Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

Tannen

I wake up to find the warm body of my lady draped over me. I let her sleep last night because I could tell how tired she was after the world exploded around us and we came back together. Another thing that made me settle down was seeing my cum dripping out of her swollen little pussy.

I’m about to wake her up the same way I did yesterday morning when her eyes come open and we stare at one another. I roll us so she’s under me. There’s so much sadness in her eyes and it breaks my heart, kicks my soul. Is she regretting what we did?

“What’s going on, Peach? What’s wrong?”

I’ll fix it whatever it is. But before I can get it out of her the moms are knocking at the door. She closes her eyes and shakes her head. I’m not getting anything out of her now but I will before we lay back down for the night. I’ll find out and I’ll fix it…or I’ll handcuff her to the fucking bed so I can figure it out.

We take our turn in the bath and come down the stairs together to find our moms smiling and excited with the tree lit behind them. “Merry Christmas!”

My mom comes over to pull me away while Marley goes over to her mom and sits down heavily on the couch. She’s sad -more than sad- she’s heartbroken and I need to figure out why. Even though my mom is talking, all my attention is on Marley so I hear when her mom asks her what is wrong.

“Are you alright, sweetie? You don’t look yourself.”

For just a moment she looks like she’s about to burst into tears but takes a deep breath before…lying her ass off to her mom.

“I’m fine, mom. Just feeling a little run down and sick. I think I might have caught something or whatever. I just don’t feel well.”

Now that last part was the truth.

Ruby leans over to put her hand on Marley’s, “Is it morning sickness?”

“Is what morning sickness?”

Oh, now my mom is all ears and totally present for the conversation.

“Marley says she isn’t feeling well, Kate?”

“Why didn’t you say something when we woke up, Peach.”

“IS it morning sickness?” My mom asks with hope in her eyes…I think her fingers might even be crossed.

“It’s not morning sickness, guys. There hasn’t been enough time….” I say it as an aside not really paying attention to anyone but Marely.

“Tannen!” Marely is off the couch in the blink of an eye, looking like she might faint at any second.

Our moms squeal and run to hug one another.

“What have you done?”

“You better show her what Santa brought for her last night, son!”

“That can wait, mom. If Marley doesn’t feel good she needs to see a doctor first thing.”

“How…why would you...? How could you say anything to them about what we did? And…” She loses focus and starts looking around wildly while both her hands go to her belly. I can almost hear what is going through her head. “We didn’t…what am I supposed to do? What if…?”

She’s about to run. I reach for her wrist and ask, “Is your tummy hurting?”

“What? No.”

“Alright then.” I bend and scoop her up over my shoulder before she can say another word. “Mom, Ruby, we’ll be back. We have some things we need to talk about first.”

I head back upstairs as Marley sputters and cusses behind me. Once I have her back in the room, I toss her on our bed and go back over to shut the door.

“Spill it, Peach! What’s going through that beautiful brain of yours?”

She’s mad one minute then sad then back to mad. Her emotions are right out there for me to see written on her face. She’s settled on mad for now which is fine by me. I would rather her be mad any day than as sad as I saw her when she first woke up.

“Why did you tell the moms we slept together?”

“I figured they would find out soon enough.”

“What?”

“Well, eventually even if we tried to hide it, they’re going to realize something is up when you have my baby.” Her mouth falls open and not another word comes from her. I kind of like leaving Marley speechless. “I would imagine you would want your mom there when we have the baby. And they might get tipped off when your belly is round and swollen and I won’t keep my hands off it. Or when you have a new last name or don’t come home because you are at our house. Or if you don’t want to move out, your mom is definitely going to find out when you have a big six-foot-four man in your bed every night -although if you don’t want to move out I do have a request that we move this bed to your room because I’ve seen your bed, baby. There is no way my feet aren’t going to be hanging off that thing.”

“What?” She slides down to sit on the bed again having jumped up off it when she chose to be mad at me.

I take out a wrapped gift and hand it to her. At first, all she does is look at it. I push it at her and tell her what to do.

“Take it and open it.”

She takes the box with shaky hands and opens it only to stare at the ring box inside. When she tilts the box so the ring box falls into her palm, she finally looks up at me.

“What…what is this?”

“Open it,” I repeat the request that isn’t so much a request as a solid order. The only time I will ever order my Marley around -except when it's for her safety of course.

She does as I tell her and we both stare down at the warm peach stone set with little white diamonds surrounding it in the baguette shape according to my mom.

“It’s beautiful.”

“It was my grandmother’s. Apparently one of her favorite things in the world was peaches. I thought it is fitting given my nickname for you.” And how my grandfather found a peach-colored diamond is beyond me but glad he did!

I take the ring box and pull the ring out while taking her left hand in my other. I slip the ring on her finger and a part of me just settles. Yeah, this is right. I can feel it. And so can see.

“So…will you?”

“Will I?”

Her eyes are still on the ring but come to mine when I ask her the question.

“Will you marry me, Marley?”

“What?! You…you want to marry me? Why?”

“Because I’ve been in love with you before I even understood what that word meant. Because the thought of you with someone else makes me want to set the world on fire. Because I need you and after having you in my bed, in my arms, I can’t let you go. It would kill me to have to give you up. You might not love me yet, but I’ll do anything in the world to make you fall for me as hard as I’ve fallen for you, baby.”

My heart is up in my throat, and I can hear the fucking clock downstairs ticking as I wait for her to say…something. Logically I understand it’s my fucking heart beating so loud I can hear it in my ears but it sounds like a fucking clock when you’re as nervous as I am right now waiting for Marley. Waiting for my next breath of air, my world to start turning. I will always wait on Marley.