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“Two playpens.”

“—a high chair, a changing table—Daisy? Is there something you want to tell me?”

A bright grin spread across her face as she pulled a handkerchief from her pocket. It was wrapped around something. I thought I knew what it was, but my mind refused to jump to conclusions. She laid it on the table and unfolded it carefully. I stared. Two dark pink lines stared back at me.

“We’re going to have a baby,” she said in a voice barely louder than a whisper. “Congratulations, daddy.”

I sat, stunned into silence for nearly a minute. Daisy and her mother exchanged a worried glance half a second before I exploded with excitement. “A baby! You’re pregnant?”

“Yes,” she said, laughing with relief. “Is that okay?”

“Okay? It’s amazing!” I leapt from my chair and scooped her up out of hers, spinning her in my arms and kissing all over her face. A spike of fear ripped through me and I put her down gently, backing away and patting her tummy gently. “Oh, god did I hurt you? Did I squish it?”

Daisy and her mother burst out laughing, and Daisy held my head and cradled it against her chest while she wiped mirthful tears away. “You didn’t hurt me, babe. And you didn’t squish it. I’m not that fragile, my love.”

I kissed her neck and collar bone and belly, overwhelmed with joy. “Good,” I said. “Good.”

“I figure the baby will be due sometime in March or April,” she said. “Which means I’ll be able to carry him—or her—across the stage with me when I graduate.”

I hugged her tight. “That’s a fantastic idea. So you are going to finish school?”

“Of course,” she said, and kissed my face. “With you and mom here to help me there’s no reason why I can’t, right?”

“Of course not,” Sandy said, glowing. “We’ve got you covered, Daisy. We’ll all do this together, right Kash?”

“Right,” I said. I kissed Daisy’s forehead, swaying gently with her, dancing to the music of the dolphins. “We’ll do it together.”

I started building the cradle that day. It was the first piece in a whole set of dolphin-themed baby furniture. My followers caught on a lot sooner than I had, and by the time Daisy was three months pregnant there were entire threads dedicated to pressuring me to make the official announcement. Eventually I caved. Daisy happily joined me on my most popular video—the official baby announcement.

After Daisy’s five-month appointment, she joined me in my wood shop to help me put the final touch on the cradle. On the carved banner suspended between two dancing dolphins, she put her hands on mine to carve the baby’s name. Hunter.

“I want a water birth,” she said when we’d finished.

“With dolphin sounds playing?” I asked.

She nodded. “It seems like the thing to do.”

I put my face against her swollen belly and wrapped my arms around her waist. “What do you think, Hunter? Water and dolphins?”

The baby moved. It was the first time I’d felt it and I jumped back, gazing up at Daisy in awe.

“I think that’s a yes,” she said with a laugh.

“Definitely a yes,” I said.

As the sun went down over the sea, dolphins sang and laughed. I held my wonderfully pregnant wife in my arms and kissed her, basking in the joy which seemed to permeate every moment of my life and fiber of my being. Finally, after everything we’d been through, after all the crap we’d survived—finally, we were right where we were supposed to be.

We couldn’t have done it without Hunter. I placed my hand on Daisy’s belly, feeling the baby dance around to the dolphin sounds below. In name and spirit, Hunter was here now. I couldn’t think of a better tribute to his memory than exactly the life we were living.

I knelt down to speak to Daisy’s belly. “Welcome to the family, little Hunter. I think you’re going to like it here.”

He kicked me in the face. I took it as agreement.