Chapter Fourteen
Two Months Later
After the initial surprise and shock of finding out we were having twins, life went back to normal. Well, I guess I should say normal for us. We’d had a blissfully wonderful month off where we’d spent time in the studio working on new songs, lounging around the house, and entertaining family and friends. Then, it was back out on the road touring the Midwest. We had just pulled into Salt Lake City the night before.
Jake had let me sleep in longer than I should have, and I was running late to rehearsals. I hustled off the bus and followed Jody into the arena.
When I got there, I found roadies bustling around, preparing for the show, but I didn’t see my brothers. Searching out a familiar face, I found Frank. “Isn’t it rehearsal time?”
“It’s being delayed,” Frank replied.
“What for?”
“So Loren can make some set changes.”
“Set changes?” I asked dumbly.
Frank scratched the back of his head and refused to look at me. “Frank Patterson, would you please tell me what the hell is going on?” I demanded.
Frank sighed. “Fine. Jake asked Loren to make some set changes that would enable you to sit down and stay off your feet more during your performance.”
“He didn’t say a thing to me about this.”
“Now, Angel, before you go getting all riled, Jake’s heart is in the right place. He’s a concerned father-to-be.”
“He’s an overprotective jerkwad,” I mumbled, before stalking off. I must’ve looked pretty pissed because all the road crew gave me a wide berth as I made my way back to the dressing rooms. When I threw open the door for Runway Train’s, AJ glanced up from his phone, took one look at me, and then let out a low whistle.
“That’s our cue, man,” he said to Rhys.
“Hell yeah,” Rhys murmured, before they both scurried away, leaving me and Jake alone.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, as he twirled a guitar pick between his fingers.
I threw up my hands in exasperation. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the fact I just showed up to a rehearsal that isn’t happening because Loren is busy doing set changes. Apparently I need to be on my ass more when I’m performing!”
Jake shook his head. “If you’re expecting me to apologize for looking out for you and the twins, you’re not going to get it.”
“But Dr. Ghandi hasn’t mentioned anything about me staying off my feet.”
“That doesn’t mean we can’t take some precautions.”
“Jake—”
He held up his hand. “You’re not going to win this one, Angel.”
I let out of frustrated growl as Jake rose out of his chair. “You can be such a stubborn ass sometimes, you know that?”
He grinned. “Hmm, I think I could say the same thing about you.”
“I appreciate you being so protective, Jake, but I just wish you would have told me first. I hate being the last one to know.”
Jake’s thumb brushed along my cheekbone. “You’re right. I should have told you first. At the same time, I had hoped Loren would be done by rehearsal time, and you could just go with the flow.”
“And just what do Gabe and Eli think about your grand plan?”
When Jake winced, I knew he had already talked to them about it. “Once again, you should talk to me first. I’m your wife, and the one this all effects.”
“I’m sorry, Angel. Will you ever forgive me?” He poked his lip out and gave me a puppy dog expression.
“Give me a kiss, and I’ll think about it,” I said, with a smile.
“You drive a hard bargain,” Jake replied, before bringing his mouth to mine. Just the feel of his hard body pressed against me, his masculine smell, his strong hands on my waist, sent me into a frenzy. I gripped his shoulders tight, moaning into his mouth.
He pulled away and glanced at me with surprise. “Pregnancy hormones?” he questioned.
I nodded my head furiously up and down. “Would you oblige me in a quickie?”
“I’d love to.” Prying himself off me, he went over to the door and locked it. He flopped down in one of the plush chairs and crooked his finger at me. With a grin, I walked over to him. He leaned forward and jerked down my panties, before pulling me down onto his lap to straddle him. Once I unzipped his jeans and sprung his erection, I raised my hips to bury him deep inside me. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I alternated between riding him hard and then slow.
I was getting close to coming when a knock came at the door. “Abby? Loren is ready for you now,” Frank called.
“Just a second,” I shouted back.
“Oh please, since when does it take me a second?” Jake replied with a wicked grin.
I tightened my muscles around him, causing him to groan. “We’re cutting it short because I’m not letting Frank hear us.”
Jake gripped my expanding hips and pushed me on and off him. I came almost instantly, and he followed shortly behind. Once I could focus again, I scrambled off his lap as best I could with my expanding belly and grabbed a towel to clean up.
When I opened the door, Frank took one look at me before his face turned blood red. “Uh, I…I mean, Loren is ready for you now.”
“Thank you,” I said. Glancing over my shoulder, I blew Jake a kiss before heading out the door to follow Frank to the stage. He gave me a pleased smirk.
As it turned out, Loren had done a pretty cool job integrating lit stools for Eli and me to sit on, and he’d also managed a pretty cool swing that went along with one of our backdrops. I was sure that Jake probably wouldn’t be digging the swing since in his mind it could have mechanical failure, and I could fall. But I liked it, and I planned on using it. Of course, sitting in it and balancing a guitar with an expanding belly wasn’t an easy feat. I was at four-and-a-half months now, and I couldn’t imagine what it was going to be like when I was eight or nine months along.
