“Our child probably won’t have a lisp,” Alex protested.
“You never know. Better safe than sorry. How about Delilah?”
“Are we having an eighty-year-old or a baby?” Alex replied. His eyes danced, but Grace still whacked him lightly on the arm.
“Hey. Be nice. Fine. Moving on.”
“George for the boy?”
“Please no. I had a boss with that name at the restaurant where I worked. He was the absolute worst. Timothy?”
“Veto.”
“Why?”
“You don’t even want to know.”
Back and forth they went, trading names and jokingly rejecting each other’s choices. Finally, Grace sat up a little straighter.
“Before you say no, my next idea was my dad’s name—Leo.”
“Leo,” Alex repeated. “Actually, I like that.”
“You do?” Grace grinned. “Do you really?”
“Really. So, how about Leo for our son?”
Grace’s heart lifted at the way he saidour son. “Done. Now, what about our daughter?”
“Her name should go with Leo’s,” Alex began. “But not too closely.”
“So not Leo and Lea?” Grace joked.
“Better not. How about Leo and Ella?”
“Leo and Ella,” Grace repeated. “Ella and Leo. I don’t mind that at all.”
“Excellent.” Alex beamed. “Then I think we have our names. I can’t wait to welcome little Ella and Leo into the world.”
“Me neither.”
“You know, this feels really real all of a sudden.”
Grace laughed. “If you had babies growing in your stomach, it would have felt real for a while.”
Alex laughed, too. “You know what I mean—right? Now I can imagine our future more clearly. I’ll be in the kitchen, and I’ll call, ‘Leo! Ella! Time for dinner!’”
“And I’ll be at the park calling, ‘Leo! Don’t hang upside down like that, or you’ll fall!’”
“‘Ella, how was your day at school?’”
“‘Leo, do you want a snack?’”
“‘Ella, Leo, put down the sticks and make up.’”
Grace laughed. “I hope we don’t have to say that one.”
“Me too, but we’d better be prepared. These should be lifelong names.”
