Sam gives Jon an uncharacteristic goofy grin.
"What's going on?" he asks.
"What do you mean?" she asks with mock innocence.
"You've been giving me a goofy look all day."
"Can't I give my husband some goofy looks?"
"Not looks like that," he says, pulling her in for a kiss, "What's going on?"
"Ten hours, ok?" she says.
"Ok, as long as this isn't some payback for my decorating Jane's nursery without you, and you're buying a house without me or something," he says.
"Nothing like that, I promise," she says with the goofy look. He leans over and kisses her again.
-0-0-0-
"Hey, babe," he says a few hours later when he returns. He gives a kiss on the forehead to his daughter, and one on the mouth to his wife.
"I hope you're taking to your daughter, because she's the only one you can call babe."
"Not baby," Jane says narrowing her eyes at her father.
"I know I told you to take after your mother, but this is one thing you don't have to copy her in," Jack says.
"So what's the big news?" he asks his wife.
"I'm going to go leave Janey with her Grandpa, and then we're going out," Sam says.
"It's not date night," Jon says, surprised.
"Well, tonight is an extra date night," Sam offers with a smile.
"I didn't forget about an anniversary or something, did I?"
"We got married less than a month ago," she says with raised eyebrows.
"I know. I thought maybe it was… the anniversary of our first kiss, or the first time we held hands, or something. Sara used to celebrate all kinds of things like that."
"That's not what this is about, but if you don't want to go…?" she says, shrugging her shoulders.
"Oh, trust me, I am not objecting to romantic time with my wife," he says, taking his daughter from his wife. "Hey, little one, Daddy wants to see you for a couple minutes before he hands you over to Gramps."
"I believe we've discussed that nickname before," Jacob says, coming around the corner and taking the kid out of his arms, "You two have fun."
-0-0-0-
"More swoony face," he says as they sit down at the restaurant.
"I do not swoon," she maintains.
"No, you're way too strong for that," he says with a grin, "But your face still looks swoony."
The waiter walks up, "Would you two like something to drink?"
A grin crosses Jon's face. Every once in a while, if he flashes his wedding ring, and is wearing nine enough clothes in a nice enough restaurant, they just assume he's of age. And he really misses drinking. He'd never try to pull anything in a house with a recovering alcoholic. But here, he's willing to take a little risk.
"We'll take some champagne, I think we're celebrating," he says with a smile, looking at his wife. Then he sees her face, and changes his mind. "You know what, never mind, juice for both of us."
"Yes, sir," the waiter says.
"You could have had a beer, Jon, I know you miss it," she says.
"We're having a baby, aren't we?" he asks.
She giggles and nods.
"A honeymoon baby. That's perfect, Sam," he says, rubbing the hand that she offers him.
-0-0-0-
"You two have a good time?" Jacob asks.
"We sure did," Jon replies.
"Wipe that silly grin off your face, son, it's obscene," Jacob teases.
"Daddy, I don't think this grin has quite the origins you think it does," Sam says bashfully.
"Actually, it does have those origins, they just happened longer ago than he supposes," Jon says.
"You two having another baby?" Jacob asks.
They grin and nod.
"Well, congratulations," he says, hugging them each in turn. "Your eldest is sleeping soundly."
"I think I'll go say goodnight to her anyway," Sam says, slipping past the men.
Jon grabs onto her arm lightly. He places his hand on her stomach, "Goodnight, baby. Can't wait to meet you."
Sam giggles at him, and gives him a kiss before leaving the room.
"I'm happy for you, Jack," Jacob repeats.
-0-0-0-
"Up!" Jane says the next day with her hands outstretched toward Sam.
Jon steps between Sam and his daughter and picks Jane up.
"Mama?" she says, confused.
"I've got her, Jon," Sam says, reaching his hands out to her.
"She's kinda big for you to lift right now," he cautions.
"Right, I'd forgotten… I didn't know my first time until it was uncomfortable to lift. It was sort of impossible for me to forget."
"And you didn't have a little girl," he says, "It probably won't hurt to lift her when you really need to, but otherwise, when she needs to be held, you can sit down and have her crawl onto your lap. I'm going to pick up a booster seat for her to eat on, and a big kid bed. Both things she can get into herself. You can change her on the floor. We'll save the crib for the baby."
"You've already done a lot of thinking about this new baby, huh?" Sam asks with a grin.
He nods his head.
"Not a baby," Jane says, narrowing her eyes at her father.
"No, you're not a baby, but Mommy and Daddy are going to have a baby," he explains.
"I'm your baby!" Jane pouts.
"I thought you weren't a baby," Jon says, tickling her stomach.
"No 'ther baby," she pouts.
"Sweetie, don't you want a little sister or brother?" Jon asks.
"No!" she pouts.
"We should have asked her, I just assumed," Sam says with a note of panic in her voice.
"Oh, no, you don't! You don't start doubting yourself just because this little girl doesn't want a sibling now. She's going to be excited enough later. And it's not really her choice. We're her parents. We're in charge."
"I know, and we can't change it now, but I still imagined that she was going to be happy about it."
Hold on a second, "Jacob!" Jack calls.
"Yeah," he says, entering the room.
"How did Sam react when you told her that she was going to have a little brother?"
"Well, she was only two years old, so she didn't completely understand. But she was less than pleased. And the first couple weeks after he was born, she kept trying to drag him off to trade him for a new bike."
Well, this story is even better than Jack hoped, "So, Samantha, you still want to trade your brother for a bike?"
"Are we talking motorcycle, or pedal?" she teases.
"Jane will adjust," Jack tells her.
-0-0-0-
"And this is the kitchen," the real estate agent says, concluding the tour with a flourish of her wrist.
Sam makes a gasp of pure pleasure. Jack really wishes she wouldn't do that every time they enter a room. It was really killing their chances of driving down the price on this thing. They could afford the asking price. But with a second baby on the way, and two college educations, slightly below the asking price would really help.
"Jack, this house is perfect," she says, turning to him with joy in her eyes.
And it doesn't really matter to Jack how much the house costs. Anything that makes her this happy is going to be hers.
"You do like it, right?" she asks insecurely.
"I love it," he assures her, "Let's make an offer."