Wow!  If I had to sum up this entire day with just one word, it would be overwhelming to say the least.  I had so many plans for us before we attempted to further grow our family, mainly marriage which was quickly becoming a reality.  I couldn’t figure out what should come first at this point.  It was a chicken versus the egg kind of scenario.  I had called my parents and told them to keep Aiden for the next day but that I’d be over to check up on him for tonight’s bedtime.  After making sure that Amelia would be fine for the next hour or so, I took off for my parents.  I had promised her that I wouldn’t say anything to either of my parents until she was with me.  I could tell that she was still worried that something would go wrong; frankly, so was I.

Aiden refused to go to bed for me until he saw Amelia.  After half an hour of fighting him on it, I realized that it was useless.  Telling my parents that I’d be back, I carried him over to Amelia’s house and brought him upstairs to our room.

“Someone refused to go to sleep without being able to say goodnight to you first.”  I looked at Amelia as she smiled.

“Amelia?”  Aiden slowly turned to look at her, looking like he was unsure what to expect.  “Put me down Daddy!”  He yelled as he saw Amelia smiling at him.  He jumped onto the bed and rushed to Amelia the minute I dropped him.  “Amelia, are you all better now?”  He asked and I smiled at the sweet moment unfolding before me.

“I am.  The doctors fixed me all up and I’m all good now.  Better than good.  I’m great!”  She tells him, kissing his head, hugging him to her.  “I’m sorry I scared you, Sweetie.”

“It’s okay.  Daddy stopped me but I was going to go get Nana and Poppy to help.”  He explained to us.

“You did good, little man.”  I told him.  “Exactly what I told you to do if someone needed help.”

“You were excellent.”  Amelia added.  “My hero.”  Aiden looked at her and smiled.

“I think it’s time to head to bed now, buddy.”  I tell my son.  “Give Amelia one last squeeze and let’s go back to Nana’s and Poppy’s.  I’ll bring you back for a visit tomorrow.”

When I got back, I found Amelia standing in front of her full-length mirror, sticking her belly out, running her hands over it.  She hadn’t realized that I was watching her.

“Have I told you that you look beautiful?”  I ask her, after she had let out a large breath and made her jump slightly.

“No, you haven’t.”  She tells me.  “But will you think of me that way when my belly is out to here?”  She adds as she stretches her arms out in front of her showing how large she dreaded being.

“Sweetie, you’re carrying our child.”  I tell her as I walk up from my spot, by the bedroom entrance, to hold her.  “That makes you the sexiest woman in the world to me.”  That’s all she needed.  I tightened my hold on her and waited until she let the breath she had held in, go.  When she finally let it all out, I lay her down gently and made my way to the other side, getting in after I had stripped myself down.  I lay beside her, her face above mine as I interlaced the fingers of our free hands over her belly.

It had been a quiet night.  We had spent most of it, talking with me rubbing her stomach.  Knowing she was pregnant only made her more beautiful in my eyes.  I knew that I’d most likely be the one driving her insane with my incessant hugging, kissing and weighing on her every chance I could.  One of my reasons being was to try and make up for all the times I hadn’t been there with my son.  It tore me to shreds the day I found out I had a son.  I had lost the first two years of his life and was never there for his mother.  Maybe things would have been different and she’d at least still be around for him.  I didn’t have the first clue on what to expect with this whole pregnancy.  Beyond the stereotypical stuff like cravings, swollen ankles and raging hormones, I couldn’t fathom what else I might have been missing.  I made a point to go out and locate a book or two in the next few days.  Maybe I’d pick up a few on newborns as well since the only thing I knew was toddler and up.  Freaking myself out, I think Amelia began to pick up on it and began to rub her arm on my back as my head was lying on her chest and my arms wrapped around her waist.

“Where’d you go, just now?”  She asked softly.

“Hmm?”  I found myself saying.

“My have the tables turned.”  She chuckled and I lifted my head to look at her face.  “I said where’d you go, just now?  You’re mind seemed like it was off somewhere.  Did you want to talk about it?”

“I was thinking about how excited I am about this, for us.”  I say as I rubbed her stomach again.  “You really scared me today.”

“I know.  I got scared too.”  She tells me, rolling me on my back so she could cuddle into me.  “Chris?”

“Hmm?”  I say and feel her aim her face to the side of my jaw.

“You’re doing it again!”  She exclaimed and poked me as I flinch from her finger.

“I’m overwhelmed, I guess.”  I tell her.

“Anything I can do to ease that overactive brain of yours?”  She said as she straddled my waist, looking down at me with a teasing smirk.  She scolded me for thinking dirty thoughts about us and proceeded with tickling me until I called our little game off by grabbing her hands and pulling her down to me.

“We should really sleep.”  I tell her.

“We should.”  She agreed and she settled herself into me.

Morning came too quickly and I hated leaving Amelia in bed by herself.  Her hair was strewn across her pillow; her skin was radiantly pink and soft.  She looked like an angel.  With everything she was put through yesterday, I figured she could use the extra sleep.  I headed down to the kitchen and got us some coffee and a large bowl of berries with yoghurt and granola.  After grabbing two spoons and putting everything on the tray, I went back up to the room.  Amelia had rolled onto her side and looked at me as she blinked the cobwebs out of her mind and proceeded to sit up when she saw the tray in my hands.

“Good morning gorgeous.”  I tell her.  “Thought I could return the favor and give you breakfast in bed.”

“I see that.”  She says as she leans over to accept my kiss after I had set the tray of goodies on the bedside table.  “You’re too good to me.”  She adds.

“You make it easy, Baby.”  I smile.  “Now, let’s eat!”  I handed her, her cup of coffee and moved the tray down on the bed between us so we could share our breakfast.

“Can I ask you a question?”  She looks at me.

“You can ask me anything.”  I tell her, looking into her eyes.

“I know you’ve said you’re excited for this whole baby thing but are you sure we’re not moving too fast?”  A sinking feeling invaded my stomach and I found myself putting my spoon down, my appetite, now lost.

“I don’t like where this is going, Mia.”  I tell her.

“I know.  I just have to ask.”  She says.  “I know you love me, and I’d never question that but doesn’t it seem like, in the last two or so months, that our lives are flashing before our eyes?  I mean, we reconnected as friends, I met your son, I dealt with past issues; we’re having a baby and moving in together all at once.”  Her thoughts were traitorously spilling from her mouth before she can even process what she’s been telling me.  I could tell she struggled with how her mind had taken over her mouth.

“The way I see it, is that I’m getting everything I’ve ever wanted all at once.”  I tell her and move the tray away from her, aware that she wasn’t done eating.  I grabbed her face with my hands so she could watch my eyes as I spoke my next words.  “I’ll be the first to admit that things are moving quickly, but I’ll also say that we’ll have the rest of our lives to play catch-up and recover from this part of our lives that is currently moving at lightning speed.”

“Thank you.”  She said as she stared at me.

“For what?”  I wondered out loud.

“For letting me know that I wasn’t the only one that thought things were going quickly, despite it all being something I wanted.”  She tells me.  “I especially like the bit about having the rest of our lives to play catch-up.”

“It’s the truth.”  I tell her and kiss her forehead.

“Babe?”  She asks me as I’m mesmerized by her beautiful face.

“Yeah?”  I say softly.

“Can I have my breakfast back?”  She asks and smiles at me sweetly.  “For future reference, don’t take away my food unless I’m done eating it.”  She adds with a spoonful of food held at my mouth, waiting for me to take a bite as I sat there laughing at her revelation.