At Second Blush

by OyHumbug

Part Two of the Mother of the Bride Series - In the three months since her only child's wedding, Beth Marks' life completely changed. Not only did she fall in love again, but she, Rio, and his son, Marcus, became a family together. Now, that family is about to grow. Doubly so.

15. Chapter Fifteen - 12 Weeks Postpartum

Chapter Fifteen: 12 Weeks Postpartum

Out of all of the ways that a grocery store could make a woman realize that she might be pregnant, for Beth Garza, it was the gourmet cheese section of the deli.

She had every intention of finding wholesale suppliers for all of her ingredients. As weird as it was, Beth wanted to be able to say that she had a produce girl, a meat guy. But she had only joined the business weeks before, so the events that they were hosting had long since been booked. Until she actually started catering, she didn't need to buy in bulk. So, that meant, everytime she needed to prepare a tasting menu for a meeting with a potential client, she had to go to the grocery store.

There were worse things to do with one's day. She could have been standing in some government line, applying for a permit, or there was the tedious task ahead of them of finding, inspecting, and purchasing trucks that could be equipped to cook and serve food. Plus, from just her own, personal cooking, Beth knew her way around a grocery store. She had every intention that afternoon of getting in and then getting out. Her list was organized by departments and then by aisles - she knew the branch where she shopped that well, and she purposefully picked the time of day when she thought the store would be the slowest. It was after the retired and stay-at-home mom early rush, after those lunch break quick trippers, and before the post-work crush.

Beth made it smoothly through the produce section, the neatly lined packages of baby carrots not even making her bat a lash. Cheerios, that childhood staple that all parents relied upon when their babies were first old enough for solid foods, didn't cause her to even slow down her cart. She pushed right on past the milk and the eggs - two things that could very easily remind one of fertility. There was an entire aisle of baby supplies - diapers, formula, pureed foods, lotions, and wipes, but Beth failed to even notice that it existed. She walked by the greeting cards that congratulated new parents on their bouncing bundle of baby joy, an entire display of condoms, and the vitamin section which even included those of the prenatal variety. For all Beth was aware, over the store's Muzak system, a girl could have been begging her papa not to preach, because all that she wanted was another baby, so she was going down to that love shack with its tin roof, rusted! Hell, Beth was so lost in her shopping, in her list, in her excitement and curiosity over what Kensley would be announcing that evening at dinner that, afterwards, she couldn't even recall if there had been music playing at all!

Instead, it was the mascarpone that clued her in. Well, not the mascarpone itself but the brie and other soft cheeses next to it, because she started thinking about all the wonderful appetizers she could make with those mild and soft flavors paired with the local Michigan fall fruits, particularly plums, peaches, and apples. Beth was reaching for some camembert, some brie, and some chevre, too, when a little voice inside of her head told her that, for her at least, soft cheese was probably not a good idea.

And then she froze.

Her hand fell to her side, and then she just stood there, staring at the gourmet dairy products like they had all of the answers she sought. It wasn't until her vision was completely blurred because it had been so long since she'd blinked last that Beth finally moved, sidestepping around her own cart and retrieving her purse from the front seat area. She slipped the bag over her shoulder, pivoted on the short, chunky heels of her booties, and then marched all the way across the store to where she knew she could find what she needed - her tasting menu, precise list, and cart full of items completely forgotten in her distraction, in her panic, in her… excitement?

She knew it was ridiculous, but she grabbed one of every kind of home pregnancy test the store stocked. Luckily, one of the self-checkouts was free and open, because Beth was pretty sure, at that moment, she wasn't capable of waiting in line. Rather than stand there for five more minutes, delaying the confirmation of something that she was starting to suspect she should have realized weeks… if not months… earlier, she would have stolen the arm load of tests she carried. Getting arrested for shoplifting at forty wouldn't have been a great way to start her second foray into motherhood, but believing that she could display patience at such a time was just too big of an ask.

With nothing and no one in her way, however, she made it through checkout and then out into her SUV within mere minutes. But then she had to drive home. And then she somehow had to get Rio to leave work and go upstairs with her to take an entire bag's worth of home pregnancy tests… even though Beth knew that she wouldn't be capable of voicing the realization she had experienced in the gourmet cheese section of the grocery store. She was going to need him to just go with her. And then they would have to wait one, two, five more minutes to see the results. Beth just knew that she was pregnant, but now she needed to see it.

She was already halfway down the hallway towards Rio's office when she realized that she had absolutely no recollection of the trip back to the loft or where or how she had parked her car. She was okay, and she was still desperately clutching her triple bagged - so none of those blue and pink boxes could be seen through the plastic - purchases from the store, so she had to think that nothing was amiss. Without knocking, Beth pushed her way into where Rio was working, marching as directly towards him as the furniture between the door and his desk would allow.

