Shit…

  I realized that I agreed we’d visit my family without even asking Elle. A total dickhead move. I slid the massive stack of French toast towards Elle, hoping to ease into this awkward conversation with sweets. Elle squealed and eagerly grabbed a fork. I poured us both glasses of milk and took a seat beside her. I made myself a pitiful in comparison plate of French toast without the cream cheese glaze and extra fruit. Before cooking, I’d worked out, and I wasn’t about to throw all that out the window.

  “Amazing! This is amazing!” Elle exclaimed in between bites.

  “We aim to please. Elle’s rainy day French toast prides itself in the ability to make girlfriends and babies happy. And I know it’s not raining today but today is a day to be happy. Our child is growing. You finished writing a difficult script. Everyone liked it because you’re talented. You mended bridges with your friend. I love you and you love me. And…” I trailed off, letting silence linger around us to build suspense.

  Elle motioned for me to continue. But I stayed mum for a few more seconds. Her eyes narrowed at me and the urge to laugh became too much.

  “We got the house!” I threw my hands into the air.

  “Holy shit!” She screamed as her anger evaporated in an instant.

  I imagined Elle would have jumped up in excitement if she wasn’t pregnant. With the baby weighing her down, excited jumps were very much out. I leaned over so she could wrap her arms around my neck for an awkward side hug like a couple of courting fundies.

  “We sign the papers tomorrow.”

  “This is amazing. Thank you so much, Logan.” Elle smiled as we pulled apart.

  “Well, don’t thank me yet.” I sighed.

  “Why?” Elle raised an eyebrow.

  I stabbed a piece of strawberry with my fork and ran the impaled fruit across my plate. “…I might have… I might have agreed that we’d visit my parents.”

  “Oh.” Elle mumbled before taking a bite of toast.

  “I’m sorry, and I just want to let you know we totally don’t have to go. I can tell them something came up. It’s not a problem.” I clarified quickly.

  She shook her head. “No. We can visit. I’m sure your parents miss you. And I want to get to know them, and even if they don’t like me, I want baby girl to have a relationship with them, to grow up with grandparents.”

  “You sure?”

  Elle nodded and caressed her belly. The way her face softened, and her cheeks bunched up when she touched her stomach. It clenched my heart. I loved her and baby girl so much. My parents had their reservations, but if they met her, they would love her. It was impossible not to.

  “Love you.” I smiled at her.

  “Love you too.” Elle returned my smile before we returned our attention to our food.

  Breakfast eaten, I showered and dressed. Then it was time for my least favorite part of any day. Saying goodbye to Elle. Her walk had started a slow transformation into a waddle. It was the cutest thing I’d ever seen. She looked so unsteady on her feet sometimes, but Elle never listened to me about sitting down. Saying goodbye would have been fine in the bedroom, but Elle insisted on walking me to the front door.

  “I love you.” Elle murmured, stood up on her tiptoes and grabbed my shoulders.

  I couldn’t tell if her hooded eyes were a seduction technique or just plain exhaustion. Her bump pushed against my stomach as she steadied her footing. I chuckled. Front embraces were getting harder. But I wasn’t a quitter, and I planned on hugging my girl until I couldn’t anymore. I cupped her face in my hand and pressed our foreheads together.

  “I love you too, Elle. Don’t forget it.” I said before leaning in and pressing our lips together.

  Heat flushed through me as my tongue darted into her mouth. Tasting Elle was my favorite thing. I didn’t drink, I didn’t do drugs. I did Elle. She was my addiction. I loved tasting her. Every part of her was warm and sweet, a stack of French toast notwithstanding. Her grip tightened on my shirt as she moaned into my mouth. My cock strained against my jeans. I toyed with the idea of being very late to work, but a well-timed kick from the baby brought us back to reality. I stepped back from our sloppy make-out session and placed a chaste kiss on Elle’s lips.

  “Kids, am I right?” she giggled.

  I placed a hand on her stomach and said, “Daddy’s little girl is already so thoughtful of him being on time. If it wasn’t for you, baby girl, Mom would have made Dad late. Tisk, tisk, tisk. You take care of your mom little one. Daddy loves his girls.”

