"Thanks for coming," I told Aria as she came toward me pushing a double stroller. We were at a table on the patio of her favorite cafe in Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade.
"Of course," she smiled as she handed me Harper. "Can you hold her for a second?"
"Sure," I smiled cradling the baby girl in my lap while she placed Scott in a high chair.
"So," she said taking a seat across from me. "How did it go."
"Well," I dug through my purse and pulled out a tiny black and white photo. "He's two months old."
"What!" Aria smiled brightly. "I'm so happy for you."
"Thanks," I smiled, "but how do I tell Caleb? How did you tell Ezra?"
"With Scott I was only a sophomore in college," she explained. "I was living with him so I just said it one day when he came home from work. It just came out. With Harper he figured it out before I did. He has some maternal instinct, that boy."
"Those sound better than my idea," I told her. "I was just going to buy a prepaid anonymous phone and send him a text from "A."
"That's not funny," Aria said holding back laughter. "He will kill you."
"I won't," I reassured her. "I just really never thought it would happen this quickly."
"Trust me," she said, "it's overwhelming now, but if anyone can pull through this without a scratch it's Hanna Marin."
I gave her a look.
"Hyphen Rivers," she continued. "Do you really use the hyphen?"
"No," I laughed. "It's just the name of the brand and plus it has the same initials as me so it works."
"It does have a nice ring," Aria laughed.
The two of us sipped our coffees while Harper slept in my arms. Eventually I needed to get home so we said our goodbyes and I headed back to my car. The traffic was unbearable on PCH and it was past sunset when I finally pulled into the garage. I walked inside to find all of the lights off.
"Caleb," I called out.
"Yeah," he said walking down the stairs and met me in the kitchen.
"Did you eat yet?" I asked.
"I just ordered a pizza," he answered. "I'm willing to share if you come with me to pick it up."
"I'm not that hungry," I smiled.
"Seriously?" he asked. "You're always hungry for pizza."
"I'm good," I sighed. I'd been nauseous all day and could barely keep anything down. "I'll go with you, though. Got nothing better to do."
He smiled and we loaded up in his car to get the pizza. Twenty minutes later we were sprawled on the couch watching an episode of one of those crime shows. When it was over, I muted it and turned to Caleb draping my legs across his lap.
"Remember when you said you wanted kids?" I asked.
"Yeah," he replied.
"You're sure, right?" I continued. "Like if we had a baby tomorrow that would be cool?"
"That's not possible," he smiled uneasily, "but yes. I'd be really happy."
"Okay," I smiled, "because I need to tell you something."
"You're freaking me out a little," he said.
"We're having a baby!" I blurted out quickly. "I'm pregnant."
It took a minute for him to react. His face kind of turned into a smile but he also looked insanely confused.
"Really?" he said finally.
"Yeah," I smiled. Tears of happiness were stinging my eyes but I held them back. Caleb would never let me live it down if I started crying right now.
"Baby," he said leaning over to kiss me. "This is the best news I've heard all day."
"This is inside there," Caleb said looking at the small sonogram photo and then turning to look at my still flat stomach.
"Can you please stop looking at me like that?" I asked cracking eggs into a mixing bowl.
"It's just so weird," he said. "You're gonna get so huge."
I glared at him as I poured the eggs into a pan on the stove. Panic swept across his face.
"I didn't mean it like that," he said quickly. "I love you?"
"You better," I told him flipping omelets for the both of us.
"I'm sorry," he said walking over and slipping his arms around me. "I love you and I'm really excited for us."
"You better be," I said resting my hands on his arms, "because we're in knees deep now. There's no turning back."
"I never said I wanted to," he replied. "We're doing this together."
"I love you," I smiled kissing him slowly, softly.
He slipped his hands under my thin gown and puller me close to him. I jumped up into his arms as he carried me into the next room. Then an awful smell hit my noise.
"Something's burning," I said sniffing. I looked at the stove and jumped out of his arms. "Shit!"
I ran to the stove and turned it off before scraping the burnt eggs into the trash. I dropped the steaming pan into the sink and leaned against the counter trying to hold back me nausea. I hate the smell or burnt anything and eggs are the worst.
"You okay?" Caleb asked walking over and putting his arms around me.
"I just can't stand that smell," I told him pointing at the trash. Without skipping a beat he picked up the bag of trash and took it outside only to come back in and open every window downstairs.
"Everything good?" he asked.
"Yeah," I smiled. "Thank you."