Chapter 42

The next few months flew by for Rossalyn. She fought through the first trimester with the morning sickness that had her retreating to their bedroom most of the day for several weeks. Her sickness had been so severe that she'd had to be put on medication to control her nausea because she was unable to keep anything down most days. Josiah had been ready to lose his mind when she had stayed so sick. Even at the beginning of her second trimester she still had times when nausea would attack her out of nowhere, but thankfully it would pass quickly and it wasn't constantly. Their announcement party had been the biggest trial of her life, since as she predicted she had been very sick. She'd excused herself to lay down very quickly into the party and had missed everything after their announcement.

"How are you feeling today?" Josiah's voice sounded both concerned and wary as he came out onto the balcony where she was already curled up onto the chaise lounge that had been brought out for her to lay on when she wanted air but was too sick to sit very long.

"I'm okay. This thing is very comfortable." She told him looking up at him and giving him a reassuring smile.

"Good, I'm glad to hear it. We have an appointment with a designer for the nursery today." Josiah said.

He'd found that he had more of the job of reminding her about appointments due to her being more forgetful since she became pregnant. He sat down on the foot of the chaise and pulled her feet into his lap. He scooted closer so that he was close enough that he could rub his hand over the slight swelling of her abdomen. He couldn't wait until he could feel the baby move. He knew she could feel the baby move but the wiggles weren't strong enough to carry to the outside just yet at fourteen weeks.

"Is George and Cylvia supposed to come too?" Rossalyn asked with a resigned tone that Josiah had come to associate with both of them.

"They wanted to, but I told them no. How we decorate the nursery isn't a community decision." Josiah said and patted her thigh in reassurance.

Ever since the night they had them over to let them know about the baby, George and Cylvia had made a thorough disturbance about any decision that was made involving the baby. Whether it came to which doctor Rossalyn seen, the gender reveal plans, all the way down to the decoration of the nursery and what names they would choose. Josiah could see Rossalyn losing patience with both of them and exploding on them very soon.

"Yeah, well neither is what we name the baby or tell our friends and family the gender of the baby but they've thoroughly inserted themselves into those decisions. I think they've lost track on whose child this is. I'm not a surrogate." Rossalyn said huffing in frustration.

"We can have a talk with them and let them know that they're getting carried away. It seems like they're losing control of reigning themselves in to let us experience this pregnancy." Josiah offered.

"It would come better from you in a more controlled fashion. If it is left too much longer I will probably in a less graceful way." Rossalyn said.

"I'll talk to them today, I promise. The designer will be here in a hour." Josiah said and patted her thigh and swung her legs forward for him to get up from the chaise lounge. "You should probably get ready for her." He suggested, noticing she was still in her pajamas.

"Alright, I'm coming." She sighed and got up to go inside and get ready for the day.

The meeting with the designers for the nursery went well. Rossalyn had been working for the last few weeks on sketches to give the designers information on how she'd want the nursery done. The work wouldn't start for another month since the ultrasound to find out the gender of the baby wasn't scheduled for another six weeks. It would give the design team plenty of time to get the nursery together before work began on implementing the design and have all work complete well before the baby was due. It was the first decision Josiah and Rossalyn had made regarding their unborn child that they'd refused input in from anyone. George and Cylvia were not the only ones insisting on giving suggestions and advice about what they should and should not be doing regarding the baby and her general health.

Rossalyn was passing Josiah's office a couple hours later on her way for a nap when she heard shouting coming through the door and among the shouting her name came through the door. Interested in what he was shouting about involving her, she entered the room without knocking to find James and Brad sat in the chairs in front of Josiah's desk while Josiah paced the room on his phone. She took a seat in his office chair and listened in to his side of the conversation. The other party became clear very soon as Josiah spoke again in a clear attempt to calm his voice to a more respectful tone.

"George I understand how important this baby is to both of our families. But you need to understand, you are not the parents of our child. We're not giving birth to the baby then sending it off to live with your family. We will raise our child how we see fit. If I'd realized how interfering you would be I would have agreed to the arrangement under the stipulation that your family is not involved in my child's life in any capacity until it came of age. We have been more than gracious so far with how accomodating we have been. We just want to experience our first pregnancy and all the joy that comes with it without having it consistently stolen because we're being questioned and bargained and barged in on constantly." Josiah said sternly.

Rossalyn couldn't hear the response that was given but the way Josiah's lips tightened in an effort to not curse since he noted her presence told her it wasn't a kind or understanding response.

"Of course we respect you and Cylvia and of course we won't mind your involvement. But, with that being said, you need to back off and let us do the things we want to do." Josiah said tightly.

After a little more back and forth the conversation ended with Josiah disconnecting the call, even though once the phone was pulled from his ear Rossalyn could clearly hear George's voice still ranting through the speaker. Without a word, she looked at Josiah and raised her eyebrow. It was one of her more insistent silent inquiries as to what that was all about and had been perfected over the last several weeks of walking in on Josiah and George on the phone.

"They're not happy about being called overbearing." Josiah summed up the conversation with a wave of his hand in the air.

"Well, we're not happy with constantly being overbeared on. He hasn't even been able to confirm an eligible child to have ours promised to yet. Though I suppose they're waiting for the gender to be revealed." Rossalyn said with a shrug.

"Yeah, it is hard to promise someone to someone else when you don't know the gender of either yet." Josiah said then rubbed a hand over his face in his usual sign of frustration.

"Why did we agree to this again?" Rossalyn wondered aloud, not for the first time.

"Peace and love, honey. Why else?" Josiah muttered as he flopped down on the loveseat.

"Personally, I'd rather have war." James said firmly and everyone in the room burst out laughing.