“Specific.” He grinned, amused. “No bread?”
“No bread. Get ordering.”
Jude groaned. “This is it, isn’t it? I’m going to be your slave for the next year.”
CHAPTER17
Jude
MAY
Morning sickness.Scans. Worries about spotting. The ever-growing list of absolute essentials that other people kept adding to. Weird cravings at strange times of the day. Nightmares about babies that came out already dressed in football kits. Contradictory advice from everyone who thought they had half an idea about pregnancy and childbirth.
Nate found it all fucking hilarious.
He’d been through this three times, the third time being particularly worrying, so I did actually listen to him.
So did Rowan, because we all knew that a baby was first on the list of his and Dee’s to do list as soon as the season ended.
“Read a few books. Listen to your midwife. Don’t tell her what to do; just say that it really upsets you when she does such and such a thing and that will guilt her into not doing the thing she was going to do.” Nate had a bottle of beer in front of him and the ears of me and Rowan, and Jesse, who was pretending not to listen but we all knew was practically taking notes.
We were halfway through the pregnancy and at the end of the season, which had finished better than it started. New Year’s Day saw us take the top spot and we didn’t leave it, winning games like we’d done the previous season and not scraping the barrel for any form of result anymore. We took the league title for the second season running, which sent us into the Champions’ League final confident. We’d had good form all the way through that, during the league stage and then the knockout rounds, better than last season when we’d had a few dodgy results.
Confidence paid off, and we won the final one-nil, Rowan scoring the only goal, which was a fitting way to end his professional football career. Dee’s season ended with a trophy as well, and she took the club’s player of the season award, so everyone was feeling positive.
“Any other sage advice?” Rowan downed the rest of his beer.
Nate shook his head. “Best and hardest thing you’ll ever do in your life. Don’t buy all the shit because you don’t need it, but set up a standing delivery for washing liquid and nappies and learn how to do a quick load. Take it in turns to sleep. Babies don’t always sleep, so you won’t either.”
“Fuck.” Rowan shook his head. “Can’t they come out aged six?”
“Imagine that.” I winced. Neva had a moment the day before wondering how on earth she was going to get a baby out of a hole that just about fit my dick. I decided not to say that out loud though. Go me.
“True.” Rowan nodded. “You all set for this, Judith?”
I shrugged. “Ask me in another five months. Are we all ready for France?” We were heading back to the chateau for three weeks of sun, swimming pools and a holiday where I didn’t have my foot stuck in a boot. A holiday where I could watch Neva in her bikinis without being worried she was going to poison my food.
Her body had changed as we knew it would, but I’d been surprised at how I’d changed with it. I reined myself in trying to do everything for her because she hated that; she was also pretty good at asking me to do things and I knew she had a game she loved where she’d ask me to get something as soon as I sat down. I ignored the game, storing it up for future disagreement winning opportunities.
It blew my mind to know that her belly was growing with the baby that I’d put inside her. I mean, it was one act where I’d busted a nut, and one of those swimmers had been enough to get in there. The rest of it was being done by her.
She was incredible.
What was possibly just as incredible was that no one had asked me or her about our relationship. The team and Neva’s friends knew that it was a baby agreement, but no one had asked for details or when the expiration date was, or whether we were still having sex. They just assumed that we were together.
Or as Neva had said,togethertogether.
My parents had been the same. They were over the moon at becoming grandparents. Somehow, my mother had kept a lid on it until we had the twelve week scan and then she’d turned up at my house with a car boot full of stuff and a new haircut that made her look a decade younger than her actual age, which freaked Neva out.
“Your mum looks about thirty-five! That’s the same age as me, Jude! It’s like one of her friends getting pregnant by you!”
I’d sat there and laughed at her, because Neva didn’t look like what people thought thirty-five was meant to look like. I had commented that my mum did have some bangworthy friends, which had resulted in me having a very quiet night until I’d snuck under the covers and gone down on her, which had resulted in two orgasms for her, and me in the good books, although my balls were blue for a couple of days.
Neva’s comments about her being older than me were coming less and less. She’d said a week or so ago that pretty much no one had asked why she was having a baby with a younger man, and only one person had made an assumption that she’d trapped me by getting pregnant – and that was a comment online.
I’d just laughed, before risking the chances of having more children and mentioning that I’d achieved hero status with some of my teammates because I’d knocked her up.
She’d glared at me, picked up a knife and thankfully put it in the dishwasher. “Who said that?” she’d demanded.
