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“She is, indeed, and that’s one of the reasons I love her so much,” Callum replied, setting a hand over my belly.
He was positively possessive when I was like this. It was like four months of constant palm-on-belly. I groaned about it and played up hating it, but I loved it. Loved my man’s protective side.
“I love Mommy too.”
“Good, but my editor is going to murder me because I’m behind on everything.”
He kissed me. “You’ll catch up, luv. Besides, we’ll see Elizabeth off, and we’ll read a bit and have time for you to do more poems tonight.”
I chuckled. “Reading” was the way I’d ended up five months pregnant with Andrew. To be fair, now that my pregnancy hormones had kicked in, we’d been “reading” quite a bit lately. “I’m not sure my editor wants that either.”
Callum smirked. “In due time, dear.” Then he knelt down and brushed Elizabeth’s dark curls back from her face. “So, are we going with the pink and crown pajamas?”
“I think I want to bring my pink ponies to Symone too, in case.” She leaned up to Callum’s ear and whispered, “Princesses get to change their minds a lot.”
Callum whispered back sotto voce. “I know.”
“And I think I can help you with the packing, squirt,” Symone said. She waddled a bit when she came into the room. At closer to seven months, Symone was quite round, but she was also insistent that we have our first date anniversary dinner and night alone together. Besides, her husband was on deck to be the one running after a precocious four-year-old. “Man, Dad, did I tell you how much this hurts? My back’s a mess, I haven’t seen my feet in forever, and I have to pee all the time. Why did no one warn me!”
I laughed. “That’s the point. It’s like a preggers cult. We tell you it’s great so you can experience how hard it is.” With some effort, I stood up and then pinched Elizabeth’s cheek. “But they’re totally worth it.”
Symone sighed. “Better be. Everything hurts!”
“But we’re going to play lots of games, aren’t we, sis?” Elizabeth asked.
Symone took her hand. “Let’s get to your room to pick up your other pair of jammies. And I’ll try, but you don’t want to play the napping game by any chance, do you?”
“I want to do hide and go seek!” she squealed.
“Close enough,” Symone replied. She smiled at both of us. “You two, um, read nicely.”
“And you take it easy running after Elizabeth everywhere. She can wear anyone out.”
“I cannot!” Elizabeth said, stamping her foot. “Now, princess party!”
Callum waved. “You two be good.”
With that, the girls left us for the bigger, cooler party back at Symone’s.
***
“I wanted to get you something special for this anniversary, luv. I know we have so many between wedding and celebrating not just Elizabeth’s birthday but the day at the hospital they said you’d pull through with the transfusion,” Callum said as he led me to the king sized bed we shared.
We’d shared a wonderful dinner of fresh French cuisine, a callback to our first date. Everything was so thoughtful from Callum, and I was lucky he was in my life. I never let a day go by where I took that for granted. I sat down on the bed and then stretched out for him.
“What did you get me?”
He pulled out a small ring box. “I know you loved your engagement ring, but I wanted something even more special, but I needed a thicker band for what I had in mind.”
Frowning, I tore into the small, brightly wrapped package as I noted the familiar turquoise labeling underneath. Pulling open the lid, I found a beautiful gold ring before me. It was a thicker band than my engagement or wedding rings and engraved on the outside with an intricate pattern of Celtic knots.
“Turn it over,” Callum said, his voice that same low purr that left my stomach flaring with warmth and my clit pulsing between my legs.
“‘The course of true love never did run smooth,’” I read aloud. The thin cursive script inside the band was tiny to fit everything, and I had to squint. “It’s Shakespeare.”
He nodded. “From A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I felt that seemed true enough about us.”
I nodded and teared up as he slid the ring onto my right ring finger. It glinted in the light, and it felt somehow as if the Celtic knots were tying me to him at an extra level, binding our souls even stronger than they already were.
