Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 86126 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86126 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“No pressure,” he said softly, smiling. “Just glad you’re here, yeah? Now, I’m gonna go out and see how the girls like the play structure.”
He tilted my head down and brushed his lips across my forehead before striding out of the room.
I wasn’t sure how long I stood frozen in the middle of the kitchen, replaying the last twenty-minutes in my mind. I shouldn’t have just blurted it out like that, but I’d had to know. I’d needed to hear it from Titus but I hadn’t thought far enough ahead to realize that once he’d said it, there would be no going back from it. He’d held my hand and my face and he’d kissed me, granted it wasn’t on the mouth or anything, but still. It had been the first time in six years that I’d had Titus’s lips on me and my emotions were swinging wildly between elation and panic.
Eventually, I made my way back into the living room to where Otto had unloaded our things. The box and large suitcases were too big for me to carry upstairs, so I brought up our bags and the Moses basket first and left them on my bedroom floor. The kids were still outside with the men and I felt too raw to join them, so I opened up one of the suitcases and started making trips upstairs with the contents. I did that until I was able to carry the empty box and suitcases upstairs themselves, leaving behind the car seats placed neatly next to the front door.
I was putting the girls’ clothes away in their new dresser, tears dripping off the tip of my nose, when Titus and the girls found me an hour later.
“I swung so high,” Ariel announced, skipping into the room. “That man with the thing in his nose said I was flying.”
“Bas,” Titus corrected with a laugh.
“Mr. Bas,” Ariel said.
“Just Bas.”
“Mama?” Ariel asked tentatively, wrapping her arms around my waist. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I replied, turning toward them as I used the sleeve of my sweater to dry my face. “This is pretty great, huh?”
“Why’re you crying?” Ariel persisted worriedly.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “But I’m not sad.”
“Maybe you’re tired,” Ariel replied, patting my back. “Like when Diana’s tired and she cries.”
“Maybe.”
Titus laughed quietly as he set Diana on her feet. She toddled over to me and wrapped her arms around my thigh, laying her head against it.
“It’s been a big day,” he said softly, our eyes meeting over the girls’ heads. “Why don’t you guys hang in here with your mom for a while and put all your stuff right where you want it?”
“Thank you,” I mouthed, holding the girls against me.
He just nodded before leaving, closing the door quietly behind him.
Ariel and Diana were happy to help me put things away, excitedly putting their toys in a corner and setting stuffed animals on their beds. I almost started crying again when I realized that the reason we’d needed the box was because Esther had packed all of her maternity clothes and a whole stack of hand-me-downs from Flora in with our things.
As soon as everything was unpacked I carried the Moses basket over and set it in the crib, my hand going to my belly. I’d had my appointment with the midwife—Esther was right, I’d really liked her—and had another one coming up in a few weeks. After that, my appointments would be weekly. I hadn’t really thought about how things would go after I’d had the baby, but now that we’d moved and there was a crib in my new bedroom, the reality that I’d soon have three children under the age of five made my palms sweat.
Diana was too excited to lie down for a nap, so we spent a long time quietly playing together on their bedroom floor. Our rooms were so nice. Far nicer than I’d ever been able to afford. As I watched the girls curling their toes into the plush carpet and opening and closing the pocket door like it was the craziest invention they’d ever seen, I wondered what on earth I’d done to deserve it all.
We’d gone from lukewarm baths to make sure that Caleb had hot water for his shower at night and hanging a comforter over the broken window to block out the cold air that came through the trash bag we used to cover it, to a house that looked like it belonged in a magazine with a man that I knew would take a cold shower before he ever let any of us take a lukewarm bath.
Titus loved me.
Speaking of baths, the girls begged to take one before dinner, so we all crowded into the bathroom. They stripped down and climbed in before the tub had even an inch of water. Someone had thought to put a little rubber dolphin over the spout so neither of the girls would hit their head. They squealed and laughed and begged for me to grab them a couple of toys.