Chapter 29
Bennett
"Are you sure that you know what you're doing?" Clarabella looks at me, and I put my head back and groan.
"I'm pretty sure I know how to twist a tube," I tell her as she taps her pen on the pad in front of her. “Unless it's changed again."
"It has not been changed." She smirks. “We did have to shut down a couple of suggestions from Travis and my mother."
"Oh, God." I grab my cup of coffee and take a sip. “Do I want to know?"
"Travis thought it would be a great idea to put you in nets and for us to kick balls at you until one of them exploded pink or blue." She taps her finger. “That was a maybe."
"Absolutely not," I say, shaking my head.
"We would have given you equipment so you can have more babies." She smirks at me and then looks down at my junk.
"Gorgeous!” I yell for Presley, who comes out of the bedroom. It's been a month since we decided to move in together. I mean, it's been a month since she said we should have one home. It took two days while we were off to go to her house and grab everything that she wanted to bring over. It took two more days before I saw little pieces of her all over the house. The throw pillows on the couch. The pictures of us now scattered around the house. It was exactly what I pictured when I bought this house. It was a dream to me. Waking with her every single day and then coming home to her. It was like a switch was flipped in her, and she was all-in. She would call me during the day. She would show up with snacks just for fun to see me. Before I thought she cared for me, there is no mistaking that she loves me. Every single time she says goodbye, it's followed with an I love you.
"Yes, dear." She smiles as she walks down the stairs. She's wearing a tight one-piece dress that shows her little belly, her hair is pinned up, and her eyes are shining as she makes her way to me. "I'm here." She hugs my waist, and I put a hand around her shoulder and kiss her head.
"Look at how cute you look." Clarabella grins and claps her hands as she looks her up and down.
"Well, now that it doesn't look like I overate and it actually looks like a baby bump, I might as well flaunt it." She rubs her belly. Just this morning, she got a little bit enraged that she felt fat. It took me fifteen minutes of talking her off the ledge. And by that, I mean I went and bought a cookie, which then made her smile.
"You don't even look pregnant from the back,” Clarabella says, and Presley just glares at her.
"Why are you even here?" Presley asks her between clenched teeth.
"We have to go over the gender reveal details." Clarabella looks down at the pad in front of her. “We already went over decorations and the guest list." Clarabella puts a check. “And Bennett nixed Travis's idea." She puts an X next to it and looks up at me with her eyebrows raised.
"I already nixed that,” Presley says. “Not going to happen." She lets go of me and walks over to the fridge and grabs the apple juice. "Neither is Mom's."
"Should I even ask what that was?" I ask, and Presley shakes her head.
"She wanted to do fireworks and then have a plane fly over you and throw colored water on us," Clarabella informs me, and I want to say that nothing surprises me with them, but that right there. That takes the cake.
"How about a pinata?" I ask.
"How about no." Clarabella doesn't even skip a beat.
"We are going to have the simple poppers." I hold up my hand. “That shoots out confetti." I look over at Presley.
"I want that." Presley points at me. “Nothing extravagant."
Clarabella throws her head back and laughs. “Nothing extravagant, sure." She closes the book she was writing in. “Okay, whatever you say." She pushes away from the island. “And don't forget you have to wear pink or blue. Whatever you think the baby is." She walks out the door, slamming it behind her.
"Why can't we just find out and pick up the phone and call people like they did in the old days?" I ask Presley, who just shakes her head.
"That would be way too easy." She laughs. “Are you driving to the doctor or am I?"
I push off, putting the coffee cup in the sink. “You know what would really be funny," I say, grabbing her hand as we walk out of the house. “If she can't tell the sex of the baby, and we put in yellow confetti."
"Don't even put that in the universe, Bennett,” Presley grits between clenched teeth. “Take it back." She glares at me, and all I can do is roll my lips to keep from laughing.
"Do you think maybe we should have found out the sex of the baby before everyone else?" Presley comes into the bathroom in a blush strapless lace bra with matching panties, and one look at her makes my cock rise. "Like, what if the poppers go off and we’re upset?”
"Is that bra new?" I turn, wiping my hand on the hand towel.
"Don't you ‘is that a new bra’ with me and don't even think of ripping these panties." She folds her arms under her tits, making them even more plump.
“That’s not helping.” I walk to her. “We can always slide them to the side.”
“Knock, knock, knock, knock." I hear the front door slam and tilt my head to look at her.
"It defeats the point when they yell knock, knock, knock, knock and they are already in the house." I bend and kiss her lips.
"You can try to keep them out," she whispers, “but nothing will help." Her eyes fly down to my dick. “You might want to put away your soldier before they come up."
"Why are they even here?" I hiss. “They told us to be there in twenty minutes. We aren't even late."
"Um, hello, are we ready to go?" Wwe hear being yelled from the staircase. “Can someone answer me, or I'm going to think that you guys are up there trying to get another baby in her."
"Can you imagine,” Presley says. “Already this one is tight." She turns and walks out of the bathroom and toward the hallway. I slip on shorts and a T-shirt and look over to see her walk out in a sundress.
"Why do we need to get ready at the venue?” I ask and it's at that moment I know that I'm not asking one more question for the rest of the day. Even when we get there and they usher me into another room so she can get glammed up.
"How’re you doing?" Travis asks me when he comes into the room ten minutes after I got here. I'm sitting on the couch, watching television with a bucket of beer in front of me.
"This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever done," I admit when I do a circle with the remote in my hand. “They won't even let me see her." My eyes look up and down, and I see him wearing blue pants with a baby-pink jacket. “What the hell are you wearing?"
