Page 83 of Six Wishes

“Was she good?” I rest my chin on Chloe’s head, a sigh of contentment taking over my entire being. Life is just so perfect, I can’t get over it.

“Your mom?” Chloe’s eyebrows lift in surprise and she turns her head a little to look at me.

“No, you dork, Annie. Was Annie good when my mom watched her?”

Annie is always good, honest to God, and I am not saying it because she is mine. But I always ask when someone else watches her. I have no idea why. I remember my mom asking that every time she’d pick me up from a friend’s house. “Was he good?” she’d say, and I’d wait for the other mom’s answer with bated breath.

“Nana didn’t say that she wasn’t,” Chloe chuckles. “So I’d say that yes, she was good.”

“Good,” I dig my chin hard into her head when she tries to elbow me in the ribs. “So are you good?”

“Me?” she squeaks, and that gets my Spidey senses up. This girl is not the squeaking kind. Not ever. When she gets goofy like this, it usually means that something is up. And since I can feel her body getting a bit tense in my arms all of a sudden, I’d say that yes, something is up.

“Yes, you. You said you went to the doctor. Why? And you better not be telling me that you’re dying or some shit like that, Chlo. I swear…”

“Van,” she interrupts me with her belly laugh. “I love that you are still as goofy as ever. You make me laugh. All the time.”

“Yeah?” I always love to hear her telling me how much she loves me. I need reassurance at all times, I suppose.

“All the time, Van.” She dislodges my arms from around her waist so that she can turn around and face me. “And I have to say that I am a bit disappointed.”

“What?” I am just appalled now. “Why?”

“You haven’t hit me with any bad pickup lines in sooooo long, Van,” she whines a bit. “I feel like that’s how you show your love, and I haven’t gotten any of it much lately…”

It takes everything in me not to laugh at that. That was not what I thought she’d tell me.

“Chlo, I’ve been running out of pickup lines. I had to do some research. You ready?” I glance real quick to make sure Annie is still okay at the table. She is minding her own business, working on not allowing her foods to touch.

“Always,” Chloe’s breathless response snaps my eyes back to her.

“Are you a haunted house?” I nip at her bottom lip.

“What?” she laughs incredulously. She knows something bad is coming, and she’s bracing herself for it.

“Well, are you?”

“I don’t know,” she scrunches her nose. “Why do you ask?”

“Because I’m going to scream when I’m inside of you.”

“Oh my God,” she snickers, then looks back to Annie to make sure she is not paying attention to us, which she is not. Nothing gets her attention much when she’s got food in front of her. “I got something else inside of me already, Van,” Chloe lifts herself to whisper right into my ear.

My heart starts beating out of my chest. I am frozen in the spot, unable to even blink.

“Chlo, it better be either another baby of mine that’s in you, or a fancy dildo of some kind.”

“Van,” she slaps at my chest, the incontrollable laughter taking over her entire body. “I just can’t with you.”

I have to let go of her when I see that she is laughing so hard, she can’t breathe. She puts her hands on her knees and tries to take deep breaths, trying to calm down.

“For your information, Mr. Boyd,” she finally collects herself and is back in my face. “It is another baby. Six weeks along.”

My eyes fill with water, and I am pretty sure I am going to cry. This girl is making my life more perfect every day. I can’t imagine being without her.

“Van,” she pokes at me when she sees I am not saying anything. “Did you hear me? Another mini Van is on the way.”

“I heard you,” I blink to clear my vision from the tears threatening to spill out.

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