  I looked up to a pointed death glare from Elle. I bit the inside of my cheek and flashed her a big, cheerful smile.

  “Have a good day! Love you!” I sang as I turned on my heels, grabbed the duffle bag with my championship belt, and strolled to the front door.

  “You’re ridiculous. I hope you know that!” Elle shouted.

  “Of course, I do! You wouldn’t love me if I wasn’t.” I winked as I closed the door behind me.

  As I drove to the bar, the rusty wheels in my brain had started to turn. I had the start of an ingenious master plan in my head.

  “Hey dumbass! Are you listening?” Davis shouted at me.

  I blinked up at his stupid, scowling face. I honestly hadn’t heard a word he said. The four of us were sitting in our morning ‘meeting’ in the back office. I had much more important things on my mind that Davis’ self-important rants. I learned the third week into us owning Save Point that we didn’t really need to have these meetings. We never talked about anything important. If anyone needed anything, we would text.

  But Davis loved to hear himself talk. Also, he had a bit more invested in the bar than Nick, Matt, and me because he couldn’t make it as a wrestler. A year into training, he quit, went to school, and got a business degree. A degree that went unused as he followed the three of us around as if we were still locker room buddies. He didn’t like to show it, but he was so afraid of being overshadowed and left out. ‘Managing’ the bar made him feel important.

  “I heard you. I heard you,” I sighed and sank deeper into my seat.

  “Good! Now let’s look alive out there! You’re on the bar tonight!” Davis pointed at me.

  Of course.

  Since I won the championship, Davis loved having me behind the bar like a show pony with the belt around my waist. I was an attraction for fans to gawk at. A group of fans told me they drove for 5 hours to meet me. Shocking, but I was thankful for their support. Besides having an excuse, however flimsy, to wear my championship felt good. Now I totally saw the reasoning being Nick and Matt’s showboating when they had belts a while ago. I’d never tell them that, though. After Davis finally finished blabbing, he released us to do all the work he wouldn’t.

  As the guys left the office, I hung back. I needed to connect with several people and cross a few T’s, but my plans seemed doable. I pulled out my phone and started sending rapid fire texts.

  “Dude! Is everything alright? You coming out front?” Nick asked from the doorway to the office.

  I glanced up from my phone, confused. Apparently, I’d been so absorbed in my planning that an hour had gone by. Thankfully, Davis sent Nick to find me. I didn’t need to hear Davis’ shitty protective reasoning behind bashing my pregnant girlfriend.

  “Yeah, everything’s alright. Just planning something.” I mumbled.

  “Oooooo! What ya’ planning?” Nick practically sprang across the office to sit in a chair beside me.

  I laughed, “Of course, planning would get you excited.”

  He shrugged. “I like what I like. Now spill the beans.”

  “So, on the pregnancy app, a lot of the pregnant ladies keep talking about their babymoons-”

  “What’s a babymoon?” Nick interjected.

  “It’s a trip a couple takes before the baby comes, so they get some one-on-one time together before the lack of sleep and general insanity of raising a newborn makes them hate each other.”

  “Romantic!”

  I nodded. “Anyways, I keep seeing these posts about it and I thought it would be fun to go on one with Elle. Also, something like a pallet cleanser because my mom wants us to visit.”

  “Your Mom is good people.”

  “Yeah, but an unexpected baby has kinda set fire to her sensibilities. I know she’ll be on her best behavior, but I just want everything to work out.”

  Nick put a hand on my shoulder. “I’m sure things will be fine. You’re doing that thing you do when you overthink too much.”

  I sighed, “Maybe I am.”

  Nick laughed, “There is no maybe. You are. I’ve seen it before. You even have the bunchy lines across your forehead.”

  Bunchy lines?

  I rubbed my fingertips across my forehead and sure enough, he was right.

  “That’s not important. Making Elle happy because she makes you happy and you love her is what’s important. Now, with everything we’ve got going on, where are you squeezing all this traveling in?” Nick asked.

  “We’ve got a pay-per-view and the Gotch Industry awards in a few weeks, don’t we?” I grinned.

