Free Mrs. Jones: Book One (The Jones Series #1) by B.M. Hardin Page A

was still alive. He had refused all treatments and medicines, stating that he refused to spend his running back in forth to hospitals. He simply started taking better care of himself by exercising, becoming a vegetarian, living and laughing. I truly believe that and his faith had kept him alive and healthy thus far.
    “He’s getting worse?” I asked.
    “No; but he’s getting tired. He still isn’t too ill, but it’s as if he’s starting to give up and anticipating death. His doctor said that it had finally started to spread and I guess the news makes it all the more real for him,” Mama responded.
    I could hear the sadness in her voice which made me want to cry.
    “Well Ma, how are you holding up? How are you feeling?” I asked her concerned.
    “Who me…I’m fine. I hate seeing him suffer…but I’ve been waiting on him to die for years,” she said bluntly.
    Huh?
    What?
    I started to comment but she started speaking again.
    “Maybe once he’s gone, I ca finally do something for me. It’s not that I don’t love your father, I love him to death. Life with him has been good. But the last forty plus years have been about him. The last few years that I have left should be all about me,” she said.
    I knew that Mama meant every word that she’d just said. It made me think.
    Is this what I have to look forward to?
    My parents had been my idea of perfect, and I’d always looked up to them and honored their marriage. But in twenty years I definitely didn’t want to feel the same way that Mama felt; which only confirmed that it was time for me to do something for me. It was time to start my business so that I had an outlet and something that I could be proud of. It would be something that was mine and something that was all about me and what I wanted. Personally, I believed that every woman needed that.
After hanging up with Mama, I found a notepad and really started writing down ideas and plans for my future business.
    I was now all the more anxious to get this pregnancy done in over with.
    A husband, baby, and a career…sounded good to me!
    ~**********~

Chapter Seven
     
    “If she doesn’t come by Friday, we’ll induce you,” my doctor said.
    I laughed aloud.
    God was doing this on purpose. I was now a week overdue and still pregnant!
    I’d tried everything to get this baby to come, but she hadn’t budged.
    But it would all be over in just three more days.
Santana helped me get settled into the seat and then we headed down the street. I was so tired. Exhausted was an understatement.
    “Are you hungry?”
    “No, I just want to have this baby,” I whined.
    Santana didn’t know yet but as soon as we got home he was dropping his drawers. The doctor had said that sex could cause your water to break so sex was the only thing on my menu.
    “Did you ever decide what we were going to name her?” Santana asked.
    “Yep.”
    “Well…what is it?” he questioned me.
    “Darla Marie Jones. I want to name her after your mother,” I said looking at him.
    Santana turned to look at me. I could see the tears rapidly forming in his eyes. He tried his best to contain then but a few of them broke free and rolled down both of his cheeks.
    He wasn’t big on showing emotions, so to see him cry, or whatever you wanted to call it, really touched me. Though he didn’t say a word, his face had said it all.
    The news must have really touched Santana’s heart because when we got home, he made love to me like never before.
    And guess what…my damn water still didn’t break.
    ~***~