“On my way.” He smiled at me. “Remember what I said.”
With the menfolk, as Mary called them, gone, we gathered at the large kitchen table with wine and Ashley’s virgin sangria.
“With everything going on, I didn’t prep a craft for tonight,” Mary said. “I figured we could talk instead.”
We talked about everything and nothing.
The new moms shared their crazy stories. The not-yet moms cringed in horror. The experienced moms gave sage advice.
“Is it too late to change my mind?” Ashley asked, making us all laugh.
Beth looked down at Ashley’s belly. “Based on my experience, yes, it’s too late.”
Everyone laughed harder, while I pretended to enjoy the joke.
“It’s not so bad, you’ll see,” Beth said.
“If you don’t mind sleepless nights,” Meg said.
“And endless dirty diapers,” Emily added.
“She’s only having one, so she won’t have an endless supply of dirty diapers.”
“One dirty diaper is too many,” Ashley said.
I had to agree with her there. Just because I wanted kids someday didn’t mean I enjoyed changing dirty diapers.
Does Austin have kids?He was certainly old enough.
It wasn’t long before everyone was yawning.
“I say we call it a night,” Mary said.
“I’ll go tell the guys,” Meg said.
The guys filtered in as we cleaned the small mess we’d made. Jack carried a sleeping Natalie, Jamie carried Richard while John held Rose. Thankfully, they dressed the twins in blue or green and pink or purple, so it was easy to tell them apart.
“Nina, Austin volunteered to give you a ride home. Is that okay?”
I searched for Austin in the crowded kitchen. He looked serious while he talked to Nathan and AJ. When he looked at me, his expression softened into a smile.
“It’s okay,” I said. Then I laughed.
And so did Austin.
My heart did a little baby leap at the knowledge that I had an inside joke with Austin.
Well, not a joke so much as a shared moment.
It wasn’t really a shared moment either.
It was Austin making fun of me for saying okay too often.
But he’d laughed with me, so I figured I could call it whatever I wanted.
Maybe I could belong here.
Chapter 34