"Hey, Mama. You want help carryin' everythin' inside?"

Rather than answer him, Beth took Rio by the hand and tugged him to his feet. He never would have moved if he wasn't amenable to the idea of her dragging him wherever she wanted him, for his deceptively lithe frame hid a strength that Beth couldn't match… even when she was at her most desperately wired.

"What's this now?," he teased her as he followed her out of the office and towards the back exit of the first floor. "If I'd known grocery stores gotchu this hot, I woulda gone with you, Baby. We coulda fucked in the back behind crates of eggplants or somethin', yeah?"

Rio was trailing behind Beth, so she couldn't see his face, but that didn't stop her from knowing that he was grinning widely in response to her antics. She could hear the amusement in his voice, feel his eagerness in how he didn't just hold her hand as she urged him on with her; he played with her fingers, sensuously rubbing his own against her palm, around the pulse in her wrist. That's all it took to make her want him - then and there, right on the stairs, as they climbed up to the third floor where their loft was located. It was no wonder that, in just a few more minutes, she would confirm that she was pregnant.

When the locked door to their home forced Beth to stop moving long enough for her to fit her keys into the handle and let them inside, Rio pressed up against her from behind, allowing her to feel just how hard he was against the plump roundness of her ass. He even rocked his hips forward and into her, knocking Beth into the door and nearly making her drop her keys. "Or maybe that newlywed pussy is still so greedy for my cock that you didn't even make it to the store before you had to turn around, come home, and beg me to fuck you?"

In her haste to get inside the privacy of their home, Beth stumbled over the threshold when she finally got the door unlocked. As soon as she had regained her balance and footing, she ran for the bathroom, Rio hot on her heels - still thinking that what they were doing there was all about sex. And it was… just so not in the way he suspected. Sex might have been the cause behind her actions but not the intended outcome. That was a little difficult for Rio to grasp, though, Beth realized, when by the time he entered the bathroom with her, she already had her pants and thong down around her ankles.

"Damn, Mami. Slow down. I know you need it bad, but let me play and have some fun, too."

In response, Beth tossed her grocery bag onto the counter, its contents spilling out in a jumbled pile. One box even fell to the floor, landing directly in front of Rio's pristine black Converse tennis shoes. "Fuck, Elizabeth."

"Yes, fuck Elizabeth is exactly how we got to this point." She just… reacted. The first words out of her mouth since she put the pieces together that she was pregnant, and they were sarcastic and crass. Immediately, Beth wanted to take them back. Slapping a hand over her mouth, she apologized through her fingers. "Rio, I'm so sorry!""For what - that smartass mouth of yours or havin' my kid, 'cause I ain't mad about neither.""Oh, god. Both, I… what? You're not mad?"

Kicking the box in front of him aside, Rio approached her, taking Beth by the hips. When his hands landed on bare skin, she remembered that she was standing in front of him half naked… and not in a sexy, seductive way but, instead, in a preparation for peeing on little, plastic sticks way. Instantaneously, Beth felt her face, neck, and chest start to burn with mortification. Rio definitely caught her embarrassed blush, but he didn't comment on it. "I can't say this is where I saw this goin', but I married you, we're raisin' Pop together, and we've been fuckin' raw on the regular now for a while, Baby. It ain't a complete surprise."

She blinked rapidly, taking in everything he had said before she admitted, "it was to me."

"And that's why I'll be the one havin' the sex talk with our kids, yeah?"

Even Beth was surprised when she laughed. Sobering, she told him, "I honestly did not plan this, Rio."

Frowning, he asked, "is that what has you trippin' - you afraid I'll think you were tryin' to trap me?" Before she could answer, he reminded her, "I see you takin' your pill every mornin' when you take your vitamins." Shrugging smugly, he added, "we just have more sex than that li'l pill can handle."

"Maybe this wasn't intentional," Beth allowed, "but I still think it's my fault.""Sweetheart, I ain't blamin' you. In fact, I'm tryin' to congratulate myself for…"

Interrupting him, Beth put into words what she had been thinking since the moment she looked at that brie in the grocery store. "I'm pretty sure I'm further along than I should be for just realizing that I might be pregnant." At Rio's puzzled expression, she rushed to explain, "I never once missed a pill, but back during those last few weeks leading up to Kensley's wedding, I wasn't always as… punctual when taking it as I should have been. I was just so busy, and everything was so crazy, and sometimes I'd fall into bed at night only to remember that I'd forgotten to take my pill that morning."

