to go through anything alone. No thought is too small or too petty to share with me. I want you to come to me with everything. I want to be here for you in every way.”
“You’re too sweet. What happened to the man I met in the diner?”
“I’m still here. I’m just a ball of mush now.”
“I love you.” I kissed his lips lightly. “Thank you for being you.”
“No, thank you for marrying me.”
“Thank you for asking.”
“Thank you for having my babies.”
“Thank you for loving our babies.”
“Thank you for letting me have unprotected sex with you.” He whispered and I hit him in the shoulder.
“Zane! Just when I think you’re not going to be a dumbass.”
“You wouldn’t want me if I didn’t entertain you.”
“Whatever.”
“What to go and have some unprotected sex?”
“What?” I glared at him.
“It’s not like you can get pregnant right now.”
“I swear you’re lucky I love you, Zane Beaumont.” I shook my head. “No, we are not going to have sex now. But yes, you can take me to the mall so that we can look at baby furniture.”
“Oh no.” He groaned. “Do I have to?”
“Do you want to attend a baby class with me tonight instead?”
“This is a trick question, isn’t it?” He paused and narrowed his eyes. “You expect me to attend the class with you whether I like it or not, don’t you?” He cocked his head to the side and a smile spread across his face. “Why Lucky, I do believe you’re becoming a sly one, aren’t you?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I laughed.
“Do we really have to go and look at cribs?”
“No,” I paused and smiled slowly. “We can go and check out the diapers instead.”
Zane groaned and put his face in his hands. “Diapers, cribs, baby classes. What have I done?”
“Tell me about it. I have to take off next semester.”
“What?” He looked up at me. “Why?”
“I’ll have a new baby. I can’t handle school and motherhood.”
“I’ll be here to help.”
“The man who doesn’t know anything about babies?” I raised an eyebrow at him.
“I guess I can attend a few more classes with you.”
“With no sexual innuendos?”
“You’re really trying to take all the fun out of it, aren’t you?”
“Fun is what got us in this position.”
“Oh my God, we’re going to be parents.” Zane’s face went pale and I knew that it was hitting him fresh all over again.
“We’ll be fine.”
“I’m glad one of us believes that.”
“Let’s have some fun tonight.” An idea flashed into my mind. “Let’s go to karaoke and just relax.”
“I thought you wanted to go and look at baby stuff?”
“That can wait.” I shook my head. “The stores will still be there tomorrow. Tonight I want us to go karaoke.”
“Did I hear someone say karaoke?” Noah walked into the room with Skylar, who was sucking on a lollipop.
“What’s ka-aoke?” Skylar looked at Noah with inquisitive eyes and bright blue lips. I tried not to laugh at the sight the two of them made. Noah was also sucking on a lollipop and he had bright green lips.
“It’s when people go out and sing to well-known songs.”
“Or not as well-known.” Zane corrected him. “I remember you singing a certain song called ‘Snakes going to get hurt’ and no-one in the bar knew it.”
“It was famous in France.” Noah laughed and Skylar’s eyes lit up.
“I wanna go to France and sing about snakes.”
“Hmm, I’d rather you sing about cows and pigs on a farm.” Noah smiled at her gently and ignored the other part of her comment.
“In France?” she continued.
“No, we’re not going to France.” He tried to sigh, and I felt sorry for him and the memories the thought of France must be bringing up.
“We can play karaoke this weekend if you want, Skylar.” I changed the subject and went over to the little girl. Her hair hung in soft blond tresses down her back and her big sky-blue eyes looked back at me
Stefan Zweig, Anthea Bell