Page 93 of By the Letter

“Then knock out,” I told her. “Ade and I are doing our manly duty and building things.”

Her giggle was light as air. “I hope manly duty includes changing lots of diapers in a few weeks.”

Adrian saluted her. “I am willing to pitch in for liquids but draw the line at solids.”

She scrunched her nose and laughed. “Then what good are you?”

Bending down, I kissed the top of her head. She wouldn’t say it, but she was nervous. I saw it in the tightness of her mouth and the slight tremble of her hands. She was good at hiding it, but now that I knew what to look for, I couldn’t miss it. Despite that, she was trying, and watching her try to joke with Adrian made my chest feel like it’d been filled to overflowing with concrete—heavy and stuffed and difficult to take a full breath.

“I helped Rome with the…uh, baby’s middle name,” Adrian informed her. “So, there’s that.”

Shira’s gaze flashed to me. “You picked a middle name?”

“Just before you showed up. But you have full veto power.”

“Tell me.”

“Jonah Carson Wells. Ade suggested it. Carson comes from Ryan Carson, a rugby player from New Zealand. On top of a stellar career, he runs a charity for underprivileged kids—”

She raised a hand. “Sold. I’m sold. Jonah Carson.” Her smile grew wide as she mouthed the name. “I guess we have a theme, huh? I like themes. Elliot and Kit named their kids after characters fromLittle Women—ours will be rugby.”

She didn’t mean “ours” as in plural children, but as soon as she’d said it, I imagined getting her pregnant again—this time on purpose—and my dick jerked. I liked the sound of that way too fucking much. It’d make sense for us to have more kids together. She’d described herself as a “lonely only,” and I wanted my boy to have siblings. We’d have to talk about it, but my skittish girl would run for the hills if I brought it up now. First, we’d have this baby, then we’d work on having more.

“Guess we have a theme,” I agreed.

Adrian cleared his throat. “Glad you like it.”

She smiled softly at him, but the tightness had reappeared around her mouth. “I do. Thank you, Adrian.”

He offered her a small smile. “I’m honored I could be a part of choosing my nephew’s name. It means a lot.”

“One day, you’ll have to tell him how you and his daddy came up with it,” she replied.

“Yeah.” He looked down at his feet. “Wild he’s going to be here for me to tell him things like that.”

“Wild,” she agreed.

Ade and I exchanged a long glance. He was trying, and Shira was too. It made me optimistic this breach could be closed and they would become friends. If nothing else, Ade would learn not to be an asshole around her. That would never happen again.

It didn’t take long for Shira to nod off. Seeing her sleeping in this nursery, my heart thumped in irregular beats. Maybe I’d convince her to stay here with the baby and rock him to sleep in that chair.

“What the hell is this?” Adrian hissed.

Jerking out of my thoughts, I whirled around to find my brother frantically wiping his tongue; one of Shira’s cookies crumbled beside him. I’d put the box down without warning him not to eat them. Fatal error in judgment.

“You ate one of her cookies?” I asked.

His eyes went round with indignation. “Those aren’t cookies. Those are an abomination.”

I laughed as quietly as possible. “She’s a shit cook, but she’s learning. I think she’s getting better.”

He poked his finger at the cookie. “Thisis better? There’s so much ginger it scalded my tongue. I’m not going to be able to taste anything else for days. You can’t let her feed this tothe baby. His taste buds are going to get all screwed up,” he whispered.

“She mentioned food tastes weird to her because of the pregnancy. I’m counting on her getting back to normal after she has him. If worse comes to worse, I’ll cook all our meals.”

He stared at me for a drawn-out moment. “You would, wouldn’t you?”

I glanced at Shira, curled up in my chair, cradling our son inside her with her arms around him, then back to my brother.

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