"So, you think you're what - three months already?""I know, I know," Beth tried to slip away from him, to put some distance between them, so she could put her mind in order… not to mention maybe pull up her pants, but Rio only tightened his grip on her - his thumbs rhythmically brushing against the points of her hip bones. "I know what you're thinking: how could I possibly not know that I was that pregnant?""Actually, I'm thinkin' I knocked you up through birth control and condoms, 'cause we was still wrappin' it back then, Darlin'.""Not always," Beth reminded him. "At least, not always from the start."

The biggest, most conceited, absolutely breathtaking smile took over Rio's face. "The kitchen floor."

She didn't feel like either of them needed her to confirm it. Instead, she told him, "I honestly thought I was too old to even get pregnant again."

"You're only forty, Elizabeth.""Forty-one this month," she corrected.

Rio leered down at her. "And obviously the inside of that body is as bangin' as the outside."

"I've also been on birth control for so long - since I was eighteen - that, when I did have my period, it was light and short. Three months without one wasn't unheard of for me, and I was just grateful that I didn't have to deal with that… or stop having sex with you.""Mami, as long as you still want it, I'll fuck you bloody.""Stop it," she chastised him, though it lacked any and all sincerity. "I need to say this before we…""Celebrate," Rio interjected his suggestion of what was going to happen once they finished talking. The way he licked his bottom lip, dragging his teeth over it in that way that always made Beth want to nibble on the plump flesh herself, told her exactly how he planned to mark the occasion."Confirm," Beth corrected him, "that I'm pregnant." Rio nodded, signaling for her to continue. "Plus, I haven't had any symptoms. My breasts aren't tender, I'm not nauseous, or tired, or more emotional than normal. I don't have any cravings, and I don't have heartburn. My pants felt a little tight last week, but I just thought that was because I've been eating better now that I have people with whom to share my meals. If it wasn't for that damn brie…""Shit," Rio swore, cutting her off. "You ain't supposed to eat soft cheese when pregnant, Ma.""I know, and I didn't," she reassured him. "I saw some today at the store, and everything just… fell into place for me, I guess."

He grinned softly, gently, letting go of one side of her, so he could lift her shirt and hold his right hand against her belly. Rio spread his long, elegant fingers wide so that his touch could nearly span the entirety of Beth's still flat stomach. "See. Those Mama instincts are already kickin' in."

Huffing under her breath, Beth complained, "it would have been nice if they could have made themselves known before I was nearly a third of the way through my pregnancy already."

"Why," Rio challenged. "Would knowin' have changed anything for you?""Well, I wouldn't have drank so much bourbon.""You're no lush, Ma. The kid's fine."

She knew that, too. So, Beth told him what was really bothering her. "You know that people are going to say that we only got married because of the baby."

"Only if they're fuckin' assholes," Rio dismissed, making Beth groan out a laugh. "I'm serious, Elizabeth. The first person stupid enough to say that to me will be the last. Besides, who cares what anyone else thinks. We know what we are.""It's not that, necessarily," Beth told him. "What if somebody says something to Marcus or even the baby someday?""Pop is gonna be so over the moon excited that he won't fuckin' hear anythin' beyond that he's gonna be a big brother, and by the time our kid's old enough to understand what's bein' said, they'll have caught us havin' sex so many times that they'll know it's bullshit."

Beth swallowed thickly. "God, that might be even more terrifying than having to explain the timing of our pregnancy if anyone should ask."

"Then don't," he unequivocally stated. "Now, you gonna piss on a test or what? I gotta have somethin' I can send to Grandma, so she knows I ain't messin' with her.""Rio!," Beth hissed in warning. "You will not send Rosa a picture of a stick that I've… peed on!" He just handed her a box after finally letting go of her. "I'll make an appointment as soon as we see the results. If you can wait until then, we'll be able to get something less… impolite with which to announce the pregnancy.""Grandma ain't gonna care what we show her as long as it means she's gettin' another grandkid."

Hastily tearing the carton open, Beth handed the directions to Rio while she sat down on the toilet and positioned the test between her legs. "Find out for how long we need to wait," she instructed him.

Rio read while she went to the bathroom. Once she was finished, Beth carefully placed the test on the counter so that nothing unsanitary was actually touching the surface. She'd still clean it later, but it gave her peace of mind anyway. After flushing, she went to wash her hands… only to find Rio, naked and hard, blocking her path. "Nuh uh, Baby. Turn around and march that fine ass into the shower, yeah? I wanna celebrate, and you wanna confirm, so we're gonna compromise and do both at the same time. While we waitin' for the results, I'm gonna fuck you dirty and wash you clean."

