“There’s my favorite kid.” Rhett smiles as she crawls into my lap. “How do you drink your coffee?”
“Morning bug,” I whisper into the top of her head. Her legs seem to have grown overnight again. Her little bony joints dig into me in a way they haven’t since I was pregnant with her.
Her sleepy smile stretches. “Uncle Rhett, kids can’t have coffee. I can only have kid coffee.”
“Kid coffee?”
“Chocolate milk with a splash of coffee,” I tell him.
“Well.” Rhett waves her over and lifts her onto the counter. “It sounds like it’s your lucky day.”
With the windows open and the smell of warm wood and Earth, it almost feels like those nostalgic early days of summer as a child. Those first days where your backpack is still sitting next to the door, your clothes from last summer don’t fit the same, and the brand-new clean shoes from September have seen much better days. But the air is warm, the sun is bright, and suddenly youhave no plans for the next three months other than popsicles, bike rides and sleeping in.
“Winnie,” Lauren begins. “We have two questions for you.”
Winnie nods as she kicks her legs on the counter holding the mug that looks comically large in her hands.
“First, you know Uncle Rhett and I are getting married? We were wondering if you would be our flower girl?”
Her eyebrows shoot up and she instantly beams. She can’t even get any words out, just nods enthusiastically with tears brimming her eyes.
“Yes?”
“Yes!” She is all but bouncing on the counter.
“Okay. Then the second thing. How would you feel if I told you that Uncle Rhett and I are expecting a baby?”
Winnie straightens, frozen. She stares at Lauren, then looks over at me and I give her a reassuring nod before she looks back at two of her favorite people.
“Eggs-begging a baby?” she asks. “Is it going to be a girl?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“But listen, it’s a secret,” I tell her. “You can’t tell anybody yet, okay? Not even Grampy and Nan when they call tonight. Okay?”
“Will the baby be at the wedding?” Winnie asks.
“No. The baby won’t be here for a while. Probably Winter.”
“Is winter soon?”
Rhett chuckles. “No. We have a whole summer to get through first.”
The word summer makes Winnie’s ears perk up. “Mommy said I can go to summer camp!”
“Summer camp? Where are you going to go to summer camp?” Rhett asks.
“The ABC.”
“The YMCA. It’s near the high school her recital was at, actually.”
“We have a YMCA here,” Lauren suggests. “It’s not like the biggest one in the world and it’s a little outdated but it’s a Y.”
“Mommy can I go there?” Winnie pleads.
“It’s a little far from home, bug. There’s one close to Grampy and Nan’s house we can go look at when we get home. Okay?”
Her face instantly falls into the pout she has managed to perfect over the years.
