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“Mmmm, yes, those arms.” I lost my train of thought. All I could think about now was what those arms could do. Both of us forgot about her friends for a good long while.
Somehow, even though I wasn’t coaching at the moment, I felt like I was busier than ever. Being in a relationship apparently took up a lot of time. I had to move things around and reprioritize. I’d gotten out of practice at dating.
“I’m really bad at this,” I said as we rushed to get in the car. We were picking up Dom and Heath from the airport with Marissa. Katie and the rest of the gang were at the house, putting together a nursery. Katie had literally been storing shit in her garage since she found out they wanted to have a baby, even though she said she wouldn’t. Couldn’t help herself.
All of us had chipped in to fund the nursery as our impromptu baby gift, but we were throwing a baby shower for them as well. Any excuse to buy more cute baby clothes.
“Bad at what, baby?” Echo said, calmly waiting for me to get my shit together. I found my wallet at last, threw it in my bag, and we were out the door.
“Bad at dating,” I said as I backed out of the driveway.
“I don’t think you’re bad at dating. You seem to be doing well to me.”
“You’re just saying that because you love me. You have to say that.” She laughed and turned the radio on.
“And because I love you, I’m going to tell you that you need to be more confident in your abilities, Kiri.”
I knew that. I knew she knew that. I knew she knew I was working on it.
“Right, you’re right. Sorry.” I pressed my lips together to stop disparaging myself further. I hadn’t known how often I had negative thoughts about myself until Echo pointed it out, and I wanted that to change. I didn’t want to feel like shit about myself. I didn’t want to be so bad at handling compliments.
“Hey, don’t apologize. It’s okay.” She took my hand, squeezed it, and then kissed it. “Which of my flaws should we talk about, just to make it fair?”
“How about the fact that you put ketchup on everything? What is up with that? It’s disgusting. Also: you have got to start cleaning your hair out of my shower drain. It’s a real problem.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Okay, let’s go back to talking about your flaws, I don’t like this,” she said.
We somehow managed to get to the airport and pick up the new dads with their tiny little bundle all wrapped up in a carrier. It was a comedy of errors as we all tried to get the damn thing in the backseat of the car, and much consulting of the internet for the right way to do it. Health and Dom were nervous as hell, and I couldn’t blame them.
“Oh my god, this is the most stressed I’ve been driving since I took my driver’s test,” I said as I drove exactly the speed limit and cars honked and passed me in anger.
“Just keep your eyes on the road, baby,” Echo said in the seat next to me. “I can take the wheel if you want.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m fine.” I looked in the rearview to see the new dads just staring in wonder at the sleeping baby.
“Hey, Echo, how do you feel about kids?” I asked.
“Other people’s kids, or my own?”
“Your own,” I said. This was an important question, and I should have asked it sooner.
“I’d like to have some. Not sure if I want to actually give birth, but yeah, kids would be great. What about you?” She was definitely nervous about the answer, but I was relieved.
“I’m definitely up for kids someday. It’s always been my dream to coach my own kids. I’m sure they’ll hate it at the time, but I think it would be awesome. If they don’t want to cheer, that’s going to break my heart.”
Echo laughed. “Same. It’s good to know that you want kids. That’s kind of a big thing for me. I mean, if you didn’t, I’m not sure if we could move forward. I would never want to force someone to have kids they didn’t want. That’s basically what my parents did.” She shuddered.
I hated any mention of her parents. I couldn’t wait for her to meet mine. They’d sweep her right into our family, whether she wanted it or not.
“I’m sorry. I wouldn’t want that either. A few of my friends don’t want kids, but I definitely do,” I said.
“Same page?” she asked.
“Same page,” I said.
We made it back to Heath and Dom’s without any incident, and there was a huge party and banner waiting for them. They both cried as they carried the baby through the house to the nursery, which was decorated in soft grays and yellows and with little animal decals on the walls, and a mobile with elephants and foxes on it.