"I didn't want to pick sides, so I'm neutral," he says, and I slap my leg, laughing, knowing that this is not going to go over well.
"Did anyone see you?" He sits down, grabbing a beer.
"Nope, and I'm hiding until it's time." He shakes his head, taking a pull of the beer. “You ready?"
"Not even close," I tell him, and then we don't say another word until Shelby comes in the room.
She's wearing a baby-pink dress. “Okay, so we have ten minutes to get out there. People are already mingling."
I put my beer down on the table and get up. “Where is Presley?"
"She's getting into her dress,” Shelby says. “So you need to get into your suit. I'm not going to say she's cranky, but I'm not not saying it." She turns and starts to walk out. “Next time you knock her up, I'm leaving for nine months."
I walk over to the baby-blue suit with a white button-down shirt, leaving the first two buttons open because I know she likes to kiss me near my collarbone. "If it helps," Travis says, “you look sexy as fuck." I can't stop the laughter that roars out of me.
We walk out of the room and head toward the party space. “Whoa," Travis says beside me. “This is…"
"What the fuck?" I mumble, seeing all the decorations. There are two high tables as soon as you walk in, one with a blue tablecloth, the other with a pink. Between the tables is a sign that says old wives' tales. Little details are telling you what she craves, how she sleeps, how high or low she is carrying. There is a huge wall full of pink, blue, and clear balloons around a sign that says He or She?
There are big pink and blue balloons all over the place with long tables in the middle of the room with white tablecloths and vases of pink, white, and blue flowers. "Hi," Clarabella says when she comes to me, and she's also wearing a pink dress, but hers is hot pink. “We are doing the poppers in about ten minutes."
"Where is Presley?" I ask, looking around, and I see her walking into the room, and my chest fills with even more love. Her black hair is loose, and she wears a strapless baby-pink dress. The top is tight until just under her boobs, and then it kicks out with what can only be described as thousands of layers of dress. It's so puffy, but it stops just above her knee in the front, but it falls to the floor in the back. I see her spin as she looks around, and it looks like every layer in the back has more and more tulle.
My feet walk on their own as I walk toward her. “You look…" I say when I get close enough, my arm going around her waist and being swallowed by the dress. “You've never looked more beautiful."
She smiles up at me, her eyes shining with happiness. “You don't look so bad yourself," she says right before I bend and kiss her lips. We don't have much alone time before we are pulled over to the side where there is a table filled with poppers.
"Okay, so we thought it would be better if we all pop one,” Clarabella says. “The pictures will be amazing."
I stand by the table as Clarabella tells everybody how it's going to go down. “Are you nervous?" I bend down and whisper in her ear, and all she can do is smile, but I see tears in her eyes.
"I don't care what we are having as long as the baby is healthy." She blinks away the tears and fans her face.
"Now"—Clarabella hands us each a popper—“on the count of three." She looks around the room. “And this is being filmed, so if you go before, I'm going to know who it is." She moves her finger back and forth around the room.
"She's scaring our guests," I mumble and Presley just rolls her lips.
"Okay, people," Clarabella starts saying. “One."
"I love you,” Presley says beside me.
"Two!” Clarabella shouts.
"I love you more," I declare, and when I hear three, I turn the bottom of the popper, and so does everyone else. The pink confetti fills the room, and all I can do is open my mouth in shock and happiness and look over at Presley, who has the same look on her face. She looks at the pink confetti falling on her, and it's at that moment that I take the next step.
I get down on one knee beside her, and the gasps fill the room, and she looks over at me. She puts her hands over her mouth, and she sobs out. “No," she says even before I ask anything, and everyone in the room goes quiet after she says that. “I was the one who had to propose." She shakes her head. “We had a plan." She points at her sisters, who nod, agreeing with her.
"Well, too bad," I say, looking over at Travis. “We had a plan also." Travis comes to stand beside me and hands me the box that I gave him before walking out.
"I can't believe you two," Shelby hisses.
"Why wouldn't you tell me?" Clarabella glares at Travis.
"Like you two told me?" Travis argues back.
"It was a surprise," Shelby snaps.
"Same," Travis retorts, and then Mrs. Baker snaps.
"I swear to God if this is on video and is being recorded, I'm going to hurt someone." She turns and looks at her kids, who all hold up their hands. Then she turns to me with a sweet smile. “Go on, dear."
"Presley," I begin, looking at her and seeing the tears run down her face. “Twelve years ago."
"Don't you dare," she says between clenched teeth, and she looks over at her mother, who glares at her. "I was eighteen, everyone. Relax."
"Like I was saying, twelve years ago, we went on our first date." I kind of lie just a bit to that. “I knew that it was special. I just didn't know how special it was." I grab her hand and bring it to my lips. “There is no one that I can picture beside me for the rest of my life but you. There is no one I want beside me for the rest of my life but you. You make me smile and frown, sometimes at the same time." The room laughs. “You drive me bonkers, but then you make it all better with just one smile." I smile through my own tears. “You've given me the ultimate gift by carrying our daughter." I choke when I say the words. "I would be honored and privileged to call you my wife. Will you marry me?"
"This isn't fair," she whines. “I had this whole speech, and now it's gone."
"Good," Mrs. Baker says. “Now answer his question."
"I want to counter your proposal," she says, laughing,
Travis groans, "Of course she does." He throws his hands in the air.
"I'll accept the proposal under one condition," she says, and I know that whatever she says, I'm going to give her because it's her. It's always been her. “We get married now."