“No place I’d rather be.”
She smiled, sniffed a little, and picked up her eggnog. “I’m kind of hormonal. And I really need to finish wrapping these presents.”
“Speaking of …” I placed the shopping bag I’d brought in front of her.
She pulled out the packages and as expected, read the gift cards for each one. “You got something for my cats.” A gentle awe touched her voice.
“I doubt they got anything for me, but I didn’t want to leave them out.”
She opened that one first, revealing a couple of salmon-colored plushies. “It’s a brain,” she said.
“And a set of lungs. I thought they might like something with a science theme to it. They have strings, so they can play with them. And most importantly, learn.”
Her cheeks turned pink, a watercolor bloom. “I think they’re going to love them.” She lay the brain in front of Bunsen on the sofa, who regarded it with suspicion. The lungs, she placed on the floor. A couple of seconds later, an orange paw emerged from under the sofa and snatched at the gift. (Narrator: It was never seen again.)
“Success. Open this one next.” I handed a wrapped box to her.
“The card says ‘Super Kid.’ I worry you’re setting our child up for too-high expectations with a nickname like that.”
Our child. “That’s just what I’m calling the kid while in Hotel Utero. When he or she checks out, I’ll come up with another nickname, after I’ve figured out their personality.”
She opened the wrapping paper carefully, not like me who would always tear into my wrapped gifts. Flipping the lid of the box, her hand flew to her chest. “Jason.”
“I figured you’re almost at the three-month mark, so it’s safe to go a little crazy.”
The box was filled with cute clothes, onesies and little tees and adorable pants. The day after she told me she was pregnant, I bought them in a baby store in Roscoe Village, but I couldn’t gift them to her until now. It would be tempting fate.
She held up a T-shirt, my favorite one. It had a snail and the words “Little Trailblazer.” With her grave expression, I wondered if I had upset her.
“There’s some Rebels gear in there,” I said, filling the silence. “You know, Theo still gets a cut because he promotes them on Insta. He was the first player to do a Rebels baby gear tie-in after Hatch was born.”
She fingered the fabric of a Rebels onesie, the cutest fucking thing you ever saw.
And promptly burst into tears.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Franky
* * *
No one had told me being pregnant would be so emotional.
Scratch that, everyone had told me. I had plenty of women in my life who had already been through this, but I had assumed my innate lack of sentimentality and my ability to logic my way out of any problem would apply here. I wouldn’t get upset because I said so.
But the last month had been tough. The holidays were my favorite time of the year. I loved having time off to decorate my apartment, see more of my family and friends, and catch up on my scientific journal article TBR. Only, I hadn’t reckoned on how much I regretted my fight with Jason.
Or how much I would miss him.
All the hockey franchises had a two-day break, so I knew he would likely be spending it with his family. Knowing he was less than a mile away and not speaking to me had been excruciating. I had picked that fight, and here he was apologizing. That should be me, but I didn’t want to explain why I’d done it. Why I needed to push him away.
And now I was acting like he had upset me, when he hadn’t. Not one bit.
He moved in quickly beside me and placed an arm around my shoulders. I sank into him like he was my weighted blanket and a cup of hot chocolate, all in one.
“Francesca, what’s wrong? You’re feeling okay, aren’t you?”
“Y-yes, I’m fine. Physically. Everything is as it should be. It’s just …”
