A Mighty Need

The morning Noel left to return to London, Audrey cried.

He had woken her up at six in the morning, after the wakeup call from the front desk came up. He was dog tired from having stayed up late with her the night before, but it was worth it in his eyes. He rolled over and kissed her bare shoulder and then rolled back the other way to climb out of bed. She didn’t stir right away, so he quietly padded into the bathroom and shut the door to let her sleep a bit longer. He took a piss and hopped into a quick, five minute shower before reentering the bedroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and his dark hair, damp and clingy around his face and the back of his neck. He was very stubbly, having not bothered with shaving since before he left to come to the San Francisco. Also, he hadn’t packed his electric razor so there was nothing he could’ve done about the incoming beard at the moment.

When he moved about, pulling clothes to wear from his suitcase, that’s when Audrey woke and sat up, looking toward the other end of the room where he was. He was unaware she’d regained consciousness and went about his business while she watched him. Her eyes focused on the shape of his ass within the confines of that white, fluffy towel and the way his shoulder blades flexed when he moved his arms. It stirred something within her just watching him like this. The fires she had for him were constantly burning.

As he turned around, she smiled at him and he smiled back when he realized she was up.

“Morning,” he greeted.

“Yes, it is,” she replied. Pulling the bed sheet with her, Audrey wrapped it around her bare body; her baby bump slightly noticeable behind the rumpled material. “Let me tide you over some more before you go.”

Noel knitted his brow together just as she shoved him gently down to the turquoise chaise lounge behind him. Kneeling down in front of his legs, she parted them and began to pull open the bath towel. Noel bit his lip on instinct and found his hands creeping up her arms as her right hand gripped his cock firmly and then let her fingers trail up and down his length to stiffen him up, or at least some more because it really didn’t take much around her. As she lowered her mouth onto his tip, he moved his hands to her hair, running his fingers through her already tousled-from-the-night-before ginger tresses. His breathing hitched and he gripped her hair harder as she took more of him into his mouth as if she were a Hoover.

He moaned, he groaned and he cinched his eyes shut to keep them exploding out of his skull. Further instinct took over and he guided her down further as his hips began to buck upward. Her tongue was magical, as if it was the favorite paintbrush of Michelangelo as he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Before he could cum, however, he pulled her away with lust and love equally in his suddenly darkened blue eyes and lifted her up and set her down on his lap where she was straddling him. Knowing the movements, she positioned him at her entrance and sank down, slowly at first, practically humming as she took him all in. She rolled her hips, which he gripped onto for the ride, from side to side and back and forth. He bucked up, and she ground down, building that friction that drove them mental.

As the moment rose for him, he pulled her tight against him, wrapping his arms around her back as the bed sheet that was still wrapped around her fell to her waist and her bare breasts pressed warmly against his bare chest which was still slick with moisture from hopping out of the shower. When the pressure at the base of his spine popped like an electrical fuse, sending out signals of elation through his every appendage, Noel sank his mouth down onto her shoulder and bit down gently, allowing himself to empty his seed inside her. Audrey followed behind him moments later; a pleasant squeal of delight escaping from the depths of her throat.

Noel, lifting his head back up, covered her mouth with his and let his tongue roam hungrily inside that warm and wet cavern. The calm following their orgasms was like a velvety blanket and neither seemed capable of truly catching their breaths. Their bodies still shook with little loving aftershocks while Noel jutted his jaw out, slightly opening and closing his mouth like he really just wanted to reach out and bite her like a vampire would.

Closing his eyes, he winced; remembering where he was. “Fuck, I gotta get dressed and finish packing my shit up,” he mumbled.

In response, Audrey dropped her head onto his shoulder and wrapped her arms around him. He held her close for a while, choosing not to say anything further until he knew he couldn’t waste anymore time; not that he considered fucking his future bride as wasting time.

“I’ve gotta get moving, Audrey,” he whispered.

Begrudgingly, she disconnected her body from his and sank down to the chaise beside him. He kissed her briefly but sweetly before standing up and walking naked to pick his clothes up from the floor that he had been about to change into. Audrey watched him get dressed, putting his underwear on, then his pants. He looked around for a pair of socks he couldn’t seem to find and when he did, he sat back down beside Audrey and put them on. She touched the skin of his arms, delicately, like butterflies dancing along him. He barely felt her, while at the same time it tickled.

“I love you,” she muttered, pulling the bed sheet up around her and burying her face in soft material. She looked up at him through her eyebrows as she tried to hide most of her face from him.

Holding his shirt in his hands now, Noel twisted around and leaned over to kiss her cheek and then kiss closer to her ear. “I love you, too,” he whispered, sending chills down her spine.

Noel pulled his shirt on, and then ran a hand through his damp hair. He stood up and dug through his bag for his hairbrush which he quickly put to use to brush out any snarls that accumulated in the shower and so his hair would straight and not looking like a rat’s nest. He turned around and looked at Audrey while he did this and found her looking toward the ground and lost in her own world, so he sat down beside her once again and pulled her legs up and over to rest on his lap with his free hand. She smiled at this gesture and looked up at him, but her eyes didn’t seem as they had been earlier when they were filled with desire and sexual prowess.

They looked sad.

Noel wrapped a hand around one of her feet and held on as he finished brushing his hair. When he was done, he tossed the hairbrush on top of his opened suitcase and turned back to face Audrey. Taking both of her feet in his hands, he pulled her legs completely over his lap, bringing her butt up against his hip. He studied her face a bit then cupped one side of it. Noel suddenly realized what was making her look so sad. He watched how her nostrils flared, how she tightened her lips together and how her chin began to quiver. Audrey’s brow furrowed and tears were beginning to line her eyes.

