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“Good idea. How about a room at my place?” I ask her, before she even has time to answer the first question.
But she smiles and nods and jumps into my arms when we stand.
“I think we will,” I tell the heckler as I carry her out and down the stairs.
At my house in Alexandria, I call to my daughter from the living room and up the stairs.
“Bella!”
“Yessss, Dad?!” she says in that sort of attitudey, teenage way she’s gotten so good at.
But then she pokes her head down the staircase.
“Oh, hi,” she says when she sees Caroline.
“Hi, I’m Caroline,” she replies with a smile,
“Caroline, this is my daughter, Bella Mitchell,” I say, maybe a bit too formally.
Bella just stares at her, so, not wanting to make anything too awkward on either of them, I tell her, “You can go now, honey.”
“You’re pretty,” Bella says to Caroline with a smile.
“You’re very pretty too,” Caroline replies.
Then Bella gets a little embarrassed in her typical awkward, middle school way and darts back up the stairs.
“You know, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about her earlier. But it wasn’t that I was trying to keep her a secret from you,” I tell her. “She was at a friend’s house sleeping over the night I introduced you on stage, so that I could be there for that. It’s just that when I was dating Andi—”
“Whiiiich...” she interrupts, “you were trying to keep from me.”
“Only because she’s your professor and I didn’t want you unable to focus on all the value she has to offer in her course. She is quite brilliant, albeit somewhat of a devil. She and I didn’t have a good go of it. And she was constantly trying to keep me from Bella. She even wanted me to send her to boarding school for a time.”
“Oh, no,” she says.
“Yeah. After that, I decided not to date anymore, and not to involve my daughter in anyone I was casually seeing,” I tell her. “I obviously broke the first rule for you, but I wasn’t sure about when I should start telling you guys about her and introducing you to each other.”
“I understand,” she says, nodding. “And I have something to tell you, too.”
“You’re pregnant,” I tell her.
She looks so surprised.
“You already know?” she asks. “And you still asked me to marry you?”
“That’s partly why I did it just then,” I tell her. “I mean, I knew I wanted to be with you forever, as soon as we first kissed. And I was so crushed when you left, but then it all came together in my mind once I saw you on stage tonight. I thought I’d just skip right to the good part, where we’ll make it official and tie the knot.”
“I’m so glad you did,” she says. “I wasn’t trying to keep the baby news from you, either. I just didn’t think it’d be fair to overwhelm you. Especially not when you already have one child to keep up with. And at the time that I found out about it, we hadn’t spoken for a month since Dr. Myers came and unloaded all this information on me.”
“Oh, did she?” I ask. “That seems awfully purposeful. When was this?”
“The night after I read at the Madhatter,” she says.
“That seems definitely purposeful.” I have her take a seat on the couch. “Well, in any event, I’m glad her plan to keep you away from me didn’t succeed. Stay here tonight and I’ll make dinner. We should talk about what we want.”
“Well, it seems like you wanted to get married.”
“I do,” I tell her. “I’m more in love with you than I think you’ll ever realize. And this only confirms my suspicions that we should be together.”
I decide to stand and make dinner. I’m sure she’s starved.
“Have you told your father yet?” I ask her.
“I did. And he took it surprisingly well,” she confesses. “I was a little surprised. And I’m excited. I feel like my mom is giving me a little present from beyond the grave. You know?”
“Looks like she’s giving one to the both of us,” I tell her, and put my hand on her belly, feeling happier than I’ve been in a very long time.
Chapter Nine
Caroline
The Second Trimester & Second Semester
At our wedding, Jessica and Bella have assumed the roles of my bridesmaids. I was careful to let them pick out their own dresses so that I couldn’t be accused of trying to sabotage them into looking ridiculous.
The ceremony is held in the courtyard on campus, which we both agreed was only fitting, because that’s the place we really fell in love with each other.
I love watching Bella and Trenton together. He’s so good with her and it only reminds me of what a great dad he’s going to be to our baby when she comes along in a few months.