Of course, they were in the shower for far longer than even the longest home pregnancy test required. Rio held her up against the tile wall, spreading and holding her legs open far wider than his narrow hips needed while he pistoned his cock inside of her. Beth came hard; Rio didn't. He repositioned her, though, bending her over to hold onto the built-in shower seat while he surged and then ebbed his way back and forth along her slippery, suctioning walls. She came a second time. It was softer and slower, yet it still made her shake with pleasure. Still, Rio held his own orgasm at bay. Her mind too hazy to protest, he laid her down on the tile floor of the shower, crawled between her legs, and ate her out to a third release, lifting her up to sit on his lap and bounce her way to a fourth and final fall off of that blissful precipice. That time - with one of her breasts in Rio's mouth to the point where Beth wondered how he wasn't gagging on it, one of his hands between her legs to strum and play with her clit, and his other hand willingly trapped between the cheeks of her ass and… exploring, Beth dragged Rio right along with her - her nails in his flanks as she wordlessly demanded that he fill her full of his cum.

Afterwards, limbs loose and relaxed with satisfaction, they stood in front of the steamed over bathroom mirror together - Beth leaning back on Rio as much as he was propped up against her, their hands tangled together where they cradled their baby, simply staring down at the positive pregnancy test before them. "You wanna say anythin' to Kensley tonight?"

Eyes going wide in horror, Beth immediately shut that idea down. "Oh god, we can't! After the party last week, I'm shocked she even invited us to dinner. And this is her night. We can't do anything that might upset or ruin this for her."

"Yeah, she ain't exactly the first person I wanna tell anyway."

Twisting around in his arms so that she could look up at him, Beth bit her bottom lip, requesting, "can we tell Marcus, though? Do you think he can keep it a secret? I know it's not fair - to tell him but not Kensley and also to expect him not to say anything, but I'm just… I'm so excited, Rio!"

"Me, too, Mami," he reassured her, kissing the dimple in her chin."And I don't think I can wait to share it with him.""You don't gotta. Despite all appearances to the contrary, Pop knows when somethin' is important enough to keep his mouth shut. If you ask him to keep this between the three of us…""The four," Beth corrected with an elated grin."... between the four of us," Rio amended, "he will.""Okay."

For several moments, they just watched one another's faces, content in their knowledge and with each other. But then Rio's hands dropped to the back of Beth's thighs, and he picked her up, making her squeal out once in shock and then again after he placed her down on the cold, hard surface of the vanity countertop. Laughing through her surprise, she demanded to know, "What are you doing?!"

"I'm gonna fuck you again before we go pick Pop up from school.""Rio, I can't," Beth protested. Because she couldn't. Right? But even she could hear the doubt in her own denial."A'ight," he gave in. Or at least she thought he gave in until he said, "for you, Baby, I'll fuck you two more times," making Beth giggle until, simultaneously, both his cock and his tongue slipped inside of her, stealing her protests, stealing her breath, and he would have stolen her heart, too… if he didn't already have it.

!

It boggled Beth's mind to confront and admit that her daughter, her baby, was already twelve weeks old - almost three months. In fact, Reinelle was as far along in her life as Beth had been in her pregnancy when she had realized the baby's existence. Everything was going by so fast - too fast, and yet, at the same time, she wouldn't have it any other way, because it was fascinating and beautiful to watch Reinelle grow, and learn, and explore her world. Every day, it seemed like she noticed something else or could do something new. It all combined to make the conversation that she and Rio were about to have with Dr. Smythe an obvious one.

As her last postpartum checkup would also be her yearly exam, Beth would need to change into a hospital gown at some point, but she and Rio had agreed, after the initial discussion, he would take Reinelle, and the two of them would go off and have some daddy-daughter time, enjoying the picturesque spring day outside, leaving Beth alone with her OB-GYN for the actual medical portion of her appointment. She wouldn't change until they left for a nearby park where she would meet them once she was finished. Consequently, Beth had elected not to sit on the exam table, taking the extra guest chair beside Rio instead.

So, when Dr. Smythe entered the room, she found the two of them cuddled up together, Reinelle being admired and entertained by the both of them. "Well, isn't that a pretty picture? All that's missing is my future space pediatric cardiologist."

"Let's save Pop's first pelvic exam for his gynecological rotation, then, yeah?"

"And crazy idea here, I know," Beth sarcastically suggested, "but maybe not when it's his stepmother in the stirrups?"

"Fair point," the physician agreed. Taking a seat, Dr. Smythe leaned back, crossed her legs, and seemingly got comfortable. "So, how're tricks, kids?"

Beth exchanged a glance with Rio and then questioned, "is that some kind of reference to our sex life?"

The OB-GYN laughed. "No," she assured them. "I mean, I do want to talk about that, but for now, I just want to know how everyone is doing." Addressing Beth, the doctor queried, "you've started back to work since the last time I saw you, correct?"

"Yes, I went back a few weeks ago. And it's going really well. Honestly," Beth admitted, "there hasn't been that much of an adjustment for me or Reinelle."

