Book 4- Chapter one

THE CIRCLE OF LIFE

A/N Here is the first chapter of Book 4. It starts eight months after Book 3 ended. The Freedman's life has been uneventful since we left off in Book 3. Charlotte is now nine months pregnant and the pregnancy has been going well. She's still working both jobs and raising Bryce now 4, Savannah is now two and a half and Akron just turned one. Cooper is doing better with walking. He still uses the cane and isn't comfortable enough to drive yet but his balance and ability to walk has improved greatly since Book three.

Book 4

Eight months later:

Cooper sits down on the bed next to Charlotte. "What are you doing?" He asks her.

"Lookin' for a name for this baby." She rubs her nine month pregnant belly. "The kid will be here soon and we still haven't picked a name."

"But you're looking at a map Charlotte." He watches her study the map.

"I know. Now that we know it's a girl I want to name her after a southern city like my momma named me and I named Savannah."

"We, Charlotte, like we named Savannah." He corrects her.

"Okay like we named Savannah. We have to find a southern city to name this little girl after."

Cooper pulls the map closer to him so he could look at it with her. "Most people use a baby name book, leave it to us to pick our babies names off a map."

"Nothin' wrong with that." She tells him.

"Here, I like this one for a girl. How about Shelby after Shelby, North Carolina?" He points to a spot on the map.

"Hmmm… I saw that" She says, "but I like this one better" She points to a city on the map.

Cooper looks and says. "Eden."

"Yeah, after the city Eden," Charlotte announces.

"Reminds me too much of the Garden of Eden." Cooper tells her.

"I like it Coop. I like Eden." Charlotte insists.

"I like Shelby." He tells her.

"I'm the one that has to carry her around all this time in my body and I'm the one that has to go through the grueling task of spitting her out of my body so I get to pick."

"Uh uh! No fair you picked the other three kids names. I get to pick this one." He tells her still looking over the map.

"We both picked their names out together. You just said we named Savannah." She argues.

"But Savannah was your idea because your momma named you after a southern city. I liked it and agreed to it but it was your choice. Now it's my choice." He tells her.

"We named Akron after you hometown." She points out to him.

"Again it was your idea to name him after a city. So yeah I agreed to Akron because it's my hometown."

"You named Bryce. You came up with that one." She pulls the map away from him.

Cooper argues "I wanted to name him Walter after my grandfather but you said that it was too old fashioned. That's why I came up with Bryce. Bryce Walter. So once again it was not really my choice."

"When you give birth to them, then you can have first choice." She snarks.

"Come on Cricket. If we call her Shelby then it starts with an S like Savannah and their sisters after all. Wouldn't that be nice?" He pleads.

"No. Bryce and Akron are brothers and they don't start with the same letter."

Four year old Bryce runs into the room and hops on the bed followed by two and a half year old Savannah.

"Daddy, Akron is in his crib crying." Bryce tells Cooper

"I'll get him." Cooper leaves the room.

"What doin' momma?" Savannah picks up the map quickly ripping it.

"Oh no! Savannah, Mommy needs that? Charlotte picks up the torn map. "Well, I did anyway. You need to be careful." Charlotte sternly tells the toddler.

"Put her on a time out momma." Bryce suggests.

"No. No time out." Savannah yells at her brother.

Bryce yells back "Yes, you ripped Momma's map. She needs it. You're bad."

"No I'm not." Savannah yells at her brother and then grabs the map out of Charlotte's hand tearing it again.

"Savannah!" Charlotte yells. "March into the time out chair now." Charlotte tells the toddler sternly.

"No! I don't wanna'" Savannah yells at Charlotte.

Cooper comes back in the room holding a crying Akron. Savannah runs up to him and hugs his leg. "Daddy, help!"

Bryce runs over to Cooper. "Daddy, Savannah ripped momma's map and she won't go on a time-out like momma told her." Bryce reports.

"Y'all are about to make me sin against the holy ghost." Charlotte tells the children.

Cooper hands a crying Akron to Charlotte and ask "What's going on?"

Charlotte rolls her eyes. "Life, Cooper." She cuddles Akron to stop his crying. Akron prefers his momma's touch over his daddy. The baby calms down leaning against his momma's bosom.

Bryce jumps back on the bed and Cooper picks up Savannah. "What do you need the map for momma?" Bryce asks trying to fit the ripped pieces back together like it's a puzzle.

"I'm fixin ta' pick out a name for this new baby' Charlotte runs her hand over her belly. "What do you think Bryce? Do you want your new sister to be called Eden or Shelby?" Charlotte asks the four year old.

"Eden." He answers "Like The Garden of Eden."

"That's my boy!" Charlotte hugs him. "Your momma's boy Bryce."

"I wouldn't brag about that, being a momma's boy." Cooper winks at Bryce.

"He's four Cooper. He can be his momma's boy at four and forever as far as I'm concerned" she adds. "But Bryce likes Eden so….."

"Wait, let's ask Savannah. It's only fair if Bryce gets a say in it so should Savannah." Cooper insists.

"Fine." Charlotte looks at her daughter who Cooper is still holding." Savannah what do you like? Shelby or Eden?"

Cooper whispers "Shelby" in Savannah's ear.

Savannah yells out "Shelby!" and smiles.

"That's my girl." Cooper swings his little daughter in the air and she cackles with delight.

"It's still a tie." Charlotte informs everyone. They all look at one year old Akron. "Well Akron" Charlotte smiles at him. "It's up to you. Do you like Shelby or Eden?" Charlotte stretches out the name Eden for him hoping he'll repeat it.

"Hey!" Cooper protests.

Akron babbles "Goo daa Goo daa."

"Sorry kid." Charlotte looks at her youngest. "We're not naming your sibling Goo daa Goo daa, nice try though."

"I don't think we're going to solve this debate today." Cooper announces "Who wants to go out for ice cream?"

"Me! Me!" The kids yell at the same time.

"Go get your shoes." Cooper tells them. "Help your brother." Cooper puts Akron on the floor and he crawls after his siblings. Cooper sits on the bed next to Charlotte. "How bout you Cricket? Do you want ice cream?"

"Umm hmm. How'd you know I had a cravin' for it right now?" She asks him.

"I can read your mind." He teases her.

"I hope not." She teases him back.

"Let's go wife." He pulls her up.

"Hey, where's your cane?" She asks him surprised.

"I'm leaving it home today."

"You sure?" She asks

"I'm sure." He answers.

"I'm proud of you." She gives him a kiss on the cheek, you've really come a long way."

"We all have Char, I can't believe how lucky we are. We have the perfect family, the perfect life." He grabs her hand to go out for ice cream.

A/N- This was a peek into what Charlotte and Cooper's life has been like for the past eight months. They had a pretty routine eight months as a family but the drama is about to start again.

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