Kiss Me Cate Pt. 12

I graduated the following spring which while house hunting was no easy feat. I still pulled off getting honors and was second in my class overall. Cate was so happy her face nearly split from smiling all day. I'd been published in two academic journals and three online industry magazines which was a nice line to add to my resume.

* * * *

We moved into the house over the summer. It seemed huge in comparison to the apartment, there was a nice yard where Cate had already eyed a spot for a little garden to grow her flowers, potatoes and cabbages. A joke she had reminded me of from the day when she had declared her love for me by sitting on my chest and yelling at me.

"That whirlpool bath is going to get a solid workout I assure you." Cate said as we walked through the house the first time.

I casually mentioned that I planned on christening every room in the house, leaving her in a naked, sweating heap of post orgasmic bliss on each and every surface. The shock on her face was replaced by a silly grin.

"The garage too?"

"Yes but we can leave the doors down for privacy."

"Well that's a good plan. I'd hate to scare off the neighbors right away."

Pam and Jimmy had come over and he and I were digging out a spot in the yard for a raised garden bed. I had teased Cate about her gardening but I didn't realize she had been serious about it. We began to work on it a few weeks after we had unpacked.

The house was still a hodgepodge of furniture and none of the windows had curtains, so the girls had gone shopping. Cate had said she wasn't about to let someone else build her nest for her and refused the idea of hiring an interior decorator stating it would be a waste of money and that sort of thing was going to stop. A statement which made Jimmy and Pam both laugh.

The next morning I was sore in places I didn't realize I had muscles in, the hot shower last night had helped some but I felt stiff as a board as I opened my eyes. Cate was no where to be found and cuddled so I got up slowly and ambled to the bath. I wasn't used to the acoustics of the house so I couldn't hear where Cate was at. I stepped into the hallway in only my gym shorts and listened for a long moment then heard the door on the dryer close. I walked down the stairs, turned towards the laundry room, turned the corner and leaned on the door jamb. Cate was bent over double pulling some clothes out of the basket on the floor and tossing them into the machine. She wore one of my tee shirts and I realized a moment later that was the only stitch of clothing she had on as she bent forward again. I cleared my throat so as to not startle her.

"Oh, good morning. How are you feeling?"

"Stiff."

"Well that's to be expected. You're a bit of a keyboard warrior."

"Yea, I should have found us a house with a pool so I could work out."

"They're so much trouble for the few months you can use them. This on the other hand is already one of my favorite things about having our own home." She leaned down and plucked the last bit of clothing from the basket and tossed it in. The laundry room was well designed. It had a counter next to the machines for folding and a sink in the corner with a wide closet next to it.

"I couldn't agree more." I said, as the sight of her bending over, and the shirt riding up each time, was making one more muscle in my body stiff. She closed the door and stood up turning to look at me before adding the detergent.

Her breath caught. "I didn't quite catch your meaning about being stiff at first." She grinned as she looked down and back up.

"Don't you think that shirt should go in?"

"I just took it out of the drawer. Those shorts on the other hand." Her eyes flashed at mine and I peeled them off. She tossed them in and started the machine. I had her backed against the machine as it began to fill with water. She was more than receptive to my advances and had me well in hand. I had the shirt rucked up to her waist and her ass in my hands as we kissed. The machines were too tall so I turned her back to the counter and lifted her onto it causing her to gasp in surprise. I pulled her to the edge and slipped into her slowly.

"Oh God!" She gasped as I filled her. I tugged the shirt off over her head and reached up releasing the clip she'd put into her hair and let it cascade over my hands as I pulled her lips to mine. Her legs went around my waist holding me in place as we kissed. Soon I felt her heels dig in and I began to flex my hips back and forth and a low moan rose from her throat. I worked my way down her neck slowly making my way to her breasts as she leaned back to let me have them.

Her arm worked it's way between us and her fingers began to play quickly over her clit. I felt them with each thrust as she slid them on either side of my cock as it slid into her. I felt myself losing control as I drove into her and she felt it too.

"Harder!" She begged and I drove into her with enough force to push her back onto the counter. I grabbed her ass and held her on the edge as I kept driving into her. I drove forward one last time and erupted. I fell forward just catching myself on my hands as I caught my breath. She kissed me deeply, only letting me have a few breaths between each one.

"Take me back to bed Dylan." She whispered in my ear.

We spent the next few hours in bed making love and talking, hunger and the need for coffee eventually won out. We took a quick shower together and headed downstairs to get some breakfast.

* * * *

Over the next year we made a home of the place, finally getting furniture that fit, nice but not outlandish. My only requirement is that it had to be real furniture, not something I'd have to put together with a screw driver and wrenches.

Art and pictures began to go up on the walls. One of Cate's new hobbies was getting pictures of us from our travels, or from gatherings and making a wall of memories up the stairway. She had printed some of the photos from our trips together to Ireland and had them framed as well a few from the wedding and honeymoon. I had added a wooden shamrock I'd found which made her smile.

Despite her attempts to keep us frugal I dragged her to Paris for our first honeymoon. It had been one of our many discussions about places we'd both love to visit again that prompted the decision. I presented her with a framed cut paper art piece of the Eiffel Tower in sticking with the tradition of the first anniversary gift being paper.

By autumn and her second year of teaching Cate had finally relented and got her own car since she often needed to be at work late and she didn't like leaving me stranded without the car now that we lived a little further from the city.

