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Flying with an almost toddler is a challenge. Finding out that flying while pregnant makes me nauseous this time around? Well that was just a goddamn nightmare. I spent most of the flight in the bathroom. Mom was there to meet us when we got off the plane. Eric and I have a two hour layover before we change planes to fly into Antigua.

Ella’s asleep in his arms when I spot Mom. We haven’t told anyone we’re having another baby yet. Eric wants to wait until the first trimester is over but if I’m by myself with morning sickness like last time I may have to say something to someone.

Mostly I want to tell my mother.

“Hi!” my mom says with a big smile as she comes up to us and wraps me in a hug.

“Hi,” I say in a weaker voice than usual. My throat is a little hoarse from throwing up so much.

“Are you feeling okay?” she asks. “You sound sick.”

“My throat’s just a little sore. No big deal.”

“Take some vitamin c before you get on the next flight,” she says. “I’m sure you can get some orange juice from a bar here.”

“I will,” I promise her.

“Oh goodness she’s gotten so big,” Mom says when she sees Ella.

“Yeah, growing like a weed,” Eric smiles proudly.

“Don’t be surprised if she tries to walk along the furniture,” I warn. If she takes her first steps and Eric isn’t there he’s going to flip out.

“I’m sure she’ll be all over the place,” she says.

“Yeah chasing her is going to be tons of fun with my big–” I stop myself short of outing myself. “Feet. You know ever since I had Ella they’re a size bigger.”

Ugh. Eric’s right. I’m a shit liar.

“Just tell her,” Eric says with a laugh.

Mom looks confused.

“I’m pregnant.”

“What?” she asks.

“Pregnant. Second grandchild in the works,” I say nervously.

“Oh my goodness!” She wraps me in another hug and then asks, “Was it planned?”

“Not on our end,” I laugh. “It’s actually kind of my fault. I let my birth control lapse when I got sick and I completely forgot about it. I went to go get a shot and they ran a test. Thank God because I had no idea.”

“Wow. But it’s a happy accident,” she smiles. “I promise you at a certain point it’s much easier having two than one.”

“I hope so,” I sigh.

“You’ll be fine,” she says. “You’re a wonderful mother, and you’ve got a great guy to be the father of your kids.”

“Thanks, Michelle,” Eric beams.

“I know we’ll be okay. I’m still letting it sink in. The vomiting helps, oddly enough. And your new grandbaby will be here at the beginning of April.”

“This is so exciting! I can’t wait to tell your father.”

“Maybe he’ll get his grandson this time.”

“He’ll be happy with whatever he gets,” she says.

“I know he will.”

Ella starts to fuss and buries her face in Eric’s neck.

“I think somebody needs mommy snuggles,” Eric says.

I reach over and peel Ella off of Eric. She rests her head on my chest while I rub her back, and I turn so Mom can see her.

“Ella, look who’s here,” I say and kiss her head.

“Hi sweetie,” Mom smiles at her. Ella reaches out for her, so I hand her over to Mom.

“Have fun getting spoiled rotten, kiddo.”

“Oh we’re going to have so much fun,” she says.

Eric stands up and wraps an arm around my shoulders.

“We packed a whole suitcase for her,” he says. “There’s lists in there of food she likes and the times she normally eats. All the numbers to reach us are there, and we’ll stay logged into Skype around her bedtime so we can say goodnight.”

“I’m sure I can handle it, Eric,” Mom smiles.

“Remind Daddy there aren’t supposed to be any presents with a pulse,” I tell Mom.

“Yeah, when they get their first puppy, I’m going to be the hero,” Eric says.

“I’m allergic to dogs,” I say with my best poker face.

“What?” Eric asks. “Seriously? I was going to get Ella a puppy when she turns five.”

“Tell him, Mom.”

“Tell him what?”

“I’m just joking, Eric. I’m not allergic to dogs.”

“You’re evil,” he says.

“She’s just doing her job,” Mom smiles.

“Besides, one of the kids could be allergic,” I point out.

“But they’re not,” he says.

“You don’t know that.”

“Stop killing my buzz,” he says.

“Be nice, Sookie,” Mom laughs, and bounces Ella a little.

“I wasn’t being mean,” I say defensively. “Unless Eric is a psychic he doesn’t know.”

“Just let him have the hope that he will be able to give the kids puppies someday.”

Puppies I’ll end up cleaning up after.

Ella’s bag comes out on the carousel and we walk Mom to her car to see them off. It’s getting late and Ella’s going to be hungry soon.

