Chapter 3: The Pregnancy Chronicles

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Chapter 3

The Pregnancy Chronicles

“He’s going to kill you,” Cole said, not really sounding all that concerned as he finished off the shepherd’s pie that she’d made earlier and reached for the chicken alfredo she’d made after she picked up the brownies.

“No, he’s not,” Haley said, pushing her glasses back up her nose as she took in all the food she’d made and bought today and couldn’t help but regret her decision not to stop at the Fire & Brimstone on the way home to grab two Bradford Specials to give it that special touch.

“You’ve been sending him pictures of all his favorite foods all day and you don’t think he’s going to be pissed?” Cole absently asked as he glanced down at his phone.

“By the time he gets home, he’ll be too tired to do anything more than eat dinner and glare,” she pointed out with a satisfied sigh.

She’d planned this perfectly.

“What time is that supposed to be?” Cole asked, grabbing his phone so that he could text something.

“Sometime after six. He has staff meetings and administrative meetings after school,” Haley said even as she arranged the cupcakes that she asked Kasey to make for her with the brownies that she picked up from Dixon’s Bakery on the a platter and after a slight hesitation, added the chocolate chunk cookies that she’d made after she’d sent him the picture of apple streusel coffee cake.

“I see…” Cole murmured as Haley grabbed her phone and angled it for the perfect picture.

“Are you sure that you want to do that?” Cole asked, which was a very good question.

No, no, she did not want to do this.

At least, not without adding a few more brownies to the platter. Once that  was done, she pushed her glasses back up her nose, angled her phone and took what she thought was the best picture of the day and sent it with a taunting message that she may have already used, but it didn’t matter. No, what mattered was that she’d taught her husband an important lesson that he would never forget.

He would never question her ability to exact revenge ever again. He would–

“He told me to tell you that he just pulled up and that it would probably be a good idea for you to run,” Cole said around a mouthful of pasta while she stood there, wasting precious seconds as she frowned at him, glanced towards the large bay window, and–

She was definitely wasting precious seconds, Haley decided only to waste several more as she stood there debating whether she should try to wrap up the food and shove it in the fridge and lock it with the bike lock that she’d picked up earlier or if she should abandon her plans to torment her husband, call it a day, and get the hell out of there before it was too late.

It was already too late.

She really needed to learn how to move her ass faster, Haley decided as she watched in horror as her husband, who looked really pissed for some reason, walked into the kitchen and–

“Go to your room,” he bit out between clenched teeth and since that sounded like a really good idea, Haley nodded, mumbled, “Okay,” for some reason, nodded again, turned around and groaned when he added, “Not you.”

Really hoping that he wasn’t talking to her, she looked over her shoulder to find Cole throwing his backpack over his shoulder before he shoved a brownie in his mouth and grabbed his plate of food and headed for the door, effectively abandoning her.

Swallowing hard, she slowly, so damn slowly because she couldn’t seem to force herself to rush this moment, turned around and found her husband glaring at her. As she tried to think of something to explain why she’d tormented him today, she pushed her glasses back up her nose, shifted, cleared her throat, shifted again and finally settled on asking, “So, umm, how was your first day at school, sweetie?” with a hopeful smile that for some reason had his eyes narrowing to slits on her.

Oh, that couldn’t be good…

“Where’s Elizabeth and Joshua?” Jason asked instead of answering her as he shifted his glare to all the food that she’d used to torment him.

“At school?” Haley said, wondering that came out as a question.

Nodding, Jason started to walk around the kitchen island, slowly running his fingertips over the granite countertop as his gaze shifted from the food to her. “My day was long, my little grasshopper, and do you know why?”

“Because you missed me?” Haley asked with a hopeful smile.

Instead of answering her, he asked, “Do you know what happened to the lunch that I packed?”

Since she’d sent him a picture of his lunch several hours earlier with a taunting phrase or two, she felt that it would be in her best interest to keep her mouth shut.

Nodding absently, he rounded the corner right about the time that she felt that it would be a good idea to put a little more space between them before he could get his hands on her and make good on all those threats that he’d texted her after she’d sent pictures of her enjoying a leisurely lunch at a buffet that she’d found this morning after conducting a two hour search on Google.

“How about the money in my wallet or my credit cards that went missing so that I couldn’t buy lunch?” Jason asked in a bored tone as he kept coming after her, forcing her to make a hasty retreat that somehow ended with her trapped in a corner.

“I love you?” Haley said, sounding really hopeful and when that didn’t appear to help her case, she placed her hands over the slight swell of her belly, hoping the reminder that she was carrying his child would save her from the spanking that he’d promised her.

“Do you know what I think?” Jason drawled, moving in for the kill.

“That I’ve been on my feet all day and should probably go lay down because it would be good for the baby?” Haley suggested, already inching her way towards the living room door.

“No, that’s what I thought when you sent me the pictures of the pumpkin pie with extra French vanilla ice cream that you devoured for breakfast,” Jason said, moving to follow her towards the living room door.

“Oh,” she mumbled weakly.

“No, I was thinking about all the ways that you were going to make this up to me,” Jason said with a careless shrug that didn’t quite match the fury in his glare.

Not that she could blame him, Haley thought, biting back a wince when she thought about all those photos that she’d sent him today. She may have, umm, gone a bit overboard now that she had time to think about it.

“I made all your favorites,” Haley pointed out with a helpless shrug as she gestured towards the food covering the kitchen island.

“I see that,” Jason murmured, not bothering to take his eyes off her.

“There’s more in the fridge,” she said, hoping to distract him long enough so that she could make her escape, but he simply continued to stalk her as she made her way to the living room.

“I’m sure there is,” Jason said as he came closer.

“Did I mention that I’ve been on my feet all day?” she asked, barely resisting the urge to glance over her shoulder to see how far the door was, but she knew better than to take her eyes off him.

“And did you really think that reminding me that you ignored the doctor’s orders was going to make this better?” he drawled, coming even closer.

Nodding, and she honestly had no idea why she was doing that, she gestured weakly towards the vicinity of the door behind her and said, “I’m gonna go lay down now.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” he said as he continued to follow her to the door.

“Umm, you should probably go eat,” Haley said, pointing behind him.

“Probably,” he murmured in agreement but kept following her.

When her back hit the door, she swallowed nervously, shifted and–

“Oh, shit…” Jason said as his glare disappeared and he reached for her, which was probably for the best, she decided when she felt her bottom lip tremble since this probably wasn’t going to end well for either one of them.