Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
“Hmm?” he asked.
She tipped her head to the side, silently asking him to come closer. He did just that, his fingers crazing over the column of her throat while he waited for her to finish rubbing in the last of her cream on her throat.
“Remember this morning when I had to call the doctor back?”
“What about it?”
He bent down, lips pressing to the crown of her head with a soft kiss.
“She wanted to let me know I couldn’t have the IUD put in, anyway.”
“You canceled it, so what does that matter?”
Right.
That’s what she said, too.
“That’s not the question you should be asking, Andino.”
“No?”
“Nope.”
“Then what is?”
She met his gaze in the vanity mirror, her smile growing. “Think more why can’t you have it put in, Haven?”
His hands that had come to rest on her shoulders stilled, fingers flexing around the curves with a gentle pressure as he took a second, and then two. Still, their gazes held tight in the mirror, and she was able to watch every second of that realization wash over his features.
And no ...
She wouldn’t have given that up for the world.
That sight?
Him knowing?
She wouldn’t give that up for anything.
“I’m pregnant.”
“Yeah?”
Haven nodded.
“Seriously?”
She nodded again.
“Holy shit.”
He took a second to have his moment, grinning wildly like the proud father-to-be that he now was. Then, he simply let his arms snake around her chest where he hugged tight as he leaned down to bury his face in the crook of her neck. She wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that—too many minutes to count.
It almost felt like, for a second, they were soaking up being just them ... because soon, it would be them, plus one. And that was great, too.
“Thank you,” she heard him say, “for everything, Haven.”
Baby Lynn
“Clara?”
“No.”
“Christina?”
Andino hesitated on that one. It kind of screamed drama queen, baby of the family, total princess and he liked that, but maybe not for a first child. “Save it.”
The scratch of a pencil against paper resounded in his office, telling him she was scratching of yet another name on her list, before Haven asked, “Marissa?”
“I can’t even pass that one off as Italian to my parents. And could you imagine Dante when I told him that name? Fuck, he would never shut up about it.”
“You’re impossible.”
“I am not, I am simply—”
“I’m not Italian,” Haven pointed out, “and they all know it, so does it really matter if our daughter’s first name is Italian?”
“Matters to me.”
And to his family.
He kept that quiet, though.
Somehow, they ended up at his wife’s due date—today, although the doctor suspected she was going to go a few more days before they became serious about inducing—and still hadn’t picked a name for their daughter. A middle name was simple—he agreed on his wife’s mother’s name. Not Italian, but that didn’t matter so much.
The first name?
That was trickier.
It had to be perfect.
This little girl?
His first child?
Blood from his veins?
Yeah, that name had to be perfect, and he didn’t give a shit what anybody thought about it. Haven might be annoyed that he was being as picky as he was, but oh, well. His daughter was going to have a name that represented her, their legacy, and whatever else he wanted.
Simple as that.
“Rose,” Haven said.
“Save it.”
“What are we saving all these names for?”
“Other babies,” Andino muttered, opening a new tab on the computer to bring up his email. This had been their last two weeks in a nutshell. His wife scouring the internet for baby names, and then incessantly following him around to list them off while he veto’d, said maybe, or asked to save the name for a later date. All the while, she loudly and repeatedly let him know how ridiculous he was being about picking a name. ”We might need them.”
“Other babies.”
“That’s what I said, Haven.”
He peered at her over the top edge of the monitor, but he quickly realized that was a fucking mistake. She glared right back at him like if it were possible, he might be dead where he sat. God, he loved that about his wife. She took no shit, and when everyone else around him was willing to bend to him like he was a king, this woman was the first to remind him a king always bowed for his queen, too.
“What?” he asked.
Stupidly.
Did people know that?
Men were stupid anyway, but when their wife became pregnant, hormonal, and in Haven’s case, very much ready to have this baby out of her body ... men became impossibly dumber. They said and did stupid things with the intention to make their wife happy or just get a smile out of her, but really ... no, it never worked.
Like now.
“You can at least wait,” Haven said, every word measured, “for this child to get out of my body before you start harping on more.”