Chapter 31

VILLI

I siton the counter as Vera stirs homemade spaghetti sauce.

“I didn’t even know they were screwing,” I say. “That’s the crazy part.”

“Well, you said it was one time, right?”

“Yeah. But still…”

Vera looks at me. “You do know that it only takes one time to get pregnant. I mean, it’s not a promise but it’s not like the first round of unprotected sex is free.”

I smile. “Thanks for the health lesson.”

“Jerk.”

I slide off the counter. “All I know is that everything is going to change.”

“For them, yeah.”

“Well, it’s not like we’re not going to be in it too.”

“Aw, Villi, do you have a big heart now?”

“Yeah. Okay. It’s just wild. That’s all. Something about pregnancy. Makes it all so… real. I don’t know. You think about life for a second.”

Vera stops stirring the spaghetti sauce and lifts an eyebrow. “You’re starting to freak me out.”

“Me? Why?”

“I can see where this is headed.”

“What do you…”

“Villi,” she says. “We have our entire life ahead of us. Okay? I’m just getting settled where I am. You have to focus on yourself so you can get drafted. And when you do, we have to figure out what happens next. Am I going to be living here? Alone? Or am I going to be dumb and crazy and quit my job and follow you around the country?”

“You’re really committed to me.”

“Of course I am. But I am not having a baby with you. At least not right now.”

“That’s not what I was going to say.”

Vera’s cheeks flush, then turn red.

I mean, maybe that’s what I was thinking. For a second. I don’t know. It’s just… life is crazy. Mac’s old man dying. Gabriel’s old man in jail. Knox’s old man putting Gabriel’s old man away, or trying to or whatever. Everything that happened with Vera and me.

“Here’s the plan, Villi,” Vera says. “You’re going to taste this sauce. Tell me what you think. Then you’re going to pick me up and carry me over your shoulder to our bed. You’re going to tear my clothes off, have your way with me, then we’re going to eat and I’m picking the movie tonight.”

I groan. “Another chick flick I bet.”

“Definitely. This one… really good. She sells a house to a woman… and that woman’s husband is her first love. Totally messy.”

Vera lifts the wooden spoon from the pot of spaghetti sauce.

I taste it.

It’s perfect.

Everything Vera does is perfect.

It’s almost unfair.

She shuts the burner off and turns to face me.

She smiles.

Okay, fine, yeah, you know what? I kind of want to put a baby in her belly right now. I’m not sure why. I just… I love her. I love what we have.

She means that much to me.

The rest of my life… for her… with her…

I growl out loud and grab Vera and throw her over my shoulder.

By the time I get her to the bedroom, all those let’s have a baby thoughts are gone.

It’s time for me to strip Vera naked, taste her entire body, then enjoy her… and her spaghetti sauce.