The Divine Whisper (15 page)

“There was someone else!” he yelled.

“It was all very strange, and I didn’t know exactly what had happened. When the nurse fled the room in tears, I thought it was strange, but didn’t put two and two together.” She had started talking a mile a minute, obviously trying to get it all out in the open. “It wasn’t until she grabbed my arm and said something about feeling her fear of needles, and I recognized the change. She never told me who the father was, but it was then that I knew it was you.”

There were so many emotions going through him right then, he didn’t know where to focus first.
Pushing everything aside, he had to deal with the immediate threat. “Does Malachi know any of this?”

“Um… He does now.”
He noticed her voice had become somewhat shaky. “He doesn’t look too happy either.”

“Let me talk to him.”

He heard the phone shift on the other end before Malachi’s voice to his wife rang through. “Go wait for me in the living room.”

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

“Now, Trinity!”

There were no arguments after that, and he could picture her huffing away.

“Yeah.”
Malachi’s voice sounded strained, laced with scorn.

Gemariah had fucked up royally, and he knew it too.
“What do we do now?”

“There’s only one thing to do.
Whenever she leaves the house, someone has to follow her. If they see her touch anyone, they have to intervene.” He figured as much. “That person will be you the majority of the time, since you have the same ability.”

As realization sunk in, he found that the man who always fought commitment just got a whole lot more committed to a certain little woman.
Swallowing the lump in his throat that had formed at the thought, he silently nodded in agreement. After remembering that Malachi couldn’t see him, Gemariah cleared his throat to say, “Okay.”

“Oh, and G…”

“Yeah.”

“Congratulations, Dad.”

With those two words, a new fear engulfed him and threatened to take over.

CHAPTER 5

Nicole didn’t understand why he wouldn’t leave her alone.
Almost everywhere she went, she ran into him or he went with her. It had been three weeks since he found out she was pregnant, and she thought he was taking the whole role of doting father, a little too far.

Her entire body had started to ache on a regular basis, and she found that it helped to go for walks in the evening.
When she walked out her front door one evening, he was standing there waiting to go with her, just like he had again that evening. So, they walked in silence around her neighborhood.

She sighed in annoyance at the thought of never getting to be alone anymore.
Admittedly, he had gotten better, but he still said the most pigheaded things at times that made her want to smack him over the head. At least their arguments had decreased considerably over the weeks. Once they adopted the policy of, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all,” they were more often silent than not; which was why they were so quiet on their walk that night.

They had started to discuss her day at work.
When she had mentioned one of the kids that was having a hard time adjusting and was lashing out, he had tried to order her off the case. In return she had yelled something about him not being her keeper, and he responded by saying that he was just that, and more. Instead of firing back something hateful, she bit the inside of her cheek to stay silent.

It wasn’t always bad to have him around though.
The other night, she had an intense craving for strawberry ice cream, drizzled in chocolate, and spooned out with pickles. He had called her on her way out, and insisted that he would pick everything up and bring it over. His face was comical when he watched her eat, but he took it like a pro, and even offered to get her more after she was done.

Still smiling from the memory, her thoughts went to the recent doctor’s appointment that he tagged along to.
He had been so curious about all the gadgets in the room, just like a kid would have been. He tried out everything from the blood pressure cuff on the wall to clicking the lamp on and off. She had felt like a mother to an overgrown child, continually telling him to stop touching things. When he pulled the stirrups up and out from the bed, he grinned at her before saying, “Hmm, this has possibilities.” She couldn’t help but giggle and hit his hands away, before pushing them back in.

The best part of the appointment though was when they checked the baby’s heartbeat.
At first, he was nervous the device would hurt her or the baby, but once the sound came through, his smile had been devastating. When the nurse moved it to check the remaining stomach, he reached out and moved her hand back to where the heartbeat had been. The nurse and she had laughed at his enthusiasm, and in that moment her heart had thawed a little more towards him.

After taking a recording of the heartbeat, he waited patiently as the doctor finished the exam, and when they found out that at the next appointment a sonogram would be done, his excitement was almost tangible.