“We’ll call you when we get to the resort,” I promise Mom when we get to the car.

“Okay,” she says, and gives both of us a hug. “I love you both. Stay safe and have fun.”

“I’m sure we will.” I lean over to kiss Ella’s head. “You be good for Gran. I love you. Give me a kiss.”

Ella tilts her head up and presses her mouth against mine. I’m going to miss this baby like crazy. Eric gets her next, and when he lets go of her she says, “Bye bye bye!”

I lean against Eric and try not to cry. Mom puts Ella in the car seat and I wave to her.

“We’ll send you a text when we get home so you’ll have something cute to see when you get off the plane,” she says.

“Thanks, Mom.” I step forward to hug her one more time.

“Anytime, sweetie,” she says. “Everything’s going to be fine. I didn’t screw you up too badly. Your brother…”

“I don’t even know how that happened,” I laugh.

“I think your dad dropped him a couple times and never told me about it.”

“Or he closed the dresser drawer with Jase in it,” I snicker.

“That is entirely possible,” she laughs.

I move out of the way so Mom can hug Eric goodbye and look through the back window of the car to see Ella reaching out for me. I can’t hear it over the other noise around but I can see that she’s crying. They’re the big, fat tears that always break my heart every time I see them. I want to open the door and comfort her but I know if I do that’s just going to make it worse because I can’t take her with me.

Eric wraps an arm around me and waves at Ella like nothing’s wrong. My mom leaves quickly because she knows as well as I do that staying put and dragging it out will only make it worse. As soon as they’re out of sight Eric pulls me into a hug and rubs my back.

“I feel like a shitty mom for leaving her,” I tell him, knowing he probably feels like a shitty dad for leaving her, too.

“I know what you mean,” he says. “But once your mom distracts her she’ll calm down and have a blast.”

“I know. It just sucks in the meanti–” I cover my mouth and run for the nearest trashcan.

I fucking hate morning sickness.

xXx

By the time we finally get to Antigua, I’m exhausted. Between the flights and the throwing up all I want to do is take a shower and go to sleep. It’s not at all how I saw us spending our first night on the island, but I don’t have the energy to do anything else. This whole trip is supposed to be about relaxing and doing nothing, which is just fine with me. I’d like to get out and explore the island a little while we’re here, but if we only leave the resort once or twice, I’m okay with that, too.

The cottage we’ve been assigned to is beautiful. We have an oceanfront room with two private balconies. One has a hammock on it, which I fully intend to take a nap in at least once before we leave. There’s a king size bed and two bathrooms in our room. It’s too bad it’s already dark by the time we arrive, but I’m sure we’ll have a great view come sunrise. Eric asks the bellhop and we find out that the balcony off of our bedroom faces the east and the one off the living area faces the west, so we’ll have spectacular views to look at pretty much all day long.

Weather in Antigua isn’t too different from Los Angeles this time of year, although it does seem to be a bit cooler. The last couple of days it’s been up over 100 back home, so eighty-degrees is a nice cool streak for us. Thank God I packed plenty of bikinis.

“This is amazing,” I say once we’re alone with our luggage.

Eric wanted to pack just a toothbrush.

Despite how tired I am the neat freak in me won’t let me fall into bed until I’ve unpacked my clothes, so after Eric hauls my suitcase up on the bed for me, I get started on it. I swear he doesn’t even want me lifting a gallon of milk. I’m lucky he lets me pick up Ella.

“I just want to dive into that pool outside,” he says as he plops onto the bed.

“It’s just a plunge pool, babe. If you dive in I’m going to spend the rest of my life pushing strollers and your wheelchair,” I tell him.

“I know,” he laughs. “I wasn’t planning to actually dive into it. I am planning to fuck you in it at some point though.”

“That goes without saying,” I say as I move back and forth from the bed to the dresser. “Maybe I’ll jump in there instead of taking a shower. We can get our first night skinny dip out of the way. Well, you can skinny dip. I’ll chunky dunk.”

“You’re not fat,” he sighs. “You’re sexy and you’re going to be sexy this whole vacation.”

“Even when I’m puking my guts out?”

“You’re still sexy while being gross then,” he smiles.

“Good to know.”

It takes me a few more minutes to get us unpacked and then Eric is off the bed, stripping off his clothes. I go out to the balcony off of our bedroom and carefully get into the hammock. It’s comfortable, but with my luck I’ll fall out of it.

“We need one of these for our house!” I call out to him. I could lay in one of these and read for hours.