We celebrated my birthday late in October, after celebrating hers a few weeks prior. She presented me with a new snowblower so I wouldn't bust my back on shoveling the big driveway. The first year Jimmy often came over to dig us out with his snow plow but it was a bit of travel for him.

"If anyone is going to wreck your body it's going to be me, in the bedroom." She whispered into my ear, out of range of the family and friends that had come over for dinner. She presented me with another gift, a small box the size that would fit a nice pen. "Open this here and now. I want you to see it first."

I pulled the ribbon off and opened the small box to find a long plastic tube. I pulled it out and looked at it, the realization of what it was dawned on me as I turned it over and saw the little window. Pregnant. I looked up at her with my mouth hanging open to find her biting her lip to try and hide her own excitement.

"When? When did you find out?"

"Well it was a birthday present for me too." She said breaking out in a huge grin. "I had my doctor double-check during my yearly physical a few weeks ago." Cate simply nodded to indicate the doctors finding. She seemed tentative and a tear ran down her face. I didn't realize I was crying until I had grabbed her and felt the tears in her hair as they wet my cheek.

"Oh my God Cate! This is the best gift ever!"

"I talked to her last spring about stopping my birth control hoping it might happen before the end of the year. She told me not to get my hopes up because it can take a while for conception to happen and I started feeling odd just a few weeks before my appointment, so I took that test, twice to be sure."

Suddenly the fact that she had recently begun to decline the occasional after work beer or glass of wine made sense.

"When are you due?"

"We have an appointment in two weeks where I'll get a thorough exam, another ultrasound and measure the little peanut to determine a proper date but she thinks probably May. I'll miss the last semester but I'll have all summer with him or her." I felt her hand cross her stomach as I hugged her again. It moved to wrap around me again.

Jimmy appeared in the doorway and saw me. My face must have made him think something was wrong.

"Dude is everything alright?"

"Yea, everything is terrific!" I said burying my face in Cate's hair where I kissed her repeatedly. "Can I tell everyone?" I whispered.

"I thought you might like to break the news." She backed up and turned around, her tears making Jimmy look even more worried.

"Let's go break the news." As we made for the doorway Jimmy retreated into the living room. The guests noticed something was going on. I called out to everyone to come into the living room.

"Hey! I want to thank you all, for the gifts, the terrific cake but mostly for being here. I don't want to overshadow any bit of what you all bring to my life, but I have to say that nothing is going to beat the gift Cate just gave me."

"Easy killer, your parents are right here." Jimmy called out from behind them eliciting a laugh from the crowd.

I held up the plastic tube. "We're having a baby." There was the shortest of pauses before the screeches and cheers began.

Charlie was there and hugged Cate first after prying her from under my arm.

"Steve!" She called to her current boyfriend. "Can you grab the cooler from the trunk now please? We brought champagne to celebrate. Oh and a bottle of sparkling grape juice for the mom to be."

"You knew?" I asked Charlie as my mother let Cate go and turned to give me a hug. It felt like the receiving line at the wedding the year before as people lined up to congratulate Cate and I.

"She needed a partner in crime. She couldn't just buy half a case of champagne without you raising an eyebrow now could she?" She replied with a huge grin.

* * * *

Seven pounds and seven ounces and born on the twenty-seventh of May. I said to Cate that was pretty darn lucky. I looked down at my beautiful daughter in my arms, then over at my wife who was grinning and crying at the same time.

"Sarah Ann Butler. I like it." She said.

We had debated names with ruthless humor when we found out we were having a girl. I did my best to come up with some real winners that I knew would be instantly shot down just to make Cate laugh. Eventually she told me it was my decision, that way when our daughter was a teenager and told us that she hated her name, Cate would be able to just point a finger at me in blame.

"I thought Gertrude Hortense was too old fashioned." I said.

Cate laughed and shook her head as her fingertip ran over Sarah's smooth cheek. She had a full round tummy and was out like a light in my arms. The nurses and doctors had commented on what a sweet baby she was because she didn't cry much and only fussed a little when she was hungry or had filled her diaper, which it appeared she was doing again. I was about to change my first dirty diaper, and I couldn't have been any happier if I tried.

* * * *

It's funny how things change. One day you're a young, cocksure, the future is my oyster, kind of guy, and the next you're a quivering mass of apprehension. Your wife, the woman you spent countless hours soothing away worries and fears from is suddenly making lists of all the things you need to get done and by when. You go from planning your next vacation to setting aside money for a college fund and retirement. The one thing we both gained is direction. The future is not as fuzzy as it seemed to Cate, and it's not as brilliantly certain as I thought it would be for me, but there it is right in front of us with a new sense of direction.

* * * *

For those who have been waiting patiently for this chapter, thank you. The end of the story seemed as pre-ordained as in any cheesy romcom and I tried several different takes on it. The first was a very long blow by blow account of preparation for the wedding and the wedding itself and I re-wrote that one twice before giving up on that direction completely. For those that might have been hoping for the pomp and circumstance, I apologize for letting you down.

I had corresponded with another writer here on Lit and mentioned my reticence of describing sex scenes on the honeymoon and I got a huge virtual eye roll for it. I was quickly reminded that the readers have been following the characters doing the deed for chapters and they could handle it during the honeymoon scenes.