AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Thank you." Crew gets serious again. "I am one hundred percent all in. I want this baby. I want Dani. I want us. If you ever doubt any of that at any point, please come talk to me first before making assumptions."
"We will do that," I assure him. "We all need to check in with each other if we ever have any concerns. That’s what we do. We talk. We’re a family."
"Understood." Nathan rubs his jaw.
"You owe me five grand for that couch," Crew says. "I fucking loved that couch."
"You owe me new grass," I tell Nathan. "That was brand new sod and half of it is currently floating away down the side of the house."
"Is this a bad time to mention that I may or may not have been looking at bigger houses with less stairs?" Nathan asks, breaking out into a grin.
"Oh, hell, no," I tell him. "We are not moving. I love this street and all our neighbors."
One of our other neighbors, Peter, who is a retired British real estate developer, chooses that moment to yell up, "Ahoy, neighbors! Your yard looks like I could take a skiff out onto it and drop a line for trout."
I laugh, in spite of my irritation about my lawn. "See?" I tell Nathan. "This is fun, right, having neighbors?"
"It’s a fucking blast." But he’s fighting a smile.
Crew leans over the railing and shouts down, "Getting a little wet never hurt anyone, Peter."
"That’s what she said!" Peter calls back up.
Crew almost chokes on his laughter.
"Oh, dear God," Nathan mutters, shaking his head. "Bev must be a patient woman."
"Bev is a cougar," Crew says. "Have you seen the way she looks at Michael?"
He’s right. Peter’s wife has a way of looking at me that makes me feel like I forgot to put a shirt on. "She’s harmless. I think."
We all exit the deck and start to file down the hallway.
"You said ‘she,’" Nathan says to Crew. "Do you think it’s a girl?"
Crew shrugs. "Did I? I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it, but now that you say that, maybe I do kind of feel like it’s a girl. It doesn’t matter either way to me, though."
"What do you think?" Nathan asks me.
I consider it. "I don’t get a feeling one way or the other. I just want a healthy baby."
Nathan nods. "Me, too."
The doorbell is ringing when we’re heading back downstairs. I hear my mother call out that she’ll get it.
When we reach the bottom of the stairs, Nathan tries to open the baby gate. "Do I squeeze or do I lift? I can’t remember."
"I have no idea," Crew says. "Move so I can just step over it."
"No, I almost have it." Nathan shakes and rattles it.
"I think you just squeeze it," I say, reaching around him so I can try it. Nathan’s hand is in the way. "Do something, this is awkward."
"This house has so many stairs," Lori laments, hands on her hips, watching us as we’re all fighting over the latch on the baby gate. "You’re going to need half a dozen of these gates."
"See?" Nathan says in triumph, rattling the gate again aggressively before finally giving up and climbing over the gate. "I told you this house has too many fucking stairs! At least Lori agrees with me."
"Fucking stairs," Gracie yells, skidding past us in her sundress, a slice of cheese in her hand.
