Page 185 of Even Exchange

Attempts to suppress my tears are useless, and I spend the entire ride home praying the two little angels in the back don’t notice just how hard they fall.

40

NOAH

“How’s your stomach?” I ask Denny as she slurps another bite of the homemadepastinasoup I made.

“Better,” she says, relieving some of my concern.

“Good. But no more muffins for you, okay?”

“It wasn’t the muffins,” Charlotte argues.

I place my hand on hers. “Of course it wasn’t.”

Denny leans over, her voice a whisper. “It was totally the muffins.”

I chuckle, turning my attention back to Charlotte. She’s looked exhausted from the moment she walked through the door, and I worry she’s pushing herself too hard. “How was your day?”

“Good,” she clips.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I press.

“I’m fine.” She plasters on the fake smile. “Just tired.”

“Are you feeling okay? Everything okay with baby?”

“Yes, Noah,” she says, exasperated. “BabyandI are fine.”

We finish dinner and place our bowls in the sink. “Why don’t you take a bath, and I’ll clean up here?”

“I’ve got it.” She turns on the water and squirts soap on a sponge. “You worked all day. You must be exhausted.”

She’s right. I’m exhausted. But not half as exhausted as I’ll be if I stay up all night worrying about her instead of taking care of her.

Leaving the kitchen, I head to our bathroom and turn on the warm water. I throw in those Epsom salts she likes and make sure the temperature is pregnancy safe before heading back to the kitchen. I walk up behind her, snake my arms around, and turn off the faucet.

“Hey!” she says, spinning around and flicking water at me. “I’m doing dishes here.”

“No,I’mdoing dishes,” I say, taking her wet hands in mine. “You’re taking a bath.”

“I told you I?—”

“Water’s already running.” I press a quick kiss to her knuckles. “If you don’t go check on it, we’ll have a flood in our house.”

“Fine,Noah,” she says, cracking a smile. “No need to go building the ark.”

“Take your time. I’ll put the kids to bed.”

“You don’t have?—”

I put a finger over her lips, silencing her. “Iwantto do these dishes, and Iwantto put the kids to bed. Denny and I are reading about a princess locked in a castle, and I’ve got to find out what happens next.” That elicits a small laugh from her pretty lips.

“Fine,” she huffs, slapping the wet sponge in my hand, and heads to our bedroom.

* * *

“You have fun at campus today?” I ask Nash as I tuck him in after a half hour of intense Lego building.

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