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“And Daddy loves Mommy, don’t forget that part.”
He kisses my stomach once more and then slides up next to me. “Oh, would never.Couldnever.” Drew presses his lips to mine. Long, unflinching. A far cry from what we were when we began, hiding our passion from the light of day.
Now we have all the time in the world.
“So, when should I move in?” I say just as I’m about to drift off to sleep in his arms.
Drew pushes his face into my neck. “How about tomorrow?”
With a smile, I drift off to sleep, with dreams of the guest room turning into a nursery and our little one safely asleep down the hall while we embrace in the joyful exhaustion that is our future as parents.
26
DREW
Holidays arethe hardest without my mom. Birthdays too. No matter how many people I’m surrounded by, no matter how much fun I could possibly have, her absence is felt in the deepest part of me.
However, the grief is a little lighter this Easter. My first one as a host.
First, because I got a call yesterday telling me that Willow has been forcefully committed to an asylum.
We thought it was better to protect ourselves against her by getting a restraining order and maybe court mandatory help for her, so we pressed charges against her the day after her attack. We went down to the station and gave them our statements. She was being kept in lockdown for forty-eight hours while they investigated what had happened.
Apparently, while she was there, she had a psychotic break. They say it was bad and she had to be heavily sedated.
They aren’t letting her out anytime soon, I was told, and even after that, she’ll have to answer to breaking and entering, attempted rape, and kidnapping, as well as stalking me and Dana. But the police officer who called was pretty sure she was there for life or at least for a loooong time. Which is a relief. We were watching our backs for a while there, for her payback, but I guess we can just live our lives now without having that extra worry.
I asked the nice officer to please let us know if she is ever released so we can then be on the lookout, and he said they would, so there is that.
But more importantly, I’ve graduated from the adult that tags along to celebrations to the one having the celebration myself. That’s growth if I’ve ever heard it.
“Okay, ready…set…” Dana calls out as if she’s talking to a whole classroom of kids rather than just Jessica, Stella, and Tana. “Go!”
Jessica and Stella tear off while Tana hobbles on her feet hand in hand with Harley and Grant who are hunched over and cooing excitedly to her about spotting easter eggs. Hard to believe she’s just over a year old and getting her feet under her like this. Time flies.
I look over at Dana who is smiling ear to ear, watching her nieces search for the eggs. We spent a good chunk of this morning finding the perfect places to stick eggs all over the yard. “They can’t be too obvious but they can’t be too hard to find either,” she instructed.
Stella and Jessica are already heading toward the backyard, their baskets full, the two of them laughing. Gillian follows, making sure they don’t get themselves into trouble. Tana has settled on the grass where we left some out in the open for her. She’s trying desperately to suck on a purple egg that Harley keeps pulling out of her reach.
“This is what we have to look forward to, huh?” I murmur to Dana.
She smiles and slides her hands down over her stomach, showing off the contour of her tiny bump. Every morning, she stands in the mirror, saddened she hasn’t popped yet. “Don’t get too ahead of yourself, Drew,” Dana says.
I rest my hand over hers. “Trust me, I’m not.” I plant a small kiss on her lips and brush my nose against hers.
“It’s so cute I may vomit,” Amy exclaims.
We pull away from each other. Force of habit. I keep my hand on Dana’s waist and draw her back into me. While the kids search for eggs, us adults congregate into a little group. The gang is all here: Amy and Hunter, Gillian and Axel, Kira, Kent, and, unprecedently, Victoria made it back from a project in Brazil in time for the holiday. You wouldn’t even know she came straight from the airport from how put together she looks.
“Are you all settled in yet, Dana?” Hunter asks, his eyes following Jessica as she carefully tiptoes through a bed of greenery.
“I would be if Drew let me actually do any of the heavy lifting,” she grumbles.
I scoff. “What kind of boyfriend would I be if I let my pregnant girlfriend move herself into my house?”
Dana ignores me. “We’re trying to make sure I actually unpack, so we’re only doing a few boxes at a time.”
“At this rate, you’ll be moved in by Christmas,” Kira says.
