How is it possible that Esteban Zaragosa, with his acute hearing, did not hear: “I heard you say that you and the baby. The baby … Where is the baby?”
Dulcina Calvo bit her lip, stammered and whispered: “… it’s, it’s the baby in my belly ah”.
“…”
Esteban Zaragosa suddenly falls silent.
In his heart, he was deeply moved.
The child … your child and Dulcina Calvo’s child?
Dulcina Calvo looked at him cautiously and saw that he remained silent, one, two, three … seconds until Dulcina Calvo counted to twenty and Esteban Zaragosa’s face was indistinguishable from happiness.
The men were surprisingly quiet and calm.
Dulcina Calvo’s little face fell, “Esteban Zaragosa…. You don’t want me to get pregnant? And you don’t like the baby?”
“… no.”
Dulcina Calvo felt a little aggrieved: “But the look on your face tells me that you are not happy”.
He even… doesn’t like it.
Dulcina Calvo didn’t have the courage to ask any more questions and turned around, her back to him, her little face resting on the back of her hand, resigned to cry, “I know you don’t want a child, but now I’m pregnant, don’t you want this one?”
“Dulcina, I didn’t.”
Dulcina Calvo did not listen to his sincerity and continued, “Whether you want the child or not, I want him. It’s a little life and I’m not going to give him up, if you don’t want him then we separate and I can raise the child myself.”
Esteban Zaragosa’s dark eyes wavered for a moment as he drew the girl to him and met her eyes. “When did I ever say I didn’t love our son?”
“You don’t say it with your mouth, but you don’t look happy at all. I’m not going to force you to marry me for the baby, and a marriage based on a child would not be happy.”
“I don’t force it, I would love to marry you.”
Dulcina Calvo squashed her little mouth, “But you don’t want to have children, do you?”.
Esteban Zaragosa said, word for word, “I love you and I love this baby, I am so excited, I didn’t think that so soon, I would have our own child.”
Dulcina Calvo looked at him reluctantly, “Excited? Where are you excited?”
Esteban Zaragosa took her small hand and pressed it against his heart: “My heart is beating right now, at least one hundred and forty times a minute. You are a doctor, you should count it right”.
“…”
His heart was beating very fast, now!
“So … you guys are really excited about it?”
Excited, like to jump up and down and love the arrival of this child?
Esteban Zaragosa said two very firm words: “Of course”.
Dulcina Calvo sighed in relief and smiled happily, “I thought you didn’t like children, I had been hiding it for years to tell you, but I didn’t know how to tell you, I was afraid you weren’t ready to be a father.”
Esteban Zaragosa took her in his arms, his large hands explored her lower back, caressing her gently. “How long has it been?”
Dulcina Calvo’s small hand rested on the back of his large one, leaning into his embrace, her voice soft as she spoke, “It was seven weeks when it checked out before you left. Now it would be eleven weeks, almost three months.”
Esteban Zaragosa frowned slightly, “Why didn’t you tell me before?”.
“I thought you didn’t like children at the time and I was afraid to tell you.”
Esteban Zaragosa thought again, “So the few times you said you had your period earlier, it was all an excuse, but it was really because you were pregnant?”
Dulcina Calvo nodded with a little red face: “It is not advisable to do strenuous exercise in the first three months, it can easily harm the baby.
Esteban Zaragosa looked at her playfully, “You mean after three months?”.
Dulcina Calvo: “…. You misunderstood what I said”.
Knowing her thin skin, Esteban Zaragosa stopped teasing her, “I said before that I didn’t want to have children for a while because my job is very specific and I was afraid they might be in some kind of danger.”
Dulcina Calvo asked curiously, “What might be at stake?”
Esteban Zaragosa sighed slightly, put his arm around her and said, “Since we have him now, and we can’t give him back, I will do everything I can to take care of you and the baby, no matter what the future dangers.”
Dulcina Calvo hummed softly, “You still don’t look like you’re looking forward to it.”
Esteban Zaragosa raised his eyebrows slightly: “Sure, how could I expect it when this guy made me be a vegetarian for ten months.
Dulcina Calvo’s ears were red: “What are you talking about? You rascal.”
Esteban Zaragosa buried himself in the crook of her neck and sniffed deeply, “When we get back to La Ciudad Santa, we’ll get the license.”
Dulcina Calvo wrinkled her nose slightly, “But my account book is still in Ciudad de Ronda. ”
“Let’s go find your parents.”
Dulcina Calvo worried, “But my parents hate you, they would kill you if they knew you got me pregnant.”
Esteban Zaragosa’s eyes bore into her, “You always have to cross that hurdle, I want to marry the most precious daughter you’ve ever had in your life, and you always have to pay a price.”
Dulcina Calvo arched her eyebrows and threw her arms around his neck, “We’ll face it together.”
Dulcina Calvo pulled back from his arms and said with a serious face, “But my parents are old-fashioned and would probably kill us. Esteban Zaragosa, why don’t I go to my house and steal the family registry and we get the marriage certificate and then we can talk to my parents …”
Esteban Zaragosa looked at her anxiously and found her adorable. He gently brushed her face with his fingertips and smiled slightly, “Po, are you impatient to marry me?”.
Dulcina Calvo’s face got hot and she even stuck her head under the sheets, she should have learned to be reserved in front of Esteban Zaragosa.