Booby Trapped and Baby Proofed (13 page)

Harrison ran the dates around in his head. That would be right around the time they’d had sex in the living room while Ethan slept in her bed. They hadn’t used any protection back then because they both were so turned on that they didn’t take the time to find the condoms.

“Aren’t you going to say something?”

Harrison wrapped his arms around her. “You’ve made me so happy,” he said. His voice broke. He kissed her on the side of her head. “I’ve always wanted more kids and you are going to make the perfect mother.” He released her so he could wipe the tears from his eyes. “I thought you were going to tell me that you were dying.”

Angel started to cry too. “No, your sperm just got lucky.”

They laughed through their tears.

“There’s so much we have to do,” he said now that he could think. “We have to get married and decide on which house we’re going to live in. Or, we can buy a bigger home.” He laughed. “I can’t wait to tell Ethan.”

“Whoa,” Angel said. “This is all too much. Let’s just enjoy the news for a moment. We can make plans later.”

“I want to make love to you,” Harrison said.

She chuckled. “Isn’t that how we got pregnant in the first place?”

He slipped the gown from her body while she rationalized the situation. “I love you,” he said, placing her on her back in the center of the bed.

“Huh?” Angel asked as he slid the panties down her hips and off her legs.

“I said, I love you,” Harrison said.

The smile on her face at that very moment could have lit up the entire state of Florida at night.

“I love you too,” she said, pulling him down on her. “Ethan too.”

Chapter Ten

Harrison woke, took a shower, and went into Ethan’s room to get him ready for day care.

Ethan wasn’t in his room.

“Now, where can he be?” Harrison searched the house quickly, checking closets and rooms. The front and kitchen doors still had the child protection safety locks on them. He heard something coming from the den. Ethan sat on the sofa watching SpongeBob. Not the television show, but the DVD.

“See,” Ethan said pointing. “SpongeBob.”

Indeed, he did see. The little genius had somehow started the DVD player. Harrison spotted the remote control next to him. “Well, I’ll be,” he said, scratching his head.
Ethan can work the remote
. “Next you’ll be grunting and drinking beer just like the rest of us men.” A new baby in the family would mean he’d have double the surprises and double the concern. Would the new baby be equally intelligent? “It’s time to get ready for school. We have to turn SpongeBob off.”

“No,” Ethan said. “SpongeBob.”

Harrison smirked. He sure hoped the new baby wouldn’t be as straight-forward as his older sibling. He lifted Ethan from the sofa. “You can finish watching after I dress you.”

Ethan protested for a moment and then relented.

“You woke up with a dry diaper. Good boy,” Harrison told him. He put Ethan on the toilet and waited patiently for him to pee. After he finished, Ethan got down from the toilet and flushed. Harrison continued to watch him as he pulled his step stool over to the sink and washed his hands. “Why have I been carrying you around?” Harrison asked. “I think you’re ready for a job.” He put the toothpaste on Ethan’s toothbrush and the child brushed his own teeth and rinsed. “Congratulations,” Harrison told him. “Today you are a man.” He washed the child’s face.

Ethan’s giggles delighted him while he wrestled him into his school uniform. In a few months, he would be three years old and would be moving up to another teacher. Right now he and Roy were the tallest in the two-year-old class, and the more advanced. Harrison didn’t know if Roy had always been this way, or if being around Ethan had rubbed off on him. Either way, he knew now that he couldn’t do anything to part the two of them.

Ethan chatted animatedly on the ride to the day care center, pointing out things, and naming them when he could. Harrison helped him out with the ones he missed.

The neighborhood hadn’t changed much since he’d left. There was a big-named grocery store where the bowling alley once sat. A mall now occupied a lot where some row houses had been torn down. And the neighborhood now had an arcade. Harrison didn’t know if he liked that much, since a lot of kids would be hanging out there instead of studying. They used to hang out at the beach when he was a teenager, but most of them were smart enough to head home by dark.

“We’re here,” he told Ethan as he drove into a parking spot at the day care. He got out, took Ethan out his car seat, and let him walk inside.

Angel had already made it to work and was busy helping to feed the early arrivals. She waved to him and then beckoned for him to bring Ethan.