“Does that smile mean you forgive me?”

His comment brought her back to their walk. “No.” When his frown returned, she smiled and bumped him with her shoulder. “I was just thinking about the last doctor appointment?”

That had the desired effect, and lightened up his mood.
He chuckled, obviously remembering the appointment as well. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his phone. “Do you wanna hear it?”

Laughing at his excitement, she shook her head.
“Sure, why not?”

A moment later, the sound of rhythmic thumping came out, and an immense calm settled over her.
That was her baby. Something so small, so fragile, and the only thing protecting it was her body. How she could have ever thought to terminate the pregnancy, she didn’t know. The little person inside of her was relying on only one person right now, and that was her. Placing her hands over her rounded stomach, she vowed to not let the little person down.

The sound continued for a couple more seconds before it stopped, and they were plunged into silence once again.
Once he put his phone back into his pocket, he grasped her hand in his, and kept walking.

When she moved to pull it away, he gripped it tighter.
“So, I’m feeling a little nostalgic right now… humor me.”

Giving him the one condolence, she relaxed and held his hand as they walked.
Nostalgia or not, she had to keep her emotional distance from him. It would be just like her to get attached, only to be kicked to the curb when he lost interest. She had promised herself years ago that she was never going to fight for love and approval from someone incapable of returning it, ever again.

He must have felt her stiffen at the thought, because he let go of her hand and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
Before she could shrug him away, he pulled her flush against his side, and he said, “I’m sorry… for earlier.”

He had never apologized to her, for anything.
Therefore, the apology threw her completely off guard to where she slightly stumbled, but his hold stayed and they kept walking as if nothing had happened.

“It’s hard for me not to be protective.
The two of you… you and the baby… have wormed your way under my skin.”

“Wow, I’m not sure if I should take that as a compliment or not.”

Shaking his head, he sighed in exasperation. “You are one tough nut to crack.

She stiffened her shoulders once again, and tried to pull away.
The action made him chuckle, and pull her closer, if that was even possible.

“Relax.”

He sure liked to tell her to relax a lot.
Maybe she didn’t want to relax. Maybe she wanted the distance she obtained from people by keeping her guard up.

“You think too much.”
When she stayed silent, he continued with his apology. “I just meant that you have become important to me.”

“Why didn’t you say that to begin with?”

“Are you going to let me finish?”

She mumbled, “Sorry,” and pinched her lips shut.

“The thought of something happening to you, especially when you’re carrying my child, doesn’t sit well with me. Who’s to say that the kid you told me about won’t turn on
you
someday? Maybe I was a little forward, but I don’t like the idea of you going into situations that could be potentially harmful.”

His explanation made sense, but she couldn’t uproot her life because he didn’t feel comfortable.
She would never put her baby in a situation where it could get hurt. “I’ll take that into consideration.”

“Let me guess.
That’s your polite way of saying, ‘Fuck off’?”

She cringed at his harsh language.
“Do you always have to be so vulgar?”

“Can’t you be a little more vulgar?”
He started to laugh at her. “Come on, repeat after me... Fuuuck.”

She was not even going to pacify him with a snide remark.

When she stayed silent, he tried again. “Too much too soon? Okay, we’ll start smaller… Shit.”

Not going to happen
, she thought, but the sides of her mouth were starting to pull up into a smile.

Since one of her arms was still wedged to his side, she reached across with her other, found the general vicinity of his nipple, and twisted.
She must have hit her mark, because he jumped away from her, and started rubbing the abused area. She tried to hold it in, but her laugh was too strong to stay silent.

Smiling, he jumped in front to face her, and started to walk backwards.
“I call foul, even if I can be a son of a…” He trailed off in hopes that she would finish the sentence.

She hadn’t had this much fun in ages, and the fact that it was with him shocked her even more.
His last comment had her laughing so hard that she let out a small snort. Shocked and even a little mortified, she stopped walking and threw a hand over her mouth. Staring at him with eyes that were probably the size of silver dollars, she prayed he hadn’t heard.

