Page 64 of Karma Kitty Christmas
Luca met Isaac’s eyes, and Isaac shook his head.
Fifteen minutes later, Allegra had stood up from her spot and was doing the same stretching routine.
Fifteen minutes after that, she was done with her project—and stretching again.
Fifteen minutes after that, she’d set the table completely, with napkins and coffee cups and a table runner and the centerpiece.
And this time, when she stretched, her breathing caught a little more tightly.
They started keeping silent track of when her restlessness would start and when she’d subside into her chair—even after she declared herself tired and done and had moved into the living room to knit and watchIt’s a Wonderful Lifeon TV.
“Fourteen minutes,” Luca murmured softly to Isaac. “It’s happening every fourteen minutes.”
Isaac glanced over at her, pausing while grating cheese for the potatoes. Luca knew what he’d see. She’d fallen asleep, her knitting on top of her stomach, a line drawn over her brows even as she breathed softly in rest.
“Are they waking her up?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Luca murmured. “But she doesn’t realize that’s what’s doing it.” The last time, he’d watched her grunt, wake up, and yoga stretch some more from her chair, her breath quickening as what she probably thought of as a back cramp caught up with her, before she fell back asleep.
“Okay, then.” Isaac pursed his lips. “We’ve got a lot of it done,” he said. “We’ve got the turkey prepped and ready to go into the oven tomorrow morning. We’ve got the stuffing and sweet potatoes ready to pop in while the turkey’s resting, and the mashed potatoes ready to boil and beat while the turkey’s in. We’ve got everythingprepped, Luca—we just need people to do the right things at the right times tomorrow! Including go to get Sophia and Geordie.”
Luca grunted. “Let’s text everybody tonight and tell them it may happen—maybe we can come up with a plan.”
Isaac nodded. “I mean, Jimmy Bob and Trixie met your grandparents at Allegra’s birthday party. How awkward would it be, throwing them together for a day and saying, ‘Hey, cook this when we say so’?”
Luca chuckled. “Either way, you finish up what you’re doing, and I’ll go upstairs and start calling.” He pointed to the pad of paper where he’d been keeping track of Allegra’s contractions. “She’s due for one in about seven minutes. If it’s significantly shorter than that, let me know.”
“She doesn’t even have a name picked out,” Isaac said softly. “We don’t even know thegenderyet.”
Luca grinned at him, trying to mask his own anxiety. “Sure you don’t want to go back to the days of beige and perfect planning?”
“That was cruel and unwarranted.” Isaac sniffed. “I was only panicking like a perfectly normal uncle-in-law.”
And the fact that he was playing—playing—with the idea was enough to lighten Luca’s heart. They had two major projects going in the next twenty-four hours. The one thing they didn’t have to worry about was each other.
Luca went upstairs to make the requisite calls, but as he sank down onto the bed, Euclid hopped up (oolf—their kitten was now about ten pounds!) and started kneading his thigh. Rubbing the purring monster orange boi gave him a moment to pause, to think, and he placed his first call to Roxy. While Isaac had kept trying to explain the plan to him, he was still hazy on this “How to cook five thousand dishes at the same time” idea. Like any student, he didn’t want to bother the teacher when they were in the middle of a thing.
Also, Roxy had become Allegra’s big sister, and while Allegra had asked for Isaac and Luca to be there when she had the baby, he had the feeling Roxy’s voice, at any stage she could make it, would be helpful.
“Oh!” Roxy said, and the sound of her voice told him she was in the middle of something too. “So now? So I’m elbows-deep in sausage stuffing, and Brian’s up to his eyeballs in pie, and your sister’s going into labor now?”
“They’re still about fourteen minutes apart,” he said. “I don’t thinksheeven knows it yet.”
Roxy huffed out a breath. “Okay. So, yeah. You guys are doing good not to panic—and good to plan ahead. Brian’s mom’s thing is at three. Let me putter along here and get my shit done, maybe cop a few hours of sleep. Call me around eight to let me know how she’s doing. Unless, of course, the whole thing blowsup and you’re heading to the hospital at two in the morning—also a possibility, but it happens less often than you think, okay?”
Luca glanced at the clock, saw it was nine, and got almost physically sick at the thought. “You’re terrifying me,” he said on a whimper.
“Cool your jets, big fella. You guys are doing good just clocking the restlessness, keeping it all calm. Now I’m going to suggest you have her do two things—one is pack a bag, and the other is take a long, luxurious shower.”
“Will it help with the labor?” he asked, thinking about all those back stretches.
“Sure,” she said. “It will also be the last time she gets a long, luxurious shower to herself for a while. Nobody tells you, but what’s coming is sweaty, uncomfortable, and exhausting, and the shower facilities at the hospital are very, very small.”
“So noted.” Luca tried to keep the panic out of his voice. In spite of the prepped nursery and the copious shopping trips, the drawers stuffed with onesies and tiny footie pajamas in seasonal colors, in spite of seeing his sister double in size and rest swollen ankles the size of grapefruits on the ottoman day after day, the actual reality of what was about to happen hadn’t hit Luca untilright now. He’d been excited about thebaby—but thelaborhad barely been on his radar.
“Don’t panic, honey,” Roxy said, her voice throbbing in sympathy. “It’s going to overwhelm her too. If you and Isaac are panicked, she’s going to feel like something’s wrong. Your job is to keep everything calm and to stand up for her in the labor room.”
That brought Luca up short. “Stand up for her?”
