The Pawns that Gleam [Bk 3]

ch.24 Mama's intuition

Harry stared at me with wide, surprised, but slightly teasing eyes the next morning.

"Is officer Angie back?" he winked.

"Nope, that was pregnant Angie and her mixed up hormones" I shook my head. 

Harry sighed loudly.

"That's a shame cause" Harry shook his head disappointedly. "I was hoping I'd get sit back and let you do all the work before the baby gets bigger and potatoe chips replace me as the love of your life" he grinned.

I laughed and patted his chest.

Harry lifted me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist. 

"Am I getting heavier yet?" I teased.

"Oh, God my back" Harry winced. 

I gasped.

Harry grinned. 

I squeezed his cheek. 

"Don't scare me" I grumbled.

"Angie I could hold you even if you had a thousand babies in your belly" Harry declared quite proudly.

"Really?" I raised a brow. 

"Really" he grinned. 

"Well give me a couple months and I'll eat enough for a thousand babies" I grinned, patting my stomach gently.

I was sort of excited to get to gain weight for the baby's sake, but I was also worried. What if I didn't lose the weight quickly? What if Harry got me pregnant over and over until I hit menopause and I was a winded beach whale?

"What's wrong, baby?" Harry asked as he smoothed a piece of hair behind my ear.

"How many babies do you want to have?" I asked quietly.

Harry lowered me and I stood close to him, looking up at him expectantly.

"As many as you want" he smiled.

"Oh, come on, give me a number" I urged.

Harry laughed.

"I thought you hated math" he grinned as he took my fingers in his and pretended to count off babies.

I looked down at my hands and Harry played with my fingers.

"One...two...three...four...five...six..." he counted.

"Woah, six?"

"Seven...eight..nine..."

"Harry"

"Ten" he finished.

"Ten?" I repeated slowly.

"Ten" he grinned proudly.

My hand felt around my stomach. I couldn't even think of ten baby names let alone to go through nine months of pregnancy for each one and then raise them and then...

"I can't do ten" I shook my head stubbornly.

"Why not?" he asked with a falsely somber expression.

He was trying to guilt me into spending 90 months of my life  looking like I swallowed a bowling ball, but I wasn't having any of it. I took a deep breath and tried to channel Officer Angie inside me and get Harry to obey me.

"If you want ten, you'll have to give birth to half of them" I folded my arms over my chest.

Harry threw his head back and laughed.

I patted his abdomen, but it was hard, much too dense to hold babies. I touched my stomach and it was soft and smooth. God clearly had it out for women as much as he praised us: we determined whether there was going to be a next generation, we had the power to create a human being. That's absolutely incredible (painful and difficult) but nonetheless miraculous.