Gypsy Kiss: Micah Part 44

The door was open and Jewls was lying on the bed, her top exposing her round, neat b.u.mp.

Christ, how had I not seen that before? How utterly self-absorbed, and oblivious had I been to not see what was smacking me in the face. She was pregnant, but not just pregnant obviously pregnant. I was the worst boyfriend in the world.

My eyes travelled to the screen, and instantly filled with tears. I only vaguely heard the nurse talking.

"Okay...baby number one. Can you see what I see, Jewls?"

"A boy..." Jewls whispered, her voice filled with emotion.

"That's right. The second one...a little harder to tell, but I feel confident enough to stick my neck out and say...that's a girl. Although if another boy pops out don't hold me responsible, alright?"

Jewls laughed at that, and then her eyes s.h.i.+fted to the door and she finally saw me. "Micah..."

I opened my mouth to try and speak, but nothing came out. "Um...uh..."

She looked surprised to see me, but her expression quickly changed to the brightest smile I had ever seen on her. She was glowing and she looked beautiful. I fell in love all over again.

She held her hand out to me in invitation. "I'm guessing Mari opened her mouth, huh? Are you gonna come in or stand there?"

I looked behind me at Mari and Nic. Mari was smiling at Jewls apologetically and Nic was grinning.

My feet began to move, almost beyond my control and I went in, sitting on the edge of her bed beside her, putting my arm over her shoulders.

"So these are our babies, huh?"

She nodded happily. "Yeah. Are you happy?"

"Am I happy...?" I repeated and pulled her to me, holding her tight and kissing the top of her head. "I'm over the f.u.c.king moon!"

"Told you he would be!" Jewls' mum said, "Congratulations, you two."

I smiled and winked at her. "Thank you." I frowned. "Oh G.o.d...you uh...you must not have a good impression of me...last night..."

She shook her head knowingly. "On the contrary, Micah. You saved my daughter's life. And I know that you love her, properly. That's good enough for me. You pa.s.s the mother in law test. Now...when are you gonna marry her, huh?"

"Tomorrow, if I could!" I said, and I meant it. "As soon as. We're gonna be a family."

"Yeah..." Jewls said, snuggling into me. "A family."

Jewls APRIL.

"Come on babe, you can do this, you can so f.u.c.king do this, you're so f.u.c.king amazing!"

I couldn't help but smile in spite of my agony. Micah was so excited he was bouncing up and down in his seat.

"I can see the head, Jewls. You're doing brilliantly. One more push and the first baby will be here!"

I took a deep breath in and pushed down with every ounce of energy I could muster.

"Oh my G.o.d, babe!" Micah squealed.

I felt the shoulders slide out, and let out a sob, more of relief than anything. "Which one?" I puffed, "Which one is it?" as if it mattered.

I watched as the midwife handed the first baby to me, settling it on my chest. The emotion overwhelmed me and I burst into tears.

"Congratulations, you have a beautiful little girl! Does dad want a hold? Only I hate to say it, but her brother is coming fast, we don't have much time."

Micah took Hope from me and held her close to his chest, grinning from ear to ear. "My G.o.d, she's so f.u.c.king beautiful. Well done, baby."

"Okay, Jewls. Are you ready?"

Was I? Not even remotely. Did I have a choice? Not even remotely. "Yeah..." I said regardless.

"Okay, good girl. Now pus.h.!.+ Good Jewls, well done! Now take a breath, relax and I'll say when you need to go again."

I glanced over at Micah. He had given our daughter to the other midwife, who was cleaning her up and weighing her. Micah was standing with mum, their arms linked, waiting anxiously.

"Now, Jewls! Pus.h.!.+"

"I am f.u.c.king pus.h.i.+ng!!" I snapped angrily. "I can't do it!"

"Yes you can, you're doing great. Keep going, you're nearly there; he's in some kind of hurry. One more, push down from your bottom and keep going, now!"

I pushed one more time, as hard as I possibly could, letting out a blood curdling scream as I felt my son slip out, much easier and faster than his sister.

Wonderful, Jewls!" the midwife exclaimed happily. "Congratulations, you have a healthy baby boy! You want to hold?"

"I can't feel my arms!" I puffed, exhausted.

"Dad, how about you?"

I looked at Micah, who was nodding excitedly. My mum had a hold of our daughter, nuzzling her and talking to her. I watched as the midwife placed our son into his arms. All I saw was a head of thick black hair under the blanket.

"Oh, Jewls..." he whispered, holding him close. "He's amazing."

Jewls We sat for a while in a contented silence with our children, just holding them and getting to know them.

There was a knock on the door and the midwife stuck her head round it. "Jewls, Micah? There are a lot of people out here all claiming to be family, all eager to meet the new additions."

Micah grinned. "Yeah, send them in please."

"Well...really they shouldn't all be coming in..."

I laughed at that and shook my head. "Good luck trying to stop them."

She narrowed her eyes but she was smiling. "Five minutes."

She left and moments later everyone piled in, surrounding the bed. "Hey..." Mari said, grinning and managing to get herself squeezed in towards the top of the bed. "Oh guys...they're beautiful!"

"So which one is which...?" Eli asked. His eyes were wide and he was wearing the biggest smile I had ever seen on him. It suited him. If I didn't know better, I could have sworn he was gus.h.i.+ng.

"This is our daughter," I said, lifting my arms a little to show everyone my sleeping baby.

"And this is our son..." Micah said with a smile.

"Are you finally gonna tell us the names you picked, or what?" Nic asked.

I nodded. "This little one...is Hope..."

