Page 119 of Mistletoe and Mischief

“Hey, don’t I get one of those kisses?” Justine teased.

“You bet.” He came to her in the kitchen and slipped his arms around her from behind, planting his hands over her still-flat stomach. “How long have you been working in here?”

“A while.” The family cookbook her grandmother, Charlotte Jefferson Rhodes, had compiled, lay open in front of her. Various ingredients, organized according to the recipes, were spread along the counter.

“Seems to me you were in the kitchen when I left for work this morning. Are you sure you’re up to this?”

“Stop worrying, okay?” Hosting the family for Christmas Eve dinner required a lot of extra preparation, but Justine never turned away from a challenge.

“Did you bake those homemade rolls I like so much?” Seth asked, eyeing the covered breadbasket.

“I did that first thing this morning.”

Seth grinned. “I hope you doubled the batch.”

“I did.”

“That’s my girl.”

Justine reached up and kissed him. “I promise you can have as many as you want.”

“How are you feeling?” Seth asked.

“I feel wonderful. I always do when I’m pregnant.”

Seth closed his eyes. “I don’t know how we let this happen,” he said as he feathered kisses down the side of her neck.

Justine giggled and put her arms around her husband’s neck. “You’d think by now we’d know how babies are made.”

“If it was up to you, we’d live in a shoe and have a dozen children.”

“Three suits me just fine,” she assured him, although she’d be the first to admit she loved being a mother. She could hardly believe that at one time she’d been willing to give all of this up without even knowing what she’d be missing.

The pregnancy would be this year’s Christmas surprise for her family. Keeping it secret had been far more difficult than she’d expected. At least a dozen times she’d been tempted to tell her mother and her grandmother. Both would be thrilled.

“Can I help with anything?” Seth asked.

“You could check Livvy’s diaper,” she said.

Seth swept his daughter into his arms and carried her to her room. When he returned a few minutes later, Livvy’s head lolled against his shoulder.

“Did you have a chance to get the mail?” he asked.

“Not yet.”

“I’ll do it.” Seth set Livvy down on the carpet. She leaned her head against the sofa cushion. She’d woken late that morning and hadn’t been interested in a nap. Now her eyes drooped as her thumb found its way into her mouth.

Justine had sucked her thumb, too; so had Jordan. After washing her hands, Justine picked up her sweet baby girl and brought her back to her crib. She gently placed her inside and covered her with the blanket Charlotte had knit for her.

Seth came into their daughter’s bedroom as she sat beside the crib, watching Livvy’s deep, even breaths.

He stood beside her. “It’s difficult to fathom how much love we can have for children, isn’t it?” he whispered.

“Impossible to believe until we become parents ourselves,” she whispered back.

They left the bedroom and Seth closed the door.

“Anything interesting in the mail?” Justine asked as he sat down, flipping through the envelopes. She poured her husband a cup of tea and joined him at the kitchen table.

---