Finny had by now pointed out twice already that something was up with mommy's tummy - he couldn't quite formulate a question of course, but it had become evident that it was time to let him in on the secret that was not such a big secret to everyone else anymore.
"Finny, mommy and I have something to tell you," Logan said as he invited the toddler to join them at the lounge couch they had in the kitchen TV-nook, which they probably used a lot more than the large formal living room.
The kid was a little puzzled, not really wanting to part from the beloved wooden airplane, he'd been playing with, but maybe he did detect some importance in his father's voice to make him reconsider and he climbed up to the couch. The numerous cuddling sessions on that very couch must've had a draw as well.
"Finny, do you want to know why mommy has a big tummy?" Rory asked stroking over her bump, raising her top a bit.
Obviously there was no meaningful reply, other than the playful patting he liked to do with that said tummy. He was usually quite a gentle child, so there hadn't really been much need to tell him to be careful with it, but Rory was rapidly getting to stage when soon she wouldn't be easily able to carry Finny, which meant that it was likely he was not going to like this particular development.
"There are two babies in there," Logan pitched in, holding up fingers, trying to make this quick and specific, not to lose his attention.
"Baby!" Finny prattled.
"Two," Rory confirmed nodding. They'd considered showing him the images but they doubted he would make a lot out of them, even if they were 3D, instead Rory had decided to show him two little preemie onesies, hoping he'd make the connection. The onesies were light pink with "Lil sis" spelled on the chest, she'd found from a new store just near where they lived, the store's name, 'Finn & Emma' catching her attention. She hadn't really told Logan yet, but she'd been thinking of names a lot and knowing this was likely the right time to start considering whom of their relatives they were going to honor with giving their girls their names after, or at least one of the names.
"You're going to be a big brother," Logan added, knowing Finny had some knowledge of that concept knowing Logan himself was Honor's brother, or well - more or less at least.
"Play?" Finny asked abruptly.
"Yes, you can go play," Rory replied, slightly taken aback by his disinterest, and the toddler climbed back down the couch towards his toys.
"We're probably going to have to do this a few times," Rory said to Logan, feeling slightly disappointed by Finny's response response.
"Yeah. I wonder how he'll react once he realizes he'll be outnumbered by girls," Logan chuckled.
"Well, all I've read basically says that we need to involve him as much as possible and keep everything very chippery," Rory noted, trying to see things in lighter shades herself.
"He'll be fine," Logan assured. Somehow his confidence was over the moon on how they were going to handle this, and Rory really did appreciate it - and saying he was her rock would've been an understatement. But Rory knew Logan was right in many ways - if anyone was going to be able to do it it was them - financially, when it came to flexibility in work hours and a good support system. Other than the setback in Rory's career plans, which had waited already long enough, and the lack of sleep hours, there really was no draw back, and she was beginning to see it too.
The next moment Rory suddenly pulled Logan's hand to the side of her bump, having felt something stronger than a flutter for the first time. "Feel that?" she asked.
"It's weak but there's something," he replied, the corners of his mouth curving upwards.
"Can't wait for double kicking," Rory chuckled with a tad of sarcasm, the vibrations the chuckle creating causing another reaction from the same inside, Logan's eyes lighting up once again.
"I wonder which one that was?" Logan pondered.
Rory shrugged. She just hoped they were both as okay, and she was simply just feeling one of them better.
"Have you thought of names yet?" Rory asked, surprising Logan with the question. It was still fairly early on and knowing how busy Rory had been with her thesis, it was a wonder she'd had the time to read about these things, shop and think about baby related things. He'd almost expected her to leave these things to the last minute.
"I kind of think I should include Honor in there somewhere, it can be as a second name, but I think it'd be a nice gesture," Logan suggested.
"I'm not a huge fan of 'nouns' as names but I do get it, and if you're fine with it as a second name I can work with that," Rory agreed. "I was thinking of Emily, but I'd like to use Emma on a daily basis. Mom might call her Baby-Spice if I call one of them that though," she added.
"It's cute," Logan replied, not objecting. "So what - the Lorelai tradition ends with you?" he chuckled, knowing it was a little more of a gentle subject.
"At least there wouldn't be the confusion of there being another Lorelai Gilmore out there, but I don't know - the name really does work better with 'Gilmore' than 'Huntzberger' but I'm not sure yet," she added, knowing that her mom would probably be hurt if she was not thought of at all.
"We've got time, let's play around with those names, but I think we have about 50% already thought out, which is pretty good all things considered," Logan replied.
"Oh, I know! Rosemary!" Rory suggested laughingly.
"Now, that'd be just teasing Finn!" Logan objected, knowing too well Rory was just kidding with that suggestion.
The two watched Finny for a bit as he was building a simple block tower, happy to see him very happy playing alone.
"You know…," Logan began, pulling Rory's chin closer to him, "I want to take you out one night," he added just before he kissed her.
The kiss was slow and perhaps slightly deeper than would've been appropriate with kids around, but Finny wasn't really paying attention.
"Would you now?" Rory mumbled, momentarily having hoped Finny had already been put to bed. "Wait, I forgot another anniversary didn't I?" she recalled.
"Kind of…," Logan smirked back at her, adding, "but who's counting." He kissed her again, but she stopped him.
"Seriously?" Rory exclaimed, her eyes wide. If she kept this up she was seriously beginning to think her thesis only made sense to her.
"Ah, come on, Ace, we've been together enough that I can find a reason for some anniversary for any day of the year," Logan assured, smilingly. He almost enjoyed having her fret like that. This date did held some significance - it had been when they had sex, but not just that - that had also been the same night he'd know that this blue-eyed girl meant trouble - it was when he'd really fallen for her, and he'd even told her that years later.
