Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 432(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 432(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
“It is real,” he says. “In a few months, you’ll be giving birth to our little boy.”
“Thank you for flying our families out,” I tell him, wrapping my arms around him. “Today was perfect. More than perfect.”
“I wish you could stay longer,” I say to Joanne as we say goodbye to them after brunch.
Since they flew over on their private jet and the guys and Valerie all need to get back to work tomorrow, they can’t stay any longer.
My dad and his family left after brunch to catch their flight with the promise to visit soon. At the very least, they’ll come to see us once the baby is born.
“I do too,” Joanne says. “But we’ll text and video, and we’ll see you soon.” She wraps her arms around me in a motherly hug and kisses my temple. “I love you, Paige. Thank you for making my son so happy.”
Once everyone has said goodbye, Nate slides his arm around me. “Ready to go home?”
“I already miss everyone.”
Nate chuckles. “I get it, but we’ll see them soon.”
“Yeah, I know,” I say with a sigh. I don’t know if it’s because I felt so high with everyone here, and now that they’re gone, it’s like I’ve crashed, but I’m suddenly feeling extremely exhausted. “I think I’m going to take a nap when we get home.”
“Everything okay?” Nate asks, concern etched in his features.
“Yeah, I think I just need to catch up on my sleep. I didn’t sleep well last night.”
When we get home, Nate insists on taking a nap with me, so after we both change out of the outfits we wore to brunch, we climb into bed, and I lay my head against his chest while he runs his fingers up and down my spine.
“Thank you for this weekend,” I tell him as my eyes start to close. “I hate that we go so long without seeing everyone.”
You wouldn’t have to go that long if you stopped being stubborn, my subconscious thinks. If you lived in Dallas, you’d only be away from one family instead of both.
“We’ll figure it out,” Nate says, leaning over and kissing the top of my head. “We have plenty of time to figure it all out.”
I wake from my nap, alone, Nate’s side of the bed empty. I don’t know how long I slept for, but when I glance out the window, it’s already dark.
Jeez, I must’ve slept all afternoon.
The time on my phone confirms it, along with the missed calls and messages since my phone was on silent. After checking and replying to everyone—Nate’s family and mine both made it home safely—I go in search of Nate, finding him in my guest room with the furniture and floor covered and a few different splotches of paint on the walls. I immediately recognize the colors as the ones I showed him I wanted to paint the nursery.
“Hey,” I say, making myself known. “Whatcha up to?”
Nate turns around and grins. “I couldn’t sleep, so I figured I’d get started on the nursery. I ran to the store and picked up samples of the colors you’d mentioned and put them on the walls so you can see which ones you like the best. One of these would be for the main walls.” He points to the samples on the left. “And one of these would be the accent wall you said you wanted. What do you think?”
I walk inside the room to give them a better look, trying to imagine the nursery in each of the colors he painted on the wall, but for some reason, none of them feel right. They’re the exact colors I showed him, but they all feel wrong now. Which makes no sense because when I looked at the bedding sets online with these colors, I could visualize the crib and the changing table on the back wall…the rocking chair in the corner.
But now, nothing feels right. And that scares the hell out of me.
“Paige,” Nate prompts, his brows pinched together in concern, “any color pop out at you?”
He looks at me, patiently waiting for an answer, but the words are stuck in my throat because nothing about this room or the colors feels right, and I don’t know what’s wrong with me. This isn’t the first time I’ve felt like this, and it only seems to be getting worse.
“I…I don’t think I’m ready to do the nursery yet,” I stammer, having no clue how to explain what’s going through my head when I don’t even know. I thought I had it all figured out, but now, it feels like my head and heart are having conflicting emotions, and everything is all garbled up.
“Is everything okay?” Nate asks, worry etched in his features.
“I don’t know,” I breathe. “I thought I wanted those colors, but now…it just…” Tears prick my eyes. “I don’t know,” I repeat, feeling like I’m about to have a panic attack, similar to the one I had yesterday while at brunch with Ana and Kira.