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He sits straight up. “Are you pregnant, Dee? Oh my god—”
I put up a hand to stop him. “No, sorry. I’m not pregnant.”
“Oh. You don’t have to apologize.” Despite his words, his torso slumps back into the pillows.
“You’re disappointed?”
“Well, yeah. I’d love to have some little Dees and Sams running around here. Wouldn’t you?”
“Yeah, eventually.” I glance at the shower, suddenly rethinking everything. What if he doesn’t think I can do this? “But we’re way too young for that.”
“So, what is it, then?”
After swallowing around a lump in my throat, I force the words out. “I got into law school. Early decision, so it’s binding.”
His expression shifts from worry to surprise to what I hope is excitement. “Seriously? That’s awesome.”
“Well, there is a catch.”
“Okay.”
“We’d have to move to North Carolina.”
He’s totally unreadable for what feels like ten years, but when he finally reaches out to trail a finger from the hoop in my brow to the stud in my nose, he finally smiles.
“Guess you’ll have to take out the piercings, then.”
A sigh of relief escapes past my lips. “You’re probably right.”
He reaches out to stroke a hand over my breasts and lightly taps the bar in my left nipple. “But not these, right?”
3
December 31,2009
“I resolve to be the dad I wish I had.”
SAM
“I can’t believe we’re actually going to a New Year’s Eve party tonight,” I say on the morning of the thirty-first, after draining my cup of coffee. “This is the first, last day of the year that neither of us has had to work.”
Dee frowns at her own cup, which she’s barely touched. “Yeah.”
“Do you not want to go?” The party’s with a bunch of other law students, so I don’t care if we stay home instead. However, I was kind of looking forward to celebrating what I think of as our anniversary, even though our wedding anniversary is in June.
She yawns. “I’m sure I’ll rally. I’m just tired.”
After rinsing my mug and slotting it into the dishwasher, I slap my belly, which has grown a bit over the past few months. “I think I’m going to head to the gym. This was a fattening holiday season.”
She looks up from the newspaper she’s been staring at without turning the page for the past half hour. “New Year’s resolution?”
“Nah, that never works. I do have to stop yo-yoing on my weight, though.”
She waves that down. “You’re fine.”
She’s gained weight too, though of course, I’d never say that out loud. So I head for the bedroom to put on my workout clothes.
Just as I hit the doorway, she calls, “Wait.”
