It Just Happened Ch. 11

"Ed, take your wife home. Ben and I will finish up here," Millie said to her brother-in-law. Jen objected, wanting to stay and do her part but Millie insisted that she go home and once Ed got the message he wrapped her coat around her shoulders and guided her out the door. Seeing that we had everything under control, Mr. Worthington said goodbye and left too.

"Is Jen not feeling well?" I asked.

"She missed," Millie informed me.

"Missed?"

Millie rolled her eyes and while Beverly watched, laughing, she backed me into a corner. "I love everything about you, sweetheart, really I do, but sometimes you can be as dense as your brother. Jen missed her monthly."

"Oh," I said and then, "Oh, does Ed know?" I asked, wondering how long I had to live after he found out I had knocked his wife up.

I sat down and had another beer while they gave the new dishwasher a workout. When everything was put away, Beverly wrote a check for the final payment and said she was pleased with the way things turned out. I thought I knew what she meant and when we were going out the door she confirmed my suspicions. "I'm so happy for you guys," she said.

We went shopping the next day and helped each other pick out our gifts. Ed was making my weekly payments to the credit card companies and since I wasn't paying for my living expenses, I had more cash than ever before. I bought expensive gifts for everyone, especially the necklace I gave Millie.

We talked Ed and Jen into going to the Hawley home for Christmas dinner to make it a true family gathering. The girls' brother, Tony and his family were going to be there. I noticed that Jen treated her nephew and niece differently than she had at Thanksgiving. She called them by name, like she was genuinely interested in them. When it was time to open the gifts she even asked the little girl to sit on her lap. "It's like her motherly instincts have taken over," I said to Millie. She was sitting on the floor, leaning against my legs.

"You're very observant," she grinned.

"Tony is a little less hostile toward me this time," I pointed out.

She laughed and whispered, "He realizes he's outnumbered by Crumbly men."

"It may be that he's warming up to me."

She turned and looked up at me. "He thought he chased you off once, but he won't get by with it again."

All in all it was a very enjoyable holiday. For the first time in years I was out of debt, enjoyed my work and was in love. Things couldn't be better. Well, they could be better if I didn't have Jen's pregnancy hanging over me. Ed was sure to become suspicious and then the shit would hit the fan.

Stew Mercer hosted a New Year's Eve party at his house and Ed was invited. Naturally, he took us along. Millie and I rode in the small backseat of Jen's car.

The guests were mainly in the trades with a few suppliers of lumber, tools and hardware rounding out the guest list. I met an instructor from the technical high school and thinking he would be a good resource for picking the best graduates, I buttered him up.

Some of the guys said they remembered me from high school and several of their wives claimed they knew me well. Millie checked on me often, saying she was making sure I didn't get lost.

When the countdown began, 10, 9, I discovered Jen nearby, 8, 7, 6, I searched for Millie, 5, 4, 3, Jen moved next to me, 2, 1, she was in my arms and we were kissing. Out of the corner of my eye I caught Ed kissing Millie. They headed our way. "Thank you," Jen said. "I'm so glad it was you."

Millie jumped into my arms. "Happy New Year, Darling," she said before our lips met. I kissed her for five minutes while others made the rounds to kiss as many from the opposite sex as they could find.

"Your five weeks are up, Tiger. This is the night," Millie said, just before Ed got my attention and said Jen wanted to leave.

Millie kidded me about the women at the party monopolizing my attention. This was news to me although I did have two telephone numbers shoved into my pocket by ladies saying they needed work done on their houses. Perhaps Millie was right to suspect their motives. I was sure their husbands, a paint salesman and the lumberyard owner knew all the contractors in town.

Jen and Ed were talking quietly and Millie was pressing her body into mine in the back seat. Her words, "Your five weeks are up, Tiger. This is the night," played in my mind. In the five weeks we had been seeing one another every day there was no time that we did more than kiss. We had talked about everything and she knew all about Veronica, but I still didn't know what happened between her and the love of her life.

We had taken it slow. I hadn't so much as felt her breasts or squeezed her ass. Not that I hadn't wanted to, it was just that once I discovered that I loved her, I wanted everything to be perfect.

Now, she was saying, "This is the night."