Page 82 of There Are No Words

He shook his head because our daughter was making him wait for it.

I mean, she really made him wait.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, and all I could think was how she must’ve sensed I needed to feel her, to connect to her in some bigger way after my confession.

“Anytime now, baby girl,” Brady spoke to our daughter for the first time.

I smiled because this was another first, and I sincerely hoped it wasn’t the last.

Then, finally, at the sound of Brady’s voice, she gave him a good kick right where his hand was resting.

He jolted back. “Woah!” he exclaimed, looking up at me with wide eyes. “That’s her. That’s our daughter. We made her. Can you believe it?”

I nodded. Where had he been this whole time? I was only kidding. I knew he’d been right here with me the entire time, and I understood how this made it feel more real for him. It was quite the milestone to feel her being active in there.

I laughed and took a deep breath, praying that I would be a good mother to her.

Meanwhile, Brady watched me, angling his head, waiting a few minutes before speaking again. “This needs to be said, so just let me say it, okay?”

I nodded, hoping it wasn’t bad.

“Plenty of people—”

My phone rang, cutting him off. I held a finger up and cringed. I really wanted to hear what Brady had to say. “Just one minute,” I said, getting up and walking around my desk to grab my phone.

I looked at the caller ID. It was one of the vendors for the party. “I’m sorry, but I really have to take this.”

Brady slowly nodded, getting up. “All good. You answer it. We’ll talk later.”

Ugh. Why did the phone have to ring? I wanted to let it go to voicemail, but I couldn’t afford to do that. This party was too important. “Wait,” I said. I shuffled through some folders stacked on the corner of my desk and passed him one. “This is the file for the party. Go through it and see if you can get what you need from it.”

He started rifling through the pages as I picked up the phone.

* * *

Brady

After Allegra and I had been interrupted, I’d quickly scanned the file for the headcount and drink ideas she’d jotted down and felt pretty good about the anniversary party. I would’ve stuck around to finish our other conversation about her not thinking she’d be a good mom (I’d never heard anything so wrong in my life), but she was busy, so I’d left.

It was okay, anyway, because I had an idea and was itching to execute it.

Parking my car, I got out and pulled the door to the store open. Bells chimed, and I was immediately greeted by a young girl.

“I called on the way over. The shelter sent me here,” I said by way of explanation.

She nodded. It was unlikely she’d be forgetting me anytime soon. Her, or the people at the animal shelter.

I went there first, looking to get a puppy for Allegra, but there were no puppies, if you could believe it. All older dogs. Which would’ve been fine. I was all for saving animals and knew Allegra would be, too, but ours had to be a puppy.

I wanted to show her how great of a mother she’d be, and I figured the closest thing to a baby was a puppy. Right?

So here I was.

“What are the odds you have any Irish setters mixed with an Italian greyhound?” I asked, looking at the different playpens with the breeds labeled on the sides. See, if I was doing this, then I was doing this right and this puppy should be like an amalgamation of both of us.

Don’t even bother telling me, I already knew—this was a great idea. I didn’t want to toot my own horn or anything, but I was sort of full of good ideas.

Okay, so sometimes I had bad ones, but we weren’t going to focus on those right now.

---