A/N: Thanks for reading. Enjoy!
"The house is looking great.", I tell Kate who's holding Oliver while we sit in the living room of her and Elliot's new house.
"Thanks. One thing about moving into a larger place means more decorating. The guest bedrooms are merely storage rooms until we get the chance to actually decorate them. The basement is the same way although Elliot has ideas on what to do with it."
"Ah. I bet he wants to make it a man cave."
"Complete with a pool table and mini fridge.", Kate nods. "I'm not completely against it though because I'm sort of wanting to make one of the guest rooms my little hideaway where I can read and relax."
"It sounds like a good compromise. Are you still considering having the wedding in the backyard?"
"We've actually decided to since the house like our wedding is a step forward for us. It'll also add to the laid back and simple theme of the wedding. My mom was a little upset when I told her the plan."
"Why?", I ask, picking up my cup of tea.
"Because she always thought I'd be having a large wedding where I'd be wearing the big puffy dress. Of course that was what I thought I wanted, but as I've grown, I've realized the day is about expressing your love, not about making a spectacle. I explained my feelings to my mom, and she seems to understand." I take a slow sip of my tea and smile.
"We've come a long way, haven't we? Both of us have fallen in love and are on wonderful journeys with our lives."
"Pregnancy makes you sentimental.", Kate giggles. "But you're right. We're not the only ones who've changed. I'm still getting used to the fact that Olivia is a mom. I've never seen her as happy as I did when I went to the hospital and saw her holding Joshua. He's a beautiful baby."
"He certainly is, and Olivia and Sawyer are already great parents." Through the blinds of Kate's living room window, I see Ryan sitting in the SUV. He's taken over as my security while Sawyer's on a three week.
"Speaking of great parents, you and Christian are pretty awesome. When are you going to find out if baby number two is a boy or a girl?" Christian and I learned last week we're having a daughter, and we're determined to keep the news to ourselves.
"We're not going to find out.", I shrug, getting a shock looked from Kate. "Christian and I decided to let it be a surprise." Kate continues to stare. "Stop looking at me like that."
"I'm sorry. I just thought you'd want to know, but the choice is yours. Even though you're not going to find out, you can still guess what you're having. So, do you think it's a boy or a girl?"
"I go back and forth. Yesterday I was thinking girl, and this morning I was thinking boy." Kate squares her eyes on my stomach.
"Hmmm. I'm going to say boy.", she sighs.
"I've got a little something for you." Christian waggles his brows and grins. I stand and saunter over to him.
"We both know it's not a little something.", I smirk, letting my fingers lightly brush against his cock.
"No, it's not.", he chuckles. "But I wasn't talking about that." He moves his hand from behind his back and holds up a small paper bag. "I stopped by Mia's food truck and got you some fried pickles."
"Fried pickles? Yum." I grab the bag and settle back on the sofa. "I really shouldn't eat these before dinner, but they smell so good."
"Go ahead and help yourself. Mia tossed in a small cup of ranch dressing to dip them in." Christian sits next to me and watches in amusement as I start devouring the fried pickles.
"Would you like one?"
"No thanks. Patrick Matlock was working at the food truck. Today's his first day. He seems like a good kid, and Mia said he's catching on pretty fast. He told me even though he doesn't watch much tv he does like to watch cooking shows where he sees recipes he'd like to try."
"Sounds like his culinary aspirations might be the perfect thing for him to focus on.", I say, dipping one of the pickles in the ranch dressing.
"I hope so.", he murmurs. "So...how tempted where you to tell Kate we're having a girl?"
"There wasn't a bit of tempation. Kate brought up the question of when we're finding out the gender, and I answered with we're not going to find out. Kate was naturally shocked but went on to ask if I had any guesses. I threw her off by saying I go back and forth."
"That's my girl.", Christian grins before kissing the tip of my nose. "I'm going to go and check on Oliver, but you stay and finish your fried pickles."
"These pajamas are so adorable on you.", I coo to Oliver after putting his new frog pajamas on him. He kicks his feet and giggles. "You think too, huh?" I pick him up and walk over to the rocking chair where I start trying to get him to sleep. His eyes close but open back up when Christian appears in the room. "There's your daddy."
"I'm sorry for not being in here sooner. My dad called." He bends down and kisses Oliver's cheek.
"It's fine. How are your mom and dad?"
"They're doing good but will be even better tomorrow when they leave for their getaway. Dad's reserved them a cabin at the Sleeping Lady Resort in Leavenworth. Mom was able to get the time off from work, and he was able to move some things around so they're going to have a few days with just them."
"I'm happy for them. Both of them work hard and deserve to take some time off.", I say as Oliver locks his eyes on Christian. "I think someone wants you to rock him to sleep." Without a word, Christian gently takes Oliver from me and sits down in the other rocking chair. "Soon we're going to have two babies to get to sleep."
"Twice the fun.", Christian smirks. We both sit in silence while he continues getting Oliver to sleep. When the baby is sound asleep, Christian eases out of the chair and places him in the crib. I get up and join in admiring Oliver as he sleeps.
"Goodnight sweet boy.", I whisper.
"Mrs. Grey, if there's anything you can't reach, let me know, and I'll get it.", Ryan says. I needed to pick up some things at the store so he drove me and Oliver who's sitting in the front of the shopping cart.
"Thanks." I take a glimpse of the list and turn on to the toothpaste aisle.
"You should get the bubblegum flavored kind that has a dinosaur on the label." I look up and see Ethan standing at the other end of the aisle.
"Somehow I don't see Christian using bubblegum flavored toothpaste although he'd probably like the dinosaur. What brings you here?"
"The same thing as you.", he answers, motioning to the cart in front of him. "I had a photography session cancel, leaving me with some free time to stock up on things. I went to do some laundry last night and noticed I had very little detergent. I added some water to the bottle just to get what I could washed." I roll my cart towards him, and we continue shopping side by side. "Oliver, are you going to wrangle your mom into getting you a toy?" Oliver's too interested in his surroundings.
"He's not interested in toys, but it won't be long until he's pleading with me to buy him something."
"Ana, you and I both know he won't have to do much pleading. All he'll have to do is look at you and poof.", Ethan laughs as he grabs a pack of paper towels. "Max bought some paper towels the other day that wouldn't absorb a thing."
"How is Max?"
"Max is good. Before you ask, we're great."
"I'm glad. Kate and I were just talking yesterday about how we've grown. The same goes for you. You're in a relationship and have a career that you excel at."
"Gosh, we're adults.", Ethan grimaces jokingly. "I remember being a kid and not wanting to be an adult."
"We're pretty cool adults though."