Page 44 of Fame And Secrets
“Do you remember the story I told you in the hotel room the morning after we first…well, you know.” I felt my face flush as I recalled our frantic first night together and the painful awkwardness the following morning. He’d tried to ease my anxiety by getting me to talk about happy memories of my childhood. The problem was that there was only one. He’d been simultaneously shocked and saddened by my pathetic family life.
His hold tightened. “Of course I remember.” He ran a hand over my swelled belly. “How could I forget?”
“Yeah, well, like I said, it was kind of our thing. Chloe was high maintenance and demanded a lot of Mom’s attention, so I got left alone a lot. Whenever she could find time, in the summer, she’d take me to the fields to pick strawberries. Just her and me. I’d eat so many while we were there, we wouldn’t come back with much except for stained hands and clothes. I looked forward to that every year, especially after Dad started knocking me around. That first year after she died almost destroyed me. I ended up going by myself, but I never got out of the car. I sat there looking at the field, but I couldn’t make myself go.” Glancing down, I dusted sand off a finger and ran it over a strawberry. “I haven’t been since.”
“Oh, baby…”
I lifted my face to meet his and stared into his eyes. Locking gazes, he lowered his face and brushed his lips against mine. The kiss was lingering, yet respectful. In this world or another, he still sat in the presence of my mother. I couldn’t love him more for that.
As he watched, I poured the strawberries into a plastic bag, then filled the basket with sand. I dug a small hole and placed the bag of fruit inside, securing it by packing mounds of sand around it. “There,” I said with finality. “We can go now.”
He seemed confused. “You’re just going to leave it like that?”
A smile tugged at my lips. “No.” Taking a finger, I dragged it through the sand inside of the basket and drew a crude heart. “I’m going to leave it like that.”
He stood and pulled me to my feet. Wrapping one arm around me, he bent toward the makeshift sand bucket. He kissed his first two fingers and placed them on top of the handle, then placed his hand against his heart.
“Julian, what are you doing?”
“Telling your mom how much I love her daughter, and how I’ll spend my life taking care of her.”
I fell into his arms, and he guided me away from the beach toward his car. On a whim, I glanced over my shoulder at the basket getting smaller in the distance. I didn’t know how, but I knew my mother approved.
***
Neither one of us moved for what seemed like forever, our heartbeats sharing the same rhythm. Before he even opened his eyes, I lowered my mouth to his neck and placed light kisses against his skin.
“Damn, woman.”
“Tired, are we?” I giggled into the hollow space between his neck and collarbone.
“I can’t fucking move.”
An unladylike snort slipped out as I continued kissing his neck. “I have no idea why. I did all the work.”
He awarded me with full-chested laughter. “I suppose practice makes perfect. What, no repeat performance?”
“You, Mr. Bale, are insatiable.”
“I could say the same thing about you,” he joked, wrapping his arms around me. “I’m kind of liking what pregnancy has done to you.”
“Just enjoy it while it lasts. After the baby’s born, it may be the last time you get it until retirement.”
He swiftly rolled me off my side until he had me pinned directly under him. “That shit is not funny. Don’t even joke about it.” With a glance downward, he followed my gaze to the moving flesh between us as a tiny appendage kicked us both.
“The baby’s going to be here before we know it, Julian. God, I’m not ready to be a mom.”
“I think it’s a little too late to worry about that, don’t you think?”
Smirking, I wrestled my way out from underneath him and rolled over, resting my cheek against the pillow. “I mean, it all seemed so far in the future before. But now…”
“Now, it’s right around the corner.”
“Yeah. Our lives are going to be completely different. Well, mine will change anyway.”
He gently turned my face toward his. “You don’t think mine will change?”
“Julian, I meant you’ll be recording and touring. I knew that was the deal from the beginning. I’m the one who’ll be home, I’ll be up in the middle of the night, changing diapers.”