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“You’re fine,” she said, squeezing my arm before leaning toward me. I accepted the invitation and kissed her lightly. “I know how much you want to know and the fact our child is being quite obstinate should not come as any surprise to either of us.”
Dad suddenly let out a laugh. “Listen to Frankie, Archie my boy. You were such a stubborn baby. I was half-convinced you learned to talk early so you could tell everyone off.”
“What was Archie’s first word?” The question had me sliding her a look, the fact she wore a soft, intrigued smile just made me adore her more.
“Pretty sure it was ‘no,’” Eddie said, as he rubbed his chin. “Check with Jeremy, but I’m almost positive. I know the first word I heard Archie say was a very emphatic no.”
“Like I said, I like to know things and I like having a firm grasp on everything that is going to happen when.”
“Well, we have one more shot at this,” Frankie assured me. “We definitely know at least one is a girl. That may be all we get until they get here.”
I didn’t have to like it so much as just accept it. When she eased forward, I stood and held out a hand to her. Standing and sitting were growing more challenging. There was a little more swelling in her hands this time. The rings had been absent for a while.
She wore her bracelet more and more. The bracelet that had new charms for our life after marriage. She also had little heads with their names and birthdays inscribed on them for the kids. Once our new pair arrived, I’d add two more.
“You okay?” I checked and she nodded.
“Yes, I just have the world’s smallest bladder. So, if you two will excuse me.”
Dad was also standing. Old habits, ingrained throughout his life. I got it. Frankie stood, so did I. It wasn’t quite so firm for other women. Not that I paid any attention to them.
“Food will be ready shortly,” Eddie told her. “I thought about holding it a little later for us to make together…”
Her pout was downright adorable.
“Then I remembered what your appetite is like pregnant, so I put it all together earlier and slid it into the oven a little while ago to heat.”
“I adore you,” she said, pausing to give him a kiss on the cheek and he returned the affection easily enough. “Excuse me, gentlemen.”
After she made her way down the hall, I glanced at Dad to find him studying me. I retrieved my glass and took a seat and he followed suit, albeit more slowly.
“Spit it out,” I told him.
“I don’t know if you really need any advice from me.” Not unfair. Once upon a time, I would have agreed with him.
Once upon a time…
“Well, we won’t know until you give me the advice,” I told him.
He looked at his glass, then set it aside. “Don’t be in such a rush all the time.”
I raised my brows.
“You want to know and you want to know yesterday. I get it. You like knowing things. You want to be in a position to anticipate everything. It’s—you like to fix things. You like control even more. It’s a fundamental part of what makes you, you.”
I couldn’t really argue with the assessment.
“I know we might not find out about the gender and that’s fine.” It wasn’t but I would accept it because what else would I do. “They did offer to do a blood test.”
“Feels like cheating, doesn’t it?” Dad asked, his brows raised and I spread my arms wide.
“Thank you. It does. There’s something about seeing it on the screen or in the scan when they brought them home. I just—I want to know. But… I can wait. The important thing, the only important thing is that Frankie and the babies are healthy. Babies.”
I made a face and he grinned.
“I will say that twins surprised me,” Dad mused. “Not that it isn’t amazing. It absolutely is, but usually, it runs in the mother’s side of the family and I don’t remember Maddy having that many twins. A lot of only children, but no twins.”
He let out a long sigh.
