True Bliss (32 page)

“Zan's having dinner with Zach, so he won't be home until late.”

“Yeah, and we...ah, we have to get back to the farm. Feed the animals and all that,” my dad says rather quickly. I swear to God everyone around me has gone crazy. I thought it was the pregnant one who got baby brain.

“You guys are all acting really strange, but I'll go along with this harebrained plan. But you,” I point at Kate and narrow my eyes, “will have to stand up with me if I'm too big to sit down on the train, and you do not have permission to laugh at the round pregnant woman who has to be rolled down the aisle, okay?”

She sniggers and nods. “Okay. I promise not to laugh to your face.”

“Good enough.” I grin back at her.

Ten minutes later, Kate and I are standing at the platform waiting for the train to take me the three blocks to our apartment. Yes, our apartment. There is no way I'm moving back in with Kate. She's happy playing house with Zander, and Daniel and I are more than happy to stay in our apartment until after the babies arrive. Then we'll reevaluate.

Finally, our train arrives, and I waddle in like a big bellied duck, thankfully finding a bench seat to plant my ass in without any rolling required. Kate takes a seat beside me and suddenly seems really nervous.

“Hon, what's up? You've been acting weird since Daniel left. You okay? Is it Zander?” I put my hand on her lap, and she looks up at me and she looks like a kid that's been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. I see her tapping her heel nervously on the vinyl floor and she keeps crossing and uncrossing her legs.

“I'm fine, why do you ask?”

“No reason.” I shrug my shoulders. This night has just been one weird thing after another. There must be a full moon or something.

The train stops and a big group of people hop on, obviously heading out for the night.

“Any plans for tomorrow?” Kate asks me, looking very distracted.

“At this stage, I'll be sleeping in and lying on the couch. These babies don't let me get away with much anymore. I'm too big, and I'm exhausted easily. Don't get me started on the creative sex we have these days.”

“La la la, don't want to know!” Kate says, putting her fingers in her ears, which just makes me burst out laughing. She looks up and nods, then stands suddenly. “I've just got to go somewhere, quick. I'll be back.” She takes off down the train. What the fuck?

I turn back around to see Daniel standing in front of me.

“Daniel, why are you here? I thought you were helping your parents?” I ask, confused as all hell.

“I lied.” He shrugs his shoulders, offering me a bemused grin.

“You lied?”

“Yep.”

“Why?” My body tenses and I glare at him.

“There's something I need to do.”

“Something you need…what the fuck, Daniel? Everyone is acting strange as hell, and I'm so not in the mood for whatever shit is going down. I just want to go home, have a bath, and-”

I stop breathing when he bends down on one knee in front of me and takes my hand in his.

“Mac, eleven months, three days, twenty three hours and forty one minutes. That is how long you've been in my life and marks the day when you threw your phone across the train to get my attention.” I open my mouth to argue, but he gives me a stern look that says 'don't you dare'.

“As I was saying, that night I was captivated by your smart wit and that sexy smile. Since then, I've thanked God every day for letting you open your heart to me, and for making me fall in love with you.” My eyes start to fill with tears. He pauses for a second and pulls a small packet of tissues from his pocket. “I thought you might need these.”

“Superhero,” I mouth to him, earning that panty melting grin of his that makes me wet every single time he flashes it at me. By now we've got a silent crowd surrounding us, riveted at such a public display occurring on a Saturday night train ride.

“We're a family now, and we're just starting our lives together, the four of us.” He places our combined hands on my belly and wouldn't you know it, one of the little ninja babies kicks right on cue, making us both laugh quietly.

He clears his throat, and our eyes meet. I'm struck back by the emotion I see staring back at me. This man is mine, and he wants to make sure that I'm his.

“You call me your superhero. If I am, I only have superpowers because of the strength and love you give me. I will be your lover, your best friend and a super daddy to our terrible twosome.”

Happy tears are streaming down my face now. Just ask me the question, dammit!

“So eleven months, three days, twenty three hours and forty-two minutes ago I started falling in love with you and this afternoon I asked your father a question, and with his permission, I can now ask you. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife, the mother to my children, and my soul mate until we're old and grey and wrinkly in all the wrong places”

I sit there in shock, my hand enclosed in his as his other hand reaches into his shirt pocket and pulls out a turquoise Tiffany's box with the signature white silk ribbon. He opens the box to reveal the most gorgeous ring I've ever seen, and I gasp at its beauty. A huge diamond flanked by two smaller stones, a pink diamond and a sapphire. Then it dawns on me that there is one for each child.

My hand shakes in his as I struggle to keep my composure. Time stands still as he looks at me, his eyes soft and full of love.

I've never thought about this happening to me, even when I'd fallen in love with the beautiful man kneeling in front of me. This is the kind of thing that happens to other people, never me. You read about big dramatic proposals where the woman is swept off her feet, but this is more than all of those moments put together because this is happening to me, and the man that I love more than life itself is looking at me, patiently waiting for my answer. I can see the worry in his face; he's expecting a level ten Mac freak out. Well, he's about to get the surprise of his life.

I swallow down the huge lump in my throat. “Yes,” I answer, my voice quivering as another tear falls down my cheek. “Yes!” I yell, leaning forward into Daniel's waiting arms.

“Abso-fucking-lutely,” I whisper against his lips as I kiss him hard. This is not a polite, public peck. No, this moment deserves more than that. This is a full on, passionate, no holds barred kiss. I pour everything I have into this kiss, leaving him no doubt as to the certainty of my answer.

I sit back in my seat as he slips the gorgeous rock on my finger. He stands and holds out his hand for me, pulling me up and enveloping me in a huge hug. The crowd around us cheers loudly as Kate suddenly appears beside us.

“Congratulations, hon.”

