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Hazel shrugged and rubbed a hand over her belly. “The only real problem is my Capstone, and my advisor said we could talk about that after the quads are born. I just can’t physically be running back and forth doing a final internship.”
“That’s right. You can have it all, but you can’t do it all.” Natalie winked and stood next to Hazel as she looked out over the city.
“I thought Mom was gonna have a coronary when she heard this news. She didn’t even know you were dating anyone.” Hawk walked out to lean on the rail and stare down. “She can be so obtuse.”
“And you knew?” Hazel asked.
“You acted like you were having guy trouble at Christmas. I knew that part. I’m unemployed, not stupid.” Hawk tapped the front of his sneaker on the deck, then turned to face her. “I can’t believe Mom thought you were getting fat. You’d think that after popping out four of her own, she’d know what being pregnant looks like.”
“Now it’s your turn to find out what it’s like to be Mom,” Natalie said with false cheer.
Hazel looked down. “Oh, God.”
“Well, if you need a babysitter, I like kids,” Hawk offered.
“What happened to your game?” Hazel asked.
“My artist stopped emailing me; I haven’t heard from him in months. And the writer won’t do what I ask him to do. It’s on hold indefinitely.”
Hazel pinched her mouth to the side as she thought about that. “You should talk to Ian. His company is starting a whole new division, and they’ll need people to work at every level. If you had a steady job, you could squirrel away enough money to hire people who are reliable.”
Hawk wrinkled his nose. “Maybe. I guess if you’re gonna be a mom, I have to try to grow up a little, too. When did this happen to us?”
“I swear, it seems it all happened in the blink of an eye.” Hazel sighed. “I’m just holding on for dear life.”
“We’re here for you, if you need it,” Natalie said.
“Ian is, too. He’s been amazing.” Hazel smiled, imagining the look on Ian’s face when he thought about the babies.
“Did he ask you to marry him?” Natalie asked hopefully.
“No, we’re going to wait on that. We talked about it. For hours, actually, about all the ways we could do this, and we decided to wait on the marriage until we’re settled, and everyone feels secure. It just makes sense for now.” Hazel folded her hands under her belly. “Besides, after all this, Ian is definitely going to have a nice dress made for me, and I want to be able to fit into it.”
“That’s sickening,” Hawk said. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks, twin.” Hazel beamed.
“Just don’t name them after plants, for the love of God,” he muttered.
***
Ian heard Hazel snoring softly. He’d woken her already and set her up in the bed with her books. She wasn’t officially on bed rest, and probably wouldn’t be until March, but Dr. Nguyen had given them fairly strict orders regarding rest, food, sex, and exercise, and he was determined to follow it. Of course, if Hazel dozed while waiting for Ian to give her a kiss goodbye, that would be okay, too.
He straightened his tie and checked himself in the mirror before going over to check on her. She startled awake and laughed softly in embarrassment.
“Sorry.”
“No worries, love. I’ll be back sometime around lunch. Don’t get too bored without me.”
Hazel lit up. She looked so happy that Ian didn’t want to leave her.
“I’ll just be doing my readings. If they get boring, I’ll switch to working on the book,” Hazel promised.
Since having her at the office daily wasn’t an option, Ian had suggested that he simply task her with finishing their book—something she could do from bed or from one of the many comfortable chairs around his penthouse as the babies took up more and more real estate inside of her. Ian had cut back his time at work so that he could be there with her. He could just as easily do video conferences from his study here, and he quite liked being around to help Hazel. She was giving him a tremendous gift, one that he hadn’t known he still wanted, and he wouldn’t take it for granted.
There had been an option to reduce the pregnancy to three, or even two. It would’ve been safer for Hazel, but as scared as she was, and she was scared, she could tell that Ian didn’t want to do that, and had decided for them.
“Four children run in the family,” she’d said. “We can have them in one go and build everything from there.”
