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I saluted him with the soda. “Good man.”
“Bubba?”
“Hmm.”
“Thanks.”
I grinned, “Like I said, anytime.”
CHAPTER 3
SMALL BUMP
FRANKIE
Instead of Archie’s car, we took one of the SUVs to my OB appointment. Reaching over I put my hand on his where it rested on the gear shift. “You still doing okay?”
He’d admitted to having a moment the previous week, but between the kids and the guys, and the hustle for school and getting ready for the tour, we hadn’t had a lot of Archie and Frankie time.
That needed correcting. Maybe we should take an earlier babymoon before the tour. If we waited until after, it would be January or February. I’d be a lot further along. It might limit our options.
“I’m fine, babe,” he said, turning his hand over underneath mine. “I kind of lost it there for a few. But, I’m really fine. We’re kind of old pros at this. Not sure why it just got me all of a sudden. I handled the rest of them okay.”
“We’ve all freaked out in our own ways. Remember when Coop didn’t sleep for a week?” It seemed funny in retrospect. It hadn’t been at the time though.
He’d grown crabbier and crabbier. The day he snapped at me had actually given him pause. The very real regret in his eyes earned my forgiveness before he even apologized. After he confessed his exhaustion, I called the guys. Something needed to give and Coop needed us.
Then we all put our heads together. Three days later, Coop and I left for the babymoon. He spent the first three days sleeping, but he felt better and then we had the time that was just us.
“I’m not that bad, am I?” He frowned, then shot me a look when we had to stop at a light. “If I’ve snapped babe…”
“You haven’t,” I promised him, then squeezed his hand. This—hesitance and worry—it wasn’t Archie. He was always so confident about everything. “And if I didn’t tell you before, I’m very glad you told me what was going on. I like being able to help you.”
He blew out a breath. “I feel like I’m going to screw all of this up.”
“Why?”
He blinked over at me a minute. The honk of a horn behind us jerked his attention forward. The light had turned green. So I waited for him. Sometimes, the best thing any of us could do was be patient while the other person sorted out what was going on with them. All that time in therapy paid off.
We were maybe three blocks from the OB’s office when he said, “I don’t know. It’s weird. This—this isn’t me. Or do I just have a higher estimation of myself?”
I couldn’t help it, the disbelief in his voice made me laugh. “No, it’s not.”
The rush of his exhale seemed to make him sag. Lifting my hand, he pressed a kiss to my palm. “Fuck me. Good. Also no listening down there…” He glanced down at the very small bump that wasn’t even visible in my clothes. I’d reclaimed my figure after Izzy.
Post Josh, I’d had more curves and just a little bit of a belly from how big I’d gotten with him. My tiger stripes fully formed with him too. Charlie just added to the emphasis and I never quite got back into those jeans.
It was all fine. No one was complaining. That said, the illusion of the bump already being there wasn’t hard to imagine. Especially with all the guys pausing to kiss my tummy at every turn. Jake liked to pull my shirt tight and Ian would just nudge it up. Coop was somewhere in between and Archie had been putting his hand there every night he slept next to me.
Some of the habits developed with Izzy. Others formed with Josh and then with Charlie. We were going to get new habits with… It was my turn to put my hand over the small bump. The bump needed a name. We would get one, eventually, as soon as we knew.
“You’re not going to want to wait until they get here, are you?”
“Absolutely not.” He shot me a grin. “I love you more than life, but if I have to suffer for months to find out if we’re having another girl or another boy, I might grow crazy.”
“Well, currently, that’s not a long trip.” The dry remark earned me a laugh.
“You’re not wrong. But—after the scan today, we’ll take Dad out to dinner tomorrow or invite him over?”