When she looked him in the eyes, she couldn’t hold it in any longer. She began to cry.

Noel pulled her in for a hug and just held her there. She pressed her face into his shoulder as he ran one hand through her hair and the other soothingly over her back.

“I know,” was all he said.

A small sob hiccuped from her lips and she held onto him. “I don’t mean to cry,” she mumbled. “I just don’t want to do this next week without you. Going this long without you here with me and then having you for only a little over a day is like a big tease.”

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, kissing her forehead.

“No, don’t be sorry. I’m glad you showed up. It just feels like I’ve been hungry and then you bring out this cart with a full, three course meal on it, but I can only have one bite of the appetizer.”

She was still crying a bit when he lifted her face and kissed her; tasting her salty tears that had rolled down her face and onto her lips. “One more week, then it’s Christmas, and then we don’t have to be apart for a long while. Every little thing we have to do, we can join each other on.”

“Would I be cramping your style if I hung out at the studio where you’re doing your editing when we’re both home together? Not, like, all the time, but some of it?” She looked at him with doleful hazel eyes. “I’ll hang back in another room with my laptop, writing or something. But just knowing you’re only a room away is a comforting thing.”

Noel smirked. “Of course you can come with me. I usually have a few mates there that have nothing to do with the editing process anyway. If anything, you should be there, too.” He placed another kiss to her lips. “You know, I think that’s a requirement of being engaged to be married, that your fiancée is supposed to come first before mates.”

Audrey giggled through her tears. “Hoes before bros, then?”

“Yeah, exactly.” His eyes panned over to the bedside clock which stated it was six-thirty. “Audrey…”

“Hmm?”

“I need to finish packing. I have to be to the airport in an hour.”

She pouted. “I know.”

“You want to help me? I’ll get done quicker that way and we can spend the rest of the time staring longingly into each other’s eyes like lovers from a Gothic romance novel.”

A smile cracked on Audrey’s face, followed by a laugh. “Okay.”

Audrey swiveled her legs off Noel’s lap and stood up slowly, wiping the remaining tears from her face, doing her best to will the others still wanting to fall to hold the fuck up. She grabbed some of his clothes from the floor that he had worn the night before and tossed them over to him. He then threw them into his bag before ducking into the bathroom to grab his toothbrush. All in all, it only took about fifteen minutes, if that. He had his suitcase zipped up and her jacket draped over it to put on just before he left. He had put his boots on and was now lying back on the bed with his legs dangling over the edge. Audrey was lying next to him, still wrapped in the bed sheet as she would soon have to get into the shower herself to get ready for the day.

They laid there with their hands laced between them, staring up at the ceiling and talking about Christmas and how they were going to surprise both their families with the news of the pregnancy.

“Skype session,” Audrey commented. “When you get home, buy a baby onesie and put it in a gift box, then wrap it up and give it to your parents but tell them they can’t open it until Christmas day when we Skype with them from Columbus. At the same time, once we’re connected with your parents, we’ll give mine the same box, with a baby onesie, and we’ll let them figure it out for themselves.”

“How will I get a baby onesie without people seeing me do it?”

“Have Paloma do it. Give her a call and see if she’ll do us this one favor. I’ll have Austin pop into a store when we’re in LA this weekend and buy a plain white one. Make sure it’s generic, too. We don’t know what we’re having yet and don’t want our parents to assume one way or the other.”

“I’ll give Paloma a call when I get in tomorrow, after I sleep off the jet lag.” Noel looked away from the ceiling and turned to look at Audrey instead.

She felt his eyes on him and met his gaze with a rueful smile. “We’re like ships in the night, you and me,” she remarked. “This really does feel like how it was before, when I still lived in Philly and we’d try and visit each other once or twice a month.”

“I told you.”

Audrey snickered. “I hate it.”

“Very much.”

Rolling onto her side, Audrey grabbed Noel’s hand and placed it on her stomach. “He’s moving.”

“He?”

“You were right; it’s easier to call the baby something definite rather than nothing at all.”

Noel waited with the palm of his hand pressed against her bed sheet-covered stomach. Frowning, he moved his hand underneath the sheet and waited. And that’s when he felt a fluttering beneath the surface. He beamed as widely as possible. “It’s probably more noticeable for you. It was faint, but I definitely felt him.” Noel looked like he’d just been given the cure for cancer to bestow upon the world. “Oh my god, that’s our baby moving about like a whirling Dervish.”

Sitting up on his elbows, Noel caught the time on the bedside clock again and his smile faded away. Audrey noticed his gaze and her smile faded as well. She sat up with him and slouched forward. Twisting slightly at the waist, she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and inhaled the scent of his skin before leaving a trail of kisses up his neck until he turned his head and their lips connect. The tip of his nose brushed her cheek as he closed his eyes and let out a breath.

“Time to go.” Terrible words for him to say and for her to hear. He stood up and pulled her with him. Taking her hand in his, they walked the length of the room toward the door where his suitcase was propped up with his jacket lain on top of it. He let go of Audrey’s hand long enough to throw his jacket on and open the hotel room door. Turning to her again, he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her up in his arms. He could hear her starting to cry again, but knew it was mostly the pregnancy hormones doing a number on her. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she whispered in his ear.

They kissed again; long and sweet and a bit anxious. When he set her down so that her feet were touching the ground again, Noel took a step back and bent at the knees to pick up his suitcase.

“Till next week.”

