“Sitting together. Talking about what this means for us personally rather than operationally.” I guide him to the couch, settling beside him with his arm wrapped around my shoulders. “Imagining the future with someone who’s half you and half me.”
Felix’s hand finds my stomach again, resting there with the same careful caresses. “They’ll have your intelligence. Your refusal to back down from challenges. Your capacity for choosing attachment despite rational reasons not to.”
“They’ll have your strategic thinking. Your discipline. Your ability to protect the people you’ve decided matter.” I lean into him, the exhaustion from earlier returning with renewed intensity. “Hopefully neither of our tendencies toward obsessive risk-taking.”
His laugh is surprised and genuine. “Optimistic given our combined characteristics.”
We sit together in the quiet office while the weight of impending parenthood settles around us. Felix’s hand never leaves my stomach, his touches gentle and constant, as if he’s already communicating with someone who can’t possibly perceive the contact yet.
“I love you,” he says eventually. “You and the child we’re bringing into this world. Whatever adjustments that requires, whatever risks I need to mitigate, whatever changes come—I love you both.”
The declaration settles warmly in my chest. “I love you too.”
*****
THE END
