UNDER CONSTRUCTION, CHAPTER 26

 

          Charlie didn’t give their unprotected sex any further thought, mainly because her life was so busy. Her construction company had more projects than ever which required promoting and hiring new workers. Since she’d pretty much finished up in Texas, she had Dennis fly down there to make sure the final punch list work was finished the way she wanted. She also convinced him to take his daddy so Mr. Eb could have some Texas barbeque.

Since her dad didn’t appear to have a lot to do and her mamma was wedding busy, Charlie called on him to come in to the office and help out with the promotion decisions as well as interviewing potential workers. She knew he’d do a great job because he was the one that had taught her the skills she had and used.

Meanwhile, Adam was extremely busy too. When not hunkered down in her house writing, he was at his place watching and pitching in with the remodel. Charlie didn’t check it out too often because it was Adam’s and Terrance’s project. True, one of Charlie’s crews was doing the work, but she just knew she’d end up providing unwanted input if she spent much time there. Adam wanted the house to be finished by the time they returned from their honeymoon.

Charlie had tried every trick she knew to get Adam to tell her about the honeymoon, but hadn’t had any luck at all. That man could keep his mouth tightly closed when he wanted to. All he’d told her was that when the wedding was close, he’d tell her what she needed to pack for their adventure.

What brought the night of unbridled passion in the truck back into Charlie’s head was her opening the cupboard to pull out a fresh roll of toilet paper. There, on the shelf below were her tampons and that was when she realized her period hadn’t arrived as it always had…on time. For a bit, she was sure she must have gotten the dates wrong, but when she checked the calendar on her phone, she realized she was almost three weeks late.

Unfortunately, she was at the office and could only stare at her calendar until Stephanie buzzed her to say her daddy wanted to talk to her. So, she had to push her new potential knowledge aside and get down to business. Even so, she must have looked a bit different because her daddy asked if she was okay to which she’d responded fine, followed with a laugh.

At the end of the day, Charlie drove home sort of hoping Adam would be next door. She sat in her truck for a while and tried to decide how she felt about the possibility she was pregnant. “Fuck,” she muttered to herself. “Fuck, fuck, fuck. You know without a doubt you’re pregnant. Your periods are never late. So, now what?”

She was so lost in her own thoughts, she didn’t realize Adam had walked up until he startled her by opening her door. “How come you’re just sitting here? I poured your wine and was going to start dishing up dinner when I realized you hadn’t even gotten out of the truck. What’s going on?”
          “Oh, just thinking about some stuff. Work and wedding plans. You know my mamma’s just about driving me crazy.” Charlie responded, climbing out of the truck and slinging one arm around Adam’s waist.

They went into dinner and talked of this and that, but Charlie was having a hard time staying focused on the conversation. She also wondered if she should be drinking her glass of wine. And, what about all the other glasses she’d drunk since that welcome home? She’d probably done something terrible to the fetus and it would mature without a head or too many toes or fingers or something horrible.

“Charlie, hey Charlie. Where did you go? What’s going on? You really aren’t yourself tonight and I don’t think it’s got anything to do with the wedding or work.”

Once again, Charlie managed to deflect Adam’s interest and forced herself to pay attention and remain focused for the remainder of the evening. She even managed to remain focused until after they’d made love and Adam fell asleep. Wide awake, she l ay there and wondered what she was going to do. Even then, she already had the answer. There was no way she was going to get rid of their baby. She was just going to have to adjust her life plan to include a baby years sooner than she’d originally wanted. She fell asleep with her arm against her lower belly as if she were hugging the tiny life within.

The next morning before she got out of bed, Charlie called into the office and left Stephanie a message that she’d be in late morning. Then, she got up, donned a nightie and sauntered into the kitchen where Adam was preparing her breakfast. Coffee was already poured into her cup and Charlie decided to drink this one last cup of caffeine. Beginning after breakfast, she knew she was going to have to eliminate a number of things she really liked at least for the next eight months and maybe even after since she didn’t know much about breast-feeding.

Adam looked up from the stove as Charlie sat down. “Hey, you’re not dressed. It’s usually all I can do to get some nourishment in you before you blast out the door. This French toast will be ready in a minute.”

“That’s good because I’m starving. I also hope you’re joining me because I’ve got a couple of things to talk to you about.”

“Aha, there was something going on last night. I just knew it, but also decided you’d share when you were ready.”

Charlie practically inhaled the French toast when Adam set her plate down. She was sipping her coffee and didn’t say no by the time Adam brought the carafe to the table with his plate. She was going to enjoy this last coffee as much as she could.

Adam buttered and added just a bit of syrup to his French toast, and cutting a bite, looked up at Charlie and said, “Okay, what’s going on?”

“Well, I hope you’re going shopping today because you need to buy some decaff coffee and I won’t be having any wine before dinner for the foreseeable future.”

“Because?”

“Remember the night I came back from Texas and insisted we have sex, unprotected sex at that, in the front seat of your truck?”

“Yeah, it was great. I loved not having anything between your skin and mine…. Oh. My. God. Are you trying to tell me you got pregnant that night?”

“Yep, my period’s three weeks late and you know I’m as dependable as anything.”

