- two months later -
~ Amanda's POV ~
"Heather, please come," I pleaded over the phone. "It's Maria's half-birthday."
"Not a chance," she said lightly. "Why are you even celebrating that anyway? That's not a real thing."
"My daughter—who by the way I never thought I'd have—is halfway to being a year old, so excuse me if I want to celebrate that," I said smugly over the phone. "And I want her aunt to be there to celebrate with us."
"Is Tommy going to be there?" She asked sternly over the phone, knowing the answer already.
"Yes," I said quietly. "But only because he's Vince's best friend and he's technically Maria's uncle and...Heather please, I miss seeing you."
"I'm just not ready to face him," Heather said softly over the phone.
"It's been over two months, Heather," I pleaded. "You can't just never see him again, you have kids together."
"I know," she said.
"And they're getting older, they miss their mom," I continued. "They don't know where you are."
"Stop making me feel bad," she said, lightly sniffling through the phone. "I'm just trying to decide what's best for all of us at this point."
"Come to the party," I said, pausing to give her a moment. "And we can talk more in person. You don't have to talk to Tommy, I'll talk to him."
"Maybe," she added. "We'll see."
She hung up the phone before I even got a chance to say anything else, which was odd for Heather, considering that she normally loved to talk. I don't think I've ever seen her hang up the phone on me like that, but I understood because of what she was going through.
"Was that Heather?" Vince asked, stepping into the room, holding Maria on his hip as her little face lit up after seeing me.
"Yeah," I said, holding out my arms and walking toward Vince so that I could hold Maria. "Not sure if she's coming."
"We've got plenty of people to celebrate," Vince said, stepping around my back side so that he was facing Maria, with me pressed between the two of them, gently touching his nose to the small tip of hers, Maria giggling wildly in response.
"Are you ready for your party?" I asked her, starting to bounce her up and down on my hip to get her to giggle some more. Of course, she had no idea what I was saying, but I still constantly talked to her anyway. She liked it. I felt like she liked it at least.
"Your mom went a bit...over the top," Vince said in a baby voice to Maria.
"Well, with all this free time on my hands, what else do we do, baby?" I asked, talking in a baby voice too.
About a month ago, when the boys were extremely close to leaving for the tour, Nikki was a no show. Since they can't do the tour without a quarter of the band, Doc postponed the tour until further notice. I can't imagine how much work it was to cancel a tour, with refunding everyone's tickets and sending people who were relying on the work back to their lives. It's sad. Plus the fans must be disappointed, the last tour was cut short as well.
"Who else is coming?" Vince wondered.
"Uh, Melissa and Stephen, they're not coming together," I clarified. "Tommy, Lita,...," I went on, but Vince cut me off.
"Lita's coming?" Vince asked, suddenly panic was laced in his voice.
"So?"
"So she probably knows where Nikki is," Vince said.
"I don't think she knows," I said, trying to keep my tone casual in front of Maria. "You asked her how many times already, Vince. You can't find him, what else can you do?"
"I'm just so fucking pissed," Vince grunted.
"Why?" I asked. "I thought you would've liked some extra time at home with us anyway."
"Of course I do," Vince clarified. "But I'm just pissed that he can run off like this, no warning or contact for a month, and I'm just supposed to sit here."
"He'll turn up eventually," I encouraged. "It's Nikki, you've got to trust him."
"I don't trust him if he died somewhere," Vince said. "Which seems like a very likely possibility at this point."
"Don't use the d word around Maria," I said, covering up her ears, suddenly not trusting what he's been saying around her when I'm not around.
"What?" Vince asked, a smile suddenly cracking onto his face. "You mean dick?"
"Vince!" I exclaimed, my jaw dropping in anger. "I don't want her first word to be a dirty word."
"If she's our kid, her first word will be a dirty word," Vince teased.
"It sounds funny until it happens," I said, glaring at him lightly now, but with a light smile spread across my cheeks.
"If it happens, you'll get a chance to do it right with the next kid," Vince added, winking at me lightly before stepping away from me and walking over to the fridge to grab a can of soda.
"The next one, huh?" I asked, setting Maria down in her carrier, feeling the relief of not having to hold her weight against me anymore, she was starting to get really big.
"I think after last night, you've got to be...," Vince said, a charming and dirty smile covering the whole lower half of his face now.
