Mark and I took matching steps to the door and stood right in front of it.
“Want to open it together?” I asked. He took the hand that was holding mine and twisted the door knob quickly, then pulled away. The door clicked open but didn’t move more than a few centimeters.
“On the count of three we push it open,” he said, and we reached our hands down and before we could start counting our friends behind us started counting for us.
“Three! Two! One!” They called out and we pushed the door open. My mouth fell open and my hands went to my face. My eyes grew wet instantly and despite trying to stop them, they started moving down my face. The room was purple.
Regaining movement and speech I reached for Mark and pulled him into the room. His feet had been nailed to the floor; he was in shock. They let us explore the room alone, while they watched us from the door. Mark stood in the middle of the room and put his hands up. He tugged at his hair as tears slowly made their way down.
“A girl? We’re having a girl?” He asked, his voice cracking.
As if planned ahead of time, everyone nodded together and then poured into the room. Adrian and Derek went to Mark and hugged him, congratulating him. Cleo came right over to me and wrapped her arms around me.
“I am so happy for you guys! She’s going to be beautiful,” she exclaimed. I looked around the room again. It was a work of art.
“This is too much. I love it, but you didn’t have to do this.”
The room was gorgeous. They had painted the walls a lavender, with hand painted cherry blossom trees in various spots around the room. They had even managed to get carpet placed in here in the small time frame.
The boxes they had been carrying up had to have been the crib, dressers, rocking chair, changing table, and toy box. Everything was either a shade of purple, pink, or white. It was everything I could have dreamed. It was perfect for a little girl.
“It’s my gift to you,” she said, waving her hand nonchalantly. I laughed and wiped another set of tears from my face.
“I would have thought you’d done enough,” I said. The twins entered the room and gazed around in wonder.
“Aunt Renee, are you having a baby girl?” Dallas asked me. I nodded and pressed my lips together.A baby girl. Girl.
“Okay, now that the big news has been revealed, anyone in the mood for some chicken salad sandwiches?” Chase called out, waving for us all to follow him down. I almost didn’t want to leave. It was so beautiful in here. Ethan put his hand on my shoulder.
“Take your time, come down when you’re ready.”
I thanked him and soon it was just me and my husband. I ran to him and he pulled me into his tight embrace.
“A girl baby, a girl,” he whispered.
“I know. Can you believe it?” There was a long silence, so I looked up at him. He was looking at the wall, not blinking.
“I don’t think I can handle a daughter.”
When we pulled apart, we followed the crew downstairs and had lunch with everyone. Sitting out in the yard, a nice spring breeze swept around us lazily. It was the perfect day.
“Who painted the trees?” I asked, when we started talking about the work they had put in this past week. Adrian raised his hand.
“That’d be me. But, before someone rats on me I did have a stencil and the internet to help me.”
“Well you can’t even tell. They look amazing,” I told him. Chase called for a toast and we all lifted our glasses.
“To baby girl Lesley!” He said and we all repeated him while clinking our glasses together.
“Now that you know what she is, have you started narrowing down on some names?” Adrian asked Cleo. She scrunched up her face and then shrugged.
“No not really. Balboa- you know, to go with Rocky. I thought of that one last night. It’s not an easy task.”
“How did you come up with your own kids’ names?” Chase asked.
“Jimmy was named after Adrian. Dallas was named after the character in the book ‘The Outsiders’,” Cleo started but Ethan started choking on his drink. We all turned towards him to see him laughing and choking at the same time. Cleo blushed furiously and slapped his shoulder.
“What? What’s so funny?” Derek demanded. When Ethan regained composure, he looked over at his wife and smiled at her conspiratorially.
