Bidding For Her Curves - Flora Ferrari Page 0,48

it so much, I can just tell he’s as clucky as I am.

Not that I’d tell him that to his face, mind you.

“Honey!” I call up the stairs.“We’ll be late.”

Damned stairs, the whole point of moving was to avoid stairs. ‘We might need the extra room honeybunch.’

Baby Jack’s hanging onto the gate at the bottom of the stairs, looking up and waiting for his daddy. Looking like he’s doing time.

Or filling his diaper.

Yep. Great.

“Never mind, I gotta change Jack, again,” I call up to Mason, who’s suddenly gone quiet.

I don’t think he’d have nerves about the opening… or is it because it’s been two years already?

The time, it’s gone by so fast.

I hear the heavy thumping of Mason sprinting across the upper floor and down the stairs, leaping over the baby gate and scooping Jack from me before I can get him to the changing table.

“I got it, honey. You go get ready,” he says, not even panting.

“I am ready, Mason. Have been for twenty minutes, same as Jack. What were you doing up there?” I ask, wanting to sound annoyed, but always loving to watch my man change his little man.

I take a step back, fanning myself with my hand, feeling faint.

“What’s he been eating?” I exclaim, suddenly wanting to heave.

“Only what we feed him,” Mason murmurs, the clean diaper between his pursed lips as he concentrates.

“We can be late anyway honey,” he continues. “It’s your building, project, neighborhood thingy, whatever you call it, you’re the boss,” he says with finality.

“And our anniversary dinner,” I say, puffing my cheeks at the thought of food, really not feeling very well.

“At the soup kitchen. Great idea by the way hun. Two years of wedded bliss. Let’s go have a bowl of chili and some cold coffee in a paper cup.”

He looks up, noticing my face.

“Sorry, baby. I know it’s a great cause and I know you do more than serve up-”

He doesn’t get to finish.

In one swift movement, he’s scooped up baby Jack with one arm and launched himself over to me, catching me before my head hits the sideboard as my legs give out.

“Alright, it’s alright, everyone’s alright,” he coos, bouncing Jack and effortlessly planting me in a chair before he examines me.

“Give him here,” I murmur, taking Jack and bouncing him on my knee while Mason squats down in front of us both, stroking my hair back and then kissing Jack.

“Do we need to make a stop at the doctors on the way?” he asks, a familiar grin, a devilish glint in his eyes.

I screw my face up, trying to get mad again, but something in me just tells me he’s right.

“I’ll be fine, Mason, just Jack’s stinky diaper got to me. I’ll make an appointment next week. We’re kind busy this week,” I remind him.

“Anniversary? Then holiday? Remember those?” I hear myself whining, trying not to smile.

But he’s smiling too much for my liking like he knows what I just figured out.

Like I know somehow we’re going to be later than I’d like for the opening and for our anniversary dinner.

Fashionably late, the grand opening of the McPherson-Thorne community center goes ahead, followed by a gala dinner featuring the menu and serving staff from the center’s community outreach program.

I recognize almost everyone working tonight. I used to serve them bland chili and coffee in paper cups… now, they have jobs and a place to stay. Places of their own and most of them have families now too.

Florence gives a tearful speech, and I have to pretend I’m feeding Jack so she won’t see me cry. I eventually have to get up and declare the project officially open, which I do.

A familiar face hands me the novelty oversized scissors to cut the ribbon for the media while Mason holds baby Jack, cheering me on.

“How are you, Karen?” I ask, still amazed she’s stayed on so long. I made sure she kept her same salary, but I never believed someone like her would spend two minutes doing what we do here, let alone two years.

“Ah, y’know,” she murmurs, narrowing her eyes and looking from me to Mason.

“Not as well as some,” she says, almost sounding bitter, when one of the regulars I remember from when I first started helping here comes up behind her and squeezes her hips, kissing her neck.

“I’ve had worse jobs,” she says, finally smiling. But not at me. Smiling into the eyes of the man she’s found love with too.

Ha. Even Karen has a happy ending.

It’s