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“But I don’t want us to spend every waking moment thinking about it until then, do you?” I ask her, noticing her look changing to puzzlement.
“Three months?” she asks, creasing the edge of her mouth, but it makes me smile.
“Sure,” I exclaim. “You wanna wait until your baby bump’s showing before you say anything? I mean…I would gladly keep you locked up in here if that’s what you want,” I tell her, deadpan.
Trying to make a joke out of it, but feeling it sink faster than I can get the words out.
“Very funny,” she frowns with tension but forces herself to relax again.
“It’s just all happened so fast…,” she says under her breath, looking at me and then the table with all the food.
All the fine things I’ve put out on display in her honor.
Both of us feel everything for each other more than ever, but neither of us wants to hurt the other people we love.
“We don’t have to tell anyoneright now, do we?” I reason. “I mean, not right this minute. We’ve got tonight, and who knows how much of tomorrow before anyone’s really gonna bug us about it. Right?” I ask her.
“I know. But can you just letmedeal with my mom from now on?” she replies.
I nod instantly, unable to stop myself from smiling.
“What’s so funny?” she asks, giving a look of mock annoyance.
“Nothing,” I remark, holding my hands up in surrender. “If you wanna deal with your mom all on your own, that’s fine by me.”
Hearing me bluntly, I see Jen go quiet, but only for a moment.
“I mean it, Kane. Can we just… Can I just deal with it my way? In my own time?” she asks me.
“Of course, you can, Jen,” I assure her, leaning over and taking her hand. Kissing the top of her head.
But it isn’t long before we both forget about everything. Something about her and me together always has the two of us smiling and laughing about something.
Even if it’s just because we’re in each other’s company.
The candles burn down quite a way before a lot of the food ends up in my belly, but I’m happy to see Jen’s appetite is almost as healthy as mine.
Something else we can work on. She’ll be eating for two soon enough…
And when our conversation comes around to Abby for all the right reasons, about how proud we both are of her.
About how we both wish Abby nothing but success with her new role, it’s clearer to us than when we started out that deep down, we both know we’d give up our family ties if it meant us being together.
But we both know, too, that’s something we’re desperately trying to avoid.
That’s the irony of it all.
“You sure raised Abby right,” Jen says.
The closest thing to a look of doubt flashing in her eyes as I can see she’s thinking about what kind of mom she’ll make.
And not just someday, but real soon.
“I was hardly ever here after she was a baby,” I sigh, “It was Abby who did most of her own raising. Between the two of you, I think you did a fine job helping raise each other,” I add, smiling at Jen.
“I’ve got all the time in the world now,” I remark. “And being a full-time dad isn’t something I’d shy away from,” I make sure to tell Jen.
Meaning every word of it. Knowing I could never make the same mistakes twice, being an older and wiser dad for the second time is something that I look forward to.
