Page 97 of The Lookback

Nathan practically screeches when he sees his mother. “Thank goodness,” Abby says. “I left my pump on the plane.” She ducks into the bathroom, apparently not keen on nursing in front of David’s shell-shocked parents. For two people who claim to like children, they’re not very natural with Abby’s mob.

“How many kids do you have?” Mr. Park is looking at all the blonde heads in despair.

“Five,” Abby says as she walks out. “But Ethan stayed behind to deal with stuff on the ranch, so there are only four of them here.” She smiles. “Don’t worry, though. They’re easier to process when they come one at a time.”

Now I’m the one coughing. “And in our case, we’ll only ever have just the one.”

“For now, anyway,” David sits next to me on the bed, patting my legs. “We never know what the future holds.”

“Oh, I disagree. We know just what it will hold. This one little baby and no more.”

“A few months ago,” he whispers, “you’d have said it would never hold this one.”

I roll my eyes, because. . .he’s right.

There’s a tap at the door, but it’s just a courtesy. The attending from before walks in without waiting for a response. “We did some routine bloodwork when you first arrived, and now that it’s back, I wanted to find out whether you wanted to know the gender of the baby.” She’s hovering in the doorway, like I should be ready to answer her right away.

So I do. “Yes.”

“I’m not sure.” David hops to his feet.

“Why would we not want to know?”

“Don’t you think it might be fun to do, like, I don’t know.” He glances around the room, and then he starts to pace, hopping over Uno players and bags and discarded shoes as he moves. “People do parties for this stuff nowadays.”

“We have a party here right now,” I say. “Look around.”

“But they, like, blast pink confetti out of cannons and stuff,” David says. “We could do something like that.”

“Out of a cannon?” I can’t help laughing. “Is that something you’ve been longing to try?” I glance back at the attending. “I think we would like to know. Then we can start shopping and setting up the nursery in the right colors.”

“That’s another thing,” David says. “We still haven’t decided where we’re going to live once we’re married.”

“You know what?” the doctor says. “I’ll come back.”

“No,” I say. “Don’t. Just tell us.”

She glances at David, which is infuriating. I’m the one growing the baby.

But thankfully, he nods. “Go ahead. I just like messing with her.” His smile reminds me why I love him. He does love messing with me, and he takes my irritable behavior in stride, too.

“It’s a boy,” she says with a grin, and then she ducks out the door.

Like she didn’t just drop a horrible bomb.

I know that, with this many people in the room, I should pretend I’mpleased, but I just can’t. My face appears to be frozen in shock.

“Whoa,” David says. “What’s wrong?”

Okay, shock, and apparently also disappointment.

David hops back up on the bed and drops an arm around my shoulder. “You’re the one who wanted to know.” He sounds half concerned and half entertained. “Should I go order a cannon?”

“This isn’t funny.” I shove at him.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “But I’m glad we didn’t record that. I’m sure our future son will be sad when he finds out you were this upset to have a boy.”

“I was sad when I found out Nathan was a boy,” Abby says. “The girls’ clothes and shoes are so much more fun.”

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