Of course he did.
Jensen presses a kiss into my hair, trying to soften his answer. “I want you to feel safe while you’re looking for things for our baby.”
That flutter becomes a steady beat of wings in my chest. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I’d do anything for you.”
I move between the shelves, my husband following behind me. There are so many tiny onesies, little socks, hats—I don’t know where to start.
“What about this one?” Jensen holds up the cutest little outfit with a lion on the front. It looks soft and I can already imagine our baby wearing it.
“Oh, it’s adorable.” My fingers trail over the fabric. I wrinkle my nose. “It’s a little terrifying to imagine something that size is eventually going to come out of my body.”
He squeezes my shoulder. “I’ll be with you every second.”
“I know you’ll be there,” I say, moving to the next display. Theo keeps a distance behind us, giving us space, but close enough to react if somebody suddenly jumps out from under a clothing rack. “But you don’t have to worry about whether you’re going to tear or be cut.”
“You know I’d do this for you if I could.”
“I know.”
I stop at a teddy bear. It is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Gray, with a heart on its chest. I trail my fingers over it for a second before I move on to the next rack. This one’s full of little vests.
Every single thing I touch, Jensen grabs.
“What are you doing?” I ask when his arms are full.
“You like them. So we’re buying them.”
I blink. “I don’t know if we need all of that. I don’t know what we need at all.”
He shifts his shoulders. “I don’t care what we need. If you like it, you get it.”
I roll my eyes at him, moving toward the bassinets. “You can’t just buy the entire store, Jensen.”
“I mean… Technically I could. One phone call and the store would be ours?—”
“Babe,” I warn, trying not to laugh at the ridiculousness of it.
He stops me, turning me to face him. “I want you to buy things for our child. Things that you like. They don’t have to be practical, Mia. They just have to make you happy.”
Yeah, I melt. He’s trying so hard with everything, and his enthusiasm, the way he is so in this tells me exactly the kind of father he’s going to be.
I press my palms against his chest, feeling so many things I can’t put it into words. “You, and this baby… That makes me happy. I don’t need the whole store for that to change.”
By the time we get back to the car, I feel light and happy. I lean against Jensen’s shoulder, the seatbelt pulling against me, but I don’t care. I just want to be in my husband’s arms. “Thank you for that. It makes it feel more real, doesn’t it?”
“You make this real for me,” he murmurs. “Every time you picked something for our baby, it made me love you even more.” He kisses me with the soft devotion that makes my skin buzz.
“This baby is going to be so loved.”
“This one, and the others I’m planning on giving you.”
SEVENTEEN
MIA
The gallery is quiet,which is lucky because if I have to bend down one more time, my spine might divorce itself from the rest of my skeleton.