At the same time, I knew there was no way in hell that even if my doctor let me, Jake would agree to allow me to perform late in my pregnancy. I figured I would have to cross that bridge when I came to it. For now, I was enjoying still being able to perform, and I didn’t want that to end anytime soon.
“Don’t you feel a little bit like we’re cheating on Dr. G?” Jake asked, as we sat in a posh OB/GYN’s office in downtown Salt Lake City.
I laughed. “She’s the one who found this practice for me.”
Since we were still in the middle of our Midwest tour, it had become necessary to find OB’s along the way. For today, it was about the fact I didn’t want to wait two more weeks to get home and find out what we were having. The suspense was killing me. I didn’t know whether I should start buying two of everything blue or pink or blue and pink. So, my OB had recommended a practice for us to go for the gender sonogram.
When the nurse called us back, I could barely control my excitement. Unlike our first ultrasound, I wasn’t scared or apprehensive. Instead, I was just so excited to find out what we were having.
The ultrasound tech, whose nametag read Jess, came in with her head buried in our chart. The moment she glanced up and took us in, she said, “Holy shit!”
“Guess she recognizes us,” I murmured to Jake.
She grinned. “I thought the names on the chart sounded familiar but…wow!”
“Nice to meet you, too,” Jake said, extending his hand.
With a trembling hand, she shook it. After staring at us for a moment, she finally pulled herself together and became professional again. “Right. Sorry about that. Totally lost my mind for a moment.” Taking the bottle of gel in her hand, she squirted some on my exposed belly. “Let’s see what we have here.”
The grainy image of the twins came on the screen. I never tired of seeing them—their tiny hands and legs flailing, the sight of their hearts beating strong in their chests.
“So Baby A is a…” She glanced over at us, appearing to enjoy torturing us with the suspense. “A boy.”
I squeezed Jake’s hand and stared up at him. “We’re going to have a son.”
His response was to kiss me. When he pulled away, he smiled. “And the other baby?” he asked Jess.
“Looks like you’re getting one of each—Baby B is a girl.”
“Really?” I asked.
She nodded. “Everything looks really good with them—strong heartbeats, healthy placenta. Of course, it looks like your son is stealing a bit of the calories since he’s bigger.” She pointed to the screen to show us the difference.
“But she’ll be all right, won’t she?” Jake asked, his brow furrowed in worry.
“Yes, she’ll be fine.” Jess then printed a few pictures complete with baby A and B identified with their genders. When she finished, she gave me a towel to wipe off my belly. “Good luck.”
“Thank you,” I said, as I pulled myself into a sitting position.
When she got to the door, her hand hesitated on the doorknob before she turned back to us. “Would you mind signing something for me?”
“We’d be happy to,” I replied.
We ended up signing a few pieces of paper before we escaped out the door. When we got into the limo, I took out the pictures to look at the twins again.
As he rubbed my stomach, Jake smiled at me. “Now that we know what we’re having, what about names?”
“Hmm, good question. I know I want our daughter to have your mother’s name.”
Jake’s expression pained as he stilled his hand on my abdomen. “That’s really sweet, Angel, but I don’t think I can bear calling her Susan. It would hurt too much.”
I cupped his cheek with my hand. “Then we’ll call her something else. What was your mother’s full name?”
“Julia Susannah. Papa and Grandmother shortened it to Susan.”
“That’s a beautiful name for our daughter.” I patted his hand on my belly. “What if we called her Jules? That’s kind of a sassy little nickname. And if she’s anything like your mom or me, she’ll be sassy.”
Jake grinned. “I agree. And I love that. Jules Slater sounds like a future rock goddess, too.”
“It does.”
“And for our son?”
“He needs his father’s name in there somewhere.”
Jake wrinkled his nose. “He’s getting my last name. What about something of yours?”
I shrugged. “We could give him my dad’s name as a middle name.”
“Andrew’s a good, strong name.” He winked. “And biblical.”
“So is Jacob,” I countered.
Jake laughed. “Fine. We’ll think about using my name as a middle name too.”
“I like using family names and giving our babies history.”
“So do I, but at the same time, I don’t think you want to use my Papa’s name.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I love him, but I don’t want to name our son Herbert.”
“Neither do I.”
Jake’s phone dinged in his pocket, and he pulled it out. He read the text and grimaced. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“That was Loren. He’s been researching the auditorium in Boise, and he thinks we’re going to need to scrap doing Jackson or add in another song with it because the way the stage is built.”
I gasped. “That’s it.”
Jake’s brows furrowed. “What’s it?”
“Jackson.”
“You want to name our son after the duet we’re doing?”
“Not entirely. My mom’s maiden name is Jackson.”
Jake appeared to be thinking about the name. “Jackson Slater…Jax Slater.” He grinned. “I like that a lot.”
“Jacob Jackson Slater,” I said, with a smile.
He rolled his eyes. “Andrew Jackson Slater,” he countered.
“Then it sounds like we named him after the president.”
Jake laughed. “I guess you’re right.” He rubbed my belly. “So, Jax and Jules it is.”
“I love it.”
“And I love you.”