  “Brilliant! Fucking brilliant!” Nick laughed and shook my shoulder.

  “What’s brilliant?” Davis asked as he crept into the office in search of us.

  “Nothing.” I stood up and shoved my phone into my pocket.

  Before Davis could say anything, I pulled my championship out of my duffle bag and fashioned it around my waist.

  “Shall I go serve drinks to my adoring public?” I asked before strutting past Davis and out of the office.

  After closing the bar, I stopped at the 24hour printer/shipping store on campus. It never mattered the time of the day the lights were always dimmed, and everything smelled like smoke. Over the years, the smell of the smoke changed. From cigarette smoke. To vape smoke. To weed smoke. The shitty things most college students inhaled into their lungs. The red-eyed clerk gave me a head nod of acknowledgement as I sat at the slow desktop computer and typed. Once I had everything typed up with fancy font and proper spacing, I printed it off on a nice cardstock. It was stupid but the presentation accounted for 5% of what I was going for. Despite it being 2am I was absolutely fucking giddy when I got home. I tossed my duffle bag onto the floor near the front door and headed toward the bedroom.

  “ELLE!” I sang at the top of my lungs as I burst into the room.

  I flicked on the light, sprinted across the room, and sat on the side of the bed. My excitement threatened to burst out of my scalp as I tried to patiently wait for Elle to lumber up to a sitting position. She had gotten better about sleeping on her side, but we both loved the coziness of spooning when I got home. Elle squinted at me in utter confusion.

  “Sweetheart! I have a surprise for you!” I whipped the cardstock itinerary towards her.

  Elle looked at as if I had written it in Japanese. To help, I took back the paper and started reading it.

  “In three weeks, we’ll drive across the border to visit my folks for a couple of days. Then we’ll drive back to Detroit, get on a plane, and fly to the Florida Keys for our babymoon. There we’ll spend 5 days and 4 nights at a small island resort. I’m talking oceanfront veranda, spa, food, sand, sea, the works! Then we leave the keys for Miami, where you’ll be on my arm for the Frank Gotch Industry Excellent Awards. After two days of relaxing and goofing off, there’s a pay-per-view where I’ll be defending my championship. After that, we finally come back to our new house!” I breathlessly read off the travel plan.

  I smiled widely at Elle, who wiped sleep from the corner of her eyes.

  “So…? What do you think?”

  Elle looked up at me and blinked several times, “…Can I go back to sleep?”

  Elle

  Logan whistled along to some ska song as he drove. We exchanged smiles as we crossed the bridge into Canada. Meeting Logan’s family was the first stop on our whirlwind two weeks of travel. My unused passport had its first stamp! We were making good time and would have been over the border much sooner, but I had Trisha braid my hair. Nothing fancy, just back length box braids. Classic and classy for meeting the parents, laying on the beach, and dressing up. The thing that held us up was Renee asking me for thoughts and ideas about the new house. Of course, I wanted her input, but by that point my mind was already miles away. I wrapped my finger around the end of a braid.

  “…I like your braids, but if I’m honest, I like your afro better,” Logan said without looking away from the road.

  “Really? Do they look bad?”

  “No. You look amazing, as always. I’m just missing your cuddle hair.”

  Cuddle hair…

  At her dad’s endearing commentary on my hair, baby girl made her presence known. She danced enthusiastically, making sure to punch my liver, stomach, and kidneys just to keep me on my toes. My smile turned into a grimace as I smoothed a hand over my bump. I sucked in a deep breath through my nose as I fought down the urge to vomit.

  So much for leaving that in the first trimester!

  Lips into a hard line, I turned my head and tried to enjoy the view out my window. I was smack dab in the middle of my 30th week, but at my last checkup with Dr. Mercer assured me I would be fine traveling. As we drove through the sleepy, cozy neighborhoods of Windsor, closer and closer to Logan’s parent’s house, I didn’t feel fine. I felt sicker and sicker.

  “Breathe sweetheart.” Logan muttered.

