Page 143 of Until I Find You

I wakeup before Camilla the next morning. After a good while watching her sleep, I force myself up to go make some coffee. The journey down to the kitchen is long, which sparks an idea of maybe making a coffee station in the hall upstairs. Another idea for another day.

When I return to our room, though, the sheets are mussed, and Camilla is nowhere to be seen.

“Cami?” I call out into the room.

No response.

I place the coffee on the bedside table, expecting her to come back to bed, and check the master bathroom. “Baby girl?”

Still nothing.

I exit our bedroom and go across the hall to the nursery. Of course, that’s where she’d be.

She stands at the bay window, looking out as the sun streams in. A beautiful image of her hair sticking out every which way, her feet bare, wearing her robe. It’s almost like I’ve fast-forwarded time about a year. I already have a vision of our baby propped on her hips, can hear her voice as she talks to them in a soft and sweet voice about a bird flying by the window. In need of sleep, but happy, nevertheless.

“I was looking for you.”

She turns, and I am dropped back into the present moment. No baby, just her belly. But still beautiful Camilla. “You found me.”

I glance around the nursery. A work in progress, not due to the decorators, but us. Everything needs to be perfect. There are paint swatches on the walls and various choices of furniture in boxes. The one thing set up is the crib against the wall.

“It’s…real,” she says and drifts over to the crib.

I go to join her. “Yep, getting real really fast.”

Camilla looks down into the unmade crib and shakes her head.

“It’s all going so fast.” There’s a hint of sadness in her voice.

I push some curls out of her face. “That’s how the whole parenting thing tends to go. Soon, eighteen years from now–”

“Don’t even start! You’ll make me cry!”

I laugh and slide my hand around her waist.

“We just…didn’t get much time alone together. I don’t regret anything we’ve done, but sometimes I’m scared we jumped headfirst into something we didn’t know enough about.”

I gulp. “You’re having doubts?”

“Not doubts. Just don’t want you to forget about me when you have a real baby to deal with,” she says with a half-hearted smile.

I pull her under my arm and drop a kiss to the crown of her head. “You’re my baby girl, Camilla. That doesn’t change just because we’re–”

“Jack.”

The urgency in her voice makes me jump. “What is it? What’s–”

She grabs my hand and places it on her stomach.

And I feel it. The nudge against my hand.

“You felt that, right?”

“I…think so.” Another nudge.

It’s real. Really real.Rightthere. I’ve known we have a baby coming, obviously, but now…

“Oh, my god,” I murmur.

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