Katie Ashley - The Pairing

“What’s wrong?” Pesh inquired.

“The jewelry! I can’t go loaded down with this expensive stuff to the hospital!” she cried. She snatched off the earrings and then started working on the necklace. “I’ll run go give it to your mother.”

“If you insist,” Pesh replied.

She kicked off her heels so she could run easier. The necklace and earrings weighed down her hands. She grabbed the first member of Pesh’s immediate family she saw, which unfortunately happened to be Dev. “Can you get these to your mother? I’ve got to get to the hospital.”

His dark eyes widened as he took the jewelry from her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. A cousin’s baby was just born. Don’t let anything happen to that, okay?”

Dev chuckled. “Yeah, I’ll be unloading this pronto. The last thing I need is for my ass to be the one to lose the family jewels.” With a wink, he added, “They’d be taking my family jewels.”

Megan laughed and then gave him a wave before running off. When she got back outside, Aidan and Emma’s SUV had just pulled around. Noah began to squirm in Pesh’s arms. “Guess where we’re going?” Pesh said, before he could start crying.

“Mama?”

Pesh smiled. “Yes, we’re taking you to your mama and daddy and new baby sister.”

Noah’s face lit up at the prospect, and he happily let them buckle him into his car seat. Following her mother’s car, they made the drive in almost a caravan of relatives. When they got to the hospital, Pesh pulled up to let her out. “I’ll go park and bring him in.”

“Okay. I’ll see you guys up there.”

When she got up to the maternity floor, there was a quite a group waiting for her, including Emma’s best friend, Connor.

“Did Casey not feel like coming tonight?” Megan asked, as she hugged him. Casey was just a few weeks shy of her own due date with a little girl.

He chuckled. “Oh, she’s here all right. She’s just in labor herself. It seems like Caroline and Olivia are going to be true best friends by being born almost the same day.”

Megan grinned. “That’s wonderful news.”

Connor wrinkled his nose. “I think Casey will be appreciating it a little more when her epidural kicks in. She wasn’t too happy the last time I went back to see her.”

“Oh yes, I remember that feeling well.”

Megan’s phone dinged, and she quickly read the text. “Aidan says we can come back now,” she said to her aunts.

The group made their way through the double doors and down the hall. When they reached Emma’s room, Angie knocked on the door. Within a few seconds, Aidan appeared. “Hey guys,” he said, with a beaming smile. “The nurse is actually checking on Em, but give me a second.” He disappeared back behind the door only to reappear within a few moments. This time he held a tiny bundle wrapped in a pink blanket. “Here she is. Miss Caroline Elizabeth Fitzgerald.”

Collective oohs and aahs went up over the group as Aidan held Caroline out for them to see. She didn’t seem too interested or impressed by them. She yawned and closed her eyes. “She’s absolutely beautiful,” Megan said.

“She’s something all right,” Aidan murmured.

“There it is! I see a tear,” Becky teased.

Aidan rolled his eyes at his sister. “Let me guess. You had some kind of bet going about whether I cried or not?”

Liz patted his back. “Something like that.”

Pesh appeared then. The moment Noah saw his father he kicked to get down. Once he got his feet on the floor, he ran to Aidan, wrapping his arms around Aidan’s leg. “Hey buddy. You want to meet your sister?”

Squatting down, Aidan held Caroline to where Noah could get a good look at her. “Mama’s tummy baby?” he questioned.

Aidan laughed. “Yeah, this is your baby sister, Caroline.”

Noah eyed his sister with a slight frown, as if he was trying to figure her out. Megan could only imagine what was going on in his head at the moment. He’d spent the last sixteen months being the center of his parents’ world, and now there was someone else to share the attention.

When Caroline scrunched up her face and whimpered, Noah patted her arm. “No cwy, baby.”

“Aw, he’s going to be a good big brother,” Angie remarked.

Aidan chuckled. “Yeah, he’ll be fine until Caroline needs Emma. Then he’s going to be ready to sell her to the gypsies.”

A nurse exited Emma’s room. “You can go in now.” As she gazed around the crowd, she shook her head. “Well, some of you can go in.”

Rising up off the floor, Aidan took Noah’s hand. “Come on, buddy. Mama wants to see you.”

Noah didn’t bother waiting on Aidan. He barreled through the door. “Mama! Mama!” he cried.

Megan smiled as she watched him climb up on Emma’s bed. “There’s my baby boy!” Emma cried hoarsely, smothering both his cheeks in kisses. He snuggled up to Emma’s side.

“Come on, Meggie. You and Pesh come in first,” Aidan suggested.

Megan didn’t argue with him. Instead, she took Pesh’s hand and followed Aidan inside. Emma glanced up and shook her head. “I’m so sorry for ruining your engagement party.”

“You didn’t ruin our night,” Pesh reassured her.

“That’s right. We kept right on partying—it didn’t bother us at all,” Megan teased.

Emma laughed. “I’m glad to hear that.”

Megan smiled and jerked her chin over at Aidan, who sat in the rocker with Caroline. “Congratulations on a beautiful baby girl.”

“Thank you,” Emma replied, as a beaming smile lit up her face.

“Are you feeling okay?” Pesh asked.

Emma nodded. “It was a little easier this time and a lot quicker.” She turned to Aidan. “And this time I didn’t have to worry that Aidan might not make it.”

Aidan chuckled. “No, you just kept screaming at me to drive faster because you were not going to deliver Caroline on the side of the interstate.”

Emma’s cheeks flushed. “I guess I was a little panicked.”

Pesh took Megan’s hand and squeezed it. “We better go and let the others have a turn,” he said.

“Do you want us to take Noah back with us?”

