After The Fire

Part 12

July 1993
"Lindsey, do not say that to her! I am sure at some point in her life she will have an armload of mama drama to share with her future therapist. Do not start planting seeds in her brain, as it's still forming, by the way, about her mother not wanting to marry her father."

Lindsey just laughed and kissed my belly. The baby has been moving so much lately. We have a little over a month to go. Despite my age, everything has progressed smoothly. For the first few months after we found out, I was afraid to be happy. I was waiting for something terrible to happen. Once my belly popped, and I heard her heartbeat for the first time, I finally let myself relax a bit. The day we found out we were having a girl, we were over the moon with joy. She moves around so much. I swear she starts dancing in there when music is playing or I start singing. And she definitely knows her daddy's voice. When he talks to her I swear she starts pounding on my belly from the inside as if to say, "Daddy I am here. I hear you." Lindsey was so afraid she wouldn't bond with him, so every night, the baby and I get a bedtime story. Tonight's story was, " How daddy met mommy". He told her I picked him up at a party after I crashed his set. And he just finished telling her I wouldn't marry him.  I swatted him away from my belly and started rubbing it.
"Don't listen to him angel. Daddy was staring at me all night at that party. Good thing he is so handsome otherwise I may have thought he was really creepy. He was picking me up that night he just wasn't so obvious about it. Daddy was so shy, I had to go up and sing with him. If I didn't, believe me you wouldn't be here right now." I continued rubbing my belly and she was kicking away in there.
" And even though you can't see it, mommy has the most beautiful ring on her finger that daddy put there when he asked me to marry him. I said yes right away. I am going to marry daddy. And you are going to be there looking like the little princess you are, and mommy will not look like a hippo"

Lindsey lost it and started laughing. "Steph, you do not look like a hippo. You are beautiful," he said as he moved up to the head of the bed and kissed me.
"You have to say that. You did this to me. Lindsey, I feel like we've waited a hundred years to get to this point. Even during our lowest and darkest times, when we weren't even speaking, I always had a picture in my mind of our wedding day. Please know I want nothing more than to be your wife. Between us getting back together, the baby, the wedding, so much is happening and I want to enjoy every minute of being with you and creating our family. "
Lindsey looked at me with a mix of confusion, bemusement and love. He continued to rub circles on belly and gave me the softest kiss. I swear he doesn't realize how romantic he is sometimes.
"You really thought about this all those years ago?"
I nodded, almost shyly, "it got me through so many of my darkest days"
My lower back had started bothering me so I started to reposition myself against the pillows behind me. Lindsey fluffed them more and then laid his head on my chest. I looked into those blue blue eyes that I love so much, and ran my fingers through his curls and kissed him.
"You and our baby are my whole world. I love you Lindsey"