Ethan spotted her and ran to her. Angel picked him up and hugged him.

Harrison didn’t know if that was such a good idea for her to do now. Ethan weighed a lot and he didn’t want her to strain.

Angel put him down in a seat next to his best friend and fed both of them oatmeal and fresh fruit.

Ethan pointed to her. “My Angel,” he told Roy.

Harrison smirked, even though it was wrong for Ethan to stake his claim on his soon-to-be mother. They hadn’t told anyone about her pregnancy yet. Both of them decided to wait until she passed the first trimester.

Harrison waved goodbye to them, left the day care center, and went to work. He had a two early morning classes to teach. Both a class of females. “The first one, a class of young women aged eighteen to thirty, and the second one, a class of older women, aged thirty-five to elderly. It surprised the hell out of him when he’d gone over the registration forms upon opening the dojo. And what surprised him even more was that more women were signing up.

“Your class is packed again today,” Frank told him as they changed into their costumes. “When are you going to share the wealth?”

Frank was a forty-five-year-old confirmed bachelor.

“You’ll be teaching them Tae kwon do tomorrow, and then and Bill will be teaching them jujitsu on Friday. You’ll have your hands full keeping their hands off you, especially the older women.

“No problem,” Frank said. “I do have a black belt.”

“You’re going to need it,” Harrison told him. “Some of those little old ladies like to pinch butt.”

“Thanks for the warning,” Frank said with a chuckle.

Harrison bowed to him and went to his classroom. He felt like a rabbit during hunting season. Most of the women tried to get his attention, and most of them wanted personal attention. He didn’t think there was enough of him to go around.

“You’re cute,” a seventy-year-old student told him later.

“Thanks,” Harrison said as the rest of the women laughed.

“I have a granddaughter that would be just perfect for you,” she went on the say.

Harrison just smiled and went on teaching the class. Maybe he should display some rules of classroom conduct. The first would no hitting on the teacher.

****

“How was your day?” Angel asked Harrison as he entered the house with fried chicken, smothered potatoes, and snap beans.

“Delightful,” he said, taking some of the food from her. He managed to give her a kiss in the process. “I had a class of giggling, eyelash-fluttering young women.”

Angel chuckled. “Don’t tell me they are still flirting with you?”

“Okay, I won’t tell you,” Harrison said as they walked into the kitchen. “So how was your day? And how are you feeling?”

“Fine on both the questions,” she answered. “I only tossed my cookies twice today, and luckily, I was home both times.”

“Poor baby,” he said, pulling her into his arms and giving her a real kiss. “I wish I could change places with you, but it’s biologically impossible.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” she told him. “Men say this, but they don’t really mean it.” She looked around him. “Where’s the rocket scientist?”

“Where else? He and Bunny are in front of the television.”

“Watching SpongeBob?”

“What else? I swear I hear SpongeBob’s laugh in my sleep.”

Angel rubbed her stomach. “Just think you get to live the nightmare all over again in a couple of years.”

“Let’s just hope it’s off the television by then.”

“I doubt it,” she said. “He’s very popular.”

They set the table. Instead of tea or soda, Angel got to drink milk along with Ethan, who they finally coaxed out of the den for dinner.

Harrison watched the two of them interact, making milk mustaches and just basically bonding. Angel didn’t have to work too hard for this. Ethan already loved her and thought of her as his mother. He wondered how he would adjust to the new baby.

They hadn’t discussed marriage yet. Harrison wanted something small and intimate, but he suspected that Angel might want a big church wedding like she had the first time she got married. He didn’t want to wait too long and wanted to be married to her now.

“What do you think about going house hunting Sunday after church?” he asked.

“Why do we have to get a new house when we have two perfectly good houses right here?” Angel asked. “I don’t have a problem selling mine and moving in here with you and Ethan.”

Decision made. Now on to the next topic…sex. They hadn’t been together in a while since finding out about the pregnancy and he was at his limit. “I want you to stay with me tonight.”

Angel stopped playing with Ethan and looked over at him. “That can be arranged,” she said with a smile. “What’s on the agenda?”

“I have a very serious problem below the belt that needs attending too.”

