Page 153 of Gracefully Yours

I smirked, and then I showed her exactly what I meant.

Over and over, until we fell asleep, exhausted, boneless, completely sated—and completely happy. Content. A feeling I hoped would never go away.

* * *

AUGUST

“What do you want?” Charlotte asked me as I drew circles over her belly. At five months, she was showing, and it felt like her bump was getting bigger every day.

“For them to look just like you,” I said with a smile.

She rolled her eyes. “I’m serious.”

“So am I. Boy or girl, I’m happy.”

My wife sighed, relaxing into my arms. We’d been having variations of this conversation for the last few months. I was almost certain that the walls of the nursery room we were in would be painted pink.

I just had a feeling.

We had our appointment later this week, and though we’d tossed around some names, we were waiting until we found out the gender to fully decorate.

“Besides, we can always try again, right?” I said, enjoying just sitting here like this. Holding my wife. “Have another one.”

“It’s notPokèmon. We don’t have to collect them all.”

“Mmm. But you want more, right?”

She leaned her head back, tilting it up so she could look at me. “Yeah. I do. And that’s… what you want still too, right?”

“Yes. As many as you want.”

Because I knew they would grow up happy, loved, in a house where their parents were steady. Reliable. We had our occasional fights, but our ten-year-long friendship had taught us to understand each other better than anyone else. It made us strong enough to survive anything.

Even a whole brood of Bradfords.

A few days later, we were at the doctor’s office. Charlotte was wearing a loose pink tank top and stretchy jean shorts, since it was a hot summer in Portland, and she was absolutely miserable with the heat. Luckily, our brand new house had AC, and Benjamin and Angelina’s pool was coming along.

“You’re still good to find out, right?” She asked, turning to face me. “No surprises?”

“No surprises,” I agreed, kissing the top of her hand that I was holding.

“Charlotte?” the nurse called at the door. “You can come back.”

We went through the routine questions and evaluations with the nurse, and then the doctor came in.

Charlotte pushed up her shirt to reveal her twenty-week bump. Dr. Richardson got started right away, squirting the gel on before pressing the wand up against Charlotte’s belly.

After a few moments, with Charlotte’s hand gripping mine, she turned to us. “You want to find out the gender, right?”

“Yes, please,” Charlotte begged. “We couldn’t tell at the last appointment and…”

“We want to paint the walls. And pick out a name.” I finished for her.

“Well, congratulations, Mom and Dad. You’re having a baby girl.”

A girl.I kissed Charlotte’s hand, still interwoven through mine as we watched our baby on the screen.

“It’s a girl,” I whispered, still in awe.

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