Sunday, Mid-day
Lynn opened the door, a huge smile on her face and William standing behind her.
"Hello!" she said, so much love for the two kiddos on the porch. "Well, Abraham Marcus, look how tall you are!"
The little guy grinned and then ran forward, hugging her waist. He loved loved hugs. "Ma…Sissy and me….home." She loved that adorable lisp.
"Yes you are, my sweet boy." Carrie walked in, a bit timid, but still smiling. "Carrie Berry, how are you?"
"Good," she shrugged, leaning against William's arm. William knelt down and gave her a hug. "Hi, Papa."
"Hi, sweetie. Welcome home."
She pulled back and then hugged him again. "Thank you for wanting us."
William couldn't help his tears. What a sad life they had had. "You are very welcome, dear one. We love you and Abe very much." He would do everything he could to make the rest of their lives together wonderful.
Carrie walked over and shyly hugged Lynn. "Hi, Momma."
"Hey."
After saying goodbye to the social worker, they decided to go and check out the newly decorated and finished bedroom and put the kids clothes away.
"This is your dresser, Abe," Lynn told him. "Let's put your clothes in here. Which drawer do you want your underwear in? You pick."
"Mm." He pulled open the top drawer and pointed, grinning for all he was worth.
"That's a great spot. Good job."
After Abe put all his clothes away and tucked his stuffed duck family under his blankets, Lynn turned to Carrie.
"Carrie, I know you are going to be sleeping in here with your brother sometimes, but would you like to see your bedroom?"
"I have my own room?"
It was a surprise for Carrie. They hadn't discussed it too much but Lynn put a lot of effort into making it a comfortable and calm environment for her new daughter.
"Yes you do. Somewhere you can go that's just yours."
"I want to see, please."
Lynn held out her hand and led Carrie across the hall. "If you decide to sleep in here, you will still be close to Abe but you'll still have your privacy."
"Okay."
Lynn turned on the light and Carrie's eyes lit up and then tears started to fall. "Oh, Momma. This is the best room I have ever had! Thank you."
"You don't have to thank me, sweetheart. Momma's and Papa's take care of their children and you are a wonderful sister to your brother and Papa and I are so excited to have you here. We are so proud of you."
"Abie needs me," she shrugged. "But…I need someone sometimes."
"Of course you do. Your Papa and I will be happy to be that someone for you."
Carrie nodded and wiped her eyes. "Can I please put my clothes away in here?"
"Of course. This is all for you."
William knocked on Carrie's door, with a grinning monkey named Abe on his back. "Are boys allowed?" he teased.
"Its your choice, Carrie," Lynn told her.
"Yeah, you can come in, Papa."
"Well, what do you think of your new room, Carrie?"
"Its so beautiful."
"Yeah, Momma did a good job with it," he told her, winking at Lynn.
William put Abe down and tickled him slightly, loving his giggle. "So, Abe and I are starving. Why don't all of us pick somewhere to eat lunch and then we can go see what the school looks like."
Carrie's face turned from really happy to no expression. Then she bolted and opened her closet door and closed it behind her.
Lynn looked at William and raised her eyebrows. They had talked about their new school before and Carrie had never been very excited about it. Apparently, she still wasn't.
"Carrie? Can I come in?" Lynn asked.
…..
Over at the duplex, Elizabeth moaned a little as her phone buzzed with yet another question from her renters. It wasn't that she didn't want to help them, she just felt beyond nauseated right now and didn't want to move.
"I can take care of whatever they need, love," Lucas told her, kissing her clammy forehead. He grabbed her phone and read the text. "The oven doesn't work?" he muttered. His guess was they didn't hit start after telling it to Bake or whatever.
"Be right there," he texted them. "I'll be back, Beth. Love you."
"Mmm," she said, as still as could be, her eyes shut.
He knocked at the door to the rental and waited. After a moment, the door opened to an older gentleman, somewhere in age between his parents and grandparents. "Hello, sir. I'm Lucas. My wife is the owner of this rental. You said your oven doesn't work?"
"Nope. Beeps at me and lights up on that new fangled screen it has and then doesn't get hot. So frustrating!"
"I would be happy to take a look for you."
"Be my guest, son." His tone suggested that nothing Lucas would do could fix it but Lucas was pretty confident. It was brand new after all.
"Alright, sir. Would you please show me what you did so I can see what it does?"
"I guess," he grumbled. "I pushed this doo-hickey here," he said, pointing to Bake. "Then this thingamajig," he told him, pointing to the temperature button that said 400 degrees.
