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I fiddle with a loose string on the comforter. “Hey, Jake.”
“Yes?” he asks, grimacing in the mirror at the uneven tuck on his shirt.
“Do you want this new baby?”
He pauses and turns around to look at me. “Do I want it?”
“Yeah. I just mean…” I hesitate, digging my nails into the bed. “You always said that you’d donate again if I decided I wanted a second baby.”
“Right,” he says. “And I did.”
“You did. You definitely did.” I nod. “We just never really discussed what would happen afterward…”
He smirks. “You’d have a baby.”
“Uh-huh.” My cheeks burn. “And you would…?”
“I would…?” His lips purse, elongating his w-sound. “Wish you luck?”
“Oh.” I look down, hiding that crushing feeling taking over my eyes. “Okay, then.”
He puts his hands in his pockets and furrows his brow. “Is that not okay?”
“No, no. It’s okay. It’s, uh…” I force a shrug. “It’s what we agreed to.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t really planning on doing much more than that,” he admits.
I swallow the lump in my throat. “And that’s fine.”
His hand emerges from his pocket. “Or I can just give you this ring I bought and you can make an honest man out of me.”
He tosses the small box at me. My reflexes take over and I catch it with both hands before it hits the bed. It fits in my palm, completely covered in smooth, black velvet.
My mouth opens, stunned and confused. “Wait, what?”
Jake sits down on the edge of the bed next to me, grinning widely. “Open it,” he says.
I crack it open, nearly dropping it the moment I see the diamond ring resting inside.
“Jake, when did you…?” My throat clenches, cutting my voice.
“Last week after you said you were ready for another baby,” he answers. “I got up the next morning, drove straight to the nearest jewelry store, spent about a half hour pacing around outside of it until I got up the nerve to actually walk in, and then I bought it.”
I laugh, shaking my head. “Jake, you don’t have to—”
“Yes, I do,” he says. “You said so yourself. If you were going to have a second kid, then you wanted to have it with a partner and, honestly, the entire time I paced around outside that store, I couldn’t come up with one damn good reason for me not to be that partner.”
My eyes water. “Not one?”
“Not one,” he repeats. “I love you, Anna. You bring out the best man in me, and I’m kinda starting to like that guy.”
I bite my lip. “I am, too.”
He rests his hand on my belly. “So, to answer your question…” He leans over and kisses me. “Yes. Yes, I want this new baby. I want to watch it grow in you. I want to hold your hair back when you’re spewing your guts out.”
I recoil. “Don’t remind me.”
“I want to be there for everything I missed the first time around with Charlotte,” he says. “I want to earn being a father on day one.”