"Oh, how so?"

"Well, Rio and I can both work out of the house some, so that's helped with the transition. Plus, we run the business together, so if we go into the office, there's two of us, so one can fill in for the other with the baby or in a meeting - whichever division works best."

"Plus, she's a boss like her Mama," Rio praised their daughter, lifting her up over his head which never failed to make Reinelle grin and giggle. "Not even three months yet, and she's already closin' deals. She's like catnip for women of a certain age. All we gotta do is tell 'em that Elizabeth and I met at a reception held at our venue a year ago, and now we got the dopest li'l nenita ever born. They take one look at her and start thinkin', if their son or daughter gets married at our establishment, they'll get a grandbaby just like her, though there ain't never gonna be another like my Reinelle."

"Well, unless the two of you have another daughter," Dr. Smythe pointed out.

But Rio shook his head, disagreeing with the OB-GYN. "Nah, she'd be her own perfect person, too."

"Yeah, your kids are never going to have self-esteem issues, that's for sure."

Getting them back on topic, Beth informed her doctor, "she'll be with us every day at work at least until she's six months old. At that point, I'd imagine she'll spend some time with Rio's Grandmother as well."

"Ah, yes," Dr. Smythe remarked curiously. Folding her arms over her chest, she demanded to know, "so, how is the lactational amenorrhea method working for you so far? Any regrets? I can write you a prescription for birth control today if you'd like."

It was Rio who answered. "Nah, we're good."

"You do realize that it only works for six months, and then you will start ovulating again, Beth. In fact, I tell my patients who choose to use LAM, that they should actually start taking the pill, using condoms, or elect for some other kind of birth control by the five and a half month mark given how cycles work."

Beth didn't need to look at Rio to know what he thought about the matter. This was the reason why he was at her appointment with her that afternoon, and they had long since decided together how they wanted to approach the future of their family. "We understand. And we're good. We have it covered."

"Wasn't the fact that you didn't actually have it covered the reason why we're all here today," Dr. Smythe teased them. When neither Beth nor Rio took the bait, she seemed to register what they were and were not saying, smiling and nodding gently in recognition and acceptance. "Moving on though not deviating far, how is the sex? Are you experiencing any discomfort, Beth? Has your libido returned to its pre-pregnancy level?"

Given that, technically, they'd likely only had sex once before conceiving their daughter, Beth wasn't quite sure how to gauge her pre-pregnancy sex drive versus her pregnancy and post-pregnancy sex drives, so, instead, she just thought of it as pre and post Rio entering her life. She refrained, however, from offering her physician such an explicit response. Rather, she demurred, "we're both quite satisfied with that aspect of our relationship."

"In every aspect of our relationship," Rio corrected her. He held Reinelle against him with his right arm - the baby facing forward into the room while chewing on anything and everything she could get her hands on (currently, she was bent over and gumming at the bracelets adorning her father's wrist), leaving his left hand free to cover and caress Beth's thigh - his fingers dipping down to tease the inseam of her jeans.

"And of course there's no discomfort," Beth finished, referring back to the first part of the OB-GYN's question. "Rio would never hurt or make me uncomfortable, and I would never do that to myself either."

"Alright," Dr. Smythe announced, clapping her hands together once before standing up. "That's all I need to know. If you want to get changed, Beth, we'll begin your actual exam."

Beth nodded, pushing to her feet, but she didn't even take a single step towards the attached half bath before pausing when the physician, surprised, asked, "wait, you're not staying?" Because, at the same time, Rio had started gathering Reinelle's things, putting the baby in her stroller.

"Nah, we gonna head over to Pallister Park, make some vitamins."

"Make some…? Oh yes," Dr. Smythe realized what Rio was saying in a way that only Rio seemed capable of, chuckling to herself. "The sun's actually out today."

"It's been a fuckin' minute, yeah?"

Rolling her eyes, Beth teased, "don't mind him. Rio's just not used to winter in the suburbs yet."

"Cleaning the driveway and sidewalks of snow and ice got real fuckin' old right fuckin' quick," he admitted. "Elizabeth hired some guy before she went into the hospital to have Reinelle. Asshole never showed up. Shit, I can't even pay people to take care of it for me."

"Isn't that why couples have children," the physician jokingly pointed out.

"Except Pop only lives with us on the weekends. Me? I can just drive over everythin', but I don't need some delivery man bitchin' 'cause he has to wade through a foot of snow to drop things on my front porch."

Dryly, Beth remarked, "we have a snowblower. He's fine."

"That ain't the point," Rio argued, not letting it go. "May is too fuckin' late to consistently see grass again. Spring's two-thirds over already."