“Did you just… snort?”
Obviously, luck was not on her side.

Smiling behind her hand, she vigorously shook her head in denial.

“Yes, you did.”

She smiled and started to walk again, successfully ignoring him.

Abruptly, she stopped everything, and grabbed Gemariah’s arm.
She pressed her free hand on her stomach and let out a loud gasp before he had stopped laughing.

“What?
What’s wrong?” She could tell he had gone into full protection mode from the tone in his voice.

There was no way to describe what she had felt, but it was definitely something new.
Instead of answering him, she scrunched her eyebrows down in confusion and shook her head.

“Talk, dammit!
What’s going on?”

She didn’t want to move, didn’t want to make a sound.
She just wanted to feel it again to figure out what was going on. Letting out a deep breath, she looked back up at Gemariah to explain when she felt it again.

Once again, she gasped, and squeezed his arm.

“That’s it!
We’re going to the hospital.” He grabbed her upper arm, and went to pull her forward when she stopped him.

“Wait!
It doesn’t hurt, it just feels weird.” When it happened again, she giggled. “It feels like a butterfly’s in my stomach. Like little…” She paused while remembering something the doctor had told her.

“Oh my Goodness!
Do you know what this is?”

Confusion was marked all over his face.

“I think I feel the baby moving!”
Both hands now on her belly, she felt another flutter. “Oh yeah. That’s definitely her.”

Nicole looked up and saw the uncertainty on his face as he tentatively reached out his hand.
Hoping to ease his worries, she grabbed it and brought it to her stomach. “I don’t think it’s hard enough for you to feel, but we can try.”

When it fluttered again, she quickly looked up to him.
“There! Did you feel that?” she asked excitedly.

He shook his head, but he was still grinning.
“What’s it feel like?”

“It tickles,” she said and chuckled, “but it’s kind of making me feel like I have to use the bathroom.”

Laughing at her words, he said, “It’s a good thing that we’ve made it back to your place then.”

Completely overcome with joy, she stepped up to Gemariah, wrapped her arms around him, and buried her face in his chest.

At first, he didn’t move, but it wasn’t long before he tentatively wrapped his arms around her to return the embrace.
It feels so good to be buried in a cocoon of Gemariah
, she thought. Nothing could touch her, as long as she stayed where she was.

Her thoughts quickly turned in a different direction, and she felt the
muscle definition in his back. When she identified the ripples in his abs that were under her cheek, she felt her body temperature slowly start to increase.

What was wrong with her?
After years of never wanting anything to do with men, then her botched first time experience, sexual attraction had been non-existent for her… until then. She quickly let go, and took an awkward step backwards.

As if knowing what she had been thinking, he flashed a devilish grin, but thankfully decided to keep his mouth shut and not embarrass her.

“Hey, let me take you out to celebrate this new milestone!”

It took her a second to realize he was talking about feeling the baby and not her budding attraction. Still trying to recover her equilibrium, she thought about going out for the night.
She had a long day, and plans for another long one tomorrow. It wasn’t that she
couldn’t
go out; she just didn’t feel up to it, so she let him down gently.

Instead of bowing out gracefully, he had another idea.
“Okay, I’ll just come in, and make a celebratory snack.” Without waiting for her go-ahead, he took her keys from her and walked up to the door to unlock it.

“I can unlock my own door, you know,” she said, but the smile on her face contradicted the stern tone she tried to put forth.

“I know, but it’s the gentlemanly thing to do.”

She heard a click, then he swung the door open. When he stood to the side to let her go through first, she smacked his stomach with the back of her hand as she passed. “Since when are you a gentleman?” she joked.

“I can be very gentle, if only given the chance,” she heard whispered behind her.

Something had changed between them; something that was a little exciting, but still made her nervous. Feeling her cheeks heat from his comment, she ignored him as and walked to the kitchen to sit at the table. She made a show of looking at her watch, before saying, “Didn’t you say something about a snack?”

******

With a hand covering her full mouth, Nicole mumbled, “Oh my! That was delicious.” She then frowned down at her cleared plate.