When I'm With You

Chuck was Nate’s idea, and even though I love having his crazy butt around, I still miss my beautiful beast.

“Ember?”

I look back up at Nate, forgetting what we had been talking about, and give him a raised brow and secretive smirk.

“Why don’t you let Kaylee play with her sisters without my makeup,” I add in Quinnie’s direction. “I need to show you something.”

He still looks beyond confused, but with one more kiss, he places her on her feet where she joins her sisters and Chuck as they dance around the living room. I grab Nate’s hand and pull him into the kitchen, giving us a moment of quiet so I can talk to him.

I walk around the island, using it as a shield between us and slide the little rectangular card toward him. He looks down, and I see it the second he registers what’s written on the card.

“Oh, hell no!” He looks up, and I can see that he is about as far from happy as one could get. Not that I blame him.

“Now, listen to me, honey.” He opens his mouth to complain, but I give him the same look that I give the girls when they’re out of line. “We agreed you would take care of this. Our family is complete. It’s time, big boy.”

He places both his hands on the island and gives me a hard glare. “It is most certainly not! I’m not letting some jackass cut into my cock when I still have work to do with it.”

I roll my eyes. “You’re being unreasonable.”

“Uh, no. I told you last week when you brought it up that I wasn’t getting fixed. No fucking way. Not until I have my boy in your belly. You need to call and cancel this appointment.” He picks up the card, and like the very presence of it offends him, he walks to the sink and shoves it down the disposal before turning the water on and flipping the switch. The whole time it’s making its shredding noise, he looks at me as if he’s won.

Oh, how wrong he is.

“Nate,” I warn when he shuts everything off and stomps over to me. “Don’t you dare.”

He, of course, doesn’t listen, and before I can get another word in edgewise, he has me over his shoulder—gently—as he walks into the madness where our girls are still laughing and playing. They stop instantly when we walk in, and I’m sure if I could see them, they would be standing there just waiting to see what crazy thing their daddy is doing now.

He places me on my feet, and I open my mouth to give him some attitude, but it comes out as a squeak when he spins me and I’m looking at the gray wall.

“Five minutes, Ember. Time-out for trying to keep my boy from me.”

“Oh, Mommy is in trouble!” Quinnie laughs.

I hear Brooklynn snicker, but I just start to count as a huge, happy-as-hell smile pulls at my lips. I start counting out the minutes in my head, playing into Nate’s craziness as I enjoy his grumbling behind me.

Over the years, with each birth of our children, achievement with the club, or with my artwork, our love has just continued to grow. We rarely fight, and when we do, it is usually always about when we will stop having children. I think, if Nate had his way, he would continue having them until I physically couldn’t, but I knew it was time.

Especially now.

And since I love seeing him get all riled up, I figured this would be the funniest way to bring it up. And if everything goes as planned, I’m going to enjoy the benefits of provoking him later.

I hit the three-minute mark and turn my head to the side. I see the painting of A Beautiful War that Nate had bought all those years ago and my eyes mist. He made sure that was the focal point in our family room. Luckily, we have the space with our vaulted ceilings because it takes up the whole top half of that wall. I let my mind wander to the large photo canvas that is over our bed, my heart filling with love.