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)
For the fifth day in a row ...
Yeah, John had been counting.
He knew what that meant.
Siena’s little flu spiel was no longer the case.
It couldn’t be.
“Da—”
“Hey,” John murmured, spinning around and dropping to his knees. He held his son by his shoulders, and gave him a smile. “Do you want to make Ma happy?”
Luciano nodded. “Yeah.”
“How about you go get her one of her special waters from the fridge, okay?”
“Okay, Da!”
“Don’t drop it on your way back up here.”
“I won’ts,” his son said fiercely. “I’m Lucky.”
John grinned. “You know it.”
It was just the idea that he could please his mother—who he loved with all of his tiny little heart—that sent Luciano out of his father’s hair for at most, ten minutes. After all, he would have to be careful and slow not to drop the water just to prove to his father he could in fact do it without dropping the bottle.
The kid was predictable that way.
Luciano’s footsteps had just started to fade when the bathroom door opened, and John turned to face his wife in the doorway. Pale skin. Darkness under her eyes. Frowning. Messy hair. Siena looked like hell—God, he loved her, but this particular morning had been rough on her in every way.
“You okay?” he asked.
She glanced up at the ceiling and said, “I am starting to think this might not be—”
“The flu?”
Her gaze darted back to him. “Yeah, probably not.”
“How late are you?”
“Two weeks.”
John nodded. “You didn’t think to mention it, or ...?”
“Never even thought about it at all until this morning. I never stop going, John. I’m lucky to remember when it might be coming up let alone know that I missed my damn period.”
Ouch.
Her tone was biting.
“Sorry—I deserved that.”
Siena frowned. “No, you didn’t. I’m just ...”
“Not feeling well. I know, babe.”
Not up to par.
Not herself.
John knew.
Siena twisted her fingers together, and glanced away. “Would you mind going to the store for me to get a test? Just in case—to know for sure?”
John laughed, and crossed the small bit of distance between him and his wife. He grabbed hold of her face, and tipped her head back so he could stare her right in the eyes. “You don’t even have to ask.”
“Yeah, I know.”
He bent down to kiss her mouth, and then hesitated at the last minute. “You brushed your teeth, did—”
“Yes.”
Good.
He kissed her twice, and then pulled away when little feet came pattering down the hall as fast as Luciano’s legs could carry him. He bound in between his mother and father, and held up the pink-colored vitamin water that Siena loved so very much. A wide smile stretched from cheek to cheek, and Luciano looked so fucking proud of himself.
“Here, Ma!”
Siena melted.
Lucky was her boy.
Her Ace.
And his Ace, too.
Lucky did no wrong.
Oh, she loved him.
“Thank you,” Siena said, taking the water and bending down to kiss Lucky on the top of his head. “You’re my good boy, huh?”
“I luff you, Ma.”
“I love you, too.”
“You sick?” Luciano asked.
Siena shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
The boy’s brow dipped in confusion. “Then why you get sick, Ma?”
Siena glanced up at John, but he was already backing away and shaking his head.
“Nope, that’s on you,” he said, “I have things to go buy.”
“John.”
“You walked him into it!”
And she could walk him right out of it, too.
They agreed on that long ago—awkward conversations got passed onto whoever brought it up in the first place. Siena owned this.
*
“Okay, let’s let Daddy see if he can tell us what the sex of the baby will be,” the ultrasound technician said with a wink in Siena’s direction.
John’s gaze was already glued to the screen—it hadn’t left from the moment she had swung it around so they were able to get their first glimpse of their baby.
In grainy black swishes and swirls, the tech had counted ten fingers, and ten toes. She’d showed them the baby’s spine, the profile of their features, and the little beat-beat-beat of the heart working just as it should.
It was all ... amazing, really.
Fascinating.
John couldn’t look away.
“Right here,” the tech said, using her finger to draw a circle on the screen. “This is a leg, and this is a leg, and this is a bum. So, what do you see in between those legs and above the bum?”
John’s gaze narrowed in on the black spot of nothingness.
Nothingness.
“Nothing,” John murmured.
It took a beat, and then two. He realized what he had said, and what it meant. He understood why his wife gave a little excited squeal, and why the tech was grinning in a sly sort of way like she had just played a trick on them.
Oh, he knew.
Still, it took him a second.
The air sucked from the room.
Siena smiled wide.
“Exactly,” the tech said. “You see nothing. So, what does that tell you?”
“It’s a girl.”
Siena tipped her head back, and pulled John down for a kiss with one trembling hand fisted into his shirt. “It’s a girl, John.”