Page 19 of A Baby for Christmas
"Ben?" Robin prodded, handing me the container with my noodles. "You sort of spacedout."
"Sorry, I was just... What do you think it's gonna be? The baby, I mean," I tried to change thetopic.
"Oh, I really don't know. I heard from some other omegas that they always knew what their babies were gonna be, but I have no idea. Besides, I don't think it matters all that much. I know they could be born looking like a girl and later tell me they're a boy. Or vice versa." Robin shrugged. "It's still kind of exciting,though."
"Yeah, it is." I made myself eat some of the noodles. "Do you need someone to take you to the appointment?" Now that Aaron was out of the picture, I felt I couldask.
Robin looked down at his food—fried egg rice with chicken. "I'm sure I can find a way to get there somehow, but..." He raised his eyes, staring right into mine. "If you wouldn't mind taking me, I wouldn't sayno."
"You know I wouldn't mind." And I could tell that he really didn't want to go by himself. This could be good for both of us, really. The idea that I might be involved in his child's life still terrified me, but maybe I could work on that by being as involved as possible before hisbirth.
Maybe the first step was to stop thinking of the baby ashisbaby. It wasours, wasn'tit?
"Thank you." Robin's smile grew even brighter. Then his eyes searched the room until he found the dog hiding underneath the table. "Hey, little buddy. What's up withyou?"
Cooper yawned athim.
"Sorry, he's not too active today," I said. "I think I've tired him out at the park." Having been born in the snowy winter, grass still excitedhim.
"That's cool," Robin said, focusing on his foodagain.
"Do you have any weird cravings?" I asked, suddenly curious. This pregnancy was such a huge part of Robin's life right now that I knew so littleabout.
"Not really," Robin said. "I mean, seriously, this pregnancy has been way easier than I thought it would be. Haven't even really experienced any morning sickness. Sometimes I wonder if I'm really pregnant at all, and then I feel the baby move." His eyes lit up as he said this lastsentence.
I wondered what it would be like to feel a baby move inside of you. By the way Robin looked, it had to be a magical sort of feeling. I was almost a little jealous, even if I wasn't going to say that outloud.
"It's good that it's been easy. Aside from the gossip anyway." I still wanted to murder whoever had spread thoserumors.
"Yeah." Robin shoveled more food into his mouth. "I only hope the parents won't startcomplaining."
"Because you're pregnant? That'sridiculous."
"You would think." My friend gave me a tight smile. "It's like you don't know the people in this town at all. So many of them are bored and ready to jump at any chance of drama. Trust me, the hardest part of my job is not handling the kids; it's handling theirparents."
I nodded. Made sense. "Whatever happens, I think it's gonna die down after a little while. We know how to deal with bullies, don'twe?"
"Yeah. Don't give them what they want." Robin chewed thoughtfully. "It's not always thateasy."
"I know." My heart went out to him. We weren't children anymore, and there were far worse things in our lives now than schoolyard bullies, but I still wanted to protect him from it all. I was going to try as hard as I could, anyway. "You know you can always come to me when you're in trouble,right?"
Robin looked up from his food. "I know. Thank you. I don't know what I'd do without you." His lips curved up. It wasn't the widest smile I'd ever seen on him, but it wasgenuine.
"Let's hope we never have to find out." I swallowed down a juicy piece of fried duck. "You want to watch a movie after dinner? How about My Alpha and his Omega?" Robin loved that cheesy movie. I wasn't sure exactly why, but it cheered him up, and that was enough for me to be a fan aswell.
"I'd love that." He grinned at me. "They have it on Netflixnow."
"You know because you’ve already streamed it a million times,right?"
"Got me." He stuck his tongue out at me, and then we both continued eating. Once we were done, we settled on my couch together, the puppy warming Robin's legs. The two of them were so adorable together I kind of wanted to take my smartphone out of my pocket and snatch apicture.
Instead, I got us a blanket. Spring had arrived yes, but it was stilljustcold enough that you could comfortably cuddle up under a blanket with a good movie and your loved ones. An unbidden smile broke out on my face. In this room, under this blanket, I felt I had everything I needed. My dog, my best friend... and our baby. Yes, I included even that in my thoughts. For a moment, I let myself envision a perfect future where I could be a good dad to the unborn life growing within Robin. We'd build Lego castles together, watch the dog inevitably tear it apart and then scold the puppy while Robin laughed at us. In the end, we all went out on a walk together as a family, Cooper happily skipping ahead ofus.
It was the kind of future that Robin had always wanted for us. If I let myself dream that it could come true, I kind of wanted ittoo.
"What are you thinking about?" Robinasked.
It was only then that I realized he'd already started the movie and the opening scene was over. I'd totally spacedout.
