Page 101 of Rome
“Good morning, baby girl. You’d better behave yourself unless you want –“
He was interrupted by the sound of Everly babbling through the baby monitor on my nightstand, and he groaned and flopped back onto the bed.
“I see her big brother had been training her in the fine art of cockblocking,” he muttered, making me laugh as I saw the disgruntled expression on his face.
“Quit pouting, stud. I need to feed her before she starts screaming.” I threw back the covers to get out of bed, but Caleb stopped me.
“You stay right where you are. I’ll get her and bring her in here to you.”
He got out of bed and walked across the bedroom to retrieve a pair of sweatpants from the dresser. I watched the muscles flex in his tight ass as he moved and had to remind myself that our daughter was waiting for us, and we didn’t have time for what I had in mind.
I listened as Caleb greeted Ev, and smiled as I heard her squeal in excitement.
“Good morning, sweet pea. Look at you, you’re gonna be as beautiful as your mommy. You already have her pretty green eyes and her sweet smile. I wonder if you’re going to get a few cute little freckles over the bridge of your nose, too. Your brother and I are gonna have our hands full trying to keep boys away from you. You listen to me, little girl. Boys are yucky and nasty. They have cooties, and you should stay away from them, OK?”
I covered my mouth as I laughed, not wanting the sound to carry across the hall to the nursery.
“Let’s get you changed, and I’ll take you to Mommy so you can have your breakfast.”
She cooed and babbled at him, a string of nonsense sounds that were only intelligible to her. I heard the faint sound of the Velcro tabs on her diaper, and Caleb laughing as Everly tried to wriggle away. That was her favorite trick, making it pretty damned challenging to get a clean diaper on her most of the time.
I had composed myself by the time Caleb walked into the bedroom with Ev perched on his arm. The three of us cuddled together as she nursed, then we finally got out of bed to get ready for the day.
The rest of the day passed in a bubble of happiness and contentment, made complete when Ethan came home late in the afternoon.
“We made you a birthday cake, Mommy!”
I looked at my mom in surprise, as she followed E into the house carrying a cake pan.
“I wanted you to have it for tomorrow, honey,” she greeted me with a hug as Caleb took the cake from her and carried it into the kitchen. I saw Ethan whisper something to him as they left the room and heard the back door open and close a few seconds later. I wondered what they were up to, assuming it had something to do with a birthday surprise.
“Ethan helped me make it, and he has candles in his backpack to stick on top.”
“Mom, you didn’t have to do that,” I protested.
“I know, but we wanted to. It’s not every day that my little girl turns twenty-five, Abigail Jane.”
She was serious if she’d brought out my full name, so I wisely kept my mouth shut and stopped arguing.
Caleb skipped Church on Sunday morning, which he had rarely ever done during our years together. He just shrugged and said he wanted this weekend to be about us, and that King understood.
We kicked off my birthday celebration with a trip to the diner for breakfast, where Martie fussed over how cute and well-behaved the kids were before she brought out my pancakes with a candle in them. I was serenaded with the first of what would be three renditions of the Happy Birthday song I would hear by the end of the day.
When we got back home, Ethan proudly presented me with a huge bouquet of wildflowers, with a lovely antique pitcher as the vase. Caleb carried them in from the garage, which probably explained them whispering and sneaking out the back door yesterday when Mom dropped E off.
“Daddy gave me the money. They’re from me and Everly, but she’s too little to know anything about birthdays or flowers, so Nana helped me pick ‘em out,” he informed me, and I hid a smile at his serious explanation.
“I love them, sweetheart, and I love you. Thank you so much.”
Caleb gave me a beautiful silver necklace with a lover’s knot pendant, as well as a framed picture of our kids. He’d apparently snapped the picture when he’d taken them to the park on one of his Saturdays with them. In it, Ethan was gently pushing a grinning Everly in a baby swing. He’d captured the sweetest look on E’s face as he’d stared down at little sister, looking one hundred percent the protective big brother. I cried when I saw it, making Ethan snicker.
“I told you she’d do that, Daddy.”
Caleb laughed and ruffled his hair. “Yeah, you did, buddy.”
We talked to Ethan over cake and ice cream after dinner, explaining that Caleb was moving back home, and that we were together again.
“So you aren’t gonna be divorced anymore?”