Audrey nodded, tears stinging her eyes again, but she smiled through them. She didn’t want the last thing he saw of her until Christmas was of her sobbing like a fool. She unwrapped the bed sheet and flashed him, shaking her hips a bit to leave him with an even better image.

He shook his head at her with an impish smile on his lips and a devilish twinkle in his eyes. “My lil’ minx,” he said, leaning in to give her one last kiss before he went.

“Bye…”

“Bye, babe.”

Her heart warmed, feeling like it was going to melt and clog her arteries. He stepped out of the room with his suitcase in hand and turned to head down the hallway toward the elevators. Audrey watched him go; having safely re-wrapped herself back up in the bed sheet in case anyone happened to poke their heads out of their hotel rooms and caught an eyeful. He had such a bob in his step because of those boots he wore, but she liked to think part of it had something to do with him just being happy. Not happy to be leaving, but happy in general. She watched as Noel pressed the down button and wait. He turned around and looked back at her. She waved; he waved back and blew her a kiss. She pretended to catch it and place it on her stomach.

Then the elevator doors dinged opened and he was gone.

Audrey’s mood smile disappeared as she shut her hotel door. She turned back and looked at the bed; the fitted sheet completely disheveled and the comforter half off the bed and on the ground. The pillows were scrunched up and all over the place. It was how their bed at home usually looked because they barely bothered to make it. Their mentality was that they were just going to end up back in it at some point during the day or again at night when they went to bed. Why exert unneeded energy on such a pointless task. It was like the definition of insanity; doing something over and over, expecting different results every time.

Padding her way over to the bed, she laid down on it and pulled the pillow Noel had been occupying during the night up against her. She could still smell him on it; partly his cologne and partly just him. And Audrey started to cry a bit again, just wanting him to be there with her that she was hugging, not the pillow.



Audrey listened to the crunch of snow under the tires of Jeremy’s car as it ambled up the long driveway up to his house. It was just before ten at night, the night before Christmas Eve, and Audrey and Austin’s flight from New Orleans had only just touched down forty minutes earlier. Christmas lights trimmed the house, the windows and even up the lamp post at the base of the sidewalk leading from the driveway to the front port. It looked very festive and Audrey was just so happy to finally see her family again.

But mostly, Noel.

She knew his flight had arrived that morning, as he had called, and apparently it was Jeremy who had also picked Noel up. Jeremy pressed a button from inside the car and the garage door opened automatically, and when it was all the way up he pulled inside, next to Crystal’s car. When they hopped out, Audrey was a bit slower to move. She opened her door and made sure her bulky sweater and jacket covered her stomach as best as it could. She could swear, in the last week, she popped a bit. If she didn’t wear oversized sweaters, her baby bump was very noticeable now.

She just had to keep it hidden for another day and a half, give or take a few hours. She’d noticed recently that her face had gotten puffier and her breasts had gotten fuller than they already were. They ached a bit, too. The cravings hadn’t subsided; mostly she wanted to eat a lot of saucy foods and chocolate. She hadn’t eaten dinner yet, so she was starving.

Austin pulled her suitcase out for her, but she managed with her laptop case and purse. Inside Austin’s carry-on bag was the gift she was going to give to their parents that contained the onesie she had him buy for her. While she had been at her signing at The Grove at Farmers Market, on the corners of W. 3rd Street and Fairfax, Austin had taken the opportunity to hit up the BabyGap and bought a simple white onesie. The one he got was actually cream-colored and it had the most perfect decal on it that was quite unisex. Audrey had fallen in love with it when she saw it later on in their hotel room, and had sent a picture to Noel, who thought it was great.

Now it was crunch time. Only approximately thirty-six more hours of pretending she wasn’t pregnant left to go.

Audrey was first through the door that connected the garage to the kitchen, purposely holding her purse in front of her. Avery came running into the kitchen first to greet them all. She came right up to her Aunt Audrey and side hugged her.

“Hey, peanut,” Audrey smiled down at the petite blonde.

“Hi, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.”

Audrey just laughed and moved further into kitchen so Austin and Jeremy could get into the house. Noel appeared next and went right up to Audrey to hug her.

“Long time, no see,” he teased. He planted a kiss on her lips and hugged her a bit longer before they parted and moved to the breakfast nook where Audrey set her laptop case down. Noel grabbed her suitcase from Austin and gave both his future brothers-in-law smiles and nods of his head. Looking back at Audrey, he said, “Jeremy and Crystal are letting us stay in their room while we’re here.”

“Seriously?” Audrey looked over her shoulder at Jeremy.

Jeremy nodded. “It’ll be easier for us to make sure Santa comes,” he responded coyly, since Avery was right there.

“Where am I?” Austin asked.

“Outside next to the snow-covered mounds of dog shit,” Jeremy teased. “No, just joking. Tristan has bunk beds now. You can take the bottom one.”

“You could’ve put us on the couch like Thanksgiving,” Audrey insisted.

Jeremy just shook his head. “No. Family or not, you’re still our guests.” He then smirked about something. “Hey, Noel, did you know it was one year ago today you told me you were going to propose to Audrey?”

“Oh, yeah, it is,” Noel nodded with a smile.

Audrey raised an eyebrow. “He knew that long before you actually did it?”

Noel nodded again. “Yeah, I had to ask his advice, from one Woods family parasite to another.”

“Parasite?” Jeremy questioned.

“Yeah, we kinda just latched on to these girls, didn’t we?”

