AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What’s wrong, baby?” Jake echoes.
She glances over her shoulder then looks up at me. “Your lingonberry jam. I left the jar on the table.”
“What—jam?” Jake glances between us with a confused frown. “You wanna stop this baby parade over a jar of jam?”
The earnest look in her eyes has me falling in love with her all over again. She’s in labor with my child, and yet she’s genuinely concerned about misplacing a jar of jam.
Swooping down I kiss her, my hand cupping her face possessively. She sighs into the kiss, one hand clinging to my shirt. I quickly pull away. “Forget the jam,” I say. “You’re having our baby. Just focus on that now, joo?”
Tears well in her eyes as she finally lets herself feel the intensity of this moment.
“Have this baby for us, and I’ll buy you a jar of jam for every day of the week.”
Slowly, she nods, sucking in a nervous breath as her hand covers mine. “Yeah.”
Jake glances between us, one brow raised. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I echo.
“Alright. Then let’s go, Team Price. We’re doin’ this. It’s baby time.” Jake steps in behind us, his hands on both our shoulders as he gives us a little shove. “No more unscheduled stops, or Cay is gonna get creative and set the building on fire just to smoke us out.”
As soon as Jake says it, I realize we can’t put it past Caleb to take such a drastic measure. Not where Rachel is concerned. “Come,” I say, holding tighter to Rachel’s hand.
Behind me, I hear the anxiety in Jake’s voice as he says, “And we all know I was kidding about the Flörp thing, right? Mars, if this is your baby,pleasedon’t name him Flörp, okay?”
I smile, glancing over my shoulder at him. “No promises.”
“Fuck.”
5
PATERNITY TEST
“Come on, you know you can tell me. Do you have a preference?” Tess leans in, propping her elbows on the edge of my hospital bed, as she flashes me a conspiratorial grin.
I just laugh, shaking my head. “You know I don’t.”
“But if you did,” she teases.
I roll my eyes. “Don’t make me call the nurse. She’ll drag you out by your pretty red curls.”
“Fine,” she huffs, leaning away. “I mean, I can’t win my bet if you won’t just tell me…but it’s fine.”
“Ohmygod,” I cry as she laughs. I look around for something to throw at her, but nothing is close enough. “You arenottaking bets on which of my husbands I want to be the father of my baby, Tess! You know I’m not going to choose.”
She snorts, leaning back in her chair. “Girl, just listen to that sentence, and tell me we don’t live in some kind of crazy world,” she says with a smile, shaking her head.
I play it back in my head, and now I’m smiling too. I guess she has a point. From the outside, I know my life seems unconventional. Very publicly married for three years to three wonderful men. We have a beautiful son. Another is nestled asleep in my arms, newly born.
Of course, the timing could have been a little better. This time last year, I’d just given birth to our sweet Jamie. I was ready to settle into the wonderful and weird life of parenthood. But then I had to go get myself knocked up again less than two months later.
Now it’s been over a year and a half of me being perpetually pregnant. Mr. Oops Baby came out early too, suffering a mild case of jaundice. We’ve been in the hospital an extra two days as our newest love bug has spent some time wrapped up in a UV blanket like a glow worm. I also had some heavy spotting that was a bit worrying at first, so they just kept me here too.
“How’s Lil No Name doing?” says Tess, peeking over the edge of my bed at the bundled baby.
I smile down at him, brushing a finger along his cheek. “Pink and perfect.”
“Y’all goin’ for three in three?”
