I smiled and combed my fingers through his hair.
“Then again, it’s impossible to be worse than your brother,” he went on. “The moment he started kicking, he didn’t stop until he came out.”
Fucking truth. We’d been in the middle of moving to our house then, too.
“Speaking of… Let’s go rescue your parents from him,” I said.
“Like they need to be rescued,” he laughed.
Either way. Jamie waswild—like, Ryan wild—and Ethan’s parents weren’t young.
To make matters worse, they were babysitting three grandchildren at once, all hopped up on sugar and hopes of Santa coming down the chimney.
Ethan and I made our way over to them with our trunk full of Christmas presents, and we had to park on the street. The driveway was full.
“You could also let me help you.” He hurried to my side as I got out. “Fucking stubborn.”
I reached up and popped a kiss to his jaw. “I’ll reach the waddle stage soon enough.”
A beat later, the front door swung open, and our toddler came running out in pajamas and absolutely nothing on his feet. Goodness, boy, we had snow on the ground this year!
“Mama, Dada, Dada!” he hollered. “Mamaaa!”
Ryan came running after him. “Get back here, you little hellion! Who taught you to open the door?”
I laughed.
Ethan chuckled and opened the picket fence gate, and he was quick to scoop Jamie up. “You running from Uncle Ryan, baby boy? Yeah? I’d do the same thing.”
“Fuck that nonsense hard,” Ryan retorted.
I shut the car door, leaving all the presents for Ethan to deal with, ’cause I had limits. I had to get off my feet. During my first pregnancy, the cravings and the nausea had been the worst. This time around, it was my feet. They probably contained more water than the rest of me did.
Good thing Ethan gave the best damn foot rubs—and he loved doing it too.
The moment we entered Mary and James’s house, we were surrounded by family. Darius and Gray had just arrived too, and it was difficult to keep track of everyone when nobody could stand still for a second. I greeted Elise and Avery, Gray and Jayden, it was good to see Leighton and Bo again, Justin was clinging to Darius’s leg, Willow was pouring eggnog, Cass and Emma were eyeing the gifts under the tree in the living room, Angel was chastising her twin boys, Alex and Abigail were busy on their phones, Mary was scolding Ryan for some reason, Jamie bounced from Ethan’s arms to mine, two children were suddenly crying, the doorbell rang, and now Ireallyneeded to sit down.
“That could be Ace!” Jayden bolted past me to get the door.
“Let’s go find a place to sit, sweetie.” I smooched Jamie’s cheeks and carried him into the living room. “Did you have fun with Nana and Pop-Pop?”
“Yuh!” He nodded furiously and started rambling words only he understood. But I had learned his sound for cookies—they had decorated cookies. Something about Santa too.
“That’s so exciting.” I grinned.
“I’ll get you something to drink, baby,” Ethan called from…somewhere, possibly the kitchen.
As much as I loved being part of a big, rambunctious family, it felt nice to steal Mary’s reading chair in the far corner of the living room. I only needed a moment to calm down and catch up with my little miracle.
I’d read so many mommy blogs and articles about how the second child was the hardest, from actually becoming pregnant to the pregnancy itself. And for Ethan and me, it had been the complete opposite. We’d tried for over a year before two pink lines had finally appeared on a test, and then I’d gone through hell, with around-the-clock nausea, iron deficiency, and craving everything that was bad for me. How Ethan had put up with my mood swings, I’d never understand.Iwould’ve left my cranky butt.
I smiled and smoothed down Jamie’s bed head while he poked at my belly and said, “Hi, hi, hi” to his sister.
She’d been our effortless surprise. So far, at least. We hadn’t dared to hope for a second little one. Then one day, I’d woken up nauseated. Ethan had run out to buy a test, and the rest was history. Almost no nausea after the first few days. Zero actual vomiting.
Ethan came over to us in the corner, and he had a decaf Diet Coke for me and a bowl of mashed-up banana for Jamie. We knew our son. He started screaming when hunger hit, and breakfast would probably be a while longer.
Ethan squatted down in front of us and poured my soda into a glass with ice before handing it to me.
