Chapter 14

* * *

COLTON

Colton staredat Eris's profile in amazement and wonder. He never imagined he could love someone as much as he did this woman, but then there was Zane now, too. If he passed on right now, he would die a happy man. The feeling of completion deep within his soul was earth-shattering – and a miracle.

Only to see her turn toward him.

"What?" she whispered softly, smiling at him more beautiful than the Mona Lisa. She was incredible – giving and loving – yet an enigma to him as well. Sometimes, he thought he knew her, knew her thoughts, yet other times, she surprised him down to his core.

"I just think you are incredible."

"Are you happy or nervous? Should I prep myself for you to get up, run, or…" her words were cut off as he pinned her, smiling tenderly at her.

"I'm not going anywhere," he promised tenderly, caressing her nose with his gently. "I kind of hope we made a tiny version of Zane, but another part of me hopes that we didn't… just so we can keep trying."

And stared at her in wonder as she laughed throatily, laying a hand on his chest, over his heart.

"Gosh, I love you…" he breathed and saw her shy smile.

"I love you, too."

"Never leave me again," he begged openly. "I can fix anything between us. Just give me a chance…"

"Colton, I'm here and not going anywhere," she interrupted, touching the side of his face. He turned into her palm, kissing it, and nodded, moving to lie down beside her once again – before pulling her close and shutting his eyes.

"I can't believe I'm going to say this – but let's get some rest," he chuckled softly. "I want to be able to shower with my gorgeous wife and do all sorts of filthy things with her."

Eris laughed gently against his shoulder where her head rested, and he felt his heart flip over in his chest as she dropped a light kiss against his skin.

"Ya just did, buddy… now go to sleep."

* * *

Wakingup the next morning with Eris was probably one of the highlights of his life so far – besides meeting Zane on that rainy night. So many moments he never expected, combined with so many feelings. Being a dad was both amazing and educating.

They had been in the middle of making love when a voice pierced his consciousness, causing his body to seize immediately as he froze in awareness.

"Hey Daddy… I hungry. Mama, you okay?"

"Oh, um, hey, Zane…"

Colton scrambled nervously and let out a loud exclamation of gratitude because they had sheets over the two of them. Their cuddling under the covers had started everything between them not too long ago.

"Zane, go potty and get in your chair," Eris said hoarsely, her face flooded with color from obvious embarrassment at them being caught. "I'll be right there."

Colton braced himself, waiting for her to get upset because he's the one that started things between them, only to see her turn to him and smile shyly.

"I'm gonna have to get up," she whispered apologetically.

"I'm gonna need a few minutes," he chuckled intimately, leaning forward to kiss her. "I love you… and I don't care if we got interrupted. Still a good morning in my book – and the boy is gonna take a nap later today."

"Yes, he will," she laughed, understanding what he was hinting at. "How about I start the coffee?"

"Have I mentioned how much I love you?" he chuckled, climbing out of bed gingerly and shutting the bedroom door where Zane left it open. He could hear his son singing a song in the distance, waiting patiently, and smiled at her.

"What?" she smiled, yanking his T-shirt over her head. "You keep looking at me and…"

"Eris, I'm just happier than I ever imagined," he admitted, walking over and kneeling beside the bed before her. "I love you… I'm in love with you, and I just love being a father more than I ever imagined. I can't imagine being any more thrilled than I am right now."

"Probably if Zane had waited another ten minutes…" she joked.

"True," he chuckled. "I'd be a little happier physically – but emotionally, this is everything."

"I love you too," she murmured, leaning forward to kiss him… and grabbing her pajama pants. "Zane first, then the shower demolition, naptime, and nookie…"

"Can I pick the order of events?"

"No."

He grinned.

