Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 49189 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 197(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49189 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 197(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)
Our family homes.
Our family life.
It’s enough to make any mom-to-be swoon a little.
“Honey?” Michael asks me, his face twisting as he catches me when I start to sway.
Feeling light-headed all of a sudden.
“Vanessa? What is it? What’s wrong?” he urges, looking worried, but I’m fine.
“Just a little dizzy,” I smile dreamily, letting him guide me back over to the couch, laying down flat as he crouches beside me, my hands in his.
I take his hands and hold them over my belly. Wondering if he’s had the same eye for detail for me and my growing baby bump as he has for that model he’s made.
“Tell me what’s wrong, Vanessa. Do you need a doctor?” he gasps, hating it whenever I’m sick or unhappy.
Always doing whatever it takes to make everything better again.
“I think we’ll need one in about six months,” I smile up at him, “Maybe a few appointments between now and then,” I add.
“My God, you’ve got a fever,” he mumbles to himself, scanning my body from head to toe with his eyes as one hand rests on my forehead, the other I keep tucked neatly in mine.
Holding it over the one thing he’s given me that I’ll cherish forever, I know we both will.
“I don’t have a fever,” I chuckle, grabbing at his other hand and trying again. Then, finally, I open my eyes wide for him.
Moving them from him to my hands.
To our unborn child.
“You’re building the house,” I whisper, pulling his face closer to mine. His hands covered my belly.
“And I’m building the baby… Our baby, Michael. I’m pregnant.” I tell him, so excited, relieved, and a little scared right now.
But it’s the best news, and I’ve waited so long to tell him, even though it’s been less than a week since I knew for sure.
“A- A baby,” he says as if it’s an alien concept. He’s still worried I’ve gone mad with some fever or something.
“A baby, our child,” I tell him slowly, feeling a tear in my eye when I see it registering fully with him.
“A baby,” he repeats, and opening his mouth in awe, he starts to get real gentle with my belly. Like he’s holding onto the most precious thing in the world.
“Oh, Vanessa, when? I mean…It doesn’t matter. A baby!” he says loudly, kissing me hard and holding me close to him as he rocks both me and the little one inside me.
“Oh, thank God,” he exclaims under his breath. “Thank God you’re okay, I mean. But why didn’t you say something as soon as you found out?” he asks, looking confused, happy, and relieved as any Dad to be could.
I can only shrug a little. “There was always something else, right when I was gonna tell you,” which is true.
“It doesn’t matter,” he says, his own dark eyes glowing like coals, shimmering with his own emotions.
“A baby!” he says again.
“This is the best news ever…you’re the best news ever,” he gushes, kissing me again and again.
“I love you, Mrs. Hart. With all mine, and all hers, or is it his?” he asks, glancing at my belly.
“I think we’ll have to wait and see. What do you say?” I ask.
“I say that’s fine by me,” Michael says, his head swelling with pride and his model suddenly not as exciting as the news of the first addition to many I know will live in the life-sized version.
Living happily ever after.
Living the life I know will be as perfect as it is today and every day after it.
“I love you, Michael Hart. Love you to the moon and back.”
Wait. Did he just call me Mrs. Hart?
ONE YEAR LATER
Michael
I told Vanessa that no child of ours was coming into the world without a proper Mom and Dad.
Married, happy, and well equipped with home and comfort enough for all of us.
I would’ve made it official sooner, but I almost forgot that one important piece with all the baby and house plans already underway.
The glue that’s gonna hold this family together.
So when her father Nate stepped up and offered to pay for our wedding, being a little old-fashioned like his future son-in-law, I couldn’t say no.
But I couldn’t let him pay for something that he’d live to pay off the rest of his days.
So Vanessa and I decided unanimously to have it at home and keep it small.
“Just family,” she said, and I couldn’t have agreed more.
The only things that matter are the rings on our fingers and the vows we’ve made before each other and our family.
Promises that are easy to keep because it’s how we’ve always been and always will be.
It’s just official now, and when little Holly came along, just in time for Christmas, our firstborn was christened in our new home too.
The house is finished, and there’s plenty of time and room to give Holly a little brother or sister in the future.