I'm SO sorry it took me so long to get this chapter posted. I've been busy. To be honest, this isn't my best or longest chapter. It's probably my worst. But at least it's a little something, right?!

Chapter 9

"Troy!" I shouted, walking into our house. "Troy, where are you!"

"I'm right here, what's wrong?" Troy asked running into the foyer.

"Nothing. Nothing is wrong."

"Then why are you freaking out?"

"It's a good thing."

"What is it, then?"

"I'm pregnant."

Troy stared at me. He looked back and forth between my eyes. "Wha-you're serious?"

I smiled as I let out a small sob, tears running down my cheeks. "I'm serious. I'm pregnant, we're having a baby," I said letting out a rack of sobs and I wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Babe, that's great!" Troy said, wrapping his arms around my waist. He kissed my head and ran his hand through my hair. "I can't believe it..."

"I'm almost four months."

"Four... How did we miss it?"

I shrugged and shook my head. "I don't know, but we've been trying for years so I don't even care."

It'd been since a few months after Gracie passed away. It's been years. 7 years, in fact. We aren't over Gracie's death, but we aren't letting our lives revolve around it. We speak about her in positive ways and hardly ever mention the accident. Now that we knew for sure that I was finally pregnant, the only other thing we had to do was tell the kids.

"Where are the kids?" I asked.

"Living room."

I made my way into the living room and ran my hand through Bryce and Matt's hair, only to get my hand swatted away twice. "I have some news for you guys," I said, walking around to the front of the couch.

"Yeah, we're busy, Mom," Bryce said.

"We have to finish this level or we have to start from the very beginning," Matt said.

"Okay, well I think you'll really like this news," I said.

"Right after we finish, Mom. Promise."

I watched the boys play their game for a few seconds. Finally, I stood in front of the TV, earning calls of disapproval from the boys. "I'm pregnant," I said.

They both stared at me, and at the same time they got up from the couch and hugged me, almost smothering me in the process.

"Mom, that's great!" Bryce said.

"Yeah, now we'll have all three of us back in the house," Matt said before biting his lip and slightly retreating away from me.

I knew what he meant. I knew he didn't mean it the way it came out.

I held my arm out toward him. "Come here, Matty."

Matt walked closer to me and I brought him into a hug, kissing his head. "It's fine, baby. I know what you meant. It'll be nice to have three of you running around here again."

"Do you know what it is yet?" Bryce asked.

I shook my head. "Not yet, but I should find out soon. I'll tell you what, you guys can come with me when I find out what it is."

"No thanks, I don't wanna see my mom's junk."

"Okay, moms don't have junk. They have vaginas, and mine will not be on display for you two to see. They'll do all that stuff first and then the doctor will call you in to see the ultrasound."

"Thank god. I came out of that thing, I don't wanna go back to it."

I laughed and thumped his head. "Play your stupid game. Matt, you wanna help me bake those cookies?"

"No, the question is, do you wanna help me bake the cookies, because let's face it, Mom; you're not a good cook," Matt said.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, honey. It's always warm and welcome."

"Yeah. Okay."

As we laid in bed that night, we couldn't sleep. We tried, but we just couldn't. Nothing was working. We don't know if it was because we were excited about the baby, or if it was something else, but it was keeping us awake and it was eating at us.

I sighed, staring at the ceiling. I could hear Troy's even and steady breathing, but I knew he was awake. I looked over to him and turned over on my side. "Troy?"

"Hm?"

"This baby... It's a miracle."

I heard him nod. "It is."

"I didn't think I'd be able to get pregnant after Gracie..."

I had a lot of scar tissue after Gracie's birth. The doctors said it would be hard if not impossible to get pregnant again.

"I feel like this is Gracie's way of telling us she's okay..." I said.

"It could be, babe."

I cuddled into Troy. I loved his scent. He smelled like cinnamon and wood. I don't know how it blends so well, but it does. I almost get a high from it. I laid my head on his chest and breathed in his scent, closing my eyes.

"Will we take better care of this baby than we did Gracie?"

"We took care of Gracie," Troy said. "I don't ever want to hear you say we didn't take good enough care of her. She was just adventurous and she accidentally locked herself in the car. It was an accident, it wasn't anyone's fault."

"We should've been watching her..."

"I don't wanna talk about it, we've talked about this before. Go to sleep."

Sighing, I gave up. He always won that fight. I didn't blame him.