Vince and I had worked out an amendment to our earlier agreement. Since we're both kind of dumbasses, we realized that trying for a whole month still only gave us a few days where I could actually get pregnant. Vince didn't hesitate too much when I asked if we could try for longer. That and I felt like he was starting to get attached to the idea of the next kid being our own.
"What if I'm not?" I asked, truthfully being a bit discouraged at this point.
"We'll try again," Vince said, walking around to come and stand in front of me again. "And again...," he said, leaning down and putting his lips firmly against mine.
"What happened to only a couple extra months?" I asked after he pulled away from the kiss, looking up into his eyes as I bit my lower lip with my teeth.
"I think we should try this for a bit longer," Vince said, putting his hands on my hips and moving them up to my waist, making me feel so safe and secure under his touch.
"What made you change your mind?" I wondered.
"Seeing you be so motherly toward Maria," Vince said. "If you want to have our second baby, then you can, okay?"
"Good," I said. "And you can be here for it this time," I added with a smile before Maria started to fuss in her carrier.
"I got her," Vince said, walking over to her and picking her up again, bouncing her on his hip as he looked at me with a big smile. "Do you need anymore help setting up for the party?" He asked with a sweet tone to his voice.
"No, I should be good," I said, noting all of the decorations that surrounded the kitchen and living room. I bought pink everything, even though I'd support whatever color that Maria liked when she's older. I just thought that she looked super cute in pink.
"Maybe you should relax before everyone gets here?" Vince offered. "I can look after Maria, keep her quiet."
"I don't think I'll be able to," I admitted. "I just want to wait until people start coming. It shouldn't be long anyway."
- the party begins -
"Still no Heather?" Vince asked, quickly whirring by me on his way to talk to Tommy, who was sitting next to his two girls who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the party. Or more so, maybe they were just enjoying the cake with rainbow sprinkles on top.
"No," I groaned. "I can't believe she's going to miss this," I said, more to myself, under my breath.
"You know what?" Melissa suddenly announced, sitting next to me, and she continued to speak as soon as Vince had sat down next to Tommy, at the other end of the table. "Screw her."
"I would say that, but she's Maria's godmother," I said. "She should be here."
"No offense, but I don't think Maria knows the difference," Melissa said, chuckling to herself.
"And I know," I said. "It's just going to be weird looking back to today and remembering it like this. I love you, but she's been my best friend since school. We've stuck together through everything. This just doesn't seem like her."
Just then, the cracking of the front door revealed that somebody was coming in from behind it. I knew it had to be her...or a robber...because everybody else was here. Once the door opened more, I saw Heather's warming smile as she walked over to Melissa and I to greet us.
"Heather," Melissa exclaimed, somewhat tiredly. "You came."
"Thank you, Heather," I said. "You don't know how much this means to me."
"I do," Heather said. "Why do you think I'm here?"
"Just, thank you," I said, standing up and walking over to where Maria was laying in her playpen, grabbing her and supporting her head as I carried her over to where Heather was now sitting, at the same end of the table as Melissa and I. "It's so, so good to see you again," I said as she widened her smile as she saw Maria's face.
"It's good to see you too," she said in a baby voice, poking her finger to the end of Maria's nose, before turning to me and giving me a smile.
"Where the hell were you?" I asked in a more stern tone than earlier.
"I was at my moms," Heather said. "You know, it's been a bit hard to be around here lately."
"I get that," I added. "But you can't just drop off of the face of the planet like that. I mean, Tommy was watching Maria for almost two weeks while Vince and I were gone," I continued.
"You left too," Heather said, her words harsh as my face immediately reacted to her words.
"But I came back," I said. "And you knew where we were."
"Okay Amanda," Heather began, her tone growing sarcastic. "I'm sorry that you're having such a hard time coping with my marriage ending."
"Ending?" I asked suddenly. "Is that what you've decided?"
Melissa and I sat nervously with one another, heartbroken to see Heather's entire family, entire life, fall apart right before our eyes.
"Yes," she said, her voice sounding hushed, almost like she was ashamed to admit it out loud.
"Does he know?" Melissa asked, raising an eyebrow and looking down to Tommy sitting down the table. He had one daughter in his lap, the other to the side of him in Vince's lap. He suddenly noticed all of us sitting together, and his eyes froze when they landed on Heather.
