And that she wouldn’t be too irritated at him on Sunday, when they returned home.
Fortunately, the waiter quickly brought their beverages, a basket of bread, and their salads before Dewi grew too hangry.
Ken watched, amused, as Dewi tore into her food like a starving…
Well, like a starving wolf.
By the time they finished dinner, including dessert, Ken was stuffed and Dewi had finally declared she was full after eating her own meal and what Ken couldn’t finish of his, including half his pecan pie. After paying the check, they crossed the road to the beach and walked north along it toward the resort where they were staying. Around them, the light was turning that purply shade it took on just before full dark settled for the night.
She carried her shoes in one hand and held Ken’s hand with the other as they walked in the firm sand just above the surf line.
“Hey.” She stopped, released his hand, and bent over, coming up with a shark’s tooth.
He smiled and held out his hand, and she dropped the tooth into his palm. Right now, he could tell her mind was squarely here, with him, and focused in the moment. “That’s so neat.”
She rose up onto her toes and brushed a kiss across his lips. “Kind of neat how there are so many around here, huh? On the beaches in this area.”
“Yeah.”
She held his gaze, a mischievous smile quirking her lips. “Thank you for talking me into this. A weekend off.”
“You work your ass off, Dewi. You’ve earned the right to take time for you, forus. Especially since we’ll be parents in a few months.”
She rested her hands on her tummy. “I can’t wait to bring her here and show her how to find them.”
He placed his hands over hers. “Me, too.”
“Or…them.” She looked up into his eyes, sending his pulse racing. “Her brother or sister. Or…more.”
Ken’s heart raced as he thought about three or four children of various ages playing all around them in the surf.
Theirchildren. “You might want to kill me after she’s born,” he joked, but he sensed how momentous this was for her.
She shook her head. “No,” she said. “You’remydream come true.”
* * * *
Ken was absolutely right—she spent so much time working that maybe it was time she focused on herself a little.
Learn how to take time for their family now, before their daughter arrived.
Peyton and Trent and Badger had told her about their parents. How their dad had been intense and focused on little besides pack business, until her brothers were born.
Then, despite how intense he was, how dedicated, he always made time to be a dad, too. They recounted camping and fishing trips, vacations, all four of them.
Last week, when she’d been lamenting to Badger about taking time off from work, he’d sat her down and told her about how their dad had also felt guilty, at first, about taking time off.
“But then I told him what I’m tellin’ ye,” he said. “Ye only get one childhood. Yer pups will only get one childhood. Ye can always work later. Ye can’t pause their childhood.”
They made their way down the beach in the waning dusk, Dewi still able to pick out shark’s teeth with her keen vision. By the time they reached the condo, she’d handed Ken nearly two dozen teeth. They rinsed the sand off their feet at an outdoor spigot and headed upstairs, where Dewi unlocked the door. Before she could step inside, though, he scooped her into his arms.
“Let’s do this right,” he said, carrying her inside while she giggled.
“Love you, Dr. Ethelbert.”
He kicked the door shut behind them. “Love you, too, Mrs. Ethelbert.”
A delicious shiver washed through her. She’d added his last name, but being who she was, people still knew her as Dewi Bleacke.
