Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 95256 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95256 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
“Mmmm.” I rolled over and reached for her. And reached. And reached. And reached again. She wasn’t there.
“Gianni.” Her tone was less soft and sweet now, more insistent and annoyed.
I sat up and opened my eyes, her body taking shape in the shadows. She was standing at the side of the bed, dressed. “What? What’s wrong?”
She switched on the lamp. “I’m in labor.”
My heartbeat kicked into a gallop. “It’s not time yet! You have ten more days!”
She laughed. “Babies don’t always arrive on a schedule. When they’re cooked, the timer goes. And my timer went.”
I swung my feet to the floor and took her by the shoulders. “Are you sure? What time is it? Did you call the doctor?”
“I’m sure. It’s two-thirty, and yes. The on-call OB said to go to the hospital, since my water broke.”
“It did?”
“Yes. I got up to go to the bathroom and that was that.”
“Okay. Okay.” I got out of bed and started barreling around the room like a tornado. “Get dressed.”
“I’m dressed.”
“I was talking to myself.” I was opening and closing drawers, yanking things out and putting them on without even caring what they were. I shoved my feet into some shoes. I stuck a hat on my head. I remembered at the last second to put on deodorant, reaching beneath the sweatshirt I’d thrown on.
“Gianni, relax. It will probably be hours before this baby is here. And I need you not to panic, okay?”
I turned around and saw Ellie standing there, her belly huge, her hands braced on her lower back. Her long, dark hair hung loose around her shoulders. She looked so young and beautiful, my heart hurt. I tossed the deodorant aside and took her in my arms. “Are you scared?”
“Yes.” She smiled nervously, her brown eyes shining with excitement. “But I have you, right?”
“You have me. I’ll never leave your side.”
“Then I’m okay.”
I kissed her forehead and held her close for a moment, willing myself to be braver than I felt. She needed me to stay calm and reassuring, so even though I felt like a thousand bulls were fighting inside my rib cage, I had to remain still. “Got your bag?”
“I got it.”
“Then let’s go.”
Our new house still smelled like fresh paint, which I’d read might be harmful for the baby, but Ellie assured me that it had been over a month since I’d covered the seafoam green walls in one of the bedrooms with several coats of soft ivory. That had pretty much been my only job until it was time to put the crib together. Ellie, her mom, and my mother had filled the room to bursting with furniture and pillows and stuffed animals. I mostly just stood to the side and watched as the nursery came together, but I had to admit it turned out nice. I liked that it wasn’t too girly—no frilly lace or bubble gum pink, just neutrals like ivory and light brown and moss green. My favorite thing in it was this giant stuffed giraffe that I’d bought on a whim one day. Ellie had rolled her eyes and sighed, but gamely set it up in one corner next to the bookshelf.
I helped her down the stairs, through the kitchen, and into the garage. Opening the car door for her, I was overwhelmed by it all. “Ellie!”
She looked at me with alarm. “What?”
“Do you realize that the next time we pull into this garage we’ll have a baby in that thing?” I pointed to the infant car seat I’d installed in my SUV last week.
She laughed. “I certainly hope so. Because I’m evicting this child from my body today. Enough is enough.”
I held her hand the whole way to the hospital. “So what will we do if she doesn’t look like a Claudia Lupo?”
“She would not dare to come out looking like anything else,” Ellie said confidently. “She and I have had many chats about this.”
I chuckled. “Good.”
“And I promise, as soon as I can think about planning a wedding, I’ll change my name to Lupo too.”
I brought her hand to my mouth and kissed the back of it. We’d gone back and forth about when the right time to get married would be—before the baby or afterward—and finally decided to wait. Our parents had been hoping we’d tie the knot right away, but both Ellie and I were okay deferring it. She deserved the wedding of her dreams, not an emergency affair, and even though our mothers swore up and down it would be elegant and stunning, and they could handle everything, Ellie and I had stuck together and defended our right to do things on our own terms. It was enough for me that she’d said yes and wore the ring on her finger.
“It’s okay,” I said. “We’ll get married when we’re ready. We don’t have to do things in a certain order or the same way everyone else does—that’s boring.”