“Amen, sister.” Gabby leaned over and high-fived Emma.
“Point being, Grace Russo, we need you and we can’t lose you.” Tim stood with his hands on his hips, daring anyone to contradict him.
I laughed. I mean, the situation wasn’t funny, but it was nice to know I was appreciated, not that I doubted it. “I’ve got you, Tim. And yes, when Cheryl first called, you saw the tears. They took me to the brewery, and as I mulled it all over, the only solution I saw was my staying home.”
Tim started to interrupt me, so I gave him back his own attitude and put up my hand.
“Hold your horses, friend. As I was saying, the only solution I saw then was staying home. Then Aidan met Maggie, Emma, and me at the Homestead. He told me we’d figure it out. When we got home, Sophia was watching Mia, and we shared the new dilemma with her—”
“Sorry—Sophia?” Gabby asked.
“Aidan’s mom.” I sighed, remembering the conversation over a charcuterie tray Sophia had whipped together the previous afternoonwhileshe also managed to watch Mia, do some tummy time, then give her a bath and put her down for a nap. She’d shaken her head at my shocked expression and told me not to compare a veteran to a newbie. I knew she was right, but still. “She agreed that my staying home wasn’t the answer, and honestly, she made the choice to have a job while being a mom for similar reasons.” That had made me feel better. Admittedly, she wouldn’t have been able to stay home once Aidan’s dad passed, but before that, she’d chosen to work. Somehow she’d known I needed to hear that and made sure to share.
“So did you and hubby burn up the sheets last night with a babysitter at your beck and call?” Tim raised his brows, unknowingly hitting on another sore topic.
My face heated as the truth tumbled out. “I fell asleep at seven after we finally decorated our tree and had dinner.” I looked down at the floor, tracing the wooden planks with the toe of one of my brown boots.
Emma came to lean against the counter next to me and squeezed my arm. “Sounds like you needed the sleep.”
“I did.”
“Okay, chickie, listen up.” It was hard to take Tim seriously considering his face was positively sparkling in the light of the kitchen. “You’re going to march your gorgeous ass home to the hunk of man you have, and then you’re going to take advantage of the fact that you don’t have to get up with a baby tonight and you’ll burn up the sheets, do you hear me? I don’t see you on the schedule tomorrow, so I better not see you here. Stay home, soak in all that family time, and come back raring to write some grants or whatever you do up there.” He gestured to the ceiling. “Meanwhile, we will be blowing up our phones, checking in on any and all available options for daycare that do not involve you doing something you don’t want to do, even for that adorable peanut of yours. You hear me?”
I leaned forward, pressing a kiss to Tim’s cheek. I was blessed when it came to my friends. “I hear you Tim.”
With goodbyes to Emma and Gabby, I headed out the door and toward home.
It wasn’t quite dusk yet, but the air was still. Our small town was typically quiet, but on a Sunday, it was even more so. I took the walk home to try to get my mindset switched. Tim was right. Sophia was here for the night. Maybe I needed to try to seduce my husband.
Just the thought made me anxious. What if I leaked? What would he think about my belly? Aidan was gorgeous. I mean, the man had been attractive in college and had only grown more handsome as he’d aged. I felt frumpy by comparison. It wasn’t like I felt that way because of any snide comments he’d made but because of what I saw when I looked in the mirror. I’d been prepared for pregnancy to change my body—that was expected. What I hadn’t planned for was the fact that twelve weeks after Mia’s birth, I was still far from what I’d looked like pre-Mia. And, quite frankly, I wasn’t sure I would ever look like that again.
That messed with my mind and pissed me off. Never before in my life had I dealt with such insecurity around my body. When I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, I struggled to match what I saw with the body I knew. It shook me.
But screw it. Tonight I was going to try to get something started. Maybe if I showed Aidan I was interested, he’d show me the same? What if he was waiting for me to make the first move? He never had before, but I needed to stop assuming the worst here.
As I made the way up the sidewalk to our home, the front door opened and what I saw melted my heart and made me laugh out loud.
“What am I looking at?” I asked as Sophia stepped quickly past me and moved down the steps. Aidan was there with little Miss Mia in the new sling from his coworkers. She had on her adorable Santa hat as she grinned at me, waving her little fist as she opened and closed it. And last but not least, Baxter was wearing the sling-matching pink sweater with trees. I joined my little family and looked up to Aidan.
“What’s going on?” I whispered, leaning forward to press a kiss on Mia’s little head as she cooed at me, putting her tiny hand on my face.
“Mom and I were talking,” Aidan said as he nodded to his mom, now standing on the sidewalk behind us. “We figured she could snap a quick family photo before you came in. I remembered you wore your red dress to work, so we thought it would look festive.”
I glanced down at my dress peeking out from the bottom of my thick black jacket, then looked back to his warm brown eyes. “You remembered my dress from this morning?”
Aidan shook his head with a smile. “Of course I did, babe. I don’t know if you’ve really seen yourself in that dress, but I sure have and it’s one of my favorites.”
My face heated. That was good, right? Maybe he’d been sending me messages that he was still attracted to me and I just hadn’t noticed?
Apparently Aidan clocked the expression on my face, because he brought his hand under my chin until I met his eyes again. “Gracie? You okay?”
My eyes watered immediately because I was the person who could no longer control emotions. “Ignore me—I love this idea. Let me just toss my coat inside the front door.” Within seconds, I’d moved a step away from him to get rid of said jacket and try to school my emotions before coming back to stand by his side.
“See? Stunning.”
I glanced up at Aidan to see him looking at me with an expression I hadn’t seen for months. Heated was the only way to describe it.
“Aidan, stop—your mom is here,” I murmured, gesturing toward Sophia, who was figuring out how to get her camera app open.
