“I’ll go and get the baby Tylenol. That should help her feel better.”
Connor followed me into the kitchen, and I took the Tylenol from the cupboard. I gave Julia her dosage and we sat with her on the couch.
“I can take her, sweetheart. You have to get up for work in a couple of hours.”
“It’s okay. We can do this together.” He smiled as he leaned over and kissed me.
The Tylenol took effect and Julia finally fell asleep. Connor slowly got up from the couch, took her upstairs, and laid her down in her crib. I climbed under my warm sheets and closed my eyes. As I began to drift asleep, I felt little kisses all over my back. I opened my eyes and rolled over.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
Connor climbed on top of me and whispered, “I’m going to make love to you and then you can go to sleep.”
“Is that so? What if I don’t want you to make love to me?”
“Ellery Rose Black! I better never hear those words come from your mouth.”
I couldn’t help but laugh when he said that. I held his face in my hands as he hovered over me. “Make love to me.”
“I changed my mind,” he said as he got off of me and rolled over.
“What?!” I exclaimed as I took my pillow and hit him with it.
“So, you want a pillow fight, do you?” He retaliated by taking his pillow and hitting me back.
I stood up on the bed with my pillow in hand and hit him with it again. He jumped out of bed and swung his pillow at me, but missed when I jumped to the other side. As I jumped off the bed, we stood and stared at each other from opposite sides, waiting for the other to make a move.
“You aren’t getting off that easy, baby,” Connor said.
“Bring it on, Black.” I smiled.
He stood there and shook his head. “You wait until I get a hold of you.”
It was now four o’clock in the morning, and I couldn’t believe we were having a pillow fight. Connor finally made his move and ran to the other side of the bed where I stood. I laughed as I tried to dash across the bed to the other side, but he grabbed my leg and I screamed. As I fell onto the bed, he positioned himself on top of me and covered my mouth with his hand.
“Shh...you’re going to wake the baby, and we can’t have her waking up quite yet.” He smiled.
Lying there, I stared into his eyes as he stared into mine and, with his hand still covering my mouth, he asked, “Do you want me to make love to you?”
I nodded my head, and he smiled as he took his other hand and placed it between my legs.
When the alarm went off, I heard Julia whining. We’d only slept about two hours. He turned and looked at me as I rolled over, and he kissed me on the head.
“Go back to sleep, sweetheart. I’ll take care of Julia before I head to the office. You need your rest after your workout last night.” He smiled.
I sighed, rolled over, and went back to sleep. I wasn’t going to argue with him because I was dead tired.
A couple of hours later, I woke up and headed to the kitchen for some coffee. Mason was already over and feeding Julia in her highchair.
“Good morning, Elle. Oh my, look at those bags under your eyes. Did Connor keep you up all night?”
I poured some coffee in my cup, kissed Julia on the head, and sat down across from Mason. “He did for about an hour, but it was Julia who was up all night screaming. She’s teething.”
“Yeah, I know. I hope you used the teething gel in the diaper bag,” he said.
“I didn’t know there was teething gel in the diaper bag! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I forgot, sorry. I figured you go in the diaper bag every day, so you would’ve seen it.”
Just as I was about to answer him, a text message came through on my phone from a restricted number.
“You are one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen and I can’t stop thinking about you. You haunt my dreams.”
Smiling, I showed the message to Mason. “I have the most romantic husband in the world.”
“That’s weird; why would he send it from a restricted number?” Mason asked.
“He likes to play games.” I smiled.
A shower was required before I headed over to the hospital to see Denny. I got up from the table and went upstairs. After I got dressed, I kissed Julia goodbye and took a cab to the hospital. Dana was the only one in the room and she smiled when she saw me.
“How’s he doing?” I asked as I walked over to the bed and touched his hand.
“Still the same, but Dr. Armstrong said that the swelling in his brain went down and that’s a good sign.”
No matter how many times I visited him, it didn’t get any easier. Dana said she was going to take a little break and meet her sister in the cafeteria for coffee. When she left the room, I sat in the chair, took a hold of his hand, and squeezed it tight.
“Denny, it’s me, Ellery. We all miss you so much and we need you to wake up. It’s so hard seeing you like this. I know you’re strong and you’re going to pull through this.”