"Oh shit," Heather said under her breath. "I thought he saw me when I came in," she whispered to us as Tommy set down Skylar and headed over to talk to us. "I don't want to talk to him," she said suddenly, cupping her hand around her forehead so that she wouldn't be tempted to make eye contact with him.
"Hey Tommy," I suddenly said, grabbing the attention of most of the people at the party. "Not now," I said sternly, widening my eyes to warn him that now was definitely not the time to talk to Heather about their soon-to-be divorce.
Tommy looked at me with pleading eyes, suddenly bringing his hands together in a begging motion as he stood behind Heather. I just shook my head at him as Heather mouthed the words 'thank you' to me.
"Maybe later, Tom," I said lightly.
Tommy went back to sit by Vince again and I went back to talking to just Heather and Melissa.
"What's your plan then?" Melissa asked, her tone demanding and pressing as always.
"I'm moving to California," Heather said, nearly making me spit out the fruit punch that was in my mouth.
"What?" We both asked in unison.
"My sister's moving there with her husband," Heather began to explain. "And I really want to go with. A fresh start."
"Why California?" I wondered, even though I understood because after being there for a few weeks, I barely wanted to leave. It was a great, beautiful place, filled to the brim with talent. Actually, no, the brim was overflowing and there was more people headed its way.
"I want to try being an actress," Heather said, feeling shy as she admitted her dream to us. She had told me when we were in school that acting would be her dream job, but she just assumed that she wouldn't have what it takes, so like a lot of people, she didn't try at all. I can't blame her, though, it's really hard to get the motivation to do something out of the ordinary. And to do something that most people want to believe is impossible.
"Heather," I began. "This is so exciting," I led, not even sure of what else I could say.
"Yeah," she said, humbly. "I'm not sure how well I'll do, but I have to try."
"I mean, you're beautiful, young, and you could act pretty good for the past few years when you pretended that Tommy wasn't cheating on you," Melissa suddenly spat out.
We all took a minute to absorb what she was saying, before all bursting out into laughter. Heather started laughing a little too hard, making a tear run down one of her cheeks, and dragging a tiny bit of mascara with it.
"I'm really going to miss you," I said suddenly, making the laughing die down dramatically.
"Me too," she said. "These past few months have been the longest we've ever been apart."
"We'll have to plan lots of visits together," I said.
"I have to figure something out with the girls," Heather said. "So I can work you into that."
"Great," I said, smiling at her. "This is going to be so amazing, Heather."
"I agree," Melissa said, extending her hand across the table to hold Heather's hand within hers. "But I'm going to miss our girls nights...and talking about boys."
"Yeah," I agreed. "Nothing will ever be quite the same, will it?"
"That's the way that everything is right now anyway," Heather said. "Isn't it?"
"It sure is," I said, looking down the table to see my husband, holding my child. Two things that I never thought I'd have, or even want. And the only thing on my mind was how badly I wanted to have another child of my own sitting in my lap.
"So what's new with both of you?" Heather asked.
"Don't even fucking ask," Melissa said. "Everything is a mess with Stephen right now."
"At least you can be in the same room together," Heather pleaded. "That's more than I can say."
"Hardly," Melissa said. "But Amanda, why don't you tell Heather your exciting news?"
"Oh my god are you pregnant?" Heather asked, her eyes lighting up as she looked at me with the most excited expression I had seen on her face since she walked in here.
"No, no," I said, blushing a bit at the thought. "But we're trying."
"I'm sure Vince can put a baby in you as quick as he did the last one," Heather teased.
"I don't know," I said, feeling a small pit growing in my stomach. "We've been trying for a couple of months, I'm a little worried."
"Oh, don't be," Heather assured me. "I'm sure everything's fine. Sometimes it just takes a bit in order to get things working down there. It takes time."
"But the last time," I began, remembering that I had actually been pregnant two times before. "We didn't even have to try. We just slipped up."
"But like...it's Vince, right?" Melissa said. "If that man wasn't born to breed, nobody is."
I chuckled along with her words, feeling slightly better but still growing a bit nervous. Despite those feelings growing deep within my stomach, I did feel better just being with my two best friends again. It had been so long since we've all had the time to just sit down and talk like we used to all of the time. People really weren't joking when they said that growing up sucks, were they?