  I placed both hands on my belly and tried to steady my breathing. In, hold out, repeat. Logan turned down a side road of unassuming one-story houses with neatly clipped lawns. Not far into Canada, and the change in seasons seemed to be already underway. Crisp, bold colors had gripped some of the leaves on the trees. Peppering the bold green leaves were specks of red, gold, and orange. Everything about Windsor felt cozy. And although it was 75 degrees, I had the urge to pull on a turtleneck sweater, a pair of Ugg boots, and clasp a chai pumpkin spice tea in an oversized mug. Logan pulled into the driveway of a cute gray house with a large tree in the front yard. Unlike the others, this one was resistant to fall and still sported all green leaves.

  Makes sense for the Smith’s family tree.

  “Ready?” Logan asked.

  I nodded. Logan climbed out of the car, but I lagged behind. I took a final deep breath before getting out of the car. The moment I closed the door behind me, a woman shouted,

  “Logie!”

  I looked over my shoulder to a short, bespeckled redhead quickly bounding down the front stairs. I rightly guessed that she was Logan’s Mom. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest. Logan towered at least a foot over his mom.

  “Hi Mom,” Logan sighed affectionately.

  His cheeks reddened as he returned her hug.

  “Hey Dad,” Logan waved.

  A short man with peppered gray hair leaned against the front door, a small smile tugged on his lips.

  “Mom…” Logan muttered as he attempted to wiggle from her grasp.

  “I’ve missed you, love,” she sighed as she stepped back and rubbed at her damp eyes.

  “I’ve missed you too. But I’m here now and that what matters, right?” Logan rubbed the back of his neck.

  He looked over to me with raised eyebrows and I took that as my cue. With a well-practiced smile, I waddled over to stand at his side.

  “…Mom, Dad, I want you to meet my girlfriend. This is Elle.” Logan wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

  Logan’s smile consumed his entire face. He shone with pride at introducing me to his family. My heart back flipped as I nestled against him.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Smith, I’m so excited to finally meet you!”

  “Nice to finally meet you! And please call me Sandy.” Logan’s Mom reached towards me then paused. “Can I?”

  “Sure!” I laughed.

  Sandy gingerly placed a hand on my belly, and a high-pitched coo escaped her mouth.

  “How fair along are you?” She asked.

  “30 weeks.”

  Sandy squealed again before her mood turned on a dime. She yelled over her shoulder at her husband, “DEX GET DOWN HERE AND AT LEAST PRETEND TO BE HUMAN! SHE’S CARRYING OUR FUTURE GRANDCHILD FOR GOODNESS’ SAKE!”

  Head stooped, Dex dashed down the stairs and ran to stand beside his wife. It was hard not to bust a gut laughing.

  “Nice to meet you, Elle.” He mumbled.

  Dex was taller than Sandy, but still shorter than Logan. Logan looked like a younger, curly haired version of his dad, with his mom’s nose. Genetics were weird. The fact that two people could come together, mash bits, and create a human was mind blowing. The fact that my body was currently working on that process didn’t make it any less mind blowing. Looking at Logan and his parents, I couldn’t help but wonder what bits and pieces baby girl had from each of us. What would she look like? Who would she be?

  “I know it’s a bit early, but are you two hungry?” Sandy asked, snapping me back to reality with the mention of food.

  I shook my head. It was only 4 in the afternoon, but as a pregnant woman I couldn’t turn down food. Sandy took my hand and led me inside.

  “I guess we’ll get the bags then!” Logan shouted after us.

  Sandy took me into the house and directed me to have a seat at the kitchen table. The kitchen was a small one with a carved-out space under a large window for the table. Various knick-knacks, like seashells, and jars of colored sand lined the windowsill. I pulled out a chair at the small four-person table and involuntarily sighed as I sank into my seat.

  Sandy giggled. “I know getting around is more difficult these days. When I was pregnant with Logan, I couldn’t stand to walk more than 10 steps at a time at 30 weeks. He was a big baby, 9 pounds exactly.”

  My eyes widened.

  “I had the worst heartburn too! I felt like a fire-breathing dragon. In my case, the wise tale turned out to be true. My Logie was born with a head full of hair. We used to call it his lion mane!”

  She looked up and my horrified expression and quickly tried to course correct.