Beautiful and talented painter, Selma Halpern + charismatic architect husband, Jamal Halpern + bubbly baby boy, Rae Halpern. The stars had finally aligned in Selma's favor.
But by the strike of midnight on a fateful day in April, it seemed like the...
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00.
THE night was still young when a car pulled up in front of a cottage in Vale, the cold air seemed to irritate the nostrils as Jamal came out of the car, sneezing a thousand times per second.
"Bless you," Selma muttered as she walked to the back of the car, reaching for one of her bags. Jamal intercepted her move by placing his palm over hers.
"Selma, you must be crazy if you think I'm letting my pregnant wife carry her own bags."
She leaned up on her tiptoes and whispered against his ear, "then I'm crazy." She dropped back on the ball of her feet, making her way past him, "Because I sure as hell will carry this inside. I'm pregnant, Jamal, not a handicap."
The glare he was wearing burned through her back as she climbed the front steps. Her squeal filled the air once she felt her legs being swept off the ground. "But I'm not crazy," Jamal murmured into her ear, "and you sure as hell won't."
To punish him for startling her like that, her hands bunched into small fists, pounding his chest like King Kong would. Jamal certainly didn't expect that reaction from her which made his grip on her loosen a fraction. He snatched her against his chest in a blink. "Would you stop your childish fit?" He gritted out, "you could injure yourself."
Selma was about to protest when a rain of liquid dropped on her face as Jamal sneezed. "Did you just—" Jamal's laughter drowned out her words, he walked into the warm house and placed Selma back on her feet. Before she could assault him any more, his own hands wrapped around her wrists.
"I'm sorry, love," his grin was very wide, holding his laughter in place. The amusement shining in his eyes made Selma smile, and she soon found herself giggling. "Now that I'm forgiven, would you come play nurse with me?"
"You could have said that in plain words instead of sneezing all over my face, you know? Now take the bags in and go settle down in bed, I'll be back with something."
Selma spent her time boiling and slicing, spending less than a second here before moving to the other side. Making sure Jamal wasn't coming to check up on her, she used a stool to hoist herself up to the height of the cupboards. After some more shuffling around, a tray holding a bowl of tomato soup and a plate of sliced bread that they bought on their drive down was balanced on her arm as she made her way to the room.
Jamal had moved some things from the master's bedroom upstairs to the guest room downstairs, so Selma didn't have to climb up. He was such an idiot sometimes.
"Whoa, why didn't you call me to help you get those?" Sneeze. "You could end up—" sneeze, "hurting our—" sneeze, "baby and yourself. Why are you so damn stubborn?"
The tray was snatched out of her hands, making Selma stand there with arms just stretched out. "Just shut up, Jamal, and lay back down. After all, you don't know what I had to do in order to make that soup."
His eyes were wide as he realized that, indeed, she could have hurt herself really bad on those hardwood floors. She was never stepping foot out of the room again.
"Whatever, I'll just lay down now, but don't leave this room without me. I'll lift you everywhere if I have to, okay? Now come feed me some soup, woman." Jamal walked past Selma with the tray, while she pinched his rear end as he passed by. He shot her a wink over his shoulder.
Selma walked towards him, lips between her teeth in what seemed to be the sexiest manner to Jamal. Her playfulness, that huge baby bump; he was finding it hard to keep his head straight when she settled beside him on the edge of the bed. Jamal's head was propped up by pillows so he was half sitting. Selma dipped her head down to give him a warming kiss for starters but her hair got in the way, tickling Jamal's nose.
For the second time that day, he sneezed on her.
"Okay that does it," she exclaimed, pushing herself up, "you can treat yourself to your meal. Enjoy, Halpern."
Jamal was kneeling on the bed, hands wrapped around his wife's torso, over her huge stomach. "Come on, Sel, would you leave me all by myself?" He turned her around so she could see his face, cute pout set ready. "So would you treat this cute little puppy now that he's sick?"
Selma rolled her eyes at his silliness, although it got to her heart and turned her organs into mush. "Get your ass down, Nurse Selma is coming for you." With a wide grin, Jamal bounced into the bed on his back and Selma crawled up to him. "Pass me the bowl of soup," he did so, "and the plate." She took some bread and dipped it into the soup. "Open up, J."
With the soaked bread in between Selma's fingers, Jamal closed his mouth on them all, licking the drops of soup off her slender fingers. The feeling made her stomach twist and she giggled. "You like?" He murmured.
"I love. But ew, you got your spittle all over my hand."
"Oh puh-lease," he joked, "I can get my spittle in your mouth. Feed me some more." Selma soaked some more bread, but placed it in her mouth. "Hey, that's mine! I want it right now."
She shrugged and leaned in with mouth open. Jamal closed his mouth over hers, taking out the bread with his tongue. Selma giggled and slapped his arm just as she pulled away. "Nasty, Halpern, pretty nasty."
"But you love me," he murmured then moved his lips so close to hers and whispered, "I sure as hell do, too."
...
Welcome on this journey!
This is my second full length novel ever written and I hope you have a great time reading as I do writing. Enjoy the ride, lovelies!