After getting settled into Crystal and Jeremy’s room, Audrey sat down on the very comfy mattress which had been this year’s anniversary gift for her sister and brother-in-law. The couple had needed a new mattress, especially since Jeremy was having some back problems, but they couldn’t afford a really good one that would help Jeremy sleep better. In passing conversation, Crystal had mentioned that to Audrey and Audrey told her to pick out the perfect mattress and she would order it for them. They ended up getting the Tempur-Cloud Luxe mattress from Tempurpedic, which made Audrey feel bad again that her and Noel were kicking Crystal and Jeremy out of their room.

“Here we are,” Audrey smiled at Noel, who walked over and sat next to her.

“Here we are,” he repeated. He lifted a hand up and brushed some of her hair off her neck so he could plant a few kisses there.

Audrey turned her head to face him and kissed the tip of his nose. “No more being apart now.”

“Nope,” he agreed.

“I was just thinking about how my OB is probably so mad at me for not getting in for another visit yet.”

“You went the Monday before flew to New York last month. You told him you’d be out of the country. I was there, I remember. He said it was okay. That’s why we scheduled your next appointment for as soon as we get back to London.”

“Oh, yeah.”

Noel snickered. “You forgot?”

Audrey shrugged. “Yeah. Pregnancy brain, I guess.” She then winced, realizing she had said that a bit too loud and hoped no one was on heard her, even though the bedroom door was shut to give her and Noel privacy to get settled.

“You got the baby bodysuit with you?”

“If by bodysuit you mean the onesie, then yes. Austin went out that night on a drugstore run to buy a gift bag and tissue paper. It’s in his carry-on. I should probably get it from him.”

“We’ll do that later.” He rubbed the small of her back and rested his chin on her shoulder. “How are you feeling?”

“Hungry and my boobs ache.”

“Want me to massage them for you?” he teased.

“In my sister’s bed? Ew, gross,” she teased right back.

“I’ve done worse in other people’s beds.”

“I believe that.”

Noel smacked his lips. Scooting back on the mattress, he moved around so that he could put his legs on either side of her. He continued to go about rubbing her lower back for her with gentle roughness that made entire body feel like it would crumple into a puddle of goo. He was really just so good with his hands. He kept on hand at the small of her back and the other one kneaded its way up her spine to just between her shoulder blades before he then placed both hands on her shoulder. He leaned forward, kissing into her hair to get at the back of her neck before dropping his hand to his legs and moving them around to her front to grab her boobs.

Audrey jumped slightly at the touch. She hadn’t seen his hands moving because she’d closed her eyes. He gripped them both firmly in his hands and gave them a few good squeezes and it honestly did make her feel better. When she cooed with contentment, he then jokingly pinched at her nipples as best as he could through the material of both her sweater and bra underneath before dropping his hands to rest, fingers entwined, on top of her stomach.

When she sat, her stomach protruded a bit more.

Audrey would have to slouch forward and cross her arms over her chest or stomach during the course of the following day to hide that fact whenever she sat.

As if on cue, their baby began to flutter around and perform somersaults or something. Noel had his hands in the right place at the right time. When Audrey felt the movements inside her, Noel felt them from the outside.

“Maybe Carlin will be a dancer or a footballer.”

“Well, he definitely likes to kick,” Audrey remarked. “Maybe he’ll be a kangaroo.”

“Would he get that from your side or mine?”

“Yours.”

“Okay.” After a few more somersaults, there was a rumbling. Noel knitted his brow together. “What the hell was that?”

“My stomach growling,” she answered. “I told you I was hungry.”

“Let’s see if we can order a pizza or something then.”

“Okay.”



A pizza did arrive, approximately thirty-ish minutes later and Audrey gobbled up three slices like it was going out of style. Afterward she had gotten the gift bag from Austin and hid it away in her suitcase for Christmas morning. Sated from eating and tired from traveling and her overall pregnancy, Audrey turned in a short time after that and Noel followed suit. Jet lag had caught up to him and he was out cold as soon as his head hit the pillow.

The following morning, Audrey made sure she was showered and dressed in her oversized winter sweater before she exited her sister’s master bedroom. Noel didn’t have anything to cover up so he took his time getting ready, walking out of the bedroom barefoot, with just his pajama pants and a T-shirt on. He helped himself to a cup of coffee and leaned against the kitchen counter, staring out the window over the sink to see Crystal outside with her dog, Jeter, who was taking a shit in the snow.

“Uncle Noel…”

Noel turned to look down and find Avery standing there with two coloring books in one hand a box of Crayola crayons in the other. “Morning,” he greeted. “You gonna draw?”

She nodded. “Will you color with me?”

“Sure.”

He walked over to the kitchen table with her and sat down with his coffee cup still in his hand. Avery took the seat kitty-corner to him and passed a coloring book over for him to use.

“What book is this?”

“Monsters, Inc.,” she replied. She lifted up hers to show him. “I’m gonna color in my Barbie one.”

“Alright,” he nodded, setting the cup down and pushing it away so he didn’t knock into it. He ran his fingers through his hair, ruffling it a bit at first, before opening up the crayon box for them. After skimming through the Monsters, Inc. coloring book for a page that hadn’t been colored, he looked back at Avery. “What color should I use first?”

Avery craned to see what page he was on. “That’s Mike. He’s green.” She looked up at Noel as if he were a retarded child.

“He doesn’t have to be green,” Noel replied. “He could be purple with orange spots.”

Avery shook her head. “No. He’s green.”

Noel chuckled. “Alright. Green it is, then.” He pulled out the yellow-green crayon and, as he put it to paper, commented, “You know, my brother’s name is Mike.”

“It is?”

“Yep. He’s my younger brother.”