Before I knew it, it was growing dark outside, and everybody seemed to be slipping on their jackets in preparation to head home. I was sad, but also a bit relieved because I was exhausted.
"You tell me before you go flying across the country," I warned Heather as I gave her a tight hug, barely wanting to let her go.
"Of course I will," she said, giving me a smile before saying goodbye to Melissa and then leaving.
"What did she say?" Tommy asked in an urgent voice, basically running over to me the second that the front door shut behind Heather.
"She said that she didn't wanna talk to you," I said, crossing my arms.
"Oh, c'mon Amanda," Tommy begged again. "Just tell me that she's okay?"
"She'll be okay," I said. "I'm sure she'll tell you what's going on when she's ready."
"Good or bad?" Tommy asked, staring desperately into my eyes, hoping so badly that I'd answer with good.
"She'll tell you," I assured him. "That's not my job."
"Your welcome for watching Maria, by the way," Tommy said in a sarcastic voice, stepping away from me and heading toward Vince again to grab his daughters, Skylar walking herself as they stepped out of the door.
As soon as everybody else left, and the house was empty, I exhaustively put my hand to my forehead and took a deep breath, feeling relief that I could finally relax now. Even though the party was entirely my idea in the first place.
"Great party, babe," Vince said, stepping behind me and giving me a slight hug, his other arm being used to hold Maria.
"Thanks," I said, turning around so that I was facing Maria.
"Happy half-birthday, Angel," I said, kissing her forehead before running my hand through the little bit of blonde fluffy hair that she had on top of soft baby head.
"You're going to have this girl spoiled, you know?" Vince teased. "She's going to be expecting a sweet sixteen-and-a-half birthday when she grows up."
"If she wants it, she can have it," I said, smiling at the two of them.
"I agree," Vince said. "She's perfect."
"Yeah, yeah," I said, slightly backing away from Vince and heading over to the staircase. "Ready to make another one or what?" I teased.
"I'm kind of holding the first one right now," Vince said, looking to Maria in his arm, but I could already see the deep lust forming in his eyes.
"She'll fall asleep soon," I encouraged. "Come put her to bed and then we can bang one out."
"Are you serious?" Vince asked, but still following me up the stairs. "That's not how we're about to do this."
"You do remember how babies are made right?" I teased, rubbing my hand along the wooden railing as we both walked upstairs.
"We don't bang one out," Vince said, reaching the top of the stairs behind me. He walked off to Maria's room to lay her down and I waited for him to finish the sentence he started. "We make love."
Vince returned into the hallway, looking at me and waiting for my response.
"Really?" I asked, quirking an eyebrow up at him.
"What would you call it?" He asked, stepping closer to me and resting his hand on my shoulder, looking up into my eyes. I noticed that his eyes were glazed over and that made me feel some type of way.
"Fucking," I said, biting my bottom lip between my teeth.
"Oh god, please say that again," Vince said, moving his hand from my shoulder up to run it through the strands of my hair.
"Say what?" I asked, lowering my voice to a whisper now. "Fucking?"
"Yes," he said, leaning his head toward mine and placing his lips against mine so that they could do the tango with one another. His hand continued to move through my hair, gripping around my ear as he only kissed me harder. "I've got a good feeling about this time," he said after he broke the kiss so that he could drag me into our bedroom.
{ smut starts here }
"Yeah?" I asked as he gently closed the door behind us, our hands interlocked with one another's still.
"I'm gonna fuck you so good," he purred into my ear, walking me backwards until the back of my knees hit the bed.
"What if Maria starts to fuss?" I genuinely wondered as he started to kiss my neck, pushing me down to sit on the foot of the bed.
"She's fine," he said in a hushed voice, kneeling down in front of me. He glanced up to me, hoping to gain some kind of reassurance for what he was about to do. "You gonna let me take this off?" Vince asked, reaching his hands under the hem of my dress, wrapping his hands around the waistband of my panties.
I didn't respond, I only gulped as I lifted my hips up from the bed so that he could pull them down. He bunched my skirt up and leaned his head down between my legs, kissing up the inside of my thigh. The feeling nearly made me jump, it feeling like I was being touched for the first time all over again.