"I have to say, Beth," Dr. Smythe told her, "I'm with Rio on this one. Winter seemed especially long and bitter this year. Besides," the physician added, "don't you guys have a babymoon coming up? I think I remember you saying something about that at your six week postpartum checkup. Your bodies need to reacclimate to sun and warmth before you bombard it with the tropical nirvana that is… where did you end up deciding to go?"

"Curaçao. Pop gets his coral reef. Elizabeth gets a new cuisine to explore and incorporate into her own cooking. And I get art, architecture, and Elizabeth on 37 different beaches."

"And what does Little Miss Reinelle get from this family vacation?"

Eyeing Rio out of the corner of her eye - curious as to what he was going to say, Beth waited, letting him field the question. Although she knew what he was planning to give their daughter during their ten day trip to the Caribbean, she didn't think he'd actually tell Dr. Smythe. Sure enough, while he didn't lie, he didn't tell the whole truth either. "She likes what her Mama likes."

Without waiting for the physician to reply or pose another question, Rio brushed a quick kiss over Beth's mouth, murmuring to her, "see you soon, Mami." For Dr. Smythe, he nodded on his way out, playfully bargaining, "take real good care of my girl, and maybe I'll bring you back a souvenir from Curaçao, yeah?"

Too bad she wouldn't get to keep the souvenir, though; she'd only deliver it.

!

Honestly, after what happened at Marcus' party, after what was said and, more importantly, heard, Beth wasn't even sure if they would make it to this day. But they did. Perhaps even more impressively, she was being allowed to mark the occasion. There was a cynical part of Beth that wondered if Kensley had accepted Beth's offer to host a celebratory dinner in honor of her one year wedding anniversary, because, otherwise, Kensley and Aaron would have been at the mercy of whichever chain restaurant Dean currently favored. However, Beth was trying to meet her daughter half way after their breakthrough facilitated by Rio, and if that meant cooking a meal and welcoming Judith into her home, Dean having declined Beth's invitation to celebrate their daughter's anniversary, then so be it.

She kept the entire evening simple and lowkey. After Annie insisted that it might not be the best idea to invite anyone from Aaron's side of the wedding party, Beth elected to limit the guestlist to family only. So, it was Kensley, Aaron, and baby Keane, of course; herself and Rio, Marcus and Reinelle; Annie and Judith; Aaron's parents; Ruby, Stan, and their two children; and Kensley had agreed to include Rosa, probably in the hopes that Rio's Grandmother would take care of the kids. Instead, Beth had put Rosa on Judith duty, asking her to make sure the Boland matriarch didn't get wine drunk or too caustic.

Instead of being worried about Judith, however, Beth should have put a leash or, better yet, a muzzle on her little sister.

While everyone arrived, Beth served blinis with creme fraiche and smoked salmon. She made sure they didn't linger long on the appetizers, though, knowing that people often drank more while they waited for their meal. Rio might have been supportive of Beth repairing her relationship with her eldest child, but neither of them wanted their guests lingering late into the night. They'd eat, they'd toast, they'd admire whatever paper gifts Kensley and Aaron had purchased for one another, and then they'd politely send everyone home. Insisting that the salad course - a nice, fresh spring greens mix - was best if not delayed, for Beth was serving it in parmesan bowls, she had urged her guests to take their seats at the long dining room table, decorated with origami flower arrangements in every shade of white to both mark the occasion and bring to mind the decor of Kensley and Aaron's reception.

They made it through the entire main course - lemon-herb roasted chicken served with sides of asparagus with roasted almonds and garlic and potato and leek cakes with blue cheese sauce - without incident, and Ruby and Stan particularly enjoyed the spicy salt and pepper biscuits Beth made, regaling the dinner party with tales of their own first year of marriage and how they bonded over a similarly named rap duo. But then Beth brought out the dessert - a perfect cloud of a pavlova with lemon curd, spring berries, and whipped cream - only for Annie to confuse her Russian ballerinas with her Russian physiologists.

"So, is this, like, named after that bell guy?"

Beth looked up from where she was cutting into the meringue. "What bell guy?"

"You know," Annie insisted. "Every time a bell rings, a dog gets its dinner. That bell guy."

"I can usually follow your twisted sense of logic, but you've lost me with this one," Ruby complained. "I thought you were talking about Pavlov, but now I'm also thinking about George Bailey, too."

Annie screwed up her face. "Who's George Bailey… unless, is he the guy who made Bailey's Irish Cream? Is this a boozy dessert, Beth? If so, please sir, can I have some more?"

"Considering the fact that there are three children about to eat this, no, Annie, there is no alcohol in my pavlova."

"They'd be fine," her sister insisted. "Doesn't the heat burn all the alcohol out anyway?"

"Not to mention the fact that two of the women at this table are currently nursing."

