AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The corners of my lips pulled down. “Oh, man. Not only for the dad having to miss everything but for the mom having to go through the birth without him. I can’t even.”
“Right? I’m so nervous for that part. My mom said she had rough labors with me and Paul.” Aria shuddered and put her hands on her tummy, looking down at it affectionately. “Please be nice to Mommy.”
“I’m sure you’ll do great,” I encouraged her.
“Eek, you know what I saw on TikTok?” Lyndi asked, grabbing each of our arms and squeezing them, her eyes bright.
Aria and I shared a look, then I pointed at her. “I think you might be spending too much time on TikTok.”
“Come on, where else do you think I get my book recs? Anyway, military homecomings are the cutest things ever. Don’t watch them without a box of tissues handy. But you could totally do something with a sign that said something about your baby bump. Like, ‘You’ve been busy on deployment, but I’ve been busy baking this bun.’ Or something. I’m a reader not a writer, don’t judge me.”
I snorted and Aria laughed, covering her face with her hands. “Lyndi, that issocringey. No, I’m not doing that.”
“Whatever. Okay, I gotta get ready and so do you, but congratulations!” Lyndi stepped forward and hugged Aria, then stuck her tongue out at me before she headed back to her room.
“What are you up to today?” Aria asked as she moved toward the door.
“Well,hopefully, I’m going shopping for Halloween costumes with Zac and Gray. Depending on how their conversation goes this morning. He’s going to tell Gray we’re dating.”
“Aw, that’s so sweet. I’m sure it’ll go great,” she said. Before I could reply, my phone rang, and Aria wagged her brows. “I’ll scoot. Have fun later.”
“You too,” I replied, letting her out and pulling my phone from my pocket. My hands shook as I answered the call, so I took a calming breath before I said anything.
“Lay, you there?”
“Yes, sorry, hey. How did it go?”
“It was … well, it was good. But it was also a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.”
“Did he not take it well?”
Zac sighed on the other end of the line. “No, he took it well. It’s just that it brought up questions about whether that meant you’d be his mom, and for some dumb reason I didn’t think the conversation would go there.”
“I see.”
I pursed my lips, holding back the laugh that wanted to come out. Of course, it’d go there. The kid had friends at school with two parents, and Zac had told me Grayson knew his mom had passed away and that was why he didn’t have a mom like they did.
“You figured this would happen, didn’t you?” he asked, laughing a little.
“Yeah, I did. It’s a natural thing for him to think about.”
“Maybe I underestimated him a little. Like I planned on talking to the three-year-old version of him instead of the six-year-old one. I didn’t prepare for him to think too hard about it, you know?”
“Well, kids are observant. They see more than we think.”
“Yeah, I guess so. He’s cool with it, by the way. You coming with us. He brought up all of us dressing up together like a family costume thing. His friend is doing it with his parents. I told him we’d ask you, but if you’re not comfortable with it, no pressure.”
My stomach tightened and I nodded, then I realized he couldn’t see me. “Um, wow. Yeah. That would be cute. This whole thing just leveled up, didn’t it?”
“I think so, yeah.”
“How do you feel about that?” I asked, holding my breath.
“How doyoufeel about it?”
“Will you trust whatever answer I give you?” I countered, quirking a brow.
He snickered. “Yes, Layla.”
