Page 55 of Can We Try?

“Rodney, we don’t care about what’s in the bag,” Mom scolds playfully. “You had your ultrasound today. I’ve been dying for your call. I was giving you time together, but I really want to know if we’re having a boy or a girl.”

“We did find out if we’re having a boy or a girl,” I say, placing my arm around Maggie’s shoulders and pulling her close.

“Yeah, yeah.” Mom waves me off. “Tell me. I can’t take it. Wait, you are going to tell us, right? You’re not going to make us wait?”

“We’re going to tell you. In fact, the answer you’ve been seeking is right here.” I bend for the bag and hold it up for her. Mom leans over from the loveseat, grabs the bag, and turns to my dad and grins.

“Are you ready for this?” she asks him.

“You know it. Open it, woman. You’ve been dying to know all day, and now that the answer is literally in your hands, you’re stalling.” He chuckles.

“Okay.” Mom flashes us a smile as she reaches into the bag and pulls out the tissue-wrapped blue frame, just like the one we gave Doris, with a sonogram picture inside. Slowly, she unwraps the frame, and stares down at the picture. “Oh my goodness,” she breathes.

“A boy!” Dad cheers.

“Wait, how did you?—?”

“The blue frame, Amanda.” Dad laughs.

Mom tosses her head back in laughter. “I was so focused on the picture, I didn’t even register the color of the frame. A boy!” Mom hands the frame to Dad so he can get a good look, and then both stand and pass out a round of hugs.

“Congratulations, you two,” Dad announces.

“Thank you,” Maggie tells them.

“Maggie, we need to plan another shopping trip,” Mom tells her. “Oh, this is going to be so much fun.”

“We will definitely have to do that,” Maggie agrees. “We decided on a name,” she tells them.

“You did? Do we get to know or is that a surprise?”

Maggie looks over at me and nods. “Sean for the first name. That was Maggie’s father’s name,” I tell them.

“Perfect.” Mom bobs her head.

“Alan, for the middle name.” That one doesn’t need an explanation. I watch my dad as he swallows hard and blinks back tears. Alan is his middle name. “After the man who was the father he didn’t have to be. Who taught me how to love freely and showed me how to be a good dad.”

Dad stands, and so do I. I meet him in the middle of the room as he pulls me into a crushing hug. “I love you, son. I’m so damn proud of you.”

“I love you, too, Dad.”

He steps back and clears his throat. “Ladies, why are our arms empty?” he asks.

Maggie giggles while she and my mom join us in the middle of the room. Dad pulls Mom into his chest, and I do the same with Maggie. She wraps her arms around my waist, and I kiss the crown of her head.

I love you.

I want more than anything to say those words, and I will soon. We spend an hour with my parents just visiting before we say our goodbyes.

“My place or yours?” I ask Maggie.

“It’s getting late.”

“I know, babe. Where are we sleeping? My old place or yours?”

I’m waiting for her to tell me we need to sleep at our own places and I have my argument ready, but it never comes.

“I don’t care as long as we’re together.”

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