“How old is he?” she asked while coloring in Barbie’s skirt with a pink crayon.

“He’s gonna be thirty-five next month.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m forty-two.”

“Is that old?”

Noel smirked and looked at her. “Do you think it is?”

Avery paused, and then nodded. “Yeah.”

Noel laughed, just as the sliding glass door in the breakfast nook that led out to the back patio opened and in walk Crystal in her pajama bottoms, winter jacket and snow boots. Jeter rushed in after her, along with a cold breeze that chilled Noel to the bone.

“Hey,” Crystal greeted. “Morning.”

Noel looked up at her and smiled. “Morning.”

She looked over at her daughter and smirked. “Coloring with Uncle Noel?”

Avery nodded. “Yup.” Then, “Did you know he has a brother named Mike?”

“Yes, I did. We met him over the summer, remember?”

Avery shook her head. “No.”

“He was short with a mustache,” Noel added. “Talked like this,” he said with a lisp.

“Oh…” Avery began to smile. “Yeah, he was funny.” She continued to color.

Noel set his crayon down and grabbed up his coffee cup to take another sip as Crystal removed her coat and placed it on the back of Avery’s chair. He looked at his future sister-in-law for a moment and laughed.

“What?” she wondered, probably thinking she had something on her face or something.

“Nothing, it’s just that any other time you and Audrey don’t look that much alike, but in the morning you have the same sleepy faces, before make-up and your hair gets done.”

“Well, yeah, we don’t wear the same type and style of makeup. She wears more eyeliner and a darker shade of lipstick, and she’s more fair skinned, but that’s only because she’s always been an indoors type of person. She used to shut herself up indoors during the summer to read a book while I’d be playing kickball with Eddie and some of the neighborhood kids. Plus, I go tanning every few weeks.”

“I wasn’t actually talking about makeup. I meant just features. You have the same eyes and mouth. Your noses and face shapes are a bit different, but there is still a decent resemblance,” he spoke. “My brother and I, on the other hand, look like night and day. He’s one-hundred percent our father.”

“Yeah, he is,” she agreed. “When I first saw him, I thought one of you had to have been adopted because I didn’t think you even looked related.”

“Yeah, he’s my dad, I’m my mum.”

Mary entered the room next to get a cup of coffee. Noel smiled and greeted her pleasantly. In the distance, probably coming from the living room of the guest bedroom where Lou and Mary were still staying, Noel could hear Lou whistling; something he did quite a bit of, actually. He could then hear Audrey finally leaving Crystal’s bedroom as she came plodding down the carpeted steps from the upper level of the house. She spotted Avery first and then laughed when she saw Noel was coloring, too.

“I’m not surprised.”

“I gotta get my fix somehow,” he joked.

She went straight to the fridge and pulled out the carton of orange juice and helped herself to pouring a glass.

“Don’t you want any coffee?” Mary asked.

“Who made it?”

Crystal walked over to her sister and took the orange juice carton and grabbed a glass as well. “Jeremy did before he left for work.”

“Jeremy has to work on Christmas Eve.”

Crystal nodded. “It was either today or tomorrow. He could only get one of the two days off.”

“Then, no, I won’t have any coffee,” Audrey continued, in regard to her mother’s question. “Jeremy makes coffee too strong.” One, maybe two cups of coffee were still alright for Audrey to drink during the course of a day, but definitely not as strong as her brother-in-law made it. He probably made it with three or four scoops. When Audrey made it for her and Noel at home, she only used two scoops. Decaf would probably be even better for her.

As the morning wore on, eventually Noel finished drawing so he could grab a shower and change. Austin eventually woke up, as did Tristan, both of whom who had apparently stayed up late watching movies in Tristan’s room. So they could get some Christmas shopping done before the Christmas Eve service at Crystal’s church that night, Lou drove Audrey, Noel and Austin to the mall and would pick them up later when they called. Audrey thought it was funny. She said it reminded her of when she was a teenager and he would drop her and Crystal off at the mall on a Saturday afternoon.

Audrey and Noel had decided already not to exchange gifts with each other until they got home to London, but neither really wanted or needed anything from the other. They had their baby on the way and that was enough of a gift anyway. They still wanted to get something for her immediate family; mostly for the kids. Afterward, on the way back home to Crystal’s house, Audrey had her father stop at a McDonald’s drive-thru. She’d had a late breakfast before they left for the mall but she couldn’t wait for dinner. She was hungry then and there, so she ordered two Big Macs, a medium fry and a medium Coke. Noel and Austin didn’t want Audrey to feel singled out for eating so much before dinner, and so they didn’t hint at her eating for two, they ordered some food as well, with Noel claiming they must’ve worked up an appetite from all that walking around the mall.

Audrey went right to wrapping some of the gifts when they returned to the house, along with Noel. They sat on the floor of Crystal and Jeremy’s bedroom amidst wrapping paper, scotch tape, scissors, bows and ribbons. They were joking about random things, like movies, friends back in London and some lady they had seen at the mall who had been picking a constant wedgie out of her ass. When Noel mentioned quietly, so no one would overhear, about how at this time next year they would be wrapping gifts like this for their child, Audrey started to cry.
She wasn’t ugly crying; it was just a sudden stream of tears that began to roll down her face.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I just pictured what you said, is all, and it made me happy.”

Noel laughed. “And that’s why you’re crying?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“Hormones?”

“Yeah, I think so. I can’t help it. I’ve been crying a lot lately at the stupidest shit. I mean, not all stupid. Like, when you left San Francisco last week, I cried.”

“I know, I was there.”

