flinch.
“Well, coincidentally, we talked about this a few weeks ago. We were gonna wait
to have more, but I’m quite sure he’ll be happy once the shock wears off.” I
shrug. Yes, Isaac will be great. We’d planned to have a whole houseful of children
when we first got married.
“Oh, God.”
I swallow another chip and take a sip of water.
“What?”
Brynna asks.
“I’m going
to have two babies under eighteen months old. Two babies in diapers. Two
babies…”
Her
eyebrows are raised and she’s grinning. “I wouldn’t know what that’s like at
all.”
“Damn, I
was not expecting this.” I laugh and take a deep breath. “Sophie’s gonna be a
big sister.”
“How are
you going to tell him?”
“Oh, I
don’t know. It should be something fun.” I clap my hands excitedly.
“I know!
Christmas is just a few days away.”
“I like
where you’re going with this.” I sip my margarita impostor and lean forward,
listening intently.
“Okay, I
saw this on that pinning board online. Have you seen that site?”
“I’m
addicted to that site.” I waste many, many hours on that site.
“Here’s
what you’re going to do: call Natalie first. Then…”
***
“How was
your day?” Isaac asks and pulls me in for a kiss. He’s just come in from work,
and brought Italian with him, God love him.
“It was a
good day,” I smile to myself and jump up and down in my head. “Pretty
standard.”
“Anything
new happen?”
You
have no fucking idea, babe.
“Not
really.” I shrug and kiss him chastely and then start pulling Styrofoam boxes
of delicious food out of a brown paper bag. Isaac walks into the kitchen for
plates and silverware and pulls down two wine goblets and a bottle of Merlot.
Shit.
“No wine
for me, Eyes,” I say as nonchalantly as possible.
“You sure?
I know you love this with the chicken parmesan.” He frowns and tilts his head.
“Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m
fine,” I wave him off and dish up our plates, smiling over at Sophie who is
sitting in her bouncy seat on the table, blowing raspberries and playing with
her feet.
“No more
headaches?” he asks and returns the wine and goblets to the kitchen, bringing
us each a bottle of water instead.
“No, not
in a couple days.” I grin at him. “Definitely no headache tonight.” I wiggle my
eyebrows, making him chuckle and doing my best to distract him from talking too
much about my day.
“Did the
doctor call with the results of yesterday’s tests?” he asks and takes a bite of
salad.
So much
for that.
“Yeah,
everything’s fine.” I can’t look him in the eye now. I hate lying to him, even
if it’s to surprise him. And this is a big deal, and I’m so excited!
Maybe I should tell him…
“So, the
headaches were probably from stress then?” he asks, looking thoughtful while he
chews.
“That’s
what the doctor thinks.” I take a sip of water and dig back into my saucy
pasta. God, it’s good.
“I know
you’ve had a lot on your plate, Stace. Maybe you should take a break from the
blog for a while.”
Huh?
“Why would
I do that?” I ask with a frown.
“Because
you obviously have a lot going on, with Sophie and Brynna being home and
everything.” He shrugs like this makes perfect sense to him.
“I love my
blog. I love to read. The authors depend on me to help them promote their
books, and write reviews, and I don’t want to take a break from it.”
“I’m not
saying you should give it up altogether. Maybe just slow down. It takes up a
lot of your time.”
“Are you
saying that you don’t want me to keep doing the blog, Isaac?” I put my
silverware down and stare at him. He’s never voiced this to me before. He’s
always seemed to be so proud of me.
What the
hell?
“No,” he
frowns at me. “Jesus, I’m not an asshole. If you love it, keep doing it. The
doctor said your headaches are caused by stress, and I’m just trying to think
of ways to reduce your stress.”
And
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