Page 7 of The Baby
That we were enough. What if weweren’t?
I swallowed and walked into the kitchen slowly, as if I was heading for my ownexecution.
She looked so beautiful sitting there. Her soft honey-brown hair falling down all around her shoulders. She was smiling, but I could tell it wasn’t her full-on killersmile.
Still, it couldn’t be bad news if she was smiling.Right?
All those crazy thoughts in my head I could see were ridiculous. This was Ellie. We’d been blissfully happy for three years. One week of no sex was not going tochangethat.
Which meant I just needed to sit down and listen to what she hadtosay.
I pulled the chair out and sat. “Lay it on me,”Isaid.
Then she got out of her chair and came around the table to sit onmylap.
Hookay. This was good. This was fine. Ellie was sitting on my lap, her arm around my shoulder. This was us and we were fine. Whatever she said next, I knew wehadthis.
“Babe,” she whispered. I’m not sure why she was whispering. We were alone in the house. “Wedidit.”
“Did what?” I whispered back. Again, not sure why I was doing that, but somehow it seemed appropriate. That in this moment we should be hushed andreverent.
She reached for my hand and placed it on her belly. Her lower belly. I didn’t get what she meant atfirst...
Then Igotit.
Conceptually, I knew what we had been doing. We had made a choice. She had gone off birth control… six months ago? Only we didn’t talk about it. We didn’t talk about it because of what had happened last time. I didn’t talk about it because I didn’t want her to feel any pressure. She didn’t talk about it for a whole bunch of reasons I’m sure. And for the most part nothing had changed. We had the same amount of sex before she stopped using birth control as we didafter.
Until thispastweek.
I stared down at my hand, resting on her belly, and then I looked upather.
She smiled andnodded.
Inoddedtoo.
I didn’t say a word. I simply reached up to capture her face in my hands, I closed my eyes and rested my forehead against hers. As if I could share all the things I was feeling in this moment with hertelepathically.
Although I didn’t think we really needed telepathy. I think she knew everything I was feelingrightthen.
I pulled back and openedmyeyes.
I could see tears in hers, but I knew they werehappyones.
“Can I kiss youagain?”
She nodded and then I was pulling my wife against me and kissing her like it had been years and not onestupidweek.
That’s when it occurred to me she’d known for a week. A whole week and hadn’ttoldme.
That’s when I gotpissed.
Well, as pissed as a man can be when he’s just been given the greatestgiftever.
Because, yeah… my wife was havingmybaby.
3
Ellie