“No, I mean after you actually left; after you got on the elevator and went to the lobby to get a cab to the airport,” Audrey said, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand and sniffed. “I laid back down and cried into your pillow.”

Noel stopped trying to create a ringlet with a strand of ribbon her had tied around the gift in his lap and just looked over at Audrey. She was licking salty tear residue from her lips and focusing on a stack of new video games for Tristan she had just finished wrapping up.

“Really?”

Audrey nodded, reaching for a red bow. “My friend Val is my best friend and she has been since high school. But you’re my true best friend now, just like her husband is hers.” Audrey met Noel’s gaze. “You’re the one I’m gonna spend the rest of my life with. Obviously it should be with my best friend and watching you leave and knowing I wouldn’t see you until last night made me sad.” Her brain felt discombobulated, like she wasn’t really getting her point across. “I mean, I know it was just a week, and we had just spent, like, an entire month apart, not counting those two-ish days for Thanksgiving, but after having you again like that and throw in the hormones, and I just didn’t like the thought of you going away. I don’t care that it was for only one more week.”

“I didn’t like leaving, either,” he concurred. “I keep having these panic attacks, I think; I feel like something’s gonna happen to you or the baby or both when I’m not there and I won’t be able to do anything to stop it. I’ve felt so useless since you left for the book tour. I had editing I threw myself into, but that only took up so much of my time. I went out a few times with friends or visiting my mum and dad, like I said, but it wasn’t the same. I found myself wandering around the house most days, bored out my mind. I couldn’t even be bothered to paint or anything.”

“It sounds like I died and you were in mourning,” Audrey smirked.

“Pretty much.”

He finished the ribbons on the gift that was for Crystal and then picked up the Crayola 200-Piece Masterworks Art Case that he had picked out for Avery. Audrey had bought Barbie-themed Christmas gift wrap for Avery’s gifts and Avengers-themed Christmas gift wrap for Tristan’s gifts. At that moment, Noel was trying to size up how much gift wrap he’d need for Avery’s present.

A knock at the bedroom door brought their attention away from gifts and their conversation.

“You guys aren’t naked or anything, are you?”

It was Crystal.

“No,” Audrey laughed. “Not yet.”

“Ew,” they heard Crystal jokingly comment. “Can I come in for a second to get something?”

“Yeah.”

Noel widened his blue eyes at Audrey and waved at her before mouthing, cover your stomach. She looked down and saw how her sweater was hiked up a bit and so she pulled it down and then grabbed wrapping paper to casually hold in front of herself. When Crystal stepped inside and inspected the mess on the floor, she shook her head and laughed.

“Do you two need a hand wrapping anything? This looks like a war zone.” She walked over to her closet, opening it up and searching for an article of clothing that was hanging up.

“We’re creative types,” Noel remarked. “We thrive in chaos.”

Audrey raised an eyebrow. “You might.”

“C’mon, you know life with me has been a bit of a circus so far.”

Audrey considered this, and then nodded. “To an extent, yes.” She then smiled and threw a bow at him, but it was so lightweight it didn’t reach him. “Ugh.”

Crystal closed her closet, finding a black cardigan she apparently wanted. “We got pot roast for dinner tomorrow but tonight we were thinking of ordering Chinese. It’s quicker so we don’t have to worry about getting to church on time.”

“Actually,” Audrey spoke, and Crystal paused. “We’re thinking of staying here instead of going to church.” Noel flashed an impish grin at her that went undetected by Crystal. “We just spent over a month apart and we just want to stay in and enjoy the Christmas ambiance alone together.”

“Is that code for sex?”

“No,” Audrey insisted. “It means, we just want some Audrey and Noel time, just the two of us. Plus, we’re not religious, church people. You know that. It’s hypocritical of us to go to church and pay lip service. If it’s about the family being together, we can do that at any other point while we’re in town.”

“Uh…okay. Well, we were just talking about ordering dinner in about another thirty minutes, if you wanna let us know what you want.”

“Yeah, sure, thanks,” Noel replied on behalf of him and Audrey. He looked at her as Crystal left the room. “Your sister seemed surprised by you choosing against church,” he said when it was just the two of them again.

Audrey shrugged. “Think of it as a Christmas present from me to us,” she quipped.



They totally had sex.

Audrey and Noel watched from the dining room, as the cars pulled away, down the driveway and out onto the street, and then driving off toward whatever direction the church was in. Neither could remember from the year before. As soon as they were alone, they hurried up to Crystal and Jeremy’s room and pulled off their clothes as fast as they could. Audrey hopped up on the bed and lay back on the über soft mattress. Noel climbed up over them, pulling the sheet and comforter up over them both, burying them underneath it all. Also, because it was a bit drafty and they were naked. Burrowed between her legs, Noel propped himself up on his elbows so that none of his weight rested on her stomach.

And then they connected and moved together in that old, timeless dance.

It was sweet and loving at first; or at least for their first round, anyway. After they climaxed and Noel lay down beside her, they took a while to calm down and catch their breaths. However, Audrey was good to go again rather quickly. She knelt up, with Noel expecting her to straddle him, but she nudged for him to sit up as well; which he did. When he was upright, she climbed into his lap and wrapped her legs around his waist and positioned him at her entrance again. Grabbing the side of his face in her hands, she looked him in the eye.

“I won’t break,” she muttered against his lips when she kissed him. “You won’t hurt the baby.”

“But my cock is so huge,” he teased. “I’ll give him brain damage.”