* * *

Yeah,life was good, but three hours later he was of a completely different mindset. The tile was coming off in large chunks, some still attached to the backerboard. Whoever had done the work on the bathroom had used the wrong stuff, so it was turning to debris in his hands as he removed it. Zane was banging away with a rubber mallet at a spot on the wall to ‘help' – and getting upset because his spot wasn't breaking like Daddy's was.

The soap tray came off right in his hand. In fact, most of the tile surround was crumbling as he removed it, shocking both he and Eris as they shared a similar thought: this could have come down on Zane.

"I'm gutting the entire thing," he announced in frustration. "To the joists. If the tile was done wrong, what else did they do incorrectly?"

"Are you sure, Colton?"

"The sink, the medicine cabinet, and all of this isn't original to the house," he explained and looked at her. "Can you take my truck and pick out a new sink from the store?"

"How about we go together?" she countered nervously. "What if it's too big or you don't like it?"

Colton nodded, realizing she was right. If it was a smaller sink, that meant more tile on the flooring. If it was too big, it wouldn't clear the doorframe. Plus, there was a good chance he was going to need other supplies.

"You're right," he agreed. "Let's get this emptied, make a list of things, and we'll run to the store together. Zane, Daddy is going to make quite a mess in here, and it's going to be really dangerous; if you have to go potty – you'll need to go outside on the back patio."

"Outside?"

"Yeah, buddy. There's only one bathroom in this small house. So for a little bit, you can go potty outside. You can pee on the flowers."

Eris covered her mouth to muffle her laughter as Zane's entire face looked aghast with both horror and delight. It had to be a boy-thing, because he remembered going camping with his dad and doing the same thing except he'd been ordered to hit a rock or a downed tree.

"Aim for the bottom of the flowers, buddy – but you have to be quick so the neighbor doesn't see your stuff."

"My tuff?"

"Yeah, your stuff," Colton said blankly, pointing at his pants. "Your stuff you go potty with. Your boy stuff… wait. What do you call it?"

"My special thingie."

"Yeah, no," Colton blurted out quickly, glancing at Eris, who shrugged and chuckled. "You're a big boy, and when you grow up, go to school, or become a man – we all refer to it as our stuff, our junk, or use other big boy words."

"My stuff…"

"Yeah, if you go with me to work and one of the firemen is in the bathroom using a urinal too – you can't go in there announcing you are using your ‘special thingie,'" Colton said gently, trying not to laugh. Kids could be so mean, and he didn't want to get his son picked on for referring to something natural in awkward baby terms. "Well, you'll make Lance or Alec scream or run away in horror. We're men – and men call their stuff ‘junk' okay."

"Okay," Zane grinned and nodded, pointing. "Das my junk!"

"Yeah, it is," Colton chuckled and gave his son a high five. "Having ‘junk' is pretty cool… isn't it?"

"Oh, mercy," Eris muttered, laughing. "I'm going to refill my coffee while you boys admire the fact that you two have ‘junk.'"

"Don't be jealous," he called out after her. "Can I have a coffee, too, babe?"

"Don't be jealous, Mama," Zane hollered, mimicking him.

"Why don't you check to make sure your mama isn't upset because she doesn't have ‘junk' like us… okay?" Colton urged gently. "I'm going to get really loud in here and make a big ol' mess. I bet there are some raspberries in the fridge for you…"

"Ohhh! I wike raspberries, Daddy."

"I know you do, buddy. Go on, and I'll show you the mess later – okay?"

Yeah, he really loved being a father.

* * *

Hours later,after three trips to Home Depot to get different items because it seemed like home improvement projects always seemed to snowball, he was finally making some headway. The cast iron tub was at the curb, the damaged tile was bagged in construction bags and deposited in the trash bins, and the sink was right beside it.

Everything he touched seemed to be installed wrong – and he was sincerely glad this was the next project on the books. The sink didn't have an elbow catch underneath. The lighting had been secured with duct tape instead of insulated nuts. The toilet housing was rotted from age, and there was a metal strap holding the shower piping that was causing the metal to degrade. Yeah, he was glad it was being gutted, even though it was more work.