He comes out completely naked and says, “I don’t think we can have sex in one of those.”

“I don’t think it would be a great idea. Maybe if I wasn’t pregnant I’d be brave enough to try it.”

“Yeah, too easy to fall out of that,” he says, and stretches.

“Are you going to go jump in that pool?” I ask and look over at the little private pool. It’s a little bigger than a hot tub and only five feet deep, but it’s a nice place to cool off if you don’t want to shower or go down to the beach.

“Thinking about it.”

“I probably should have just let you pack a toothbrush only, huh?”

If he gets dressed more than twice while we’re here, I’ll be shocked.

“Probably,” he grins. “One day you’ll break down and tell me how much you love looking at me naked.”

“You mean the two children I’m bearing for you aren’t enough?”

“That just means you slept with me twice.”

“Coulda been through a hole in a sheet, right?”

“Exactly.”

I laugh and say, “You look damn sexy naked.”

“Thank you,” he smiles, and leans down to give me a kiss. “Now would you like to join me in the pool and get lucky, or would you like to stay in the hammock and probably fall asleep?”

“Is it sad that both sound really good?”

“Nope. You’ve been flying and puking and crying already today.”

I think it over for a few seconds and then say, “Get me out of this thing so I can get naked.”

“Excellent choice,” he grins, and helps pull me out of the hammock.

“You go get in the pool and I’ll meet you there.”

“Deal,” he smiles, and heads for the pool.

EPOV

Leaving Ella behind was by far the hardest thing I’d had to do as a parent. I didn’t expect to miss her so much, and my heart broke when she was sobbing and reaching for us from the back of Michelle’s car. I knew she’d be okay, but that didn’t make it any easier.

Thankfully Antigua is gorgeous. It helps take our minds off of missing Ella for a bit. Sookie’s OCD kicks in and she has to unpack our bags before we can do anything. But when that’s done she definitely got into the pool with me naked and we christened Antigua. After that she was pretty much exhausted and opted for a nap. I joined her for it, and it was heaven. There was no worrying about the baby waking up, and the bedroom was very open with the breeze and the sounds of the ocean coming in. It made for a very relaxing nap.

I wake up before Sookie, so I go in search of food. There’s a mini fridge and it has little complimentary sandwiches in it. I’m so hungry that I eat them both and pray Sookie doesn’t hit me for it. There’s a restaurant we can eat at when she wakes up, plus 24-hour room service.

Before I left the room I grabbed the engagement ring from the pair of socks I hid it in. I look at it with a smile, but I’m still nervous about it. I know in my heart that she’s going to say yes, but my head still has doubts. Mostly it’s because I know I’m not Jake. I’m not as good as him, but I’m better than I was.

I’m not totally sure when I want to ask her. I’ve never been great at romantic stuff, but this looks like one of the most romantic feeling places in the world. I figure I can wait for the perfect moment and just do it.

I hear Sookie coming down the stairs, and quickly shove the ring in my pocket. Her walking in on me looking at it is not the way I want to propose.

“Hey,” I smile when she comes up behind me. She wraps her arms around my shoulders and I reach behind the chair to touch her legs. I look up at her and she leans down to kiss me. “Sleep well?”

“Like a rock,” she says. “How long have you been up?”

“About thirty minutes,” I say. “Long enough to eat the food in the mini fridge.”

“All of it?”

“Yeah…” I admit sheepishly.

“Figures,” she laughs quietly. “It’s okay. I’m not hungry anyway. Eating isn’t really fun when you know it’s just going to come right back up.”

“So you think it’s more than just the flying?”

“I think it’s morning sickness.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’d say it’s not your fault, but it kinda is.” Sookie moves around and parks herself on my lap. “It’s beautiful out here. I didn’t think it got better than watching sunsets in our backyard, but I think this beats home.”

“I think you’re right,” I smile, and wrap my arms around her. “We should go for a walk on the beach later.”

“Hell yes we should,” she agrees.

“What about now though?”

“I don’t know. What do you want to do?”

“We can do anything. Wanna go just walk around?”

“Sure.”

She gets up off my lap and takes my hand to pull me up. We go back to the room to put on more clothes, and then we head out the door.

“Do you like turtles?” I ask Sookie.

“Turtles? Yeah, I guess. I never really gave it much thought.”

“There’s a turtle sanctuary here,” I say. “There’s also a zoo or something that’s all donkeys.”

“I’ll take the turtle sanctuary. I’m guessing it smells less funky.”

