She snorts.
“How’re your studies going?” I ask.
Jessica slouches, sighing heavily. “God, I’m so damn exhausted.”
“No one promised law school was going to be easy.”
She grunts, and I can’t stop my laughter in response.
“So what’s up?”
“What makes you think something is up?”
“I can count on one hand how many times you and I have hung out alone,” I say. “This is the first.”
“How do you know I don’t just want baby snuggles?”
“Do you?”
Jessica looks at Axl. “Well, yes, actually. But I don’t want to interrupt your bonding time.”
“Come get him,” I say. “I can bond with him anytime.”
She grins as she gets back to her feet. Carefully, she picks Axl up with the blanket and simultaneously wraps him as she does. He’s all bundled by the time she has him cuddled to her chest.
Everyone has a baby face. Not a face that’s perpetually young and innocent, but an expression that covers their face when they look at a baby. That familiar look covers Jessica’s expression as she looks into Axl’s sleeping face.
She sighs, sitting back in the chair she’d taken a few minutes ago. “He’s so damn cute. How does he look just like you and your brothers and not at all like Lor?”
“You think he still looks like Loren?” I ask as I swing my legs around to sit up.
“Yes. Oh my god, it’s almost disturbing.”
“I’m not sure if that’s an insult, but you best not be insulting my kid.”
Jessica laughs. “No. I just mean it’s uncanny, which is kind of weird since Loren doesn’t have a baby face at all, and yet, he’s all I see.”
She’s not wrong. Loren is all I see when I look at Axl, too. There are worse people he could look like, so I’m not upset.
“How’s Brek doing with him?” Jessica asks.
“Fine. Why?”
She looks at me and raises one delicate eyebrow. “Fine? Just fine?”
“I’m not sure what kind of information you’re fishing for, so be more specific and I’ll give you a better answer.”
Jessica rolls her eyes. “You two are dating, yeah?”
“Yes, though the word feels weird since we haven’t gone on a single date.”
“Are you going to skip it and just go with boyfriends, then?”
“I don’t truly see the difference.”
“When you’re dating a girl, does that automatically make them your girlfriend?”
“Unless specified otherwise, yes.”
