She laughs, snuggling back against my chest. I wrap my arms around her, one hand resting protectively over her belly, feeling the pups move under my palm. “They’re really jumping around in there. I think we woke them up.”
“We should talk about names again,” she says. “The pups will be here soon.”
“What were you thinking?”
“Well...” She traces patterns through my arm hair. “I wanted to ask you about something. In Korean families, siblings and cousins often share a generational character. It’s calleddollimja. My girls both have ‘Min’ as part of their Korean names. Soo-Min and Eun-Min. So I thought maybe…”
My chest tightens with emotion. She wants our pups linked to her daughters. She wants them all to feel like part of the same family, even if they have different dads and are far apart in age.
“We should use ‘Min’ for ours, too, then,” I say instantly.
“Only if you’re okay with it. Since they’ll be half-siblings, I thought it might be nice for them to have that connection.”
“I love that idea. What names were you thinking?”
She shifts slightly, getting comfortable against me. “For boys, I like Seong-Min or Jun-Min. For the girl... If we only have one, I was thinking maybe taking the ‘Ji’ from my name, so she’d be Ji-Min. If we have two, maybe Ji-Min and Jae-Min.”
“Those are beautiful.” I kiss the top of her head. “I made a list, too. Want to hear it?”
“Please.”
“Well, it’s tough to find names that my brothers haven’t already used, but strangely, none have used our grandparents’ names yet. So for boys, I was leaning toward Gavin or Graham, after my grandfathers. And I thought maybe we could name any girls after my grandmothers. Their names were Isla and Elspeth.”
Julia turns her head to look at me, a smile spreading across her face. “I like them. The names sound good together, too.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She smiles, warm and genuine.
I try the names out loud, feeling how they fit. Strong Scottish first names, meaningful Korean middle names, my family name at the end. A perfect blend of both our histories. “I love them, too.”
“Good.” She settles back against me with a contented sigh. “This bed is really comfortable, by the way. Much better than the pull-out.”
“It’s yours now, wulver companion optional.”
She’s quiet for a moment. “What if I wanted the option every night?”
My heart stutters. “Julia...”
“I’m tired of sleeping alone.” Her voice is light, teasing, but I can hear the nervousness underneath. “And there’s plenty of closet space. It seems wasteful not to use it.”
“Are you asking me to move in with you?” I tease.
She gives a high, nervous giggle. “We’ve only known each other a couple months, and I’m still technically married, and there’s a lot to figure out, so I get it if you’d rather have separate—”
I silence her with a kiss, deep and thorough. When I pull back, she’s breathless.
“I’ve wanted to share a life with you since the day I found you,” I tell her. “Tomorrow. Tonight. Right now. I want all of it. I want all of you.”
“Are you sure? I come with a lot of baggage. Literally a storage unit full. And also a vindictive ex-husband and two college-aged daughters and a mother who’s going to want to visit for weeks at a time and...”
“Julia.”
“Yes?”
“I love you. All of you. Every complicated piece.”
Her eyes well up. “I love you, too.”