Considering he was plastered to his mother’s side, Megan wasn’t really looking forward to trying to take him. Emma gazed down at her son with love burning in her eyes. “No, I think he can stay here with us a little longer. I might get Connor to take him home. I know he’ll be here until Casey delivers.”

“Are you sure you won’t need your rest?” Megan asked.

“Oh, I’ll pawn him off to Aidan and make sure I get plenty of sleep until Miss Caroline needs me,” Emma replied, with a sly smile.

Aidan didn’t argue with her. He looked perfectly content to lose sleep if it meant being surrounded by his wife and children. After exchanging a few hugs and kisses, she and Pesh headed out into the hallway and let the next group in.

As they walked down the hall hand in hand, Pesh turned to her and smiled. “You know, I never thought I would see the day I would be envious of Aidan again.”

“What do you mean?”

He heaved a sigh. “Seeing him with his children makes me envious. One day I hope that’s you with my child in your arms.”

“Oh,” she murmured.

Whether or not they would have children together had never really been discussed. It was almost a given that they would, so it didn’t seem necessary to iron out when and how many. She wanted nothing more than to give Pesh a baby of his own. He was truly the father Mason had never had.

“Give me a year,” she said softly.

His brows furrowed in confusion. “What?”

“I’d like one year for us to be together as a married couple before we try to have children.”

“That only makes me an even older father,” he protested.

“You’ll be fine. You’re awfully spry for your old age.”

He laughed. “I just don’t want to be on a walker at his or her high school graduation.”

She smacked his arm playfully. “One year is not going to make that much a difference.”

“Fine. You win. We’ll wait one year.”

As the elevator doors dinged open, they stepped inside. Gazing down at her, Pesh said, “I couldn’t have picked a more amazing mother for my future children.”

“Yeah, I gotta agree that you did good, Nadeen. Real good,” she teased.

He cupped her face in his hands and gave her a lingering kiss that silenced anymore of her comebacks. When he pulled away, she smiled at him. “Keep kissing me like that, and I might decide to wait even longer for a baby. You’ll make me want you, your lips, and your dick all to myself for as long as possible.”

“And here I thought my kisses might get you in the mood for baby-making,” Pesh mused.

Megan laughed. “Either way, it’s a win-win situation. So bring it on, Nadeen. Bring. It. On.”

Two months later

Although her stomach screamed in protest to drop her fork, Megan couldn’t resist popping in the last bite of delicious crepe into her mouth. As she chewed, she closed her eyes at the delicious combination of chocolate and strawberries danced along her taste buds. “Good?” a voice asked from across the table.

Her eyelids popped open to take in Pesh, her new husband of three days. He wore an amused smile as he held his cappuccino cup in midair. “Orgasmically good,” she replied.

He chuckled. “I’m glad you’re enjoying them.”

“I’m going to gain ten pounds while we’re here,” she replied. As she dabbed her mouth with her napkin, she sighed with absolute contentment. Gazing around the tiny Parisian café, she fought the urge to pinch herself. Was she actually in Paris on her honeymoon? When Pesh had asked her where she wanted to go, there was only one place. Although it was somewhat clichéd for a honeymoon destination, she had always wanted to see the city. And because she was marrying a man who loved to spoil her, Pesh had booked them for a week’s stay at the Hotel Plaza Athenee. Not only had he chosen the hotel for its gorgeous views of the Eiffel Tower, but it was also where Carrie Bradshaw stayed when she was in Paris. It seems Pesh completely understood Megan’s love for Sex and the City.

Their first day in the city had been spent in their hotel room. A combination of jetlag and lust had kept them naked and in bed, stopping only for room service and showers. Today they had pried themselves away from the room to go sightseeing.

“Are you ready to go back to the hotel?” Pesh asked.

“Maybe.” With a teasing grin, she asked, “Are you tired and want to rest?”

Desire pooled in Pesh’s dark eyes. “No, I don’t want to rest. I want you to model what you bought this afternoon.”

Her gaze left his to go down to the pink and black bag at her feet. Part of their sightseeing had turned into shopping, in which she bought some very racy lingerie. Although she was enjoying her day out in the city, she was also itching to put on the outfit and get back in bed with Pesh. “Then let’s go,” she said.

Pesh certainly didn’t need any more convincing. Digging in his pocket, he took out his wallet and threw a wad of euros on the table. Then he popped out of seat like a jack-in-the-box. She had to snatch up her purse and bag to keep up with him before he sprinted out the door and into the sunshine.

As she passed the colorful flowers in bloom outside the café, they transported her back to her wedding. It had been a perfect, cloudless day when she stood with Pesh in the rose garden at her Papa’s house. To her, he had never looked more handsome than in his black tux that fit his built frame like a second skin.

Since she was the master of party planning, Megan had enlisted Emma’s help in getting the quickie wedding done. Even with newborn Caroline to tend to, Emma had gone above and beyond any expectations Megan had. Tears had stung her eyes when she first caught sight of the garden as she, on her father’s arm, made her way from the house to the ceremony.

White chairs draped with blue silk bunting lined the garden in rows while a tent had been erected to the side of the makeshift altar. Next to the chairs, votive candles lit the way up the aisle that was adorned in multicolored rose petals. Emma, Casey, and two of her best friends from childhood stood at the altar in their cornflower blue bridesmaid dresses. Pesh, along with his brothers and Aidan, wore blue vests with their tuxes. A string quartet struck up the bridal march to herald her arrival.

She would never, ever forget the feeling of walking up the aisle to Pesh. His loving gaze took her in, and she felt like the princess she had always wanted to be on her wedding day. Her dress was almost like what a Disney Princess might wear—a long train, a full ball gown, a bodice encrusted with pearls and sequins, and then a glittering tiara holding her veil in place.