"Again. Fire make good bad juice go away."

Deciding that the best way to distract Annie from her liver was through her stomach, Beth started to explain, "a pavlova is like a big marshmallow but with a crispy crust."

"I typically prefer my marshmallows to be garishly colored by dyes banned in the UK," Annie informed the table. "But I'll give this a whirl."

"How open minded of you," Beth quipped.

Luckily, most of the table had been oblivious to Annie's dog-booze-breakfast cereal spiral down the rabbit hole that was her little sister's brain, so Judith didn't insult Annie's lack of a formal education, and Kensley wasn't embarrassed by her Aunt in front of her successful in-laws. As Beth handed Rio the last serving, he briefly held and squeezed her hand in encouragement, letting her know that she had done well, before flashing her one of his food-happy smiles. "Looks amazin', Ma," he whispered for her ears only.

She had just taken her seat again when Annie started to giggle. As her sister's laughter kept going, and going, and going and got louder, everyone stopped what they were doing - spoons being rested once more on dessert plates - to stare at the woman who, quite frankly, sounded certifiable. Beth tried to wait her out, knowing it was best to just… let Annie be Annie, but eventually, she caved to her embarrassment, demanding to know, "are you quite finished yet?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Annie held up her hands in apology. She then dramatically wiped at the corners of her eyes, sighing. "It's not 'me-giant-lucky-charm!'. Your dessert is great, Beth. Really."

Before anyone could pick up their silverware once more, Annie pressed on. "It's just, I keep thinking about those dogs, you know? Because tonight isn't just Kensley's wedding anniversary. It's yours and Rio's bangversary as well."

"Bitch, you did not just go there," Ruby breathed out in shock, horror, and, if Beth wasn't mistaken, more than a little amusement.

Beth, on the other hand, just sat completely still in her chair - back ramrod straight, shoulders so still that she could already feel the tension creeping into her neck. Quickly, she took in the rest of the table's various reactions. Kensley paled - her skin almost ashen, while Aaron shot a quick, apologetic glance towards his horrified parents. Judith's face, flushed with the wine she had drank that evening, became twisted into some caricature of a smile. Rosa appeared sympathetic; Stan was grinning, leaning back in his chair and smiling around the mouth of his beer bottle as he lifted it to his lips; and from beside her, Rio practically vibrated with annoyance.

"Yo, we got kids at this table," Rio reminded her sister. "I'd threaten to make you explain that li'l gem to them… if I didn't think you'd enjoy the tellin' and they'd be traumatized for life."

"Oh, please," Annie dismissed with a wave of her hand… which just so happened to be wrapped around her wine glass - a wine glass that was immediately plucked from her grip by Rio who stood up so quickly that Annie didn't even see him coming. He then cleared the table of the open bottles of white, which actually went with the meal Beth had made, and red, which was Annie and Ruby's drink of choice. "They have no idea what I'm even talking about."

"Yeah, that's half the problem," Rio countered.

"Anyway," her sister just continued on, completely undaunted by the reprimand. "Before I was so rudely interrupted - and, geez, sensitive much?, all I was going to say is, let's hope the two of you aren't conditioned like those dogs. Because the last time Beth cooked a fancy meal on behalf of Kensley, she had a baby nine months later."

"Wait, are you saying that Beth conceived," Judith breathed out the word like it was some kind of blasphemy, "that child during the wedding reception my son gave in honor of his daughter?"

"Actually," Aaron's mother spoke up, gazing coldly at Judith. "My son paid for that wedding."

"Well, the parts of it that Elizabeth didn't take care of," Rio corrected as he returned to the table.

"Look, none of that matters now," Kensley declared, "and what you're suggesting is not going to happen, Aunt Annie. I think we've all learned that lesson. History will not be repeating itself."

"If you're referrin' to Reinelle, she's your half sister, not a lesson," Rio corrected Kensley. "And I don't remember askin' you if me and your Moms could have more kids."

"But, I mean, you're not, right," Kensley insisted, chuckling awkwardly… as if the answer was obvious. Of course, they weren't going to have more children.

Well, this wasn't how Beth had planned to tell her family… and Judith, but here they were. "Actually, not right away, of course - Reinelle is only three months, after all, but Rio and I are going to have at least one more baby. And soon."

"But… why?!," Kensley sputtered out her question - horrified and dismayed by the announcement.

"I went twenty-two years between having you and giving you a sibling, and look at how well that turned out," Beth snapped at her daughter.

"And Pop might be in his element as a big brother, but he was almost nine when his sister was born, so they ain't gonna have a traditional sibling relationship neither," Rio continued where Beth left off. "We want Reinelle to have a sibling closer to her own age, someone she can play with, boss around like the li'l jefa she is."

