Page 22 of Big Island Moonlight
Juniper nodded, keeping her eyes on the ocean.
Rolling waves glinted silver-gold against the dark blue water.
It grieved her, how little time they spent together anymore, but it wasn’t like he was off drinking or playing video games. He was carrying a full course load at the University of Hawaii while working multiple jobs, including helping Jun run her businesswithout accepting any of the profit. He was doing more than anyone else would under the circumstances; she knew that.
She just… missed him.
With a heavy sigh, Juniper tried to let her thoughts go and enjoy the little bit of time that theydidhave.
As he often did when she had the temerity to sit still for a few minutes, the baby started to kick. Quickly, Jun snatched up Cody’s hand and put it to her belly. Their baby moved again, rolling beneath his father’s hand.
“Feel that?” she asked.
He was silent, and she looked up at his face. He stared awestruck at the flower-printed cotton that covered her bulging belly.
The baby kicked again, right against Cody’s palm.
“There’s a whole person in there,” he breathed.
Juniper beamed, gratified by his reaction.
“We made a person.”
“He’s making himself,” she reasoned. “We just got him started.”
Cody looked up, meeting her eye. “Are we having a boy?”
Juniper shrugged. “I don’t know.”
She had submitted to an ultrasound at Emma’s insistence and hated every minute of it. Bouncing soundwaves off of her unborn baby had felt wrong, somehow.
The sterile environment of hospitals and clinics reminded her of the times her mother had overdosed and of the rehab centers that she’d cycled through after. She loathed them, all of them, on a cellular level.
The thought of returning to a hospital to give birth made her shudder, and she was scraping together every dollar she could save in hope of being able to afford a homebirth midwife. Fern had introduced her to a fantastic one, a kindly olderwoman who attended her yoga classes. Juniper had adored her immediately… but she didn’t come cheap.
“I didn’t let them tell me,” she said, “at the ultrasound. I just have a feeling it’s a boy.”
“A baby,” he breathed, looking down at her belly again. “It feels surreal.”
“A woman becomes a mother when she gets pregnant,” she said, quoting some parenting book or other. Her tower of library books had grown so high that she could hardly keep track anymore. “A man becomes a father when he holds his baby for the first time. That’s what they say, at least.”
He hummed thoughtfully and kissed the top of her head. “Well, this father has to get going, or he’ll be late for work.”
“Okay,” she conceded with a sigh.
“Are you alright?”
“I love it here, that’s all.” She looked up at the thick curtain of pine boughs that grew overhead, then out at the ocean. “Where else can you be in the middle of a forest and still feel the crashing waves? It’s the most magical place in the world.”
“We’ll come back when we have more time,” he promised.
She forced a smile and nodded. “Okay.”
He stood first, then took her hands in his and hauled her to her feet.
“I have to be careful where I sit down,” she said with a laugh. “I’m not sure I could have gotten up without your help. I’m like a beached whale.”
Cody gave her a frank, appraising look, his gaze intense. “You’re beautiful.”
