted myself up and gently pulled my hand from him so that I could stand.  His eyes followed me and watched as I left the room.  He was behind me in seconds, following me to the spare room filled with boxes.  I walked in as far as I was able and turned toward him standing in the doorway.  “So, pink or yellow for the walls?” and I smiled at him, throwing my arms to my sides.  He lifted me up holding my body off the ground. 

That night, lying in our new bed in our new room, my mind wouldn’t stop racing.  Irish had already fallen asleep and
 had his arm hanging over my waist.  I could feel his warm breath on my neck as I lay there thinking about my life.  I’d never thought of myself as a 
lucky
person; exceptionally good things never happened to me.  I was, however, grateful for the good things I found myself lucky enough to have.  In less than a month I had a wonderful new husband and confidant, a new house, and a new car in a new city.  In less than five months we were going to be a brand new family.  Right now, in this moment, although I felt I’d lost some in my twenty-five years, I also felt as though I’d just won the lottery.

Chapter Fourteen

Jewel Marie Thompson
was the name Irish and I had chosen.  November was here before we knew it and we had comfortably settled into our life in San Francisco.  We both loved being married.  Every day I found myself falling more in love with him and feeling so ridiculously excited when I knew he was on his way home from work. Without him I felt like a plane with no wings. He still looked at me like I was the most beautiful woman in the world.  Thompson Construction Company was back on track and the stolen material incidents stopped when Irish let Jorga go.  He feared some kind of retaliation but things were quiet when she left and went to work in her parents’ restaurant.

The address she’d written on the paper given to Irish was actually her parents’ business and not her home as I had first thought.  Irish was on edge about things for the first week of her leaving but relaxed when nothing out of the ordinary happened.
 I’d finally familiarized myself with our surroundings and enjoyed staying at home, preparing for our new baby.  I spoke to Mary almost every day and of course because Paris was there, I usually spoke to her as well.  The baby was due November 19th and for Paris, the delivery date couldn’t come soon enough.