“You... you…. God, you were in on this, weren't you?”

She gives me a sly smile, and I pull her into our hug.

Best birthday ever!

MAC

Holy crap, this burns.

For something that is supposed to be one of the best experiences in your life, it feels worse than the day after a hot Indian curry.

Whoever said childbirth was beautiful was obviously high on pethidine or delusional. It's sweaty and gross, and there is nothing sweet or nice about it. 

For twelve fucking hours, I've been in this hospital being monitored after my waters broke this morning. Eight hours of contractions, or 'payback' as I like to call it. I thought period cramps were bad enough. Times them by a hundred, and add sharp pains in the cervix, and you'd be close.

I look over at Daniel, and as much as I love to see the gorgeous, supportive, loving man that I've chosen to spend the rest of my life with, all I can see right now is the man who gave me twenty minutes of pleasure and inadvertently caused the last twelve hours of stabbing poker pain to my nether regions.  

I love him to the moon and back, but all I can think about right now is the fact that all he had to do was stick his cock in me. I'm the one who has to push two watermelons out a hole the size of a lemon.

After this, he'll be lucky to touch the sides of my vagina the next time we have sex. Hell, that's even if I let that lethal weapon of mass impregnation come anywhere near me again. Superheroes make twin ninja babies who love practicing judo, or yoga, or god knows what all through the night for the last three months of pregnancy.

As another contraction hits me, I grab Kate's hand and squeeze the life out of it.

Oh shit, what if I really am going to give birth to demon spawn like in the movie Aliens. Holy mother of all things holy, it feels as if they're trying to claw their way out.

I don't want to do this anymore. I change my mind; they can both stay inside me. I don't care if I end up being the size of a house; Superman will just have more of me to love. He's spent the last five months telling me he loves my belly. Well he'll just have to get used to it permanently.

It's about this time that I start crying again.

“Mac, what's wrong, gorgeous? You're doing so well, sweetheart,” Daniel says, wiping my forehead with a wet towel.

“I'm gonna give birth to a monster!” I sob.

He chuckles at me. My fiancé has the balls to laugh at me.

Hello, castration? We have another candidate.

I scowl at him. “I wouldn't laugh. The spawn of Daniel is eating your fiance from the inside out. I swear to god, they're ripping my insides apart. Is this part of the male master plan to take over the world because if it is, it all makes perfect sense now!”

I look at Kate for support, but she just smiles at me. “The babies are coming,” she whispers excitedly. It's pretty much all she's said since she arrived with Zander ten hours ago.

I should probably insert a disclaimer here. I may be delirious because I've been awake for twenty-two hours, twelve of which I've had stabbing pains from my cervix right down to my ass hole.

But since I'm between contractions, I'm now faced with the biggest concern for new mothers. The poop problem. I'm shit scared of pooping on my baby, or before the baby comes out, or even in front of Daniel-pun intended. Kate's here too, but I'm not worried about her. I've pooped in front of her before, but that's another long drunken story that we've promised never to share.

What did make me laugh was when she got all light headed when the doctor came in and did an examination of me. In her words, he “fisted the shit” out of me. She spent a good hour sitting in the corner reading a magazine about breastfeeding to try and get the imagery out of her brain.

I'm in the middle of telling her never to have sex with a man again, and that the possibility of being torn apart by not one, but two six pound babies is not worth all the mind blowing penis sex in the world, when the doctor walks in again. As much as I glare at him, hoping that my Mac death ray stare will penetrate his brain, he still smiles and nods, checks up my who-see-what's-it, and tells me I'm doing well. Well, that has been his procedure for the past eight hours anyway. This time, it's different.

“How are you doing, Mac?” he asks.

I bite my tongue, stopping from saying the first thing that comes to mind.

“Okay. It's getting worse, though.”

“I imagined it would be. I'm just going to check how far along you are and see how these babies of yours are doing. You've done so well to get to thirty five weeks, Mac.”

“Thank you,” I whimper as another contraction strikes. I start crying again, I can't help it. Damn these pregnancy hormones. I've been crying at everything for the past nine months. The Glee kids won regionals, and I burst into tears. The Bachelor chooses the right woman for once, then gets down on bended knee to propose marriage, and I leak like a water fountain. A baby turtle clambering down the beach to reach the safety of the sea, and I'm a blubbering mess. Daniel rubbing my feet after a long day at work, and I turn into a leaky sprinkler. Don't even get me started on when I started leaking milk out of my boobs two weeks ago.

“Okay, Mr. Winters,” he says, looking over at Daniel who is now lazing back in the chair beside the hospital bed like this is a Sunday joy ride. “If you could just hold Mac's hand and try to keep her calm, I'll be finished in no time.”

“At least buy me a drink first before you fist me,” I mutter, Daniel's eyes go wide as he tries not to laugh. Kate doesn't have that luxury and is rolling around, laughing her tits off at me.

Note to self: Must reconsider my choice for godmother.

After sticking his hand inside me, and moving it around like I'm a talking puppet, he removes his hand and drapes the sheet back over my naked lower half.

“You're fully dilated, Mac. It's show time. Can you feel any pressure down there?”

“I can feel fucking everything down there. Your hand, the gloves, the demon spawns called my children that are trying to climb out of me as if there's a ladder in my crotch.”

He has the audacity to chuckle. I mean, I'm a health professional. I know all there is to know about bedside manners, and laughing at a lunatic pregnant woman is NOT the thing to do. It's not cool, man. NOT. COOL.

Daniel entwines our fingers and squeezes. “Gorgeous, you can do this. I'm with you all the way. We're going to meet out son and daughter. I know you can do this because you can do anything you put your mind to. I love you. Let's meet our babies.” The smile on his face is my undoing. I wouldn't give this moment up for all the craziness in the world.