Page 120 of The Strawberry Patch Pancake House

‘Dad, don’t say that word.’ Olive sauntered back into the room, holding Reggie. The caramel-colored bunny dangled from her little arms looking entirely unamused.

‘Sorry.’

Olive looked from his face to Iris’s and back again and then her gaze held on where their hands were resting on Iris’s stomach.

‘Does Iris have a belly ache?’

‘Uh … nope…’ There probably wasn’t any hiding this from Olive but he didn’t know how Iris wanted to handle it. His gaze met hers and her mischievous grin grew.

‘Hey, Olive,’ Iris said, turning toward his daughter. ‘How about I move back in and me and your dad kiss more often, and in a few months we all have a new baby?’

Olive’s little nose scrunched as she considered it and Archer bit down on a smile even as his heart thundered in his chest, even as everything he wanted seemed to hang in the balance waiting for the approval of a kindergartener.

‘I want you to move back in,’ Olive said. ‘And kissing is yucky, but I guess if you want to…’ She shrugged a little at the mystery of grown-ups. ‘And can I name the baby?’

‘No,’ Archer and Iris answered in unison.

Olive scowled.

‘But you can help change all the diapers you want,’ Iris told her, and Olive squealed in disgust.

‘Ew! No way.’

Iris grinned. ‘Okay, fine. Dad can change the diapers and you can be in charge of snuggling and…’

‘And teaching the baby new songs!’

Iris laughed. ‘Sure. New songs.’

‘And dances!’

‘Yep, definitely dances. The baby will need all the musical training it can get.’

Archer was holding back a laugh, but Olive was beaming.

‘Yay! Okay, we can have a baby.’

‘So glad you approve, since it’s already in my belly.’

Olive frowned again. ‘How did it get in there?’

‘Uh…’ Iris looked at Archer in panic and the laughter pushed further up his throat.

‘How will it get out?! It’s trapped in there!’

Olive looked truly concerned now about the baby’s well-being.

‘Oh God,’ Iris groaned.

‘Liv, why don’t you go put Reggie to bed and we can talk about all this later, okay?’

Olive narrowed her eyes at him, knowing full well he was trying to stall for time, but Reggie was getting heavy and slipping further and further down her arms.

‘Okay,’ she relented. ‘But I still want to know how we’re getting that baby out!’ she said as she left the room.

When he turned back to Iris, her eyes were wide and a smile played around her lips. ‘Oops,’ she said. ‘I didn’t really think that through.’

Archer chuckled. ‘We’ll figure out what to tell her.’