Ten: Our Happy Little Family

Did I mention Harrison's the heir for this generation? This chapter happens immediately after chapter eight, only it's from Harrison's POV...

   "I, Katie... Wait."
   "What?" She looked up at me, her gaze inquisitive. "You are ready to have a baby, aren't you?"
   "Yeah, yes I am. There's just... I don't know how to tell you this." I had to tell her before we started trying to have our own child.
   "Harrison, what's wrong? Oh, God, did you lose your job? Are your parents sick? Is it Veronica? Is she not handling the breakup with Lyla very well?"
   "No, no, my family's fine... I mean, Ronnie's as okay as she can be and my parents are experiencing the normal woes of growing older, but other than that, they're fine." I took a deep breath, attempting to figure out how to tell her. "This afternoon, I... I got this message on Facebook. From a girl that I hooked up with."

   "You, you bastard-d! You cheated on me? I don't believe it... God, I love you, how could you?"
    "No, no! It was eleven years ago. Before I began my junior year, before I met you. I'd never cheat on, I love you and our life, I'd never be so crass, so inconsiderate, so stupid to ruin that, to do that to you." This news may ruin our life together. I hoped it didn't. "Look, I just want you to remember: I love you."
   "I love you, too." She sighed, gazing steadily at me. "Can I read the messages?" I nodded, handing her my phone.

   "You... You have a son?" 

   "I, I do... I was foolish and drunk and twenty-one and she was eighteen and then I went back to college and she moved to South Carolina for college and I just want to do what's right. I want to have a child with you, but I also have a child with her, apparently, and I don't want to isolate him. I want to be a father to him, if you're okay with that. I know, it's rash, we'll do a paternity test first... He's ten. I missed out on a decade of his life and I don't want to miss out on anymore. I'm sorry."

   "Harrison... I love you. It's, it's... You'll do a paternity test first?" I nodded. "Promise?"

   "Promise."

   "And will they fly here to meet you?"

   "I'm sure they can." I could tell she was thinking, her husband had just announced he already had a child and he wanted to meet up with him and his one night stand. Our marriage was already strained; we were living in a state neither of had a connection to, because of my job, Katie was having difficulty finding a job, I'd been procrastinating having a kid, because I was worried we might move again and I wanted to know we could settle in and raise a family here, I had just been a real asshat about her adopting Romy, now I was throwing in another twist. "Look, Katie, I know this is insane, it's a complete bombshell, so whatever you want to do, we can. If you want to meet them in Barcelona, I'm down, I just want you to be happy and be able to meet Colin."

   "Barcelona? I've heard Spain's lovely this time of year..." She smirked, leaning closer. "Harrison, I'm not going to keep you from meeting you son... My step-son..."

   "Thank you. God, you don't know how much this means to me."

   "I might, after we have our own child..." 

   "You know, we can't have our own child if we don't..." I leaned forward, slowly kissing her lips. I wrapped my arms around her, lifting her onto the dryer. Our clothes fell onto the floor, carelessly cast aside. It didn't matter how many barriers we faced, it didn't matter how stressed we were, we still loved each other after ten years of marriage and we had enough love to welcome a new soul into the world, into our happy little family.

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Ten: Bloody Hell, Not What I Meant

  "I haven't been to the gym in ages." I commented, as James and I strode past men and woman who we're working on their fitness.

   "The damn head injury?" He asked curiously, as I entry shook my head. 

   "My apartment got a minuscule workout room. It's a bit stuffy, but it prevents me from having to get up even earlier in order to make it I the gym."

   "Ah... We should add that to the List."

   "Really? That's what comes to mind?" I rolled my eyes, sighing. As he innocently shrugged, a boyish grin appearing on his face.

   The List, a rather innocent name for a ridiculously naughty thing that he and I had come up with after our first time doing it, it happened to occur in the X-Ray room in the hospital the day I'd been released- four days after I had been admitted- a location both of us had admitted was new. Now we mentally noted interesting places where we could consummate our relationship again and again and again on the list- it was growing rather lengthy: an IKEA bathroom, up against my wall of windows, his car, my building's laundry room, the planetarium, Sandi's apartment building's elevator, my parent's backyard from when they'd ask me to house sit for them when they went on a vacation. With each location on the list, we'd agreed to try a new position; a compromise I'd come up with after I decided that our places of employment were off limit. 

   "The room's meant for people to get hot and sweaty in." He shrugged. "We'd be using it for it's intended purposes, the next position will definitely involve burning off a few calories and us sweating."

   "If you didn't have a British accent, that wouldn't have sounded so appealing."

   "A pleasant perk of being a foreigner." I threw open the room to the pool, as he followed me in, the potent smell of chlorine filling my nostrils, as I cast aside my flimsy dress, revealing my bikini. "Are you sure that you've done it in a pool before? I mean, can we not count it, since the encounter was with a woman?" He teased. "Since a pool would make a lovely addition to the List."

   "Oh, go to hell." I teased, kissing him, before gesturing towards the other gym patrons, who were lingering in the water, mouthing for him to shush about the List.  

   I eased myself into the crisp, cool water as he stood, still in his street clothes, perched by the edge of the pool. 

   "This is going to sound ridiculously cheesy, but, even though I've only known you four months…" I trailed off, looking up at him. I loved him. He loved me. We loved each other, yet the thing I felt, this emotion, I couldn't express it with such a strong emotion, a deep passion, a deep admiration, I couldn't simply call it love.

   "Rather lovely, the past few months have been."

   "Agreed."

   "However, I believe that we should stop doing this, well, this dating thing." Stop doi- What the fu- The goddamn bastard. Talking about the list, than... The anger slammed into me, as I bobbed, up and down, in the crystal clear water. The water was so serene, quiet, gently swishing around those who ventured into its depths, as the raging turbulence of dark, vengeful, stormy dead filled me. 

   There was a faint smile, a smirk, deceitful, mocking my innocence, my naivety, mocking that I loved him, spread across his putrid face, the stupid face that was covered with blonde peach fuzz. Instinctively, I reached out, my arms tentacles, pulling at his leg, as he stumbled into the pool, as he shouted in utter confusion. 

   "You son of a bitch, you motherf-"

   "Lavender, what- I'm soaked!" He was bobbing in the water in his shorts, his raggedy t-shirt, as I heard snickering from behind me. The other patrons were gesturing towards us, as they slowly egressed the room, wrapping themselves in thin towels, heading towards the changing rooms, leaving us to secrecy, to privacy.

 

   "You have the nerve to suggest where we should have sex next, than you- you tell me we should stop dating!?"

   "Bloody hell, not what I meant, that's not what I meant at all... Lavender, I, I..." He began patting his pockets, as horror consumed him. "Fu-!" He paused, glancing towards the filters of the pool, as he swan towards them hurriedly, sticking his hand in the first one he reached. 

   "What are you doing?"

    "I- hold on." He pulled out his hand, his fingers clasped around a shiny object. "I've been carrying this around after your hospital accident, I, I realized that I couldn't, I didn't want to be without you... I was married, I known her for years, and we didn't last, time... Time doesn't change how you feel, how I feel, I.. Lavender, I don't want to be without you ever." He opened his fingers, revealing a glimmering metallic ring, emeralds and pearls surrounding a large diamond.

   "Yes." I replied, looking from his hand, to his face, as he smiled, slipping it on my left ring finer. 

   "My mother's ring." He replied, as he embraced me with his soaking wet sleeves.

   I was engaged.

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