"But seriously… what?" Rory didn't let it drop.
"I'll tell you when we go to bed," he whispered to her ear, making her blush in anticipation.
Rory was back at the pool, enjoying the sensation of floating once again, and through connection to Finn, she, Celeste and Evie had the whole pool to themselves for those few hours that day. They'd learned about a month ago that the best way to come to the pool with their kids was to bring just one of them - yes, it was unfair to the other who was left at home, but it seemed this way both moms still had some possibility to relax.
"So, I promise I'm not going to ask about Jess if you don't want to talk about it, but I do want to know what's going on with your drawings," Rory demanded after having swam some laps and was now watching Celeste watch Evie play in the shallow end of the pool as they both sat there with her. Evie was pretty good at swimming already, having been to classes for months already.
"A graphic novel is a no-go unless I take a year and draw more to a specific story," she replied briefly. "Basically Noah is willing to publish them as is - like an art book or he had some idea about doing some sort of a multiple-interpretations book - drawings that can be understood multiple ways and accompanied by text that he's willing to write. The idea isn't bad but I feel kind of weird co-authoring with him on this - I'm still not too sure how much I trust him, you know," she explained.
"But the idea does sound pretty good, I can just imagine that being something people might give someone as a present. And especially if you add the sexy ones," Rory said with the bite of her lip. "I can just imagine those being something one might want to get a spouse or a lover for, say, Christmas," she added.
"So you don't think I should worry about the authorship?" Celeste asked.
"I mean there are all sorts of contracts you can make for that, it's fairly common practice. He would have the rights to the texts and you to the drawings, and if those texts are any good, I do think the idea is not half bad," Rory added.
"Maybe you're right," she pondered to herself.
"What did Jess think?" Rory asked, doing circles with her feet.
"He's not really pushing this - kind of being Switzerland in this. Just says that I can do whatever I want, what feels right - work some more on it, or do either of the scenarios I mentioned. I don't know - he's been weird lately too," Celeste explained. While appreciative of Jess not being as pushy and needy all the time these past weeks, he'd almost become a little two passive and she wasn't sure why that was - was he distancing himself or perhaps was this his idea of not pushing her? - she really hadn't figured it out.
"Typical men," Rory laughed. "But I just think he doesn't want to make the decision for you, and I guess he is right - you do have all those three options and I guess he just wants you to be happy with the choice you make," she added.
"Yeah, you're probably right," Celeste replied. "Do you mind keeping an eye on her for a few minutes? I'll go do a few laps," she asked, Rory generously nodding she could.
The water felt amazing as she swam, every muscle feeling so easy to move within it, diving under the surface and muffling the sounds. With Jess about to go to Chicago for a few days, she couldn't help but to feel a little relieved, to be honest. She liked the idea of not having to explain her emotions and a certain independence it gave her, though with Evie in toe. She wasn't really sure what it meant - all she knew it felt emotionally easier somehow.
"Is it weird that I'm kind of looking forward to Jess going out of town?" Celeste asked as she emerged by Rory and Evie, who were using tiny cups to pour water back and forth, a few minutes later.
"You've never really been apart like that, have you?" Rory asked.
"Briefly," she replied, recalling one night he'd spent in Philly at Adrian's not wanting to drive back late one time after Adiran's birthday.
"Maybe you just miss some alone time at home? I bet you really haven't had much of that," Rory suggested.
That was certainly true - unless it was Evie's naptime she was never home alone some odd few hours excluded when Jess or April would take Evie to the park, but never like that. And of course she knew that Evie was going to be with her, setting some challenges for her during those three days, but still - somehow even that seemed as an oddly satisfying challenge for her - could she do it? Hence she couldn't quite break the concern, that maybe it meant something more, and in a way she was scared to find out.
"But if you do get lonely, I could come for a sleepover - with or without Finny," she offered. It had been in fact Jess who had especially asked her to suggest that, being worried for Celeste. And she had promised to offer, but after hearing what she had said, she wasn't really sure that offer would be welcomed.
"I think I should be fine, but thanks for the offer. We could do a playdate or something if you have time, maybe Friday if you have time?" she suggested.
"I'll have to check, but sure," Rory replied friendlily.
As Evie was put down for her nap that same afternoon, Celeste sat in front of her computer going over her stocks. Things were pretty stable, and had been for a while, though she wasn't sure if that was a good thing making her a little nervous about perhaps more turbulent times ahead. She'd gotten into a steady pace with these things and really didn't find it all that interesting anymore, she didn't read as much as she had about the background of it all and that certainly left her perhaps in a little bit of a weaker position.
She browsed some art-book selections at a few online stores to see what they were selling, and to her surprise, some art books, in nice and larger formats, sold for quite decent prices compared to graphic novels. Naturally she expected the sales number to be lower at the same time. But as she really didn't want to make a book because it would make good money, this was self-expression at most, would it really matter if it was split between authors. She realized, that when it came to any publicity, having a co-author might actually prove beneficial - having the opportunity to send someone else to speak or be photographed, keeping herself well in the sidelines. So she came to a conclusion that this was at least something she needed to discuss with Noah some more.
She opened up an new e-mail and typed in his address, but closed the e-mail almost as soon as she'd written "Hi!", thinking that if he was going through all this stuff with his mother, surely he didn't need her helping to flood his inbox right now. She figured she could wait a week, easily, until he was back at work.
Hence she went back to the book she'd been reading - Rupture by Ragnar Jonasson, settling into their living room couch. But somehow, despite not having written him just yet, there was a certain sense of calm in her gut - as if having made a decision in her mind already - she was going to be brave and take a chance, try it out. That feeling was already something she hadn't felt in a while and it felt good.
