I unloaded everything that I’d purchased and laid it out in the living room. I heaved the couch and love seat against the opposite wall next to the front door, and moved a large standing lamp into the kitchen. I knocked on the wall with my knuckles trying to hear the difference between a hollow sound and where there might possibly be a stud. Lord knows if I hit one of those, the whole damn house may come down.
It took me a good hour to prep the area where I covered the floors, marked where would be a good spot to hit, and then I stood back and assessed. Slipping the glasses on, and turning on the surround sound, Foghat’s “Slow Ride” blared through the speakers. I put the sledge hammer up on my shoulder and I wiggled my hips to the beat. I felt like the female version of Thor right now. Pregnant belly and all. I was a bad ass soon to be momma and I was going to build shit. Yep, let’s do this. The sledge hammer was in both hands as I let it fall to parallel to my waist. I was bringing it back and starting the forward momentum when I heard the front door slam behind me.
“What the fuck!” Dodger hollered over the music.
I spun around, the tool still moving in the direction I led it. It hit the wall with a sharp crack. I winced.
“Have you lost your god damn mind? What are you doing?”
Oh shit, he was mad. I pushed the safety glasses up to the top of my head, and gently set the overweight tool down on the floor, leaning against the wall that was now cracked, and speckles of dry wall covered the sheet.
“Hey, babe, you’re home early.” I watched as he turned off the music. “I wasn’t expecting you home for a few more hours.”
I gave him an unsettling smile. This was going to be painful. I heard the ass chewing before it even came out of his mouth. He dropped his bag, and didn’t take his piercing blue eyes off me for a single second. His fingers were wiggling by his sides like he was in a western movie about to have an old fashioned gun slinging shoot out.
“I’m going to ask you again. What do you think you’re doing?”
Rolling my eyes and trying to brush it off like it wasn’t that big of a deal I said, “Well, this morning, I couldn’t stop thinking about how this place would be so much more incredible if it were opened up. Like the living room would flow straight into the kitchen instead of being closed off. I decided to get dressed, go to the hardware store to grab a few things, and I was going to have this all done and taken care of before you got home.” I tried smiling again, but I’m pretty sure it looked awkward. “How come you’re home? Everything okay?”
Deflect until you’re blue in the face, Macie.
“My last patient this morning cancelled and I decided to clear my schedule this afternoon to spend time with you. Apparently, it was for good reason.”
“Awe, you wanted to spend time with me?” Keep deflecting.
“Macie, I know what you’re doing and it’s not going to work. So please explain to me what my crazy, almost nine-month pregnant girlfriend is doing trying to put holes in our walls all by herself? Without my knowing none-the-less.”
“What does my being pregnant have to do with anything?”
He growled. “Everything. You’re swinging a heavy ass tool, which would probably send you into labor.”
“Nah.” I waved him off.
He took a couple of steps towards me as I took a step back.
“You purposefully didn’t do this when I was home because you knew I’d say no, didn’t you?”
“Oh, Dodger, don’t delude yourself into thinking I wouldn’t have. I don’t need your permission to tear down a wall, nor do I need your help. I’d do it with you standing right here next to me, or with you still at work.” Okay, maybe I wouldn’t have. And he did technically have a point. But when you were a woman on a mission like me, labor-schmabor.
“Somehow I doubt that.”
“Well, I’m going to have this baby at some point. What does it matter if it kick starts it while I’m doing some home renovations?”
“Now you’re just being ridiculous.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. Between the growing stomach, losing sleep, excessive hunger and peeing, my sanity was going right out the window. There’s so much you’re told you can’t do when you’re pregnant and it’s annoying. I didn’t want to be told I was crazy for doing something that wouldn’t be a big deal if my body wasn’t being used as an incubator. As I nurse working with women like myself day in and day out, I knew what I was doing wasn’t the wisest choice. I probably would have passed judgement if I was anybody else looking at me right now. I was reaching the stage where I was done feeling like the skinny girl stuck in this foreign body.
“Are you calling me crazy?”
He tilted his head. “That’s not what I said at all.”
“You might as well have.”
“Come on, Macie. Seriously, if you wanted the wall taken down, all you had to do was ask.”
I nearly roared back at him. “Ask to do something in my own home? Nope!”
He came toward me and held my hand up halt him. “No, I’m saying I’d be the one doing the heavy lifting. I wasn’t saying you had to ask if you could or not.”
Enough. I put my hands on the handle of the sledge hammer.
“Macie, don’t you even think about it.” He warned.
I looked at him and cocked my brow. “Watch me, Mr. Brooks.”
As quickly as I hefted the heavy thing up off the floor, it was snatched out of my hands, and I was being picked up and carried off to the master bathroom. Dodger turned on the bath water and set me down on the counter.
“What are you doing?”
“We’re taking a bath,” he stated coolly.
I gaped at him. Who was the crazy person now? “I’m not taking a bath.”
“Yes, we are.”
I crossed my arms in defiance. “Dodger, you can pick me up and carry me off anywhere in this god forsaken house, I’m still taking down that wall. And I’m not taking a god damn bath.”
He stripped his shirt off and tossed it into the hamper. My mouth started watering. My pathetic attempts to be stubborn waivered, but I wasn’t blind. His rippled abs, and trail of hair that led from his belly button to his cock was enough to shut me up. He smirked at me. My mouth parted. Unbuttoning the top of his jeans, I watched with rapt attention. This man of mine really was beautiful, and he was using it to his advantage. He came over to me and grabbed me by my wrists. Lifting them straight up in the air, he let go and took ahold of the hem of my t-shirt. He pulled it up and over my head and threw it where his laid. I was wearing a not so flattering bra. But I wasn’t going to go waste money on new ones that fit these oversized globes. My belly hadn’t been the only thing that was expanding.
“Bubbles, or no bubbles?” he asked.
I shut my mouth and shook my head. He chuckled.
“Always so stubborn.”
“No, I just don’t like being told no.”
“Get in the tub, Mace.”
“I also don’t like being told what to do,” I sassed him.
He exhaled loudly through his nose. I was frustrating him. “Macie, I swear to god, you don’t get in the fucking tub, I’m going to chuck your pregnant ass in there.”
“That sounds a little aggressive don’t you think? Might put me in labor.” I tried mimicking him.