“Perfect,” I smile.

We walk around for a while and finally ask for directions to the turtle preserve. It’s pretty fun and the people are really nice. I get a lot of cute pictures of Sookie and the turtles, and we even get to see some babies. I never realized just how tiny they are.

After the turtles, Sookie feels like she can eat, so we find a little restaurant and go in. The sun is going down, and it looks gorgeous.

“Is there something you can eat here?” I ask her as we look over the menu. There’s a lot of fresh fish on it.

“Yeah, I think so,” she says, her eyes scanning the menu.

“You look beautiful tonight,” I say.

She looks up from the menu with a smile and says, “Thank you.”

“Ella is going to be so jealous of the turtles.”

“I think she might be a little young to know just what she missed, but someday she’ll want us to bring her here,” Sookie predicts.

“I think we could do that. We’d need baby gates everywhere though.”

“If we keep being failures at using birth control properly, yes, we will,” she laughs.

“We’ll do better next time,” I smile. “Or I could get snipped.”

“I think we can shelve that conversation for the time being,” she says. “It’s not like you get knock me up a second time right now.”

“All I’m saying is that when we decide we don’t want anymore kids, I’d be okay with getting snipped. It’s easier for me to do than you having to be on birth control or getting your tubes tied or something like that.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” she nods. “Do you know what you want to eat?”

“Definitely the lobster,” I say.

“You know I’ve never had lobster before.”

“It’s delicious, but I’m not sure you can have it while you’re pregnant.”

“I know I shouldn’t have fish but I don’t know about lobster. I never thought to ask since I’ve never had it before.” Sookie pulls out her cell phone and starts tapping at the screen. Her eyes move as she reads and then she’s smiles. “It’s lower in mercury than a lot of fish. It’s okay for me to eat it occasionally but not every day. Same goes for shrimp, so I’m safe.”

“Want to order it too, or do you just want to try mine?” I ask.

“I’ll just try yours in case I don’t like it. I know I like coconut shrimp so I’m all set.”

“Sweet,” I grin.

When the waitress comes back we order our food, and as we wait we talk a little about our plans for tomorrow.

“I say we do nothing, then some more nothing, then even more of that,” I say. “And by nothing I mean sex. Lots of sex.”

Sookie laughs and says, “You do realize that sex with you requires more energy than running a marathon, right?”

“Yup,” I grin proudly.

“As long as you know that.”

“I’ll make sure you’re fed and hydrated between rounds.”

“We’ll see how much energy I have.”

“We have all week.”

“We do,” she nods. “So… what are the odds that this new kid is going to be a jerk like Ella was and not let us see if it’s a boy or a girl?”

“Being that it’s our kid, probably pretty good,” I laugh. “But I hope this one has mercy on us.”

“That would be nice.”

“Are you still ok with naming it Jake if it’s a boy?” I ask.

“Yeah, I am. I think it would almost be weird if we didn’t.”

“Me too,” I say. “First name or middle name?”

“I don’t know. I guess it depends on what other names we like. We’ll have to see how they flow.”

“What about Eric Jake Northman?”

“I thought you said you didn’t want to name your son after yourself?” Sookie looks at me curiously.

“I was joking,” I chuckle.

“Ah,” she nods. “Well it wouldn’t be bad, but it would have to be Eric Jacob, which was Jake’s real first name. Eric Jake doesn’t sound right to me.”

“I like the sound of Eric Jacob, but I still don’t want my son named after me,” I say. “We can keep Jacob on the table for a middle name though.”

“Works for me. I’m guessing Jared is still a no, huh?”

“Hell no. Jared Jacob? JJ? No.”

She laughs and moves her hair out of her face when a breeze blows it forward.

“It could be worse,” she shrugs. “It was worth a shot.”

“I don’t think it can get worse than JJ.”

“Sure it can. It could be Edward Jacob.”

My face goes blank and I say, “No.”

Sookie bursts out laughing and says, “That was a joke, Eric.”

“I know, but no.”

“Oh I agree. Don’t worry.”

“What about something grand, like Reginald.”

“Reginald? You don’t like Jared, but Reginald is okay?”

“Again, joking,” I laugh. “What about Archibald? We could call him Archie.”

“Dad would love that,” she says seriously.

“Wait, really?”

“Yes, really. He’s a fan of All In the Family.”

“Do you like it?”

“The name or the show?”

“The name.”

“Not really.”

“Damn. I could always use brownie points with your dad.”

“We could call the kid that in utero,” she suggests.

