I Left My Heart in San Diego

CURRENT STORY DATE: 08/25/11

I was hardly able to sleep last night. The excitement of knowing that my husband was coming home from his two-month tour across the country kept me up until three o'clock this morning. I think it was my new little one that finally allowed me to fall asleep. I think I was already tired when I put myself to bed around midnight, but just the knowledge of the fact that I was seeing husband after two months apart kept me awake. I just didn't expect being awake for an extra three hours.

I had no idea what time it was when I felt myself being shook awake, but I just groaned loudly into my pillow. Ollie had the habit all summer of waking me up at some early afternoon hour so I wouldn't be up all night, regardless of what time I fell asleep the previous night. I rolled over when I felt myself being shaken awake again, and groaned again. In my half-awake state, I heard light laughter, and it was deeper than Ollie's. A lot deeper.

Remembering what today was as I became more awake, my eyes flew open and a huge grin found its way onto my face. I rolled back over slowly, hoping the laughter belonged to whom I thought it belonged to, and whom I hoped was standing over my bed.

I saw feet. Converse-clad feet. The sneakers were black and tattered, just like my husband's, and they had a heart drawn in black Sharpie on the rubber on the tip of the left shoe. I had drawn that there, I remembered, and I looked up to the face that belonged to the feet. "Billie!" I squealed.

He grinned widely. "Hi, sweetheart." He held out his arms and I shot up out of bed and flung my arms around his neck. I squeezed him as tight as I could to me, and was not planning on letting him go for a very, very long time. And Billie didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around me in return, tight enough, I noticed, to not completely squish my belly region, even though I wasn't showing yet. Thinking about it, though, I was due to start showing soon.

When Billie and I pulled apart from each other, he looked me straight in the eye, took my face in his hands so gently I hardly even felt they were there, and firmly pressed his lips to mine. Kissing me like this for a good five minutes, I almost fell out of bed when he pulled away. I pouted and made a small noise of disapproval, and Billie just chuckled and kissed me once. He took his hands away from my face and instead took my hands. "I'll be right back, love. I was able to sneak past my mom because she was too busy mauling Mike and Tre when they came in the house, so she hasn't seen me yet."

I giggled. "That's just like you, Billie. Why don't I come downstairs?" I suggested.

Billie shook his head. "Not yet. I'm not done spending time with you," he said.

I grinned and pecked his lips. "Okay. But while you're down there being mauled, why don't you send Mike and Tre up? I'd like to see them too!" I suggested again.

Billie smiled. "Of course, love." He walked out and I heard him head down the stairs.

"Billie Joe, there you are! Have you been avoiding me?" I heard Ollie yell. I laughed and saw another figure stand in my doorway.

"Hiya!" I looked up to see Tre standing there.

"Hi!" He walked over to me and enveloped me in a spine-crushing hug. "Careful, careful!" I warned.

"Why's that?" Tre asked.

"I don't know if Billie's told you yet, but I'm pregnant again," I explained briefly.

"Oh, shit, I'm sorry!" Tre exclaimed, backing away from me.

"You dumbass, you're fine. Come back over here and hug me!" I said, beckoning to him. He grinned and walked back up to me, hugging me again, but just not as tightly. When he pulled away, I looked up to see Mike standing in the doorway. "Hey, you!" I said.

"Hey, you," Mike said back, smiling.

I laughed and held out my arms. "C'mere. I'm not leaving you out."

He smiled a little wider and walked up to hug me. "Why was Tre swearing?" he asked.

I laughed again. "Oh, because I told him not to squish me."

"Why would squishing you be a bad thing?" Mike asked.

"I'm pregnant again," I said simply.

"Hey, congrats," Mike said, smiling.

"Thanks. Now have you boys seen your women yet?" I asked.

Tre shook his head. "We all came back here first because we keep all our equipment here at Billie's."

I gestured toward the door. "Well go on! Go find them! I bet they're as eager as I was to see their men again!" I yelled. Mike chuckled and beckoned to Tre. "Oh, and Tre," I called. He looked back at me. "Congrats on your kid."

He grinned widely. "Thanks! I'm assuming she told you and Mary Jane first?"

