Page 93 of Everything After

“Like me, smoking hot, big dick, dark blond hair, hazel eyes…”

“It might be a girl,” Lily reminded me.

“I told you—it’s a boy. God wouldn’t be so cruel as to give us a girl on the first round. I wouldn’t manage a baby girl diaper.”

“He gavemea girl,” Jack contradicted, smirking.

“I think you confused him. I mean you’re a tiny bit effeminate,” I teased, choking back a laugh.

“Nothing effeminate about me, is there, Mya?”

“You do look in mirrors a lot, and take hours in the bath,” Mya said, contradicting Jack when she saw we were getting a rise out of him. When Jack cocked his head to the side in challenge, she bit back a smile.

“The bath is the only place I get some peace. The kids won’t leave me alone sometimes,” Jack grumbled. “For what it’s worth, I think it’s a girl. Have you thought of some names?” he asked, smoothly moving the subject along.

“Joslyn? Aurelius? Hudson? Those are the boy’s names I’ve thought about. For girls, Pearl, Valentina, Catalina, but we haven’t discussed names yet,” Lily replied.

I crouched over my wife and gave her an upside-down kiss on her soft lips. Letting my mouth linger against hers, I murmured, “I love that we’re moving forward as a family and you’re already thinking of names.”

Lily reached up and held both sides of my face, her upside-down features in line with mine. “Do you like any of those?” she questioned, her eyes searching mine.

My heart squeezed with love for my beautiful wife. “Baby, I love all of them. You’re carrying this little treasure—it’s only right you should name it.”

“I’d never name our baby alone. This is something we should both agree on.”

“Yeah, or every time the kids play up, he’ll be saying, you deal with them, you named them,” Jack helpfully said.

I lifted my head and stared Jack down with an icy glare. “Do you mind, this is an intimate conversation between me and my wife.”

“Is it my fault that I was blessed with sensitive hearing?” he shot back.

“If you have, then it’s the only sensitive thing about you,” I retorted.

Lily laughed. “Now, now, boys,” she said, chuckling.

I shifted to stand in front of her, placed my arms under my wife’s armpits and gently guided her to her feet. I swapped places with her on the sofa. “Come here, Mrs. Black, I need a proper hug.” Tugging her onto my lap, I wrapped her small body in a warm embrace. “That’s much better.” Burying my nose in her hair, I took a deep, calming breath.

For a long minute I sat with my wife in my arms, my heart fully content, until Lily’s cell phone rang.

“Fuck,” I grumbled as Lily sat up, lifted her cell and bit her lip in worry. “Who is it?” I demanded.

“It’s okay, it’s Holly.” She swiped to answer the call.

I silently thanked God that it hadn’t been Cody because I think I’d have lost my shit.

CHAPTER 52

LILY

Once Poppy had taken selfies with Alfie and I at the jetty, she and the rest of our left-over party guests rode back to the mainland on the boat that Holly, Brett and her designer had arrived in. Alfie invited Brett to work out with him in our home gym, leaving me with Holly and the dress designer, Charlotte.

“I’m worried that I’ll ruin the photographs,” I muttered, smoothing my hand over my belly. For the first time, my favorite jeans had felt tighter than usual when I’d fastened them up that morning.

“Nonsense,” Holly chastised. “You’ll look amazing as always. Wait until you see, these bridesmaid’s dresses aren’t totally fitting—well the bodice parts are, but the skirt is floaty, princess-style. There will be layers of taffeta, satin, organza and lace, you could be almost full-term and it wouldn’t show.”

“Holly’s right,” her dressmaker agreed. “Besides, the wedding is only seven weeks away, you’ll barely be halfway to term by then, yes?”

I nodded. “But what if?—”