We both laughed and she reached down and took my hand. I was letting her lead the way since she had a clear plan of where we were going.

“Are we going to the barn?” I asked.

She didn’t say anything and picked up the pace a bit.

“What’s the rush, pumpkin? Where in the hell are you trying to go?”

She squeezed my hand and said, “The barn, damn it, but I just heard something running off! Hurry and walk faster!”

I reached down and swept her off her feet, carrying her the rest of the way to the barn. Gunner had built it right after his house was done and they only kept a few horses out there. It was probably the nicest barn I’d ever seen. The upper loft was finished out and a few times me, Gunner, Jeff and Josh had gone up there and just sat for hours shooting the shit. Fuck. I want to move out here and be closer to our friends.

The moment we walked into the barn and I saw the light coming from upstairs I knew something was up. I looked at Amanda and winked.

“You had this planned all along?” I asked her as I slowly set her down.

She nodded her head and bit down on her lower lip and started chewing on it. Clear sign she’s nervous about something. She slowly started walking backwards and over to the stairs. She didn’t want to…here? In Gunner’s barn?

I let out a small chuckle and started to follow her before I stopped. “Amanda…are you really wanting to have sex in Gunner’s barn? Baby, I love this new side of you and all, but…” I turned back and looked at the opening to the barn.

When I turned back around she was halfway up the stairs. Then I heard her let out a gasp and I took off up the stairs after her.

“What? What’s wrong…what did you—” I stopped dead in my tracks. “Oh wow,” I whispered. The loft was covered in white lights. Everywhere you looked were lights. The small round table that was up here was covered in a beautiful white tablecloth and there was a huge bouquet of white roses. As I followed Amanda, I noticed there was a tray of chocolate-covered strawberries and another tray that had fruit and cheese on it. Next to the table was a bottle of sparkling water and I had to laugh. I think I was the only one out of our friends who no longer drank. The two glasses on the table said “Congratulations” on them.

Holy hell. How did Amanda find out about my promotion?

Amanda put her hands up to her mouth and started crying. Why is she crying about my promotion? I thought she’d be happy. Shit.

I walked up behind her and wrapped my arms around her and asked, “Why are you crying?”

She slowly nodded her head and said, “They made it so special. They did this for us.” Then she began sobbing. I turned her around and pulled her chin up and looked into her eyes.

“Who made it so special?”

She wiped her nose in a not-so-romantic way and laughed. “Ari, Heather, Ellie and Jen. They planned all this for us.”

I shook my head. “How did they find out?”

She looked at me with a shocked expression. “What? How did they find out what?”

“That I got promoted at work?” I said. Amanda looked even more confused.

“You got promoted at work?” she asked, her mouth dropping open and her eyes lighting up.

I nodded my head. “Yep. I’m now going to be working mostly from home—

except for when I have to go in for meetings where they need me there.”

She slammed her hands over her mouth and started jumping up and down. “Oh. My. God! You’re going to be home with Meg and me? All the time?”

I nodded my head and she immediately fell into my arms and began crying harder.

“Thank you God. Oh…my…oh thank you, thank you, thank you,” she whispered in between sobs.

Now I was the one who was confused. I thought she knew about the promotion. I pulled her away from me and said, “Wait. I thought you knew about the promotion.”

She shook her head quickly. “No! How would I know about it? I didn’t think they were announcing it until after the first of the year. Oh, Brad. This is such wonderful news!” She went to hug me again but I stopped her.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. “Wait, pumpkin…if you didn’t know about the promotion, what is this all about?” I looked at the crystal glasses. “I mean the glasses say “Congratulations” on them. What else are we celebrating?”

She bit down on her lip and began chewing on it again. I pulled it out and said, “Manda, stop chewing your lip off.”

“Sorry…um…well…um…” She looked into my eyes, and I swore the look in her eyes took my breath away. She reached into her back pocket and had something wrapped in a piece of Christmas tissue. She went to hand it to me but then stopped.

“I wanted to give you your Christmas present tonight. Alone. I asked the girls to help me come up with something and well…” she looked around and let out a chuckle. “They certainly helped me come up with something.”

She looked into my eyes and again as she handed me the tissue paper.

“Merry Christmas, baby. I love you,” she whispered.

I took the tissue paper from her and smiled. It was light as a feather. “Is there even anything in here? I asked.

She nodded and said, “Oh yeah.”

I started to open it up and unwrap it and that’s when I saw it.

Oh my God. It’s a pregnancy test.

I quickly looked at her and immediately felt the tears building in my eyes. I glanced back down and turned the test around.

I felt my legs starting to shake as I looked back up at her. She was crying and I was barely able to even say a word.

