ALWAYS AND FOREVER

Cross Pov

I watch her play in the waters, she looked so excited like a child who was on holiday in Santa land for the first time, she has been that way for the last two days, she smiled every moment, I might not have liked the idea of this whole honeymoon in the first place but looking at her right now, I am glad I let my mom talk me into coming, she looked nothing like the girl I met at the hospital, a few weeks ago, in fact, that memory seemed to have faded away, it seemed like a long time ago, I smiled as I remembered the look on her face when she had woken up in my arms this morning, even though she had made a barricade, she had been the one to leave her side of the bed so she didn’t say a word, I liked having her sleep in my arms better than I thought, in fact, I never thought I would like it.

“Are you sure you don’t wanna come into the water, it’s so fresh and smoothing, you are missing a lot,”

She called, I waved at her to continue, we have been okay for the last two days, contrary to what I thought, she is really fun to be with, she has a lot of things to say about different things, and her point of view is always different, we visited quite a several places the day before yesterday and she had been nothing but fun, she spent the whole of yesterday indoors and had only come out at night when they started displaying different fireworks, I had wanted us to go over to cat island but she had been so tired that I couldn’t bring it in me to drag her along and I didn’t want to go alone so I spent most of my yesterday at the gym in the hotel while she slept.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I brought it out to see my mom was calling me on a video call, my eyes landed on the bracket she had bought for me, it fitted perfectly and I liked it.

“Yeah, I have been expecting this call,”

I muttered picking it up.

“Hi son, how are you and your wife doing? Are you enjoying your honeymoon?”

She asked her face so closed to the camera that I could see her wrinkles.

“Ma, could you remove the camera from your face a little? All I see are your winkles,”

I said and I could hear her complaining to someone before she moved the camera.

“Must you remind me that I am old?”

She asked with a frown.

“You are not old, you are forever Young my lady,”

“Such a flirt, anyway where is your wife?”

I turned the camera so that she could see her in the pool, the miss was busy splashing in the pool like a kid who just learned how to swim, I smiled and turned the camera back to my face.

“I see you guys are having fun, aren’t you happy that I convinced you to go? Look at that smile, see I know what you will like but you always say no only for you to enjoy it, now give me some credit,”

“No credit for you,”

I replied.

“Don’t worry, you enjoying yourself is all the credit I need, plus grandbabies,”

“Keep dreaming mom, why did you call me?”

“Tish, as if I need a reason to call my son,”

“Yes, you do,”

I said, she always does except when she wants to bother me which is also a reason, so she always has a motive of calling.

“Fine, Anna, come share the news with this grumpy brother of yours, I don’t like him right now,”

She said and left the camera, I smiled, a moment later Anna sat in front of the camera, she was glowing, pregnancy looked good on her, I wondered how Katherine would look when she is pregnant.

“Okay dead that thought,”

I mentally scolded myself, while smiling at Anna.

“What news do you have for me, Annie?”

I asked, she pulled out a photo, I couldn’t make out what it was.

“What’s that?”

“It’s a scan photo, I finally went and checked the gender of the baby,”

“Oh, so what are we expecting? Another beautiful princess like you or a handsome boy like me?”

“It’s both,”

She replied, I didn’t understand what she meant at first but got the info a few seconds late.

“What? You are having twins? Wow, that’s so good to know, are you okay? Are the babies okay? I know mom will be super happy, do you need anything? I can tell m…”

“Crosse, one at a time,”

“Sorry I got super excited,”

“I know, I am so lucky to have you and your family, I don’t know what I would have done without you guys,”

“Hey, you deserve the best always remember that,”

“My parents don’t think so,”

“Their loss Annie, their loss, you are a good girl and deserves all the love, and also my parents are your parents now remember?”

“Yes,”

“Are you alright? What about the baby? What did the doctors say?”

“We are all fine, and the babies are growing well, the doctor said, he expects everything to continue smoothly,”

She replied.

“That’s good to know Anna, take care of yourself and call me if you need anything alright?”

“Yes I will, where is our wifey?”

