Complete Harmony by Julia Kent Page B

for Josie that first time they’d been together, kissing at the hospital while her best friend Laura was giving birth. The improm p tu sex by the river a few days later had clinched it.
    The rest, as they say, was hist o ry, and seven and a half months later, here they were.
    Fighting.
    He and Josie didn’t, generally speaking, fight. They bickered and argued about sma l l details, but the big concepts weren’t an issue. Both fell into a pattern of just living life together, and as the relationship deepened they found, layer by layer, that they were even more compatible than either realized from the start.
    It felt like they were somehow getting away with something. And outdoor sex most definitely fell into that category for Alex. A s his breath made clouds that floated up to kiss the observing moon, he took deep, piercing breaths to steady himse l f. He wanted more. Not just more sex, but more.
    However, he didn’t like more fighting .  
    “ What about the others?” she asked in a soft, heartbreaking voice. Others?  
    “Others what?”
    Josie’s arm swept out from her, extended like an announcer at the circus making a grand gesture. “You knew exactly where to go so we couldn’t be seen. You grew up around here. And the trashcan. Ether you have a strange inborn echolocation system for finding the nearest garbage can every time we have outdoor sex, or you know because you’ve been here before with someone.”
    He cleared his throat and drew upon the only response he could think of. “You’re right,” he said in a low voice.
    She looked stri c ken. It made his chest hurt. “I am?”
    “Yes. You’ve discovered my secret. I’m…” He paused for dramatic effect. “Garbage Can Locater After Public Sex Man.” He unzipped his coat and pulled up his shirt. “I forgot to wear my uniform today.”
    “ Oh, Christ…”  
    “ Professor X rejected me for the X-Men school. Didn’t think my powers were sufficiently designed to help mankind. I argued that, in fact, they are uniquely designed to aid mankind! I mean, what better skill would a person want as a superpower?”
    “Alex,” Josie said, lips twitching. He was getting to her, and then she punched him in the chest, right at diaphragm level. She practically had to jump to do it, their height difference that vast.
    I t felt like having a plush animal thrown hard at him.
    “Ouch,” he said weakly, which made her laugh.
    “I know that didn’t hurt.”
    “Then why did you do it?”
    “Because you’re an idiot.”
    “An idiot with unique trashcan-finding abilities.”
    “Alex.”
    “What?”
    “I love you.” Without even looking at him as she said the words, Josie walked over to the ice skates and sat on her ass. She began to shake one leg like a dog, and he frowned, wondering what on earth she was—
    And then she pulled a piece of red sil k cloth out of her ankle.
    “What is that?”
    “I just gave birth. Congratulations! You’re a daddy.” She threw the item at him, hitting his cheek. He bent down and picked it up. Her panties. Shredded.
    That would have made him laugh, but her words made his heart stop and speed up all at once.
    You’re a daddy.
    Someday, he wanted to hear those exact words from her as they huddled around a pregnancy test, eager for a positive result. In the not-too-distant future, when his residency was over and he worked reasonably normal hours (though there was no “normal” for an obstetrician, ever on call for babies who didn’t follow schedules), they would talk about marriage and children and…
    A family.
    Josie slipped her feet into the set of ice skates he’d brought. Thankfully, they were the right size. Frankly, he’d brought them for show, never imagining she would actually want to skate. As she laced them up, she looked out over the pond. God, she was beautiful. Tiny nose, sharp bones in her face, the kind of woman who would age gracefull y and even at sixty look like she was forty. Not that he cared. She