Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 59713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
“Your place is a freaking palace,” she had said once. “My place is just stupidly close to work.”
The brothers and I had moved her stuff a month before as she let the lease run out a couple of weeks later. I expected her to have some emotional response to it, but instead, she was just happy about it. It was the last remnant of her old life, and she was happy to let it go once it was gone, moving on to her new life with me and the bean.
About the bean—we still hadn’t agreed on a name. A big part of that was there was so much uncertainty about the baby in general, considering we didn’t know what the sex would be. We had decided not to find out what it was, despite everyone telling us we were nuts for it. But we both agreed it would be better to be surprised and that we would figure out what the bean’s name would be when we saw them for the first time.
One of the two guest bedrooms had been set up as a nursery, which had been a big selling point of her moving in. She had set it up in neutral greens and yellows and soft stuffed animals. It was adorable in there, and I couldn’t wait to curl up in the big rocking chair and read to my tiny baby.
The other guest bedroom had turned from an office just for me to a split office for me and Camilla. Two desks, connected together with two desktops and multiple screens, tablets and other tech gave us plenty of ability to work and play in there together. I was spending more time at the house working from home recently, and with Camilla there on leave, it was a really sweet setup.
Camilla began waddling back into the room and smiled when she saw I had fixed her cave, as she liked to call it. She had been spending a lot of time there, since she was due any day and it would be a lot faster to get her out of the door from there than from inside our bedroom on the other side of the house.
I peeled back the blanket and helped her down and then pulled it back over her. She folded it back halfway, waving her hand near her neck to indicate she was hot. I grinned and kissed her forehead.
“Anything I can get you, babe?” I asked.
“No, you’ve gotten me everything,” she said. “I’ll need more tea in a bit though.”
“Already got a pot on.”
“Because you love me,” she said.
“I do.” I leaned down to kiss her again. Her lips were soft, and the kiss was sweet and tender.
The fact that she was due literally any time caused her a ton of anxiety, and she was always on the lookout for any of the signs she was going into labor. Today had been the most relaxed she had been in a while. Normally she had been a bit crabby about how miserable she was and how she was ready to give the baby an eviction notice. I did everything I could for her, but I couldn’t make the bean come out any faster.
The best I could do for her was to wait on her hand and foot. I didn’t mind. I had taken the last two days off work, and it was understood that I would just work from home if something came up. I had done a lot of prep work for the social media stuff, and everything else Cameron could most likely figure out if I didn’t have time to do it. Meanwhile, I would use my fancy home office to do whatever needed to be done from home and could video call the brothers for any questions I had. It wasn’t the dynamic and the energy of being in the office, but it was okay.
As Camilla snuggled into the couch, she put her swollen feet up and sipped on her tea. The family had just left a little while before, having their Sunday dinner in my living room rather than going to Noah’s. It wasn’t the more formal style of dinner that we were all used to, but it was fun in its own way. Most everyone sat around in the living room eating while we watched game shows and guessed along with the contestants.
When I felt like she was doing fine, I headed back into the kitchen and went back to doing the dishes. As I finished the last bit of the cleaning and was midway through drying and putting them away, I heard Camilla say something in the living room.
“What was that?” I called.
“Alex!” she cried, and the panic in her voice made me drop the cup I was holding and run into the room. She was sitting on the couch, her leg halfway in the air and looking down at a spot on the fabric that was wet. At first, I thought she must have spilled her tea, and then it dawned on me when I saw her expression.