Page 72 of Honeymoon Phase
“You look great. Trust me, I’m not a baby person either but this baby is like freakishly easy.” Dakota smiles and grips her glass of white wine.
Stevie nuzzles into my chest as she sucks on her pacifier, so I sit back, letting her get comfortable in my arms. I look down at her and can’t help but smile. This isn’t so bad. “Will she walk soon? Trista said she’ll be one at Christmas, right? When do babies usually walk?”
“The grown-ups in this family have to put her down long enough to figure it out I suppose,” Dakota says with a knowing look to the men in the living room.
I laugh as I recall when we got here earlier, and the four Fletcher brothers all took turns passing Stevie around. And then literally all four of them stood around Ethan when he wanted a turn holding her. This little girl wants for nothing, that’s for sure.
Dakota eyes me thoughtfully. “You’re a natural.”
My cheeks flush as I shake my head.
“I shouldn’t have said that.” Dakota holds her hands up. “I hate when a couple gets married, and people just assume you’re having babies. Not everyone has to have babies to be happy in a relationship. I could see me and Calder just getting more cats.”
“Yeah? You’re a cat lover too?” I ask as I smile over at Calder. His tattooed, bearded, and rugged appearance is at complete odds with the man I see out for a walk with his tuxedo cat strapped to his chest.
“I mean, I don’t know if I need to strap them to my chest... but yeah, I love cats.”
I absorb her words, feeling mildly comforted by her confident thoughts behind children. There is just something so decent about this family. They’re traditional and not. It feels... safe. Inclusive. Which is extraordinary in so many ways.
Dakota eyes me thoughtfully. “What about you? Kids, cats, or dogs? What’s your poison?”
I lick my lips and shrug. “I’m not really sure, I guess. Is that bad?”
“God no,” she replies with a flick of her wrist. “You havetime. My first born will always be my T-shirt Shop. I’m sure yours is your lumberyard. I get it. Running a company takes a lot of bandwidth, not much room for anything else.”
“Yeah, that’s so true,” I confirm and squint my eyes as I glance down at Stevie, who’s nuzzled into my arms now and doing long, slow blinks like she’s just about to fall asleep. Her little mouth moves as she sucks on her pacifier.
Dakota lifts her empty wineglass and grabs mine at the same time. “But for now... more wine.”
She heads into the kitchen to grab a new bottle, and I take a moment to gaze at the baby in my arms. A warmth spreads through me when her little hand moves up to rest on my chest. Her fingers clenched into a tiny little fist. I just want to nibble her fingers ever so gently. She stirs in my arms, fussing for just a second so I shush her and rock her and just like that... she’s out again.
The sense of accomplishment I feel with that tiny act is overwhelming.
I look up, my eyes instantly finding Luke’s across the room. He’s staring back at me, so I smile and glance down at her and back to him. I want him to see what I’ve done. I want him to be proud of me for... doing this tiny little thing with this tiny little human.
Luke’s expression turns pensive and full of something I can’t quite decipher. It’s the same one he’s been giving me for the past two weeks. The same one I’m avoiding for fear of what I might do. If there wasn’t a baby in my arms right now, I might just have to stand up and walk across the room to kiss the man I married. Hormones are fucking weird like that.
“Looking forward to tomorrow, sweetie?” Jo’s voice rips me out of my inner musings.
“Huh?” I murmur, glancing down at Stevie and then back to Luke.
“The cake tasting,” Jo says, finally pulling my attention away from her son. “It’s at 11 a.m. sharp, don’t forget.”
I blow out a soft breath, trying to straighten my brain out a bit as I nod. “Oh yes, of course. I’ll be there.”
“Need me to take her?” Jo holds her hands out to Stevie but like a reflex, I pull her closer into me.
“I better keep hold of her,” I murmur into her soft hair.
“Okay, dear.” She hits me with a curious look before walking away.
I look down at Stevie’s long lashes fanning her cheeks and try to count them to refocus my brain. At least if I’m holding this baby, I’m not trying anything with my husband, who really needs to stop looking at me like that.
The family buzzes around me as they set the table and get all the food laid out. I’m off the hook for helping as my arms are otherwise occupied, but I can’t help but marvel over the chaotic team effort of everyone. Luke and Calder bicker over how to line up the silverware and Jo comes over and shows them the correct way to do it. Wyatt eats almost as much turkey as he cuts, sneaking some to Ethan, and Cozy snaps at both of them to wait to eat until everything is ready, with Max backing her up. It’s sweet, really. Everyone has their place.
Dad never did much for the holidays. Thanksgiving was more about drinking and watching football, and Christmas just felt like another day of the week. I’ll never forget the first Christmas we had after the accident when it was just me and him. It was the first year that there were no stockings and no visit from Santa on Christmas morning. Of course I hadn’t believed in Santa, but the realization that Aaron still did before he died...
“What’s this?” Ethan says, carrying the brown paper bag that I tucked my fresh sourdough loaf in this morning.
