“You are spoiling me,” I say around a mouthful.
“Good,” Knox says, turning back to the stove to scramble eggs. “You should be spoiled.”
A loud, frustrated curse echoes from the living room.
“Merde,” Knox mutters. “Fallon!”
I wander into the living room. Fallon is sitting on the floor, surrounded by pieces of wood.
He’s holding a crib instruction manual in one hand and a screwdriver in the other, looking like he wants to throw both against the wall.
“Need help?” I ask, lowering myself carefully onto the sofa.
“I don’t need help,” he grumbles, though he looks like he’s about to cry. “I need instructions that make sense. Why does piece A go into slot D? It doesn’t fit.”
“It’s because you put the base on upside down, genius,” Eli says, walking out of the bedroom. He’s holding a giant stack of books, his glasses perched on his nose.
Fallon looks at the crib base, then at the manual. “Son of a...”
“It’s okay,” I laugh. “It doesn’t have to be perfect.”
“It has to be safe,” Fallon says, his face serious. He sets the screwdriver down and crawls over to me, resting his head on my knees. “I just want it to be perfect for him. Or her.”
“It will be,” I say, running my hands through his messy hair. “Even if you put it together upside down, the baby won’t know the difference.”
He looks up at me, grinning. “You think?”
“I know,” I say.
Eli sits next to me, stacking his books on the coffee table.The Happiest Baby on the Block,The Alpha Father’s Guide to Pregnancy,What to Expect When You’re Expecting... with Multiple Partners.
“You’ve read those four times,” I tease.
“And I will read them four more,” Eli says, looking at me with intense, serious eyes. “Did you know that in the third trimester, the baby can hear our voices? We should be reading to him. Or singing.”
“Or talking,” Knox says, coming in with a plate of eggs for me. “We talk plenty. The baby will probably come out knowing how to cook a steak… or curse.”
“I want to read,” Maisie says.
I look down. Maisie is standing by the sofa, wearing her pajamas, clutching her rabbit. She’s staring at my stomach like it’s an alien spacecraft.
“Good morning, bug,” I say. “Did you sleep well?”
“Uh-huh,” she says. She climbs onto the sofa, settling between Eli and me. She leans forward, pressing her ear against my belly button. “Hello, baby.”
The baby kicks, hard, right against Maisie’s cheek.
Maisie gasps, pulling back with wide eyes. “He kicked me!”
“That means he likes you,” I tell her.
“Is it a boy or a girl?” she asks, stroking my stomach gently.
“We don’t know yet,” Eli says. “Do you want it to be a boy or a girl?”
“A brother,” Maisie decides immediately. “Because he can protect me when I’m big. Like Knox protects you.”
My heart melts into a puddle.
