around his neck and smiling up at him.
“So we’re having a baby?” Finn asked, holding Charlotte so tightly against him she could barely breathe.
“Yes, my love, we’re having a baby,” she said, and they smiled and kissed as the police gathered and called for an ambulance.
Charlotte turned to look at her new SUV with its shattered windshield and dozen bullet holes.
“You know, Finnegan, we have nothing but bad luck with cars, I’ll bet this means we’re going to have to find a new insurance company!”
ONE YEAR LATER …
“Dammit Amanda, you swore to me that Bly wouldn’t be here!” Charlotte hissed when she spotted Billy Kipling among the guests at Jack’s first birthday party.
“Settle down sister, he’s not coming. If you’ll notice there are two nannies and Billy Kipling to guard the little prince and princess. Alex is in the middle of his own huge fucking disaster at the moment, he doesn’t have time for pony rides and balloon-artist clowns,” Amanda said, settling onto a chaise lounge on the patio with her six-week-old daughter at her breast.
“What huge disaster? By the way, I’m all for breast feeding, but could you partially cover that porn-star sized boob please?” Charlotte said as she sat with her own daughter on a quilt she’d spread on the ground.
“It totally turns JP on to see my breasts in public, he’s such a freak, I love it. We went from sex once in a blue-moon to filming ourselves fucking nonstop after Jack was born.”
“Well I can see that since your daughter was born ten months after you gave birth the first time. That’s kind of trashy, you know, but little Ava is precious,” Charlotte said, and she smiled as Amanda rolled her eyes. Amanda and JP were acting like newlyweds, and JP had certainly mended his wandering ways since Jack was born and Lizzie disappeared. She wasn’t sure which incident had caused his change of heart; she was just glad the old JP was back and all was well.
“That is kind of bad isn’t it? Shame on us, are your mommy and daddy too trailer park for you, sweet Ava? Yes, we did the nasty before we were supposed to and I got pregnant, but guess what? I’d have contortionist sex with my husband here and now if he asked me to. I don’t know why I ever stopped wanting sex in the first place... look at my man, fuck! I’d hand you this baby, strip him naked and suck his dick in front of all these people….” Amanda said before Charlotte cut her off midsentence.
“Please, there are children present, we need to clean up our filthy language and maybe not have sex in public for the kid’s sake.”
“Oh yeah, like a five month old and a six week old really give a shit. You don’t care what we’re saying do you, Hadley? No, not at all, and let me tell you something about your mommy and daddy, if they filmed their sexy encounters they could make a fortune in the porn industry,” Amanda said, and Charlotte laughed with her because it was just so damned true.
“Are you finished having babies?” Amanda asked Charlotte, as she moved Ava to her shoulder and covered her breast, “I assure that I’m all done, JP had a vasectomy the week after I found out I was pregnant with Ava. You’ll notice I didn’t take any chances with our nannie either, did you get a chance to meet Irma?”
“Yes, the nannie who looks like Shrek was a clever move, I doubt that you could find a French maid’s uniform to fit her! No more babies for me either, my family is complete. Listen, Finn and I are going to Pass Christian for the first two weeks in June and we want you, JP and the kids to come with us. We’ve decided to close the bed and breakfast for a couple of weeks every year so we can have our family vacation and celebrate birthdays there,” Charlotte said, shading her eyes and watching JP and Finn as JP settled Atticus onto the Shetland pony.
“Hey, look Mommy! Atticus loves riding the pony, he’s a true bronc-rider,” JP called to
Ted Chiang
Glenn Beck
Tamora Pierce
Sheri S. Tepper
Allison Butler
Laurie Halse Anderson
Loretta Ellsworth
Lee Moan
Brett Battles
Denise Grover Swank