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I let out a breath of relief. “Thank you.”

Chapter 24

Marshall

July 12 — 28 Weeks, Eggplant

One thing I am looking forward to is being home for more than a month at a time, the fact that I’m able to spend time with Elsie and be a part of her life in a way I might not be able to if I was still working on the rig.

I love being a part of every aspect of her life and her pregnancy right now.

Today, we’re driving from our apartment in River Oaks to the Medical District to get her blood pressure checked and do her Glucose Challenge Test (GCT), that’s typical at this point in her pregnancy.

“We’re going to be late,” Elsie grumbles from the passenger seat of my truck.

“We’ll be fine. This is how traffic works, Elsie.” I tease. “Just because we’re not thirty minutes early doesn’t mean we’re late.”

“Thirty minutes early is on time.” Elsie retorts.

“For you.” I chuckle.

She’s grumpier this morning than usual, and her fuse is a little shorter than normal, but her surliness is only cute to me because of the way her face scrunches and how she pouts.

We’re crawling slowly through the side streets, avoiding the freeway this morning because of a major accident.

I take a turn down a side street to see if we can sneak through the neighborhood and gain some time.

Instead, about halfway down the street, we’re caught behind another row of cars trying to turn onto a larger street.

Waiting patiently for the car in front of me I start looking around at the houses around us.

“This is a nice neighborhood,” I say, taking in the million-dollar mansions with more traditional ranch-style houses peppered between. “I love the older homes, though. Like that one down there.”

I point down the street a bit, where an older home sits with a “For Sale” sign in the front lawn.

“It’s quaint,” Elsie says, looking up from scrolling through her phone to distract her from the time.

We inch our way down the street, my gaze continually going back to the home.

“I love that it has a big front yard. That would be great for playing around with the kids.” I murmur to myself.

But Elsie overhears me and chokes out, “Kids?”

I cringe internally, knowing I’ve fucked up already.

It’s what I imagine for us, though. A home, a life with Elsie, filled with family and love and laughter.

Because there’s no doubt in my mind that this woman is my forever.

“Hypothetically, I mean.” I chuckle and shrug. “It’s just... That’s the kind of house I think I’d always imagined living in with my family.”

“You have your whole life planned out, don’t you?” Elsie says, looking between me and the house.

She would never say it out loud, but her tone makes me think she doesn’t mean my life as much as our lives.

She’d be right.

I am envisioning our life together.

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