“That’d be good,” I smile.

“Then it’s settled,” she says and looks at her stomach. “From now on, we’ll be calling you Archie, kid. Get used to it.”

I grin, and say, “Perfect.”

The waitress comes with our food a few minutes later and Sookie’s eyes go wide at the size of the shrimp on her plate.

“Holy coconut shrimp, Batman,” she mutters. “You may have to help me with all of this.”

“No problem,” I grin. My lobster is huge, but I know I can polish it off easily and still help Sookie out. “Want to try this?”

“Sure.”

I get her a piece ready and dip it into the butter, then hand it to her. Sookie takes it from me and tries a little bite. She chews for a second and then smiles.

“It’s not bad. I don’t know if it’ll ever be my favorite, but it’s not bad,” she says and then eats the rest. “We’ll see what Archie thinks, since he’s the judge.”

“Archie better be nice because Daddy wants to enjoy a walk on the beach later,” I say. I also want to propose.

“Let’s hope this kid listens better than Ella did.”

“Ella still doesn’t listen. Maybe it’s just a trait for her. Teen years are going to be fun,” I say.

“Oh yes they will.”

We finish eating about thirty minutes later, and then start walking back towards the cottage. It’s all along the beach, so we go ahead and take our shoes off and just walk in the sand. The moon is already shining bright and it’s a really clear night. I take Sookie’s hand and try to work myself up for what I’m about to do.

My other hand is stuffed in my pocket, fingering the ring I hid there earlier. My palms are getting sweaty, and I’m being unusually quiet. I know she’s going to suspect something if I don’t start talking.

“Sand is cool, isn’t it?”

Sookie smiles and says, “I guess. I mean, if you compress it or get it hot enough it becomes glass, so yeah… that’s pretty cool.”

Shit, she had to come back with a cool fact about sand.

“Yeah, I saw that in that movie. It was cool.”

“You watched Sweet Home Alabama?” Sookie looks up at me with a cheeky smile.

“Yeah, I was up for a part in it. I wanted to see if Josh Lucas did a better job than I would have.”

“Nice cover.”

“It’s true!” I laugh. “They said I looked too young for the part at the time.”

“I didn’t think Hollywood ever said that.”

“They did! They loved me, but I wasn’t convincingly old enough to play Reese Witherspoon’s age.”

“Bummer.”

Her making me laugh made me forget my nervousness, and before I know it, I’m stopping in my tracks and getting down on one knee.

“Do you want to sit?” Sookie asks, clearly not getting where I’m going.

“Sookie, I love you,” I say.

“I love you too.”

“I’ve realized some things lately, and the biggest one is that I’m ready and tired of waiting. I want to spend the rest of my life with you and Ella and Archie and whatever other kids we end up having, hopefully on purpose,” I smile, and pull the ring out of my pocket. I hold it up in front of her and say, “Sookie Stackhouse, will you marry me?”

Her jaw drops. I’ve succeeded in surprising her. She stares at the ring, then at me, then at the ring and then at me again.

“I really, really hope you’re not thinking your answer over right now,” I chuckle nervously.

“I’m sorry,” she shakes her head. “I’m just… I didn’t expect this. It’s not because of the baby, right? I mean we don’t have to get married because of that.”

“It’s because I love you,” I say. “I told you I wanted to wait until I knew I was ready, and I know now. We can do it after the baby is born if that’s what you want; I just want to know that you want to marry me.”

“I do,” she says quickly. “I mean yes. I mean yes, I’ll marry you.”

“Really?” I ask with a big smile and a huge sense of relief.

“Yes,” she nods with tears filling her eyes.

I stand up and wrap my arms around her before swinging her around in a circle. She laughs a little, and I set her down again so I can kiss her.

“I love you so much,” I say.

“I love you too,” she says and pushes up on her toes to kiss me again.

“Can I put the ring on now?” I ask after a minute of kissing.

“Yes.” Sookie lets go of me and offers her hand.

I slide the ring onto her finger, and then let her look at it.

“Ella helped me pick it out,” I say.

“My daughter’s got great taste. It’s a beautiful ring. I love it,” she says with a smile and looks up at me. “Thank you.”

“I’m glad you like it,” I grin, and pull her into me for another kiss.

She wraps her arms around my neck and her fingers play in my hair as she kisses me back.

“What do you say we get back to the cottage and celebrate?” I ask in a whisper.

“Sounds like a great idea.”

“Then let’s go,” I grin, and take her hand again.

 

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