Angel tried to hide her chagrin. “I think I can help you with your problem, after the young prince of the palace and his rabbit go to sleep.”

****

Harrison tried to be careful not to hurt her, but Angel just got frustrated and assured him that she wouldn’t break if he just made love to her like he normally did.

“I don’t want to hurt the baby,” he said, lifting his weight off her and pulling out slightly.

“The baby is the size of a pea and protected,” Angel assured him. “I have a prenatal class tomorrow morning. Maybe you should come with me.”

Harrison continued to make love to her.

It felt good, but not as good as he usually gave her.

“Maybe,” Harrison said as he slid back inside her slowly. He kept this up, despite what she told him. He came five minutes later before she had a chance to. “Sorry,” he told her. “I’ll try to do better next time.”

He sounded like a sixteen-year-old who just had experienced intercourse for the first time and came prematurely.

Angel rolled over on her side and turned on the lamp on the nightstand. She propped herself back up on the pillow, frustrated and very horny. “What’s wrong?” she asked him.

“What do you mean?” Harrison asked, rolling over on his back.

“Are you having second thoughts about the baby?”

“No, I want our baby very much. It’s just like I said earlier. I’m afraid to hurt you.”

“You won’t hurt me,” Angel told him. “Sexual intercourse is okay throughout a pregnancy. The doctor will tell us when we have to stop. But until then, I insist that you do me good.”

Harrison chuckled weakly. “I guess you’re right. I’m just being silly. I wasn’t around when Olivia carried Ethan because she came back to Daytona while I remained in North Carolina. But I want to be involved this time and go with you to your prenatal visits. I want this baby to feel loved and secured. I still feel bad that I couldn’t be there for Ethan.”

“Do you regret leaving him with Trudy?” Angel asked.

“Yes,” Harrison said. “I know I had no other choice at the time, but yes, I do regret not being there for him after his mother died. I feel like I deserted him.”

“But you’re here with him now. And he knows you’re his daddy.”

“Does he? Because sometimes I feel like our roles are reversed, like he’s teaching me instead of me teaching him.”

Angel reached out and touched his cheek. “Ethan is a beautiful, precocious and inquisitive little boy with an exceptional I.Q. I think you’re doing okay and I can’t wait for our daughter to be born.”

“A daughter, huh?”

“Gives you something else to think about, doesn’t it?”

“When will we be able to know the sex of the baby?”

“On the day I deliver.”

“Awe,” Harrison groaned.

Angel laughed. “I’m an old fashioned girl. I want to be surprised.”

He pulled her into his arms. “But you’ll be happy with a girl?”

“No, I’ll be happy with a healthy baby. Now make love to me correctly.”

Harrison released her. “Yes, Ms. Robbins.” He crawled beneath the covers, lifted her hips, placed his lips against her pussy, and did her right.

****

Harrison stood outside the jewelry store the next day looking through the glass window at engagement rings. He hadn’t been able to buy Olivia an expensive one on a recruit’s salary, but he was going to do it correctly this time. Angel deserved to be swept off her feet and treated like a queen, with a fiancé who was going to be there for her. He entered the store and walked up to a counter.

“Can I help you?” a male salesclerk asked.

“I’m looking for an engagement ring for my girlfriend. Something in gold.”

The salesclerk walked him over to another counter. “What is your girlfriend like?” he asked.

“Thirty and gorgeous,” Harrison said proudly.

The salesclerk shook his head. “No, I mean is she a traditional lady, a high-maintenance diva, or a classy broad?”

Harrison smiled at his sales approach. “She’s a traditional lady. She’s not frivolous or extravagant. Angel is the girl next door.” He laughed at his own joke, since she was the girl next door.

The salesclerk picked out a plain gold band with a pear-shaped diamond.

Harrison glanced down on the simple and perfect ring. “I like this,” he said. He glanced at the rows of other rings. Some had clusters and other had bigger stones. Some were set in silver while others were set in platinum. He shook his head. No, he liked his original choice.

“What size ring will she require?”

Harrison beamed. He knew this because he’d snuck a look at one of her rings when she took it off to do some cleaning. “She wears a size six.”