"Okay if I keep going?" Vince asked after noticing my slight reaction, looking up to me to see me nod in response.
He leaned back down, starting to slowly drag the tip of his tongue through my folds, making me roll my head back on the bed in pure bliss, pleasure nearly overwhelming my body. He added his fingers into the mix, as he started to swirl his tongue over my clit, rubbing light circles between my core and where his tongue was going to work.
"God baby," Vince said against my skin, the vibrations of his voice against my skin making me squirm under his touch. As my wetness continued to pool between my legs, definitely all over the bedspread at this point, he gently moved two of his fingers into me. His slow, agonizing motions making me reach down to run my fingers through his hair.
"Vince, I want more," I begged, lightly tugging on his hair to hopefully pull him up from my core. He groaned in slight annoyance because I knew he wanted to keep going, to help me find my release, but I would rather him just fuck me right here and right now. He added another finger inside of me, but it just wasn't cutting it. "No, I want you cock baby."
"You're so close, I can tell," Vince said, moving his face but not his hand away from my core. I slid back further on the bed, my head near the headboard, as he hovered over me and started to place kisses along my jawline and then down my neck. His fingers pumped faster and faster into me, desperately trying to get me to finish. And he was right, I was so close. "Just come for me, babe."
"I only want to if you're inside of me," I breathed out, my words being probably the most straightforward that they've ever been during sex.
"You want this so bad, don't you sweetheart," Vince asked, using his free hand to push my hair behind my ear as I nodded eagerly in response, wrapping my hand around his neck and pulling him close so that I could give him another kiss.
"Come on, baby," I pleaded, running my hands down to his waist and quickly moving down his zipper, eager to pull his pants down to his thighs. "I can tell you really want to, too," I said, feeling how moist and swollen his cock was when it was constrained in his jeans.
"I'll give it to you, baby," Vince suddenly said, removing his fingers from me and holding onto his dick right after, guiding its way to my entrance. Before he went in, he leaned over me and pressed his lips romantically against mine.
We both moaned against each other's mouths as he went all the way in, my eyes fluttering shut momentarily as the feeling flowed throughout my entire body.
"Better?" Vince whispered into my ear, starting to suck at my neck as he started to move his hips back and forth into me.
"Even better if you go faster," I said, resting one of my hands on his chest and using the other to reach out and bunch up the bedspread in my fist.
It wasn't hard to get Vince to do what you wanted him to do in bed. He was eager to please and he was always willing to make a quick change in order to pleasure me more, and he did just the same now. Not after long, I felt a growing tightness forming in my lower stomach, moving my hand around Vince's shoulder and digging my nails into his skin at the feeling.
"I'm almost there," I informed Vince, who had concentrated every movement he made into hitting the spot where I moaned the loudest. It felt so good, I wanted to moan louder, but I didn't want to wake up our sleeping daughter in her room across the hall.
"Me too baby," Vince assured me. He gently slowed his thrusts down as he reached his hand down between our bodies, rubbing tight and firm circles on my clit, drawing me so close to my release that I couldn't help but cry out when it finally came over me. "God you really are beautiful," Vince groaned as he let go himself, sending a warm, delicious, feeling between my legs.
{ smut ends here }
Remained in our same position, we started kissing each other deeply, feeling so incredibly close to one another right now in this moment.
"You think we did it this time?" I asked him once there was a break in our kiss. I looked deeply into his brown eyes, feeling mine get slightly watery at the thought of what it would actually mean to raise yet another beautiful child with Vince.
"For sure," he said, smirking before leaning down and kissing me again, this time slipping his tongue deeper into my mouth. I couldn't help but smile as much as I could. Until the faint sound of a baby crying started ringing out from across the hallway. "I'll get it," Vince said, moving himself off from on top of me and giving me a kiss on the forehead before attending to Maria, fixing his pants back into place along the way.
I rolled over on the bed, onto my side, and rubbed my stomach. I hoped and prayed that there was now a life growing inside of me, but something also told me that maybe I'd never get to feel that again.
-
I think this is going to be the last smut that I write for the book. I've never been good at it and I think it's a good time to stop now, haha. Anyway, remember that I'm posting once a week now for the remainder of the story! Only 5 parts left (and possibly an epilogue)! : )