"Can I help you?" Eris asked, reappearing in the doorway for the fourth time. She was trying, but with Zane there, he really didn't want him getting cut by debris or breathing in some of this stuff. He'd finally cleaned out everything, had the new cement board up, and was getting ready to start laying the tile enclosure of the shower.

He glanced toward her – and hesitated.

"Where's Zane?"

"Asleep," she smiled softly. "It's nearly eight o'clock."

"Oh, sheesh," he apologized immediately and looked at the grout he'd just mixed. "I need to use this up, and then I'll be…"

"Colton, let me help," she offered, entering the bathroom. "Between the two of us, we can get this on the walls and grout it tomorrow. I still can't believe how much you got done today."

"I was hoping to finish today," he said grimly, looking around. "I never expected to have to replace the sink and everything else."

"I really like the idea of a tile backsplash – and it will make it easy to clean."

"It'll be slick," he warned, waving her into the bathroom with him. "That's why I went to get more river rock for the flooring. If we don't have a massive shower pan, then it can make a mess with the water."

"I like the little pebbles," she volunteered. "They are just enough texture to keep you from slipping and not really ‘river rock' but more like a river bed. Show me what to do."

"I'll tell you what," he offered, feeling his back twinge. "If you can butter the tiles, I'll place them, and it will go quickly."

As they worked together, he realized just how nice it was to have her presence here. They were making their ‘nest' together into something they loved, and it gave him a strange sense of contentment that he'd not experienced yet working on the other things around the house.

"How was Zane today?" he asked idly. "Was he mad he had to stay out of the bathroom?"

"He was fine," she volunteered and then chuckled, making him look over as she handed him another twelve-inch tile. "The first time he went to go potty on the flowerbeds, a cricket jumped up, and he laughed so hard."

"Poor cricket…"

"You have no idea," she smiled, handing him another tile. "He chased the cricket down into the grass and would have dehydrated himself if he could have…"

"Boys are like that. I used to shove sticks in fire ant mounds."

"Why?"

"Why do boys do anything?" he chuckled, reaching for another tile and placing it carefully with a spacer for the grout. "We simply do it because we can, and we want to see what happens next."

"What does happen next?"

There was something in Eris's voice that made him pause as he turned to look at her. She looked insecure and unsure, and he nodded. His girl needed to be comforted and she was talking to him, telling him.

"We keep going, always moving forward," he said softly. "We finish the bathroom first. We choose to live each day to the fullest. We'll laugh together, make babies together, and spend each moment knowing that my partner is beside me."

"No regrets?" she whispered. "I mean, what if I got pregnant again quickly… like with Zane?"

"Then we'll get to experience it all together," he said softly. "I have no regrets, do you?"

"No," she admitted, giving him a nervous smile. "I just wanted to make sure, you know?"

"You worry…"

"I do," she confessed. "Things seem so perfect, and I keep waiting for…"

"Stop," he interrupted tenderly, meeting her eyes. "Stop waiting for there to be a problem, and just let me love you, love our family. Zane is incredible, and I want to experience the entire thing with you this time. So, yeah - I want a baby. I want one with every fiber of my being, but if it doesn't happen – then that's okay, too."

"You're sure?"

"I'm positive," he promised, leaning forward to kiss her and feeling the stirrings of desire pool within him. He broke the kiss slightly and got goose bumps at the catch in her breath as she gazed at him. "Let's finish the tiles and climb into bed."

"That sounds so good."

"I'm not sure how rambunctious I'm gonna be…"

"How about we just lie there, hold each other, and…"

"How about ‘no,'" he blurted out, chuckling. "My goodness, if I get a chance to make love to you – I am NOT passing it up. Uh, hello? My leg could fall off and I would still manage to make things work, okay?"

Her throaty laugh sent an electric jolt racing up his spine, and those tiles were laid in record time.