Adam jumped up and pulled Charlie to her feet. He began trying to waltz her around the room.

“This is fantastic Charlie. I knew you wanted to wait, but I sure didn’t, and now, I won’t have to. Oh, hell, wait. Are you okay with this? I mean if you’re not, but, oh hell, I don’t think I could stand knowing….” Adam had stopped cold, still holding Charlie, but looking at her with wide serious eyes.

“Relax Adam. I’m, we’re not going to do anything about this baby except bring it to term and welcome it into our family. Sure, it’s not….”

Adam’s serious face became a huge happy face and he began to dance Charlie around the room again, raining kisses all over her face.

When his exuberance almost caused them to fall, Charlie braced her feet and held Adam as still as she could. “Hey, settle down. Let’s not fall or do anything else that might shake the fetus loose.”

“Oh, my goodness. Could we have hurt it last night? Maybe we need to give up sex. Maybe….”

“Adam, sit down. Take a deep breath. Nothing’s going to change when it comes to having sex until probably the last couple of weeks. At least that’s what I understood when Sandi was pregnant. About all that’s going to change is my not having caffeine or alcohol. Well, that and my body. My body’s going to change and change a lot. I hope it doesn’t happen until after the wedding. Mamma won’t know whether to kiss me or kick me if that gown doesn’t fit properly.”

Adam got up from his chair and came to kneel by Charlie’s chair. He put his hand on her flat tummy and said, “It doesn’t matter what shape your body is in, I’ll always love it.” And, leaning down, he pressed a kiss just above her public bone. “And, you in there. I sure hope you can hear me because I love you already.”

Charlie finally got Adam to calm down enough they could talk logistics. Charlie wasn’t sure they should tell anyone until after they were married and back from their honeymoon. Adam wanted to tell everyone right that second. So, like any smart couple, they compromised. Charlie would get them invited to her parents for Sunday dinner. After they’d eaten, Adam would call his parents and they’d break the news to both sets simultaneously. Then, they’d make the parents pledge to keep the news a secret until after the honeymoon.

The dinner invitation wasn’t hard to come by because Charlie’s mamma always had wedding stuff she wanted to discuss. Charlie was able to put her off until after dinner, so conversation during the meal was fairly general and about local politics, Adam’s book, the company and its projects. Charlie helped her mom clean up and let her ramble on about the wedding gifs that were arriving, the flowers she planned to order and various other wedding musts and needs. Then, they joined Adam and ??? out on the lanai.

Adam took out his phone and pushed the button for his parents. “Hi mom. Dad around? Can you grab him and put the phone on speaker?”

Meanwhile Charlie’s parents were looking concerned. Like, why is Adam calling his parents while he’s here?

When both Adam’s parents were on the line, Charlie said, “We didn’t want to play favorites when it came to our news, so we thought the best way to tell our parents was together. We’re pregnant.”

There was complete silence for about a minute and then Charlie’s mamma erupted off her chair, tears flowing down her cheeks and grabbed Charlie in a huge hug. “C’mere Adam.” She exclaimed tearfully, “I need to hug you too.”

Althea’s tears turned to laughter and she playfully jumped around the deck. “I’m gonna be a granny. Finally, I’m gonna be a granny. Oh, this is the best news ever, isn’t it, Simon You’re gonna be a granpa. Oh, isn’t this wonderful.”

Adam’s parents weren’t quite as enthusiastic, but then they already had six grandchildren, but they congratulated everyone about the exciting and wonderful news.

“Okay,” Charlie raised her voice to get everyone’s attention. “Okay, we shared this news with all of you, but we’re not going to tell anyone else and you all have to promise you’ll keep quiet about the baby until we get back from our honeymoon. Okay?”

She looked at her mamma whose face had lost its smile. “Mamma, that means you too. You can’t be telling everyone in your garden club or even your bestest friends. I mean it mamma.”

Althea wasn’t very happy about that and tired to weasel her way to being able to tell her best friend. “Now mamma, you know Gladys has a siren for a mouth. If you tell her, the news will be all over town by the end of the next day. Besides, you’ve got the wedding and everything that’s involved with that. Surely you can talk about the wedding for a few more weeks.”

“I guess so, Charlie. At least I promise to do my best. And, Patricia, you still there? Isn’t this wonderful news?”

Over the next few weeks, Ruth Ann called Charlie every single day to find out how she was feeling. She was sure Charlie wouldn’t have morning sickness because she never did. She had all kinds of advice to offer about being pregnant and having a baby. In some ways, Charlie wished they hadn’t said anything because her mamma barely brought up the wedding unless it was something that had to have attention right now.

Charlie had also made an appointment with her doctor. Her suspicion about being pregnant was confirmed and she was given a due date the end of December or beginning of January. At least Charlie wasn’t going to have to suffer through summer heat with a huge belly. She’d probably be glad for it in the winter months.

One thing Charlie was noticing and that was how tired she was at the end of each and every day. Ruth Ann told her h at was perfectly normal because the baby was utilizing lots of energy that Charlie would have used for her own self. Now, if she could just get through the next few weeks, the hassle of the wedding would be over and she could just relax as much as she wanted and needed to.