Ellie perked up and turned toward her mom, taking the cookie and immediately biting into it. Crumbs instantly hit my shirt, even more as she chewed.
“I love you, baby.” I brushed hair away from her face. “I’ll be back in a couple of days, okay?”
“Mmhmm.” There were more crumbs on the sides of her mouth and a smear of chocolate on her lip. “’Ove you, Daddy.” She kissed me.
I set her down, and she ran toward the staircase, hurrying up it.
“If the baby’s napping, Ellie’s undoubtedly going to wake her.”
Lindsey adjusted her baseball hat, pulling at the braid that hung over her shoulder. “She’s not sleeping. Matt just got her up with averyfull diaper that went all the way up her back.” She groaned. “We quickly changed the bedding, and he took her straight into the bath. The entire upstairs smells like a farm.”
I chuckled. “I remember those days.”
“I’m going to be going through them again.” Her gold wedding band glistened as she rubbed her stomach.
“You’re pregnant?”
“About a month along, I’d say. I’m not telling Ellie yet. Please don’t say anything to her. I want to wait until I’m through my first trimester.”
“Understood. And don’t worry, I won’t say a word.” I smiled. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
I pushed my back against the counter, the entire island separating us. “Hoping for a boy?”
“We both are. But I fear if this one is a girl too”—her hand continued to rub in circles over her stomach—“Matt will want to go for another one.”
“If anyone can handle four kids, it’s you.”
Lindsey and I had only been dating for four months when she got pregnant. We tried to make it work; we just couldn’t. We were two very different people. The only common denominator was the love we had for our daughter. About a year after our breakup, she met Matt. Ellie was the flower girl at their wedding, and I brought her to the hospital when her half sister was born. During the course of our daughter’s life, there had been times when Lindsey and I didn’t agree on a particular parenting path one of us was taking, but our focus always remained the same—to show Ellie what healthy co-parenting looked like and, no matter what, to respect each other.
Ultimately, she was one hell of a mother, and Matt was so good to my little girl.
Lindsey held up her other hand. “Hush. The sound of that makes me shiver. Two littles already feel like a lot.”
I realized Ellie’s backpack was still on my shoulder, and I set it on the island. “I’ll be back in four days. Admittedly, I don’t know that I’ll be paying attention to the time difference, so it might be best if Ellie calls me rather than the other way around.”
“Scouting new locations for Toro and Horned?”
“This is a personal trip.”
Her neck jutted back. “Really? You don’t take many of those without our daughter.”
“I’m yacht shopping. It’s time I go bigger and better.”
“You already have the biggest boat known to man. I don’t know how it could get any better.”
I laughed. “They make them much, much bigger and better, trust me. It would be hard to take Ellie on this trip since I’ll be meeting with a broker and doing multiple sea trials for the boats I’m interested in. I could have brought Michelle with me to watch Ellie, but I don’t feel like making all that happen. I just want to go, do what I need to do, and come back.”
“Fair.” She leaned her hip against the counter. “Does that mean you and Ellie will be taking more long weekends on the water?”
“Definitely.”
She smiled. “Our girl will love that.”
“We both will.” I headed for the door and said, “See you when I get back,” over my shoulder.
“Colson Weston …”