He then took a balled up fist and gently hit himself in the head a few times to paint a lovely picture for her. Audrey just cackled and kissed him again. As he bit down onto her bottom lip, he bucked his hips upward without warning and went all the way in. Audrey threw her head back and sighed; even more so when he picked up the pace. He did that roll of his hips thing when he thrusted that drove her crazy and she was cumming again in no time.

When they were spent after their second round, Audrey laid back against the blankets at the foot of the bed and Noel laid back against the pillows at the top of the bed; her legs still somewhat wrapped around his waist, so as he laid there, his back was a bit arched.

“We should light a few scented candles or open a window so the room doesn’t smell like sex when the others get back. Maybe change the sheets.” Noel tried lifting his head to peer down the bed at her. He watched as she smiled and bit her lip; something he loved to do a lot of. He just loved her lips. Sitting up completely, again, he crawled over her to kiss her and then moved to her breasts, using his tongue and teeth.

“Is this the start of round three?” she asked breathlessly.

“Fuck yes.”



The others returned home about an hour later. Audrey and Noel were redressed by then, and they did in fact open a window, just to play it safe. They were sitting downstairs in the living room, side by side on the loveseat, watching It’s A Wonderful Life when Audrey’s father sauntered into the living room and plopped down onto the couch.

“How was church?” Audrey asked. “Churchy?”

“Smartass,” Lou remarked with a smirk. “It was a nice service, though.”

Everyone filtered into the living room them and took seats around the couch or on the floor to watch the rest of the movie on the TV. Afterward, the kids went to change into their pajamas and put out milk and cookies for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer. After passing out goodnight hugs and kisses, Tristan and Avery were ushered up to bed.

It was time for the adults to wind down for the night.

They moved to the dining room to play Cards Against Humanity again. Jeremy, who had returned from his shift from work in time to change for church, had grabbed a few beers; one for himself, one for Lou and one for Austin. He had offered the fourth one in his hands to Noel, who declined, saying his stomach was a bit queasy. It wasn’t, really, but he claimed it was probably from eating McDonald’s and then Chinese not that long after. He didn’t think beer would help. When Crystal asked Audrey if she wanted any wine, Audrey deflected.

“Actually, since it’s Christmas, I think I want some hot cocoa.”

Crystal and Audrey went to the kitchen together, with Crystal grabbing a bottle of wine from the fridge and two glasses for herself and their mother, who had agreed to some wine. Since Crystal didn’t own a tea kettle, Audrey had to warm up a cup of water in the microwave, and then added the hot cocoa afterward. When they were all seated with their beverages, except for Noel, they began the first round of the game. After the first, though, Lou and Mary opted out and decided to go to bed. After the second round, Jeremy and Crystal needed to start pulling the gifts up from the basement to set under the tree. Noel and Austin helped and Audrey went upstairs to get their gifts for the kids, as well. She and Noel could bring the gifts for everyone else down in the morning.

When all was said and done, Audrey and Noel retired to Crystal and Jeremy’s room, Austin slipped into to Tristan’s to once again sleep on the bottom bunk and Crystal and Jeremy claimed opposite ends of the couch.

When morning arrived, Audrey and Noel were awakened by Avery and Tristan coming into the room and announcing Santa had come, on the top of their lungs. Audrey bolted upright, feeling like someone had just smashed a pair of cymbals by her ears, while Noel barely registered any noise. He stirred and tried burying his head under his pillow, but to no avail.

He was lying on his stomach, as he usually slept, so Audrey leaned over and kissed his bare back, just between his shoulder blades before working her way up to the base of his neck and inhaling a scent of his skin and hair. She nuzzled her head against his and then lay back on her side to curl up against him. Instinctively, he stretched and arm out and wrapped it around her to pull her close.

“It’s D-Day,” she announced.

Noel turned his face toward her, his hair falling over eyes and nose. “Get your laptop out so we can set up the Skype session with my parents.”

“Do we want to wait until after the kids and everyone else opens their gifts? Leave the best for last, so to speak?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I’ll leave the laptop up here until then. You’ll have to call your parents to let them know when to connect to Skype anyway. We’ll have time.”

“Okay.”

After they were up out of bed, Audrey threw a robe on over her pajamas and Noel found his shirt which he had tossed off during the night because his body had gotten overheated. They made their way downstairs with the regular gifts for the other adults, finding everyone patiently waiting for the lagging couple. Jeremy offered to get them a cup of coffee. Noel said yes, but Audrey said she would wait until after the gifts were opened. They waited a bit longer for Jeremy to return with Noel’s cup and then the kids were given the go-ahead to rip into their gifts.

Audrey had brought her phone down with her and snapped pictures of the mess being created by discarded gift wrap and the kids’ happy faces. Avery, especially, loved her Crayola art supplies from Uncle Noel and gave him a big hug and kiss as thanks. He smiled and took Audrey’s hand in hers. When the glanced at each other, it was probable they were thinking the same thing.

In a few years they would have a son or daughter around Avery’s age.

When the gifts had all been opened, Audrey said there was still one more gift for her parents. Noel went upstairs to get the gift bag and laptop. While there, he placed the call to his parents, telling them to turn on their computer and sign into Skype. When Noel returned, he propped the laptop on an end table and turned it on, then handed the gift bag to Audrey to hold.

“What’s with the laptop?” Jeremy asked.

“We got my parents the same thing, but since we aren’t there in person to see them open it, we’re gonna do it through Skype.”

“Oh.”

Once the laptop booted up and Noel was staring at the desktop image, which was of him and Audrey kissing at the Kiss sculpture in Philly, he clicked on the Skype icon on the taskbar. A few more clicks here and there, Noel found himself staring back at his mother and father.

