New Beginnings (19 page)

Stopping before me, he reached out and grabbed my shoulders roughly. He spun me around so I was now facing the huge mirror that hung over the double sinks. Hooking his fingers into the edge of my boyshorts, he slowly dragged them down my legs, nipping me playfully on the behind.

Straightening up behind me, he ran his hands down my arms until he had my hands gripped tightly in his. Wrapping my fingers around the edge of the counter, he stared at me intently in the mirror. As he gripped my hips hard, he roughly pulled me back into him. “Hold on tight, sweetness. You’re in for a wild ride,” he said, positioning behind me. So much for blue ball hell.

Xavier sighed. “Are you all right?” he asked softly. We were a naked tangled mess on top of the bed.

“Mmm hmm,” I mumbled lazily.

Leaning over, he kissed my shoulder. “I was too rough with you,” he said softly.

“Uh uh,” I grunted. “No way.”

He chuckled, squeezing me to him. “I can’t believe my sassy girl is a woman a few words right now.”

“X? Ella?” Gabriel hollered from downstairs before I could say anything.

Xavier nuzzled my neck before he started to extricate himself. “Go ahead and jump in the shower while I run downstairs.” He gently pushed me toward the edge of the bed.

“Okay,” I grumbled. He spanked me playfully on my bare bottom. “Ow!” I shot him an evil look.

“Stop grumbling and get a move on, woman.”

I spun around in the doorway of the bathroom ready to say something sarcastic, but was stunned speechless by his beautiful naked form lying on the bed. He had rolled onto his stomach and was facing me. His chin resting in the palms of his hands made his biceps bulge in a delicious way while the perfect, rounded curves of his behind were clearly on display. Left speechless by the sight, I closed my mouth, turned around, and headed into the bathroom.

Minutes later, I was standing under the warm water of the shower trying to get myself motivated. I was exhausted. Reaching out, I placed both palms on the tile wall and hung my head while the water beat down on me. The shower door opened letting a gust of cold air in that swirled around my body making me shiver.

“Are you sure you’re all right, baby?” Xavier asked. Gently, he peeled me off the wall and turned me around to face him.

“I’m fine. Just tired. Actually, I’m tired of being tired.” I huffed a breath out. “If some of my energy doesn’t return and soon, I’m not going to survive the next several months,” I complained.

He chuckled. “The baby is wearing you out already? Here, let me.” He grabbed my shampoo and started washing my hair before he moved on to wash my body. “We need to hurry. Gabe has threatened to come up here and dress us personally if we don’t hurry up.”

When we finally made it downstairs, Gabriel and Tiffany were sitting on the couch in the living room.

“Ella. How are you?” Gabriel asked as he kissed me on the cheek and gave me a quick hug.

“I’m good, thank you. And you?”

“I’m good, thanks. It’s nice to see you again. I hope you don’t mind Tiffany and I barging in like this on your weekend.”

“Not at all. It’s your place after all, Gabriel. Thanks for letting us stay.” I smiled at him.

Tiffany stepped over and hugged me. “Hello, Ella. So good to see you again.”

“Thank you, Tiffany. Good to see you too.”

Gabriel slapped Xavier on the back. “So X, have the two of you made it out of this house at all so far this weekend?”

I snorted as Xavier rolled his eyes dramatically. “Yes, Gabe. We’ve made it out of the house. Are you done? We have something we want to share with you two before we head out.”

Xavier looked over at me and I nodded at him. It was his brother. It seemed only right that the news should come from him. I noticed Gabriel looking curiously between the two of us during our little exchange.

Xavier cleared his throat. “Ella is pregnant.”

“Holy shit!” Gabriel happily shouted. He turned and scooped me up into a big hug. “Congratulations!” he exclaimed as he spun me around. He set me down and immediately gathered Xavier into a big hug. “I can’t believe I’m going to be an uncle.”

Tiffany hugged us both and gave us her congratulations. “When is the baby due?” she asked me.

“July 27th.”

“That’s so exciting,” she said.

“Gabe, don’t make any plans for New Year’s Eve. Ella and I are making plans for a small wedding and I’m going to need my best man,” Xavier said. His voice was thick with emotion.

“I wouldn’t miss it for anything, X.” Even Gabriel sounded a bit choked up. They gave each other a meaningful glance, and I couldn’t help but wonder if they were both thinking of their parents.

“Okay, hungry pregnant lady here,” I said teasingly in an attempt to lighten the mood. Thankfully, it worked. We all piled into Gabriel’s Range Rover, and made our way to the Leavenworth Golf Course to dine at the restaurant on the property.

The Wild Huckleberry was located on the second hole of the golf course. It wasn’t a large place with mostly only tables set for four. Many of the tables were already occupied by families, which just added to the homey feel of the place. Large, square windows allowed plenty of views of the beautiful, but now snow-covered golf course.

I stunned everyone by ordering the traditional eggs benedict with hash browns, sliced fruit, and a short order of the cinnamon french toast. I think they were even more amazed with the fact that I ate it all without a problem.

Feeling guilty for having eaten so much for breakfast, I didn’t argue when Gabriel and Tiffany wanted to walk around the main drag of Leavenworth before heading back to the house. Xavier tried to argue against going, but I promised him that I was feeling good and I would take a nap in the afternoon before heading back out this evening.

Gabriel parked the Range Rover and we made our way to the shops along Front Street. Xavier wrapped his arm around me and held me close as we walked down the street. It was cold and breezy. Small bits of snow started to swirl around making the Bavarian town look like a scene from a Christmas card. The spectacular Cascade Mountains in the background just added to the breathtaking scene. It was both beautiful and magical.

