Page 25 of Own the Eights Maybe Baby
He reached across the table and took her hand. “I think pineapple-scented dryer sheets are a great choice.”
She held his gaze. “You do?”
“Sure! Who wouldn’t want to smell like fruit cocktail all day?”
She chuckled, and her sweet laugh washed over him. After the craziness of their doctor’s appointment, it was good to see her relaxed.
“We do have one thing going for us on the baby front,” he offered.
Georgie leaned in. “What’s that?”
“You have a whole children’s section in your bookstore.”
Why hadn’t he thought of this earlier? Children of all ages attended story time at the bookshop. Parents and their little ones perused the picture books section, and Georgie was a whiz at recommending new series and popular children’s book authors to her customers.
His wife chewed her lip. “It’s one thing to read a book to a group of parents and their babies. It’s another to know what to do after the story ends.”
Dammit! Maybe she had a point. She was pregnancy book smart about children’s literature in the same way that he was pregnancy book smart with his knowledge of kinesiology.
He glanced at a young couple seated by the window, each staring at their phone.
“That’s it!” he said, snapping his fingers.
“What? Did they add more pineapple cheesecake to the display?” Georgie asked, craning her neck.
“No, not cheesecake—the internet! We can search the hell out of it. Anytime we need to know how to do something, we google it.”
Georgie beamed at him. “Okay, let’s try it.”
He pulled out his phone. “What topic?”
She drummed her fingers on the table. “Let’s look up how to soothe a crying baby. We already know a pacifier works, so we’re already ahead.”
Look at this! Barely a few hours in as expectant parents, and they were killing it. No, not killing it. Their main goal for the next eighteen years was to make sure this little pineapple peanut growing in Georgie’s belly remained very much alive. They were rocking it! That’s more like it! The internet, where they reigned as CityBeat’s sweethearts, would be their salvation.
“Let’s do this on three,” he said, adrenaline pumping.
Georgie held his gaze, her thumb hovering over her phone’s keyboard. “Is this a challenge?” she asked with a twinkle in her eyes.
From the Battle of the Blogs to their wedding wilderness boot camp, every facet of their relationship had hinged on some sort of challenge.
He bit back a grin. Why not this one? He could be creative.
“Why yes, it is, little lady. We’re in Colorado, the Wild West. This here is what you’d call a Western Wi-Fi showdown,” he answered, throwing in a little twang because he didn’t half-ass anything—not even this strangely erotic cowboy internet banter.
“I hope you came prepared, buckaroo. This isn’t my first time at the Western Wi-Fi rodeo,” she answered.
And God help him! This was damn hot! He made a mental note to suggest their next Western Wi-Fi search be for finding the location of the closest store selling cowgirl boots.
They’d never dipped their toe into adult role-play. He used to think the whole dress-up to rip each other’s clothes off made no sense, but he’d be on board with investing in some Western wear. Georgie in fire engine red boots and nothing else would be a sight to see. But it wasn’t only the crackle of excitement between them. They needed this tiny respite to remember who they were to each other. That thread that connected his heart to hers from the first moment they’d met.
They may have thought they’d despised each other—believed that the other was their complete opposite. But it was there from the start, that déjà vu meets serendipitous spark. That magnetic force, drawing them together, letting them know they’d make it through whatever challenges life threw their way.
“Three, two,” Georgie counted, then paused and gazed at him like he was a piece of pineapple cheesecake.
“Did they restock the pastry case?” he asked.
She shook her head. “No. I’m picturing you as a cowboy,” she answered with a naughty smirk.
