My hands shake a little as I take the photo from her, stare at it, and smile. I wonder what they’ll look like. I always grew up wondering whose eyes I had and who I took after. My kids will never wonder. They will always know both their parents. I pull her even closer, handprotectively over her stomach.
“As long as they’re healthy,” I murmur.
She softens immediately. “Yeah.”
I kiss her slowly, tasting her mint toothpaste, my hands sliding down her arms, and she laughs against my mouth. “You’re going to need a bigger truck.”
“I’m going to need a bigger everything,” I reply.
I kneel in the sand in front of her and press my lips to her belly. “Hey,” I say. “You’ve got two parents who love the hell out of you. You hear me?”
She threads her fingers through my hair. “You’re already a great dad.”
I look up at her and grin. “My mom is going to lose her mind when she finds out it’s twins.”
That thought makes my chest tighten in the best way. My mom has been working so hard on herself. She was beside herself when we told her Silvie was pregnant. She even flew to New York with us last month. It was rough on the way, but once she got there, she felt good at Silvie’s penthouse. She relaxed, and we had a great time. Progress.
She walked through Central Park with Silvie and even chatted with the doorman. She’s working hard in therapy, and she told me last week that she wants to be the best grandma to this baby. Now there are two of them.
Donna is working on getting her up to visit Wisteria Cove at the end of the year. She’s trying.
Silvie leans into me, watching me. “What are you thinking about?”
“Just thinking about how our kids are going to get to have skylines and sunrises at the beach.”
She smiles slowly. “Yeah, they will.”
I kiss her again, slower this time. Deeper. My hands slide along her back and settle at her hips, holding her steady against me. She sighs softly into my mouth, and for a second, it’s just us. The ocean rolling in and out. The sun is climbing higher.
That night we have dinner at Cocktails & Chaos. My mom even showsup. She tells us she doesn’t think she’ll stay long, but I’m just happy she’s here.
Wilby is here with Summer, Wendy, Mia, and Juniper. The Bees aren’t coming. They said they had something to do, which could be alarming or exciting.
Jonah quietly pulls out a chair and sits next to my mom. I see her visibly relax when she realizes it’s him. They have always been friends, and I love that we have him as part of our unofficial family.
Wilby is on one side of me, and Silvie is on my right. He’s watching us curiously and grins. “You know...at the end of the day, it’s the random girl that you became friends with on a completely random evening at your bar. And now you can’t imagine your life without her.”
I snort. “Isn’t that the truth?”
“What are you two yapping about?” Silvie asks with a grin.
“You,” Wilby says as he holds up his beer in cheers to us. Silvie holds up her water, and I tip my beer in as well. “Cheers.”
I look around at this table and these people and I’m grateful for the beautiful life that we have.
Silvie
I’m sitting outside the window of the nursery with my feet propped up in a chair, a glass of lemonade sweating in my hand. The nursery windows are open behind me, white curtains lifting softly in the breeze. The room smells faintly of fresh paint and cedar from the new built-ins.Because apparently, we don’t do anything halfway.
Cal is putting together one of the cribs on the floor of the nursery. He insisted on assembling them himself. He said something about knowing every screw and bolt that holds our babies together. And I’m not surprised. Cal has been thinking of everything. Wilby’s got things covered at work and Cal covers things at home. Which is good, because pregnancy brain is a real thing.
Cal is shirtless and focused.It’s also deeply unfair how hot fatherhood looks on him already.
“You missed a screw,” I say sweetly.
He glances up, squinting at me and smirks. “No, I didn’t.”
“I can sense it.”