“Hey,” he greeted with a smile. “Happy Christmas.”

“Happy Christmas, darling,” said Diane.

Noel panned the laptop around so his parents could see everyone. “Everybody say hi,” he laughed.

A cacophony of hellos and merry/happy Christmases rang out before Noel positioned the laptop so he could see it from where he was sitting with Audrey. Audrey passed the gift bag back to Noel who reached across to give it to Lou and Mary.

“Okay, we got the four of you the same thing,” Noel said. He looked toward the laptop. “Mum, dad...you got yours with you?”

“Yep,” Ray replied holding up a small gift box.

“Okay…open them,” Audrey said.

Noel and Audrey sat back and waited with shit-eating grins on their faces. Austin did the same, as he knew what was up. Crystal and Jeremy seemed confused a bit, as well as curious.

“Did you get them a bunch of money? Pay off mortgages or something?”

Audrey shook her head. “No.”

As the gift back for her parents was easier to open than the gift box his parents were given, Lou and Mary pulled “their” onesie out first. They didn’t understand right away. It was a cream colored onesie and on the chest was a little caricature of terrace house with Big Ben behind them, and beside it said BabyGap London. Crystal caught on first, clamping a hand over her mouth and staring over at her sister with a big smile visible under her hand and with widened eyes.

“Omigod,” she muttered.

When Mary looked at her second daughter, then to her eldest, and back to the onesie, it all made sense.

“OH MY GOD!” Mary shrieked, tears instantly springing from her eyes. She shook the onesie in her hand and practically shoved it in her husband’s face.

A moment later, the same exclamation came from Diane and Ray when they held a plain white onesie in front of the laptop camera.

“A baby?!” Diane cried.

Lou finally put two and two together and then he started to cry as well. Yes, he had his two grandchildren from Crystal, but Audrey was his firstborn. The first child he ever had and held would be having the same thing happen. “Oh, my baby girl’s gonna have a baby?”

Audrey nodded, and smiled; her own tears starting to flow. She stood and untied the robe and then lifted her pajama top up to reveal her baby bump. “About fourteen weeks now.”

“You were pregnant at Thanksgiving, then,” Mary remarked, completely thrown and still coddling the onesie.

“Yeah.”

“You were drinking on Halloween,” Diane was saying. “Did you know then?”

Noel nodded. “We knew, but we weren’t drinking alcohol.”

“Yeah, we saw it.”

“That was a mixture of grape juice and cranberry juice in a wine bottle to throw everyone off the scent.”

Ray smirked. He was wiping his eyes of his own tears. “That’s pretty clever, really.”

“That’s why I had to have McDonald’s yesterday,” Audrey laughed. “I was hungry, not just for me.”

“And why you wanted hot cocoa instead of wine last night,” Crystal deduced.

“When are you due?” Mary wondered, standing up and going to give her eldest a hug.

“June 19th. I’m gonna carry him or her down the aisle instead of a bouquet, like you did with me,” Audrey said, hugging her mother, before sitting back down.

Lou looked at his youngest son with curious eyes. “You don’t look surprised.”

“Of course not,” Austin replied. “I live with them. I was the one who went out and bought seven at-home pregnancy tests for Audrey to take.”

“And all but one were positive,” Audrey added. “The seventh was inconclusive. But, oh god, now I can finally let it all hang out.”

“No one else knew except Austin?” Mary wondered.

“I told Val at the beginning of the month, but that was only because I wasn’t going to be able to see her again until probably the wedding and she’s been my best friend since high school. I wanted to be able to tell her in person and that was basically my only chance.”

“And Paloma,” Noel added. “But we didn’t actually tell her. She found out on Halloween.” He directed this more at his parents. Her family, aside from Austin, didn’t actually know who Paloma was. “We didn’t know she was still there and we were just talking away about it, and she overheard us. She’s the one who went and bought the bodysuit for me to give to you, so I wouldn’t be seen around town with a bodysuit.”

Both sets of parents, Crystal, Jeremy and the kids all seemed to be basking in this new information and the prospect of a baby joining both families. They all chatted more about how if wouldn’t interfere with the wedding plans. The subject of the honeymoon came up and what would happen with the baby then. Audrey and Noel had decided they would take it after they returned home to London, and they would have Austin and Noel’s parents stay with the baby while they were gone, so the baby could be in its own surroundings. Audrey’s parents offered to come to London during that time to help as well. Someone would have to stay with the baby on the wedding night though. That much was obvious.

After Noel had said goodbye to his parents and ended the Skype session with promises they would get together as soon as they returned to the UK, Audrey’s family decided to celebrate by cooking Audrey and Noel whatever they wanted for breakfast. They all ate pancakes, bacon, eggs and toast, cups of coffee, milk or orange juice. They ate around the dining room table, which fit everyone, and after eating Audrey called her brother Eddie to share the good news, and Noel called Mike, who already knew by that point because their parents had called him.

By the end of the day, word had spread through their immediate family and close friends that both Audrey and Noel’s phones were blowing up. Knowing they would be returning to London in time for New Year’s and Audrey would be around drinking, and so she didn’t have to make an excuse as to why she wasn’t drinking on New Year’s, they decided to spread the word the social networking way.

The first message sent out was from Audrey on her Twitter account, and it was very vague.

I’m baking with @noelfielding11

Then his reply was the obvious approach. With Noel’s phone, Austin took a picture of Audrey lifting up her shirt and Noel kneeling down, kissing the baby bump. Noel took the phone back and tweeted it with a lovely message.

And baby makes three! XXXXXX