CHAPTER 6

Keesha looked at her clock. 3:30 a.m. She had tossed and turned for the past two hours. She thought sure A.J. would come to bed once he thought she was asleep, but he had not appeared in their room.

Wrapping herself in her robe, she headed downstairs to check on him. She found him in the study, poring over a typewritten report, with a pot of coffee next to him. He looked up when he saw her standing in the doorway.

"Keesha! Are you all right?"

"No," she answered truthfully, entering the room. "As angry as I was with you earlier, I missed you next to me in bed."

A.J. smiled. "Come here."

Keesha stood next to him; he pulled her onto his lap.

"A.J.!" she said and laughed. She wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I want to sincerely apologize to you, sweetheart. It was very wrong of me not to be honest with you. And you’re right. I want our marriage to be based on trust, too. I would hate it if you ever deliberately kept something from me. And I had purely selfish reasons. We should have made the decision together."

"I accept your apology, and I have one of my own. I realized I crossed a line tonight when I threw your needing to fit in at ELQ. I criticized you when I should have been supporting you."

"I understood that. You were hurt and you were angry."

"Why have we been arguing so much lately, A.J.? I didn’t think married life would be this difficult, did you?"

"No, I didn’t, but then again, we are not your typical married couple. I know my family is too involved in our lives, personal and business-wise. Would you rather we lived somewhere else?"

"No. I don’t really think it’s your family. I think it’s us. Do you think I got pregnant too quickly? Maybe we’re not ready..."

A.J. put a finger to her lips to silence her. "Don’t say that. I love that you’re carrying our child. I don’t have any fears about becoming a parent. Do you?"

"No. I love knowing that I’m carrying our child."

She sighed.

"You know what I wish? I wish we were in France again, on our honeymoon. Remember how care free we were? And how much fun we had?"

"Ah, yes, I do remember that," A.J. said and laughed. "I think that’s how this little one came to be."

She laughed and playfully hit his arm. "I wasn’t talking about that kind of fun, although, now that you mention it..."

She looked at him, suddenly needing to be kissed. A.J. drew her closer and brought his lips to meet hers. What began as tentative on his part ended with hunger on her part as she deepened the kissed and moaned in obvious pleasure. She ran her fingers through his hair as he rubbed her shoulders and her back. She tried to find a more comfortable position on his lap, but instead, she found herself being swept up in his arms and being carried to their bedroom. She leaned against his shoulder and sighed contentedly as she realized, no matter what, he would always be there to protect her.