“She is in the pool,”

I looked around but she was no longer in the pool, I scanned everywhere around the pool but I couldn’t see her.

“She was in the pool but no more, I have to go, Anna, I will talk to you soon, I need to find my wife,”

I said and ended the call, I stood up from where I had been sitting and went around the areas of the pool but she wasn’t anywhere around, after looking for over fifteen minutes, I decided to call her number, but she didn’t pick up, I was beginning to panic, where could she have gone to? Could she have gone back inside the hotel? Why didn’t she let me know?

The thoughts ran through my mind as I walked fast into the hotel and to our room, I hoped she was in there when I entered, I met her sitting by the window, I let out a sigh of relief.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming here? I was looking for you everywhere and you weren’t taking your calls,”

“I didn’t want to disturb you,”

“Disturb me? How?”

“You were on call, and you didn’t seem to notice me, so I came inside knowing that you will come when you are done,”

“Still you could have told me, I have been searching the whole pool area for the past twenty minutes for you, do you know how worried I was when you didn’t pick up, please don’t do that again,”

I let out sitting down on the sofa beside her, she looked pissed or maybe I was overthinking things, but she didn’t look as excited as she was earlier.

“Did something happen?”

“No, why do you ask?”

“Because you are not looking happy, you know you can talk to me right?”

I said, pulling her hands and wrapping mine around it, we have grown close the last two days, not close as in close but close enough for me to hold her hands.

“Are you the dad of Anna’s kid?”

She asked and I was too shocked to reply, why would she think that? And is that why she was displeased?

“I am sorry, I forgot, it is none of my business, you don’t have to answer,”

She said pulling her hands from mine and getting up, I dragged her back to the seat.

“Hey, she is not carrying my baby,”

“But I heard what you said,”

“What did I say?”

“You asked if the baby would be as beautiful as her or as handsome as you, I thought you were the daddy, don’t get me wrong, I just felt I should have been aware,”

“Anna is my adopted sister, and she was already pregnant before we met and she is only eighteen, how would you conclude that she is carrying my kid?”Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have, but eighteen is not that far from twenty-three though,”

“That’s a five years difference, Katherine, I twenty-nine which means it would be an eleven years gap between us,”

I said, wondering why we were having the discussion in the first place, why would she even think the kid is mine?

“Age is just number,”

“Well, not in this case, Anna is my little sister, we may not be blood-related but that’s what she is,”

“I am sorry, I shouldn’t have thought that,”

She said, she looked truly sorry.

“Were you jealous?”

“No, I wasn’t,”

“Are you sure? You look like you were,”

“I wasn’t,”

She said pouting, her rosy lips popping out, I bent over and place a kiss on her lips, she gasped in shock which made her open her mouth and my tongue dived into her mouth, pulling her closer to me, she sighed, surrendering to the kiss and kissing me back, I pulled out searching her face before claiming her lips again, she has to be one of the best lips I have kissed and trust me I have kissed a hell lot of women, I got back to my senses and realized who it was that I was kissing, I pulled away from her.

“I am sorry, I shouldn’t have done that,”

I said, but she didn’t reply, she just got up and left me in the sitting area, I let her be, I shouldn’t have done that, I should have remembered who she was.

“She is your wife,”

The voice in my head said.

“Yes, I know but still,”

“Still nothing,”

It said. I shook it off and went out for a walk to clear my head, when I got back, I met her in the same spot I had met her when I came looking for her.

“Hey, would you like to go out and grab dinner?”

I asked.

“Sure, where is that?”

“Where the fireworks were coming from yesterday,”

“For real? Count me in,”

She replied.

“About what happened earlier,”

“It’s okay, it not like we did something bad, and I liked it, so no harm done,”

She answered.

“Okay,”

I said, I didn’t know how else to respond, I liked it too but us engaging in things like kissing is overstepping the boundaries I had set and the whole contract, thinking about the contract again, it was pointless, we were married, so why can’t we be like normal couples, it doesn’t have to be a love match, I will run it over with her later and if she agrees then that will be another part of the contract that we will be ripping off…