Page 19 of The Firefighter’s Forever

“Time of my life.”

She laughs and hands me another shirt. The sound follows me while she disappears into the dressing room. I sit on a small upholstered bench near the curtained-off area with Harmony’s purse beside me.

The clerk walks past carrying a stack of clothes to put back on the racks. She glances over, smiles, and says, “When is your wife due?”

My wife.

For a second, I can’t answer. The phrase settles deep in my chest, aching in a place I’ve been trying hard not to touch.

I don’t correct her. I know I should. Harmony would probably give me hell if she heard it, and she’d be right. But the word feels too good to hand back.

“Three more months,” I say.

“How wonderful,” the clerk says. “First baby?”

“Yeah.”

“Enjoy it,” she says. “It goes fast.”

Harmony steps out of the dressing room in maternity jeans and a deep green top that skims over her rounded stomach. She looks uncertain, one hand smoothing the fabric at her side.

“What do you think?” she asks.

I think I want to stand up, walk over to her, and kiss her until she understands exactly what I think.

Instead, I just nod my approval. “It’s good.”

She tugs at the hem. “Maybe it’s too fitted.”

“It’s not.”

“Would you tell me if it was?”

“You know I would.”

After that, she tries on two more shirts, a dress, and a pair of leggings she declares both ugly and life-changing. Every time she steps out, some part of me has to recalibrate around the sight of her. Softer. Rounder. Still Harmony. More Harmony, somehow.

By the time she’s finished, the yes pile is bigger than the no pile. I carry everything to the counter while she digs through her purse for her wallet. The second I see it coming, I step in front of her and hand the clerk my card.

“Lucas.”

“No.”

“You don’t even know what I was going to say.”

“I do.”

She gives me a look. “I can buy my own clothes.”

“I know.”

“Then move.”

“No.”

The clerk suddenly becomes very interested in removing hangers.

Harmony lowers her voice. “You already bought the crib.”