Page 12 of Duchess Material

“Frida is waiting for you to give her some of those eggs. I can tell.”

“She is, yeah. She can wait,” Lucy said to the dog.

Lucy shovelled in food like she hadn’t eaten in weeks. She hadn’t. This was her first day off medication. She could finally eat like a proper human.

“I was thinking we could go meet Gerry and Sheena out on the sailboat,” Winston said. “Unless… you know—”

“Yeah, I dunno. I was thinking we might go look for another dog.”

“What!?” Winston laughed.

“Maybe a fifth dog to keep Holly entertained?” Lucy asked. “I might need a project. Because I’m crazy.”

“I love you for it. We’re officially mad dog people.”

“You made that leap when you got the third dog. And then the fourth because you missed me.”

“We’re having a baby… dog?”

Lucy laughed. “Yeah, I guess.”

* * *

Ed lay in bed with Natalie, listening to the street sounds below. Rain hit the window but all he could do was run his pointer fingertip up and down every curve of her body. She lay there, pressed up against his chest, breathing deeply. He had longed for this moment—her, his new place, alone in the peace and quiet. Someone called to a friend below. He thought about what it would feel like if they knew he had the Princess of Wales in his bed, naked as a jaybird. He smiled.

Ed murmured, “As unwholesome as it is with us, I do love you very much, Natalie. In the most wholesome way.”

“We had loud sex and I’m lying here naked. Far from wholesome.” She stared at him, her green eyes so big and so deep.

He loved them.

“It feels right. I don’t know.”

“I love you. I would give anything to stay here every night. It’s a nice place.”

“But it cannot be,” he sighed.

“It cannot.”

They lay there, Ed still tracing the lines of her soft milky-white skin and her moaning happily when he hit a spot she particularly liked.

“I want a baby,” Natalie said out of thin air.

“What?”

“Someday. I want a baby. And I think I want to have it with you. Not anytime soon, of course. I could see myself doing it with you.”

Ed paused, confused.

“Well, now I fucked it all up.” In a panic, Natalie sat up.

“No, no, wait, Nat. I was… it came out of left field. Yeah, I want kids. I want kids with you if it works out. I love you. If this keeps up, that’s the plan, right?”

Natalie shrugged.

“Where did this feeling come from?”

“Stuff. Things. Meeting mothers every day for the past month. It was eye-opening. I decided on it. I dunno. I feel like you would be a good dad. I think I could be a badass mum. Not your normal mum who shows up to class things necessarily, but… I could teach her how to shoot a gun or cook a steak or ride a horse.”

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