Chapter 38

With a glare at Woody, Jordan said, "He'll probably have enough reasons to hate me by the time he is old enough to understand that how his name was decided on will be the least important on the list."

"Why do you think he is going to hate you?!" Woody asked in shock.

"Because I know I am going to be a lousy mother, and all kids hate their parents at some time in their lives."

Woody looked thoughtful, "I never hated mine," he offered.

"Of course not! You were probably the perfect son with the perfect parents! I am the hopeless one here!"

"Jordan that's ridiculous! I certainly wasn't the perfect son! You can ask my mother while she is here, but in all honesty she will probably tell you all my exploits before you could even ask. As for you being hopeless that simply isn't true! I see how much you care even if you don't want anyone to know that you wouldn't read all those baby and parenting books if you didn't want to do the best job you can do for him. You also need to remember that we are in this together. Okay?"

"I guess so," she said begrudgingly.

"Good!" he told her with smile. "Now can we enjoy our day? It will probably be out last free one before Logan is born."

"You decided on Logan?" she asked.

"No, I just thought I would give all the names we have a try to see which one sounds best."

"That's a great idea! What will your mother say if Nathan doesn't look like you?"

"Well we both have dark hair and so did Palmer, so it's very likely that Riley will too. Most babies are born with blues eyes and they change later. But I'm not too worried. I am sure that my mother will be able to assign every feature to some relative. We have a large family."

"What if she starts talking about us having more after this one? What should we say?"

"I will just tell her that we are going to wait and see if you kill this one off before we even think about having more," he teased.

"Good idea!" she said earnestly.

A short time later they arrived at the park where Woody wanted to have their picnic lunch. They unpacked the car, found a place both of them liked and Woody spread out the blanket.

As they unpacked the food, Jordan told him, "I am so glad your mother taught you how to cook, otherwise we would live on take-out or starve!"

He was still laughing over that when the hairs on the back of her neck stood up again. How could Palmer have known they were coming to this park?! Unless he had followed them! But then why hadn't she felt like this when they were in the car?! Unless vibes like this didn't work in cars!

'Oh good heavens!' she thought. 'Do you hear yourself?! You are beginning to sound as whacky as Clara Rose! Or as whacky as you used to think Woody was when you first met him. Speaking of Woody, you should tell him what is going on!'

'No! I'm not going to do that! Oh great! Now you are arguing with yourself! And being stupid too! Because you know you should tell him!'

With a moan, Jordan put her head in her hands, this got Woody's attention right away. "Jordan, are you alright?! Is something wrong?!" he questioned, putting down the container of potato salad and moving across the blanket towards her.

"I'm fine," she grumbled. "Just wishing we had picked somewhere closer to the bathrooms." She started to struggle back to her feet. Even though Jordan was normally a slim and fit woman with less than a week to her due date, she felt totally unwieldy. Before she could even get to her knees, Woody had jumped to his feet, which she shouldn't have felt resentful for, but she did. He reached out to gently help her stand, and with a muttered 'thank you' she headed to the bathroom.

What she didn't see on her walk to the public restroom was that Woody quickly repacked the picnic basket and picked up the blanket. By the time she came out, he was setting things out again, this time only about twenty steps from the bathroom. Jordan's eyes sparkled with unshed tears at the kindness of the man she was married to! He really was a great guy.

To be continued…