“I just want to make love to you now,” I whispered, cupping her face in my hands, tracing my thumb over her cheekbone.
Her breath caught in her throat as she nodded, the lust I saw on her face matched my own. “Please be careful,” she begged quietly.
I could see how much she wanted this too, and suddenly I realised that it didn’t matter how long I lasted the first time, or if I did something wrong, because Riley loved me and wanted me as much as I wanted her. I felt all of my nerves and worry fade away as I suddenly remembered that this was Riley, my best friend, the love of my life. I didn’t ever need to feel embarrassed or inadequate around her because she would always love me regardless. If I messed up this time, then I would have a whole lifetime to put it right. But I could see in her eyes that whatever happened right now, I would never be a disappointment to her, and that thought made my heart fly in my chest.
I smiled reassuringly, I could see she was worried about me. “Everything’s fine, Riley bear. Everything’s just perfect, just the way it should be. I love you so much,” I said honestly. I couldn’t describe to her how much I loved her, how much I would always love her, there were just no words to express it.
She smiled, her arms tightening around my neck, her eyes boring into mine and I knew what she was going to say before she even said it. Her eyes told me everything I needed to know.
“I love you too, Clay.”
I smiled gratefully and bent my head to kiss her, preparing to start off a long night with her. This was our proper wedding night and I didn’t plan on letting her sleep for a single second.
Epilogue
7 Years later
“Mrs Preston, if you’d like to come in now…..”
I looked up at the same time as Riley, she squeezed my hand and practically ran to the door, dragging me along behind her into the room. I smiled at her eagerness and closed the door behind me.
“Ok, so if you could lay down for me then and we’ll get started,” the lady said, nodding towards the bed. I sat down on the chair next to the bed, watching as she got herself comfortable. I grinned at Riley excitedly, this day felt like it had taken forever to get here. Ever since we got the appointment through, we’d both been counting down the days.
I held Riley’s hand tightly as the lady squirted some clear gel on her stomach then rolled a little plastic thing over it. I wanted to look at the screen that the sonographer was looking at, I really did, but I couldn’t drag my eyes away from Riley’s face. We’d been together for seven and a half years now and it still felt like yesterday that we first said those three little words. She was still the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life and I was grateful for every single one of her smiles. I would gladly spend the rest of my life making this girl happy, and now I had someone else to look after too.
We’d been trying for this baby for over a year and a half. She left college and stopped the pill almost immediately. The trying was fun, I got to be the pervert that she usually made me into, but I had an excuse to hide behind this time. I was doing it all in the name of making a baby, and claimed it was nothing to do with the fact that my wife drove me wild all the time.
She bit her lip and looked at me, her eyes shining with excitement. God I hope it’s a girl and looks just like her mommy! Actually wait, I shouldn’t really hope that she looks like Riley because then I’d be in deep trouble trying to keep the boys away from my little girl!
I kissed her lightly, as she squeezed my hand, making a little excited noise against my lips that made me laugh. She was ridiculously eager to be a mom, she’d been rubbing her tummy for the last eight weeks, since we’d done the test, cooing over the fact that she had a baby growing inside her, well her exact words were ‘a part of Clay growing inside her’. She was going to be a fantastic mother and if I loved the baby even a tenth of how much I loved her then it would want for nothing.
A little “Oh!” from the sonographer caught our attention.
Both of us looked at her worriedly, and I suddenly started to feel sick. Something was wrong. She’d pushed herself back a little in the chair, her fingers frantically tapping on the keyboard before she moved the little plastic thing to a different angle on Riley’s stomach. Oh God we’re going to lose the baby or something. What if something had happened to the baby inside her stomach and it wasn’t growing properly? That would be awful for both of us, but would probably kill Riley.
“Is something wrong?” I asked quickly, squeezing Riley’s hand reassuringly.
The sonographer looked around at us, an expression on her face that I couldn’t quite work out, something crossed between nervousness and happiness. “That depends….”
That depends….. What on earth was that supposed to mean? Either it was bad news and something was wrong, or it wasn’t and I was making myself feel sick for nothing.
“On what?” I asked. Riley seemed to stop breathing on the little bed next to me.
The sonographer’s eyes flicked between the two of us, a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. “It depends on how you both feel about twins,” she stated.
I felt like someone had slapped me in the face. No one said anything, the room was completely silent. Did I actually hear her right?
Twins?
Two babies at once?
I could hear Riley giggling, she was squeezing my hand trying to get my attention, but I couldn’t move. I felt like I’d been frozen on the spot, like time had stopped. How the hell could we have made twins? It felt like that saying about buses, ‘you wait for one for ages, and then two come along at once’. I guess all that practicing for a baby had done its job better than we thought.
My mouth had gone dry. Twins. Possibly two daughters that I had to worry about looking like their Mommy. Wow, I was in trouble!
The sonographer turned round the screen that she’d been looking at, so we could see the pictures. I could see an oval outline of her womb, then it looked like it had been divided into two, with two little shapes moving around inside, going in and out of focus.
I could hear Riley saying my name over and over, and I tried to look at her but I couldn’t get my eyes off of the computer screen. I could see the two little shapes there, the little grey blobs moving around. The sonographer flicked a button and suddenly I could hear frantic beating sounds. Was that the babies’ heartbeats?
Two sets of nappies. Two babies waking up in the middle of the night. Two babies screaming for food.
I finally managed to drag my eyes to the computer and looked at Riley. My wife. The love of my life. Mother of my……two……children.
“Looks like I got you good,” I mumbled, not knowing what else to say.
She burst out laughing, stroking her hand down the side of my face. I was still a little shocked but it was slowly sinking in. I was going to be a daddy, not once but twice, all because of this amazing girl on the bed.
“I love you Riley bear,” I said, meaning every single word.
She smiled and pulled me closer to her. “I love you too, Clay,” she whispered.
“This means double the trouble,” I joked, putting my hand on her stomach, ignoring the gel that squelched under my fingers.
“Yeah……. but twice the fun,” she answered.
I laughed and kissed her again. Twins. I really was in big trouble.
THE END