Page 83 of Sunday

“He’s two.”

“I’ma big boy, Mommy.”

“Right, li’l king. Not to mention, you were lifting Amara on your hip last weekend when we visited Bryan and Layla. Then you were also holding Bjorn and Sarah’s baby, Michael, and that’s one big boy.”

“He’s only ten months, CJ.”

“I don’t care. He’s too big for you to be carrying around, knowing that you’re pregnant.”

“Okay, you’re right. I won’t do it again.”

“Wait. You said they knew the gender. Do you know?” His eyes ballooned as my comment finally dawned on him.

I nodded and chewed on the inside of my cheek.

“You’re gonna tell me?”

“Do you wanna know.”

“Hell yeah!”

“Hell yeah!” Aspen repeated.

“Aspen!” Cedar corrected.

“CJ!” I warned.

“What?”

“You know he’s going through that phase of repeating things.”

Cedar nodded. “AJ, you can’t be repeating everything that you hear, okay?”

“Okay, Daddy.”

His little downturned expression tugged at my heart, and I was about to lean over and kiss him for comfort until Cedar did it. His face brightened once more.

“So, what’s the gender?”

“Are you sure you want to know and not have a gender reveal?”

“Woman, don’t you think you’ve done enough keeping this from me for so long?”

“You’re right. I just wanted you to be sure, though, baby.”

He furtively slapped my ass and demanded, “Quit playing with me, woman.”

“Yeah, quit playing with him, woman,” Aspen remarked.

“Okay, AJ. Watch it. Don’t get yourself in trouble,” I warned. “Go ahead and get dressed. Your clothes are on your bed.”

“Where we going, Mommy?”

“I told you. We’re going to Papa Paul’s and MèMè Sylvia’s for the Father’s Day dinner,” I explained.

“Yayy!”

“And guess what, AJ?”

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