I whispered, “We’re pregnant?”

She slowly nodded her head and I dropped to the ground and began crying.

The next thing I knew she was on the ground with me, crying just as hard as I was. I got on my knees and pulled her to me and held onto her as tight as I could.

The only thing I could say was, “Thank you God…thank you God…” over and over. I get my second chance. I finally get my second chance.

I pulled back and quickly wiped away my tears, and then wiped Amanda’s away with my thumbs.

“I just found out two days ago. I wanted to make it special for you. That’s why I waited to tell you, even though I wanted to tell you so badly. I wanted to make it special for you,” she said as she began crying again. I placed my hands on her face and brought her lips to mine.

“I love you…my God, I love you so much,” I said as I kissed her with as much passion and love as I could. She did this for me. My God, this amazing woman did this for me.

“I love you too, Brad. I love you so very much.” She said as she pulled back from my lips.

I slowly shook my head. “I don’t deserve you.” She put her hand behind my neck and pulled me into another kiss. I could literally feel her love pouring into my body and I’d never felt so at peace in my entire life.

She started to stand up and I followed her. She looked up into my eyes and said, “Yes. Yes you do deserve me, like I deserve you. We were meant to be together Brad. For always. Nothing will ever come between our love…ever.”

I ran the back of my hand softly across her cheek. “You’re so beautiful. I knew something was different about you the other night…you were…you were glowing.”

She smiled and closed her eyes. I looked up and couldn’t believe what I saw. A bed? When in the hell did Gunner put a bed up here and why?

Amanda turned and looked and started laughing. “You are probably wondering why there is a bed up here.”

“Well, yeah I can’t deny I’m at a loss. And it’s a damn nice bed at that.”

Amanda turned back to look at me. “Gunner wanted a little place for him and Ells to sneak off to sometimes to keep things romantic. He had Josh build it and they must have put it in recently.”

I closed my eyes and laughed. “Damn. That boy is such a romantic son of a bitch.”

Amanda laughed. “When Ellie mentioned it to me earlier, I had to laugh. Then I said Gunner wasn’t going to be too happy about that bed being here when his kids get older.”

I threw my head back and laughed my ass off. “Ah hell…brings new meaning to sneaking off to the barn to make out!”

Once we stopped laughing, Amanda grabbed the blanket and started to walk over to the bed. It had a quilt on it already, but Amanda threw the blanket on top of it and then turned to face me. The moment she began undressing I wanted to fall to the floor. I was about to make love to my wife…and she’s pregnant with our child. My heart was bursting with joy.

I watched as she took everything off and stood there. I looked her body up and down and then began to take my clothes off. The chill in the air wasn’t even noticeable…I was breathing so hard and Amanda’s chest was heaving up and down, turning me on even more. Once I was finished undressing, I walked over to her and stopped right in front of her. I took the back of my hand and ran it down from her face all the way to her stomach. When I touched her, she sucked in a breath of air and I smiled when I remembered her doing the same thing the other night.

“Amanda…”

She slowly sat on the bed and then lay down. I moved and hovered over her body. I felt the tears building and she smiled as she leaned up and kissed one away.

“Brad, please don’t cry.”

I smiled and brought my lips to hers as I gently kissed her. “I get to make love to you…while you’re pregnant with our child.”

She giggled and said, “You’ve been making love to me the last few weeks and I’ve been pregnant.”

I shook my head and closed my eyes thinking back to the last few weeks of being with her. Every time I’m with Amanda it feels like the first time. “No…this time is different.” I moved closer to her and then I slowly entered her body.

“God Amanda…I don’t ever want to leave this moment…ever.”

She gently ran her fingertips up and down my skin, and I felt goose bumps cover my whole body.

“Kiss me, Brad,” she whispered.

I slowly began moving my lips along her neck and up to her lips. I kissed her slowly, passionately and for what seemed like forever.

I took my time making love to her. I wanted her to feel every emotion I was feeling.

Once we were done making love, I lay there and held her in my arms. Moving my fingers up and down her arm, I took in a deep breath and slowly let it out.

“What are you thinking about?” Amanda asked me in a sleepy voice.

I smiled and said, “You.”

She looked up at me and put her chin on my chest and smiled. “Me? What about me?”

“You know…the usual stuff. How much I love you. How wonderful of a mother you are. How you’re such an amazing wife. How you love me and believe in me. How you never gave up on me and walked away when I gave you so many reasons to.” My voice cracked at the end and I closed my eyes to keep myself from crying like the p**sy I was.

She slowly got up and crawled on top of me. I put my hands on her h*ps and looked at her beautiful face.