Beth watched as her daughter visibly pushed down all of the objections she was obviously thinking and feeling and, instead, simply and calmly said, "but you're going to be 42 this fall, Mom," managing to sound more concerned for Beth than she did for herself.

"Why do you think I said we'd be adding to our family again soon?"

Taking the attention and focus off of Beth and Rio, Rosa pleasantly asked the couple celebrating their anniversary that evening, "what about the two of you? When do you plan on having another baby?"

"Oh, we're done," Kensley adamantly stated. "I am not going through that again. I love my son, but… I'm just glad I was able to give Aaron an heir the first time, because there's not going to be a second."

Uncomfortably, for several awkward moments, no one said anything in response. Aaron didn't chime in, agreeing with his wife. His parents didn't remark on how, though it would have been nice to have more than one grandchild, they were lucky to have Keane. And Judith didn't react to the heir comment, an obvious opening for her to ridicule Beth's failure to provide Dean and her late husband, Kenneth, with that same kindness. It finally took Beth offering, "coffee anyone?," for quiet conversation to resume.

After that, it didn't take long for the dinner party to disperse. Although she and Rio had hoped that no one would linger long after the meal was finished, Beth also hated that the evening's unease chased everyone away. At least when Kensley left, she didn't seem too upset with her. She even hugged Beth, thanking her for hosting and cooking the meal. And maybe, despite the less than ideal circumstances, it was a good thing that Kensley knew in advance that Beth and Rio wanted more children together, allowing her oldest child to come to terms with and accept that, though she herself did not plan on growing her immediate family, her extended family would be getting bigger.

Later that night, Marcus was asleep in his bed, and Reinelle was asleep in Beth's arms, dozing off with her mother's breast still in her mouth. The nipple had since slipped free, but neither Beth nor Rio made a move to transfer their infant daughter to her bassinet for the night, savoring a few more moments of having her so near. Now that the weather was finally warming once again, they both wore very little to bed - sometimes even nothing at all during the week when Marcus wasn't with them.

Lazily, Rio, laying on his side next to Beth - his cock half hard through his boxer-briefs and pressed into her hip, ran just a single finger back and forth against the swollen, beaded nipple nearest him. He'd already suckled her breasts clean of any last vestiges of milk, and he had to keep his touch against her sensitive skin gentle so as not to stimulate another let down, but he couldn't be near her and not touch her, and her breasts, especially after just feeding their daughter, were like a siren's song for him.

"You really think Kensley and Aaron ain't havin' more kids?"

"God, I hope not," Beth breathed out sincerely, voice soft in the quiet of the night and their bedroom. "I know it's different for me, because we have Marcus and Reinelle already and plan to have at least one more child together, so we'll have other opportunities for grandchildren, but I saw firsthand what having Annie did to my parents, did to my Mom, and Kensley's marriage and mental state seem just as fragile. I'm afraid another baby would be an attempt to fix something that's broken rather than a celebration of what is healthy and right."

Crawling over her and out of bed, Rio lifted Reinelle from Beth's chest, kissed their daughter's thick, dark hair, and then laid her down in her bassinet. Before rejoining her, he pushed his underwear to the floor, negotiating the thin fabric over his cock. Once he was naked, Rio didn't retrace his previous path or even walk around to his side of the bed. Instead, he moved towards the foot of the mattress, lifted the blankets, and slid between Beth's legs. On his path up to her so that they were face to face, he snapped one side of her thong, ripping it from her body rather than taking a few extra moments to tug it off - his fingers immediately finding the slippery, wet heat of her center and one, two, three of them dipping inside in rapid, teasing, yet shallow succession.

"Really, Rio," Beth chastised him when he popped his head out from under the sheets, a self-pleased, vainglorious smile lighting up his handsome face and crinkling the skin at the corners of his mischievous, twinkling eyes.

"What," he feigned innocence. "My hand slipped."

"Into me?"

He licked into her mouth before whispering, "that pussy's like a magnet, Baby. It pulls me in. I can't help myself."

Although she rolled her eyes at his antics, Beth still played along. "Well, magnets like opposite poles, don't they? So, why don't you give… my pussy… what it really wants."

"You don't just like my cock, Mami," Rio informed her as he removed his fingers, painting her ruby red and hard nipples with the honeyed moisture they carried, practically salivating to lick and lap them clean. Positioning his cock to take their place, as soon he drove the entire thick length deep, deep inside of her, bumping into Beth's cervix and making her mewl in demand and desire, necessity and yearning - her own hands wrapping around him to clench his tight ass and tug and hold him as far inside of her fluttering walls as she possibly could while planting her feet into the mattress and driving her hips up to meet his thrust, her whimper turning into a soundless wail, he said, "you love it."

More than that, though, Beth loved him.