Everyone nodded, muttering awe, and their approval of the choice. Micah looked at me, seeking final approval and I nodded for him to go ahead.

"And this little guy..." he said, tears filling his eyes through his proud smile, "this, is Marco...his name is Marco."

Jewls MAY.

"Ladies and gentleman..." Nic said, clapping his hands together. "Thank you all so much for coming today." The crowd quietened down, turning to him and waiting. I glanced at Micah by my side, holding Marco in his arms, and looked down at Hope in mine. Both were sleeping soundly, for once.

"Six months ago, our family was attacked. We lost our beautiful brother Marco. And we lost this place. We lost everything. Times were...hard, not least for Micah." He glanced at Micah who smiled half-heartedly at him. "What today is...is a fresh start. As we re-open Carousel, we pledge as a family to make it bigger and better than ever before, in memory of our brother." More applause and he waited until it died down, before he turned to me and Micah.

"I want to thank Jewls. For helping my brother to heal. For blessing him with two beautiful children and agreeing to marry him, taking him off our hands. He eats far too much and we might finally get in the bathroom occasionally without him hogging it." There was a murmur of laughter at that, and Micah rolled his eyes. "I'm going to pa.s.s this over to Micah and Jewls now, to do the honours on behalf of the family."

Micah pa.s.sed Marco to my mum and stepped forward, not before planting a rea.s.suring kiss on my forehead. I had come a long way in the preceding year, but he knew me well enough to know I wasn't entirely comfortable with all these people looking at me.

"Thanks, bro." he said, taking the scissors from him. "I just want to add to that if I may, before we go inside and eat. It's been a rough ride, losing Marco broke my heart. But Jewls and these babies, they've healed me. Today I officially introduce my children...Hope, and Marco. Our family is growing; the Machvaya's are back and here to stay. I am so proud of my little family. My fiancee and I are getting married right here in August and holding an open reception, all welcome so please do come along and help Jewls celebrate making an honest man of me..."

The crowd broke into spontaneous applause again, and Eli whistled, loud, grinning. Lisa nudged his arm, rolling her eyes and mouthing sorry at us.

"So...without further ado, I would like to officially declare that Carousel, the finest restaurant in the region hands down, is now..." he cut through the red ribbon strung across the gla.s.s doors of the new and quite spectacular restaurant and grinned, "...open...!"

Epilogue.

"Three years, Mrs Machvaya. Three years you've worked here...and still you're a complete chicken."

Micah grinned at me, as he pa.s.sed me again, spinning one of the cars emitting a little shriek from the occupants. I waited for the ride to bring him around again, and narrowed my eyes at him. "I am not..." he was gone again and this time when he came around he was still grinning and shot me a wink. I made to thump him and missed as the waltzer carried him just out of my reach.

"Yes you are!"

"It's too high!" I shouted after him.

"It is not." He said on his next round. "And anyway, it's for charity. You said you would do it."

"No..." I said, pausing for his next round, "you said I would do it. I signed up for nothing."

The next time he came round he jumped off, landing in front of me, grabbing my hips and pulling me up flush with his body.

"Mrs Machvaya, give it up. We both know...I have ways to persuade you. We both know for instance, that if I stick my bottom lip out, like so..." he did just that and made his brown eyes wide and sorrowful, "...that you will be unable to resist and you will give in."

I laughed at his attempts, but it was half-hearted because deep down I knew he was right. Well, he was usually right.

"Baby...you're my husband. The father of my beautiful children. And G.o.d knows I love you with my whole heart. But nothing on this earth, and I mean absolutely nothing...would get me up there, with a piece of elastic tied to my feet jumping to a certain death. Nothing."

"Not even risking the disappointment of your children, who have come along to watch mummy do the big leap?"

He gestured behind me, and I turned to see the whole Machvaya clan headed our way, Marco riding Luca's shoulders, Hope on Kris's shoulders. George and Ruby were running alongside Eli, trying to drag him towards the dodgems. He looked, as usual, hara.s.sed but amused.

I felt my familiar rush of pride at being part of this wonderful, and frankly gorgeous, family. Luca and Kris set the twins down, pointing me out to them and they came running at me. I jumped down to meet them on the gra.s.s and was almost knocked onto my b.u.m by the force of their joint hugs.

"h.e.l.lo, you two!"

"Hi, mummy!" Marco exclaimed. "Daddy..?"

"Right here!" Micah exclaimed, grabbing him and scooping him up, sitting him on his shoulders. Marco shrieked excitedly. "You come to watch mummy do her special jump?"

"Mummy is not doing it!" I protested, picking Hope up and holding her to my hip. "Daddy is. Shall we go watch, huh?"

"Yeah!" both kids squealed excitedly.

Micah rolled his eyes and groaned. "Fine. Make me do it alone."

"You're really gonna do this?" Nic said, amused.

"Yes, I am." Micah said, "Said I would and I am a man of my word."

Eli looked up at the sky and shook his head. "Bro, you want your head testing."

Micah laughed. "So what's new, huh? Anyway, why are you all here, what's this, a family outing?"

Luca shrugged. "Family day at the fair, nothing more in it than that. We are not here to laugh at you, promise."

"Sure you're not. Who's holding the fort at the restaurant?"

It was Nic's turn to shrug. "Steve and Tracy have it under control."

I turned to him, shocked. "You've left a none-family member in charge of the restaurant?"

"Hey, I'm a reformed man." He protested. "I'm learning to have a life beyond work. I admit, it's not always easy, but...it has its advantages." He pulled Jenna closer to him, patting her tummy and the baby growing there.