"Then what?"
"Then it does nothing. I tell you, its broke."
Lucas pushed the start button. "Make sure after you tell it 400 degrees that you hit start and then you'll be in business." Lucas opened the door and held his hand in to make sure it was starting to get warm.
The screen said "preheat". "Well, humdinger," the older gentleman said. "Thank you, son. Now me and the Mrs. can have us some grub."
Lucas shook his hand. "Enjoy yourselves. I'm going to get back to my wife. She's not feeling well."
"Oh dear," the older gentleman's wife said, walking in the room. "I will make her some warm chicken and rice soup. That'll help."
"Well, she's having trouble keeping things down, ma'am."
"Is it something that should go away in about 24 hours, son? Or in a few months?"
Lucas turned red and grinned. "Well, the website said she has about another month before she starts to feel better."
"The website. Nonsense," she told him. "The website doesn't know each woman is different. Take me. When I was pregnant with my first daughter, I was sick every single day for nine whole months."
"I think I won't mention that to my wife, if that's okay with you."
"Wise man."
"Anyway, I'll make some soup. It will help her stay hydrated and get some vitamins and protein to that precious babe."
"Thank you, ma'am."
"Alma, son. I'm Alma and this man here is Fred."
"Nice to meet both of you."
……
Lucas walked back into their home quietly, not wanting to wake up Beth if she had gone back to sleep. He made two cups of tea, one ginger for her and cinnamon for himself. Then he walked slowly upstairs to the master and peeked in the door. She was still in the same position he left her in but she was quietly snoring so he put her tea by the bed and walked back downstairs to see if he could get on his laptop to work.
As he looked through the plans for yet another condo project, his mind drifted off. He wanted to design their baby's nursery but he knew that Beth had her own ideas. He wanted to tell his kids a story about how he dreamed about what they would want in their room and he was able to create it with his own hands.
Then his mind went to maybe he wanted to be a part of an interior design/architecture company that he owned. He had never really wanted to be part of the corporate scene that his father and grandfather had been so successful in. He had inherited their talent for the job but he wanted to be his own person. His own boss. Make his own way.
"Babe?"
He looked up and saw his beautiful Beth wandering down the stairs.
"Hi, love. How are you feeling?"
"A little better. Thank you for the tea."
"Anything for my love." He put the laptop down, which he hadn't been concentrating on anyway, and patted his lap, giving her the okay to sit there.
She sat down and curled up, relishing in his strong, protective arms. "How are the renters?"
"Just fine. They didn't hit start on the oven."
She chuckled and nodded.
"Alma may or may not bring you some of her homemade chicken and rice soup."
"That's really nice of her."
"It is, yes." He rubbed her arm with his fingertips, still thinking.
"What's on your mind, babe?"
"Well, my thoughts were going to our future."
"And specifically which part?"
"Well you know that I want to start my own business."
"Yep." She said, placing little kisses on his jaw and upward toward his ear.
"Love, if you don't want to finish what you start, please don't start," he begged. She was driving him nuts. He shivered as her lips touched his earlobe.
"Elizabeth." She giggled and stopped.
"Okay, sorry. Yes, your own business."
"Right and that got me thinking how I would love to design and build our kids rooms."
"You would?"
"Yeah but I know that you have plans so I was thinking if I started an interior design/architecture business, I'd have the best of both worlds."
"Would you take some interior design classes?"
"Or maybe just take on a partner who already does interior design."
"What if you and I both studied interior design and then we could work together?"
He raised his eyebrows at her. "I didn't know that you'd want to work with me."
"I think it would mean that you and I would get to spend more time together so why not?"
"Well, then let's do it."
"So instead of getting your master's in architecture, you'll go for a bachelor's in Interior design?" she confirmed.
"Yeah, I mean, we need to realize what that would mean. I would have to take night and weekend classes so I wouldn't be home much after work."
"Yeah. I mean, it would be the same if you went for your master's."
"True. It might be hard on our marriage, love."
"We have to promise to make time for us, no matter what. Get a babysitter and stay here if need be. We can't put our relationship on the back burner," she agreed.
"Right. I know we have a wonderful friendship and a good marriage so far but adding a baby, your new business and school to our already busy schedule will be hard."
"Let's pray about it and think hard. Maybe it would be better for you to stay at Collin's until our little bean is a little older. Or maybe it makes sense to do it now."
He nodded. Yes, prayer was the wise thing to do when making such a life-changing decision. "Sounds like a perfect plan," he told her, closing his eyes to pray.