Since it was a Saturday afternoon, the town was buzzing with people and activities. There was a live band playing at the gazebo, and despite the fact that it was cold and snowing there were several people dancing. The little children were once again enjoying tubing down the hill next to the gazebo. Their exuberant laughter was mixing with the sounds of the carolers that were walking around. The smell of roasting chestnuts hung in the cold, snowy air.

We hit several of the shops, which included a bookstore, clothing stores, a hat store, nuts and specialties shop, a music box store, and finally we roamed through an art gallery. When I couldn’t keep the yawning at bay any longer, Xavier insisted we head back to the house. I was too tired to argue with him.

Later that afternoon, Xavier had the sleigh return and the four of us rode back into the Bavarian town for the lighting ceremony. The street and sidewalk were packed with people. The ceremony started with a parade of people carrying three-inch stars as Christmas carols were sung. Then with the entire crowd counting down, the lights for all the buildings were turned on.

I glanced up at Xavier and he had an ear-to-ear grin on that I couldn’t help but mirror. He moved me to stand in front of him as he wrapped his arms around my waist. “I can’t wait to come back here as a family,” he whispered in my ear. His cold nose pressed into my face as he kissed me on the cheek.

We all opted to head to the local food market to get something to cook for dinner instead of eating out. Given that it was a Saturday night, the town was overflowing with people and most of the restaurants were already crowded.

As soon as we got back to the house, I got started in the kitchen making garlic panko chicken. Xavier helped by chopping up the garlic. I sautéed the garlic in butter before dipping the chicken cutlets in it and then running them through panko bread crumbs with Italian seasoning and some parmesan cheese. Gabriel sliced up a loaf of Italian bread to make garlic bread in the double oven while I worked on sautéing some green beans with the remaining chopped garlic.

“Ella, that smells fantastic,” Gabriel said, as he cracked open the oven door. “Damn X, you are one lucky man.” I flushed beat red at his compliment.

While Gabriel opened a bottle of wine, Xavier went to plug his iPod into the stereo system. He seemed to have chosen a playlist that was nothing but love songs. I gave him a pointed look when he came back into the kitchen. Shrugging his shoulders, he gave me a sheepish grin. “It’s my Ella playlist,” he proudly stated. I blew him a kiss and gave him a wink.

“What?” Gabriel shouted. “You have a playlist for your girlfriend?” He shook his head. “Dude, you’ve got it real bad.”

“No, Gabe. I’ve got it real good, and it’s a playlist for my fiancé,” Xavier said. He walked up behind me while I was at the stove and snaked his arms around me.

Xavier’s playlist for me was filled with an eclectic mix. You’re My Best Friend by Queen made me chuckle. In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel was up next followed by The Way You Look Tonight by Frank Sinatra. But when Ambrosia’s Biggest Part of Me started playing, Xavier came into the kitchen, removed the pan with the green beans from the heat, pulled me close to him, and started to dance around the kitchen while he hummed the song into my ear.

By the time the song was over, happy tears were streaming down my cheeks. These pregnancy hormones were turning me into a total sap. He placed his hands on the sides of my face and wiped my tears away before he dipped me while kissing me. Gabriel started hooting and telling us to get a room.

When we sat down for dinner, Xavier placed a wine glass in front of me. I frowned at him. What the hell was he doing?

He turned the bottle around to show me. It was Welch’s sparkling red grape juice. “I didn’t want you to feel left out, sweetness. I’ll be drinking it with you.” He winked at me.

Gabriel started teasing Xavier when Tiffany slapped him in the back of his head. The move made me laugh, which thankfully kept me from crying more happy tears.

All through dinner, Gabriel kept praising my cooking. I actually enjoyed being able to cook for everyone tonight. It’s not something I get to do very often with Bev around.

Following dinner, Tiffany told me to sit and relax while she and Gabriel cleaned up dinner. Xavier led me into the living room where he proceeded to start a fire. He changed the music to a Christmas playlist. We sat snuggled up together on the couch waiting for Gabriel and Tiffany to join us.

Once they did, the boys started telling Christmas stories from when they were little.

“Hey Gabe, remember how Mom used to always make us wait upstairs on Christmas morning while she went downstairs to make sure Santa didn’t fall asleep in the chair?”

Gabe smirked. “Yeah, we later found out she did that because she wanted to make sure she didn’t leave anything behind like a roll of wrapping paper while she was playing Santa the night before.” They both laughed. “Yeah, you killed the whole Santa thing for me, X.”

“How did he do that?” I asked Gabriel.

“He was snooping around one year and found Mom’s stash for us,” Gabriel said.

“Yup. I went to confront Mom and she confessed. My Santa bubble was burst. Mom begged me not to tell Gabe, but I just couldn’t resist. So, I popped his little Santa bubble too,” Xavier said, sounding proud.

“Xavier, that was mean.” I playfully slapped him on the shoulder.

“When did you find out there was no Santa, Ella?” Tiffany asked.

“Well, I didn’t have a sibling to burst my Santa bubble. It was classmates. They would argue with me that there was no Santa when I would insist that there was. When I came home in tears from school for the third day in a row, my mother sat me down and told me. I was crushed. What about you, Tiffany?”

“Like Gabe, my older sister burst my Santa bubble. I was crushed, too.”

We all sat quietly for a minute staring into the fire.

“So, what are two hoping for? A boy or a girl?” Tiffany asked.