"You get in, get on that vitamin shit or whatever you’re supposed to take, and then we can plan." He kissed again and then climbed off the bed, heading to the bathroom. He returned with a warm washcloth and settled it between my legs. "This okay?"
I sighed. "It’s heaven."
He finished with , discarded the towel, and then climbed into bed with , kissing my neck and wrapping himself around . I fell asleep almost imdiately and slept without waking.
A slobbery wet tongue woke the next morning, and it wasn’t the slobbery wet tongue I would have preferred. "Ugh, Barney. What are you doing?"
Barney jumped up and down on the bed, running his nose along the comforter and growling for to get up. I pulled him close and scratched his belly, craning my head to look at the clock. I sat up. It was noon. "Mack?" I called.
"Yeah, babe?"
"It’s noon."
He walked into the room, a grin covering his face. "Well done, Darien, you’ve learned how to tell ti."
I rolled my eyes. "Why didn’t you wake ? We have so much to do."
"We’ll get it all done, Dare."
"I don’t think you understand exactly how much there is," I countered. "We have to clean the bathrooms, make the bed, vacuum—"
Mack chuckled, cutting off my rant. "Party starts at six, Dare. We’ve got more than five hours to take care of everything."
"Exactly. We’ve only got five hours."
Mack leaned down and kissed . "Shower and I’ll make you sothing to eat when you get out."
"Does nothing ever faze you?"
He raised an eyebrow. "You want to get fazed over a dirty toilet?"
"No, because I cleaned the toilets yesterday."
He laughed. "You want to get fazed over shit we’re gonna take care of as soon as you get your cute ass out of bed?"
"Well, when you say it like that, I sound a little dramatic."
"No," he droned, sarcastically. "My Darien is never dramatic."
I smiled. "I love you, butthead."
"Love you too, PID."
He left the room and I decided to forego the shower for the mont. There was too much sweaty work still to be done. I hit the shower around four, and Mack and I put the final touches on the house just as Millie and Pauley arrived.
They were both intimately aware of our ho, considering they had been in it almost as much as Mack had been, so they moved straight to the kitchen to drop off wine, beer, and food.
"Are you going to want to chill so white, Dare?" Pauley asked.
"Yes, probably a good idea. I don’t know who will drink it, but good to have it."
"Can I pour you a glass of red?"
"No, it’s good."
"Darien Aherne is turning down wine? Is the world ending?" Millie asked.
Mack raised an eyebrow and I sighed. "Um. Well, the thing is... it looks like I might be pregnant."
Pauley gasped. "What?"
Mack wrapped his arm around my waist.
"I thought you were on the pill," Millie said.
"I am... was. I had to take those antibiotics when I had those stitches, so I think it happened then."
"I don’t know what to say," Pauley said.
"I know it’s fast," I whispered.
"Fast doesn’t even begin to cover what this is."
"Pauley."
"Darien, this is crazy, sissy," she continued. "You get that right?"
"Hm-mm," I mumbled.
I felt Mack’s body stiffen and then he muttered, "Excuse us," and pulled into our bedroom, closing the door behind us. "Dare?"
"Hmm?" I blinked back tears.
He cupped my cheeks and smiled. "Take a breath."
I took two.
"I’m here. Pauley can make all the statents she likes, all well-aning and shit, but I won’t allow her to ruin any of this. It’s a happy ti. All of this is good. Yeah?"
I nodded my head on autopilot.
"Darien?"
I dropped my head on his chest and wrapped my arms around him. "What if we’re making a huge mistake?"
"Then it’s our mistake to make."
"I don’t want to lose this."
"Baby." He sighed and gave a squeeze. "We’re not gonna lose it."
"How do you know?"
"For one, people a lot less in love have babies every day. We aren’t those people. We also don’t have financial shit draggin’ us down. We’re in a really good place."
"That is true."
He lifted my chin. "Do you love ?"
"With all my heart."
He smiled. "The rest is just life, honey, and we’ll figure it out as it cos."
I raised up on my tiptoes and kissed him gently. "Thanks, butthead."
"You’re welco, Pid." Mack chuckled and led back out into the kitchen. I was bolstered enough that I was able to have non-defensive conversation with my sister and she apparently figured out that nothing she said was going to change anything, so in the end it was all good.
Our closest friends trickled in over the next half hour or so and our ho was filled with bikers which, had I been told even six months ago would have happened, I wouldn’t have believed.
We’d thought about keeping the pregnancy news to ourselves, but (truth be told) we didn’t try that hard to keep it secret and since Mack had decreed the dress shopping bonanza a necessity the next day, I was surrounded by people who were ready to plan for a Dogs of Fire wedding. I’d also added a few to my shopping team since Dani, Payton, Cassidy, and Kim wanted to join in.
By the ti we closed the door on our last guest, set the alarm, and climbed into bed, I was wrapped in a cocoon of love and acceptance, the likes of which I’d never experienced before. Little did I know that that security would be shattered in a matter of days.
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