The Act of Forgiveness

30

The Christmas holiday was in full swing in Los Angeles. The fact that it was still in the 70's during the day never seemed to damper anyone's holiday spirit, but it did feel odd trying to find light sweaters for an ugly sweater party that the three of us had been invited to. I didn't want us to get too hot, but I wanted to find something that would still be fun and bright.

Kai and Jensen had announced their party a few days after we returned from Mexico and that is all that Jensen could talk about. She's gone over food and decorating plans probably 15 times in the last week and I just nodded encouragingly whenever she got on a tangent. I was happy that she was so enthusiastic about it, but I could only hear about garland and sugar cookies so many times. It was still two weeks before Christmas, but they wanted to host early so they didn't miss anyone because of traveling.

Because my pregnancy was considered high risk, Jasper and I had already been back for another appointment since our first. I was officially twelve weeks along and we were disappointed to find out that we were still a little too early to see the baby on a sonogram, but when my blood work came back, everything seemed alright. This visit was much shorter than our first, but that was expected. It helped me sleep a little better at night to know that my baby and I were alright.

Jasper was fully launching himself into baby mode, he was trying to convince me that we needed to start buying stuff for the nursery, but I often reminded him that we still had six months to plan for this baby. We usually found ourselves wondering about genders and names late at night. I wouldn't mind having another girl, but I think I would be more excited to have a boy so we could have one of each. Jasper has already made it pretty clear that he wants another little girl to spoil like Evelyn. Our late night conversations often ended in laughing fits as we bantered back and forth.

"Do you have E's outfit ready for tonight?" Jasper asked as he stepped out of the bathroom, his white towel hanging loosely around his waist as he ran a hand through his hair.

"You look hot." I blurted, a blush covering my cheeks and a giggle escaping my mouth shortly after. His eyebrows arched comically and his eyes widened. A small smirk pulled his lips up slightly as he glanced at me. "But, yes, I do."

All he did was grin at me once more before turning into the bathroom again. I flopped onto the pillows behind me and threw an arm over my eyes as I blushed again. My hormones were thrown off from being pregnant and I seemed to have lost my filter whenever a thought entered my brain. Did it really matter though? We had dated for a total of four years and we had one, almost two kids together, I figured it was ok to flirt with him still.

When Jasper re-emerged, he was fully clothed with his blond hair sticking to his forehead as it was still wet. He shook his hair out and ran a hand through it before grinning at me. "Wanna take a shower while I get Evelyn ready?"

I nodded slowly and stood from the bed, walking over to Jasper and throwing my arms around his neck. I stood for a few moments, hugging him tightly and swaying slowly. He had his nose buried in my messy bed hair, as we had been lounging around all morning and afternoon. He hummed happily before pressing a kiss to my neck.

"Are you feeling loving today?" He asked, still not letting go.

"I think so." I replied with a light giggle. I squeezed him once more before pulling away and resting my arms on his shoulders. His blue eyes shown with happiness as we held eye contact. "I love you J."

"And I love you." He kissed me quickly before breaking away and patting my back to encourage me to go to the bathroom.

I walked into the room and closed the door, pulling my clothes off slowly. I turned the water on and set it to a warm temperature, watching as the water fell and I waited for it to warm up. After sticking my hand in to double check that it was warm enough, I stepped in and sighed in relief. For some reason my back had been bothering me when I slept, so I often woke up sore in the morning. I turned my back to the water to let the heat soothe my muscles.