I nodded. "She didn't know how to tell you. And she was in the same predicament I found myself in two months ago. She didn't want to tell you right as you were leaving us all for two months."

"Women," Tre said, shaking his head.

I chuckled. "Yeah, I know, right? Now go on!"

"Alright, alright! Ollie invited us back for dinner, so we'll be back later on."

"Okay. See you guys tonight."

"Later, Arizona," Mike called as him and Tre left my room, only to be replaced by my husband, whom I saw was standing in the hallway.

"Hey, babe," he said, walking back in and closing the door behind him.

"Hi, love," I said back to him, watching him close the door.

"So," Billie began. "Two months."

I smiled. "Yeah, long time."

"Definitely. We've all gone two months without so much as a kiss from any of our women," Billie remarked.

I giggled. I was pretty sure I knew what he was getting at. "Billie," I said. He cocked an eyebrow. "You just got back, like, half an hour ago."

He sighed. "Dammit, you figured me out. Can you blame me, though? I mean, you're fucking gorgeous, and you get even more so when you're pregnant."

I raised an eyebrow this time. "You think so?" I asked.

Billie nodded vigorously. "Oh yes."

"Well, before we do anything insane, come meet your new...offspring," I said.

He laughed. "Offspring?"

"I couldn't think of a better word, since I don't know the sex yet."

"And we won't for a while, it seems," Billie observed, looking down at my belly and its lack of roundness.

"Yeah, I'm only about two months," I said.

Billie looked up at me. "Well I think it's time I said hello." I giggled and watched as Billie crouched down to be eye level with my belly. I lifted my shirt up and held the ends around the middle of my back. His hands were warm as I felt them on my belly, and he gently caressed the slight roundness. "Hey," he said quietly. "Can you hear me in there?" I watched as he mockingly knocked softly on my belly, and I giggled. I saw Billie smile as he said, "Well, if you can, I'm saying hi. I'm your daddy. I can't wait to meet you." He kissed my belly and then looked up at me. "I'm already excited," he said.

I giggled again. "I am, too. Do you want a boy or a girl this time?"

Standing, Billie shrugged. "It doesn't really matter that much to me. I mean, I love our daughter, she's beautiful," - Billie kissed me briefly - "and I think she's going to be a fantastic little girl, but it doesn't matter that much to me whether we have a son or another daughter."

"Yeah?" I asked, smiling.

"Yeah," Billie said, nodding. "Like, having a son would be awesome, because I would get to teach him to play catch when he's little and have him come to me about girls when he's older, but I would be perfectly okay with a second daughter, because having Cadence has made me realize that I love being a dad, and that the best is yet to come, and I honestly don't care if we have a bunch more kids and they're all girls."

"Really?" I asked quietly, my eyes starting to water.

Billie took my face in his hands again and looked me straight in the eye as he said, "Yes, Arizona, really. I love being a father, it doesn't matter who my kids are."

"Billie, I love you," I said.

He laughed. "You have no idea how much I've wanted to hear you say that."

"I always tell you," I said, slightly confused.

"Yeah, I know, but I meant in person. Like, you kneeling on your bed in front of me telling me you love me for the first time in two months is just frankly the best feeling in the world right now." And with that, I flung my arms back around Billie's neck and began to cry. "Baby, don't cry!" Billie exclaimed, pulling me away from him.

"But I'm just so happy," I muttered, smiling as Billie wiped my tears off my cheeks with the pad of his thumb.

"And I'm happy, too, love. Happier than I have been in the past two months." I grinned. "This is literally perfect," Billie said. "I have a beautiful daughter, an amazingly gorgeous wife, and another kid on the way. Yeah, I still live with my mom, but I'm working on changing that."

"You mean we'll finally have our own place and won't need to worry about waking anyone up when we fuck in the middle of the night?" I asked eagerly.

Billie laughed loudly and kissed me. "Yes," he said when he pulled away. "No worries except for maybe the neighbors."

I laughed and sniffled. "I love you, Billie. I'm so glad you're home."

Billie grinned and pulled me back into a hug. "I love you, too, Arizona, and I'm glad too."

"Kiss me?" I asked. Billie grinned again, widely, and I saw a gleam of something in his eye right before his lips attacked mine.

I squealed as the force of the kiss knocked me back down onto my bed.