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“Ha! Just trying to stay safe.”
“Doyouwant to get married?” she asked.
They’d never spoken of marriage; there was no time. Almost nine months ago, they’d started the affair that had rapidly gone from one clandestine night to full-time commitment.
“I do. I want the whole shebang, too, with the mass and the choir and the groomsmen. Does that sound too corny?”
“No, but it sounds like a lot of work. We can talk about it.”
He glanced in the rearview and she gave him a quick, openmouthed exaggerated wink, making him laugh out loud.
Arriving at the cottage brought such a sense of relief they both sighed.
“Ah!”
“Are you glad to be home?” Dave asked, hovering over the baby to get him out of the seat.
“So glad. How long was I away?”
“A long time.”
“I can’t wait to get inside.”
For having a two-day-old baby, she was pretty lithe, getting out of the car to take the baby with no problem.
“You’re amazing,” Dave said, looking her up and down.
She stretched to kiss him, embarrassed from his praise. “I’m saddle sore from lying in that bed. It’s wonderful to be up and around.”
Dave handed her the baby so he could get the bags out of the car. She glanced at the yard, at the few autumn leaves that had fallen in the garden and then realized that he’d planted flowers. There were flowers everywhere, in the beds under the windows across the front of the house, along the street, even along the driveway.
“Dave, this is just beautiful.”
“Welcome home,” he said, kissing her.
“When did you have time to do this? You came to see me every day.”
“Early in the morning before work and late at night, after I got home from New Orleans,” he said.
They’d decided once labor had stopped, and she was stable, that he’d return to work to save his leave for after the baby’s birth. “I plan on doing more now that you’re home. I can’t wait to show you the backyard.”
“Quick, let’s unload this mess so I can see it.”
“Go on in. You shouldn’t lift anything heavier than that little guy.”
He laughed out loud, calling his little boy a guy already. Baby David was so cute; he was going to be a ginger, too, much to Katrina’s dismay, but Dave was thrilled.
The baby had a little round head with just a hint of a cone at the crown where he’d squeezed out of Katrina’s body. Dave had watched the birth in awe, Katrina concentrating too intensely to notice where his eyes had traveled.
“Kat, look,” he cried. “Watch!”
“I can’t see,” she grunted as baby David’s head emerged from her body.
“Look up in the mirror,” the doctor had said, pointing over his shoulder.
Katrina grabbed Dave’s hand and they watched together for the next seconds as his shoulders came out next, first the right, then the left.
“You can already see that he’ll be the size of his father,” the nurse said, with the accompanying laughter.
