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1216 Words
I walked out of our room and down the stairs. James' father, Jon, was already there. Scarlett was sitting in his lap at the kitchen counter completely transfixed on her bowl of oatmeal, but not eating it.
"Hello, darling," Jon said as I walked into the room.
I leaned down and gave him a hug. "Hi, Jon. I see you two are already busy. What are you up to?" Scarlett was still staring at her bowl of oatmeal in the most unusual way.
"Grandpa said I could make a design with the raisins," she said. "I can't decide if I should do a snake or a stork."
I laughed. "It's going to get cold, Scar." I looked back at Jon and smiled.
"She's a perfectionist," James said as he placed a bowl down for Jon. "Remind you of someone we know?" He nodded toward me.
Jon laughed. "I was going to say you, son."
"And I was going to say Jon," I said.
The three of us all laughed.
"I have an idea," Jon said to Scarlett. "How about you make a snake with your raisins and I'll make a stork with mine."
"No, I want to make the stork. I'm scared of snakes, Grandpa."
"But didn't you just say..."
"I thought if I made a snake and ate it then I wouldn't be scared. But I don't want him inside of me forever."
Jon raised his eyebrow, just like James so often did, and looked up at us.
James shrugged.
"Well, okay, sweetheart," Jon said. "How about we both make storks then?"
She nodded and put her hand into the bag of raisins. "Don't forget the oven," she said and handed him a sticky fistful of raisins.
Jon looked back up at us. "What is all this about snakes, storks, and ovens?"
"You don't know about babies, Grandpa? I can teach you." Scarlett launched into the story James and I had spun.
Jon shook his head and looked up at us.
"We have to get going," James said and looped his arm behind my back. "We'll see you two later."
"Okay, Daddy." She turned back to Jon. "But there's a timer, so the babies don't burn. And each oven has two storks just in case one misses the timer. And they're not allowed to potty at the same time."
I tried not to giggle at Jon's expression as we left them in the kitchen. "He's going to think we're awful parents." We stepped onto the elevator.
"He was just telling me the other day how lovely Scarlett is. Maybe he'll think she made the story up herself and that he'd completely misjudged her."
I slapped James' arm. "Oh, geez, what if he tells her the truth? An innocent story about storks is so much better than an explanation of s*x. She's much too young."
"I should probably text him?" He raised both eyebrows.
"Absolutely."
James pulled out his phone and sent his father a text. His phone bleeped a minute later with a response. "Yup, he said we're awful parents."
"He did not." I grabbed his phone from him. The text read, "I'm not going to explain s*x to a child. What do you think I am, a snake monster?"
I laughed and handed James his phone back.
The elevator doors opened. William was already standing by the car. He opened up the door when he saw us.
I missed our old driver, Ian. It had been over a year since he had moved, but I still always expected to see his smiling face opening the door. Ian was practically family now. He had been dating James' sister, Jen, ever since our wedding. And he had quit so he could move across the country to live with her. It was romantic and wonderful. It didn't mean I didn't miss him though. Not that William wasn't great. He was. But he wasn't Ian.
"Good morning, Mr. and Mrs. Hunter," William said.
That's what it was. It was the whole formal thing that bothered me. I couldn't break past that barrier with him. "Good morning, William," I said as he took my hand and helped me into the car behind James. One time I had called him Will and he had made such a horrendous face that a passerby would have thought I had spit on him. I had called him William ever since.
He closed the door behind us.
"We should give Jen and Ian a call," I said. "I think it's been a few weeks since we've talked to them. Really we should convince them to come early for Bee and Mason's wedding. Maybe they can stay at our place the whole week?"
"We can call them as soon as we get home." James wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "You miss Ian, huh?"
I laughed. "It's the whole being bad at change thing. I miss both of them. I kinda thought Jen would move back here once they got together."
"Yeah, me too."
I rested my head on James' shoulder as the car started to move. Silence settled around us. For some reason it put a nervous pit in my stomach. The baby kicked me like he was annoyed by my feelings. I lifted my head off of James' shoulder. "James?"
"Yes? You look beautiful today, by the way." He smiled.
"Oh my God. I'm the absolute worst. I walked into the closet this morning and found this dress and was so excited. It was such a sweet gesture because you know how much I love the other one. And then I immediately forgot to thank you. That's probably what you want to have breakfast together to talk about right? How awful I've been? I think your brother is right. I have crazy pregnancy hormones. I swear I can't even think straight anymore. I'm sorry about the past few days. I'm sorry that I keep assuming the worst and arguing with you and acting insane. And by the way, you can sue everyone we know for all I care. I don't want to fight about that. It's fine with me."
William cleared his throat from the front seat. "I'm just going to..." he let his voice trail off as he raised the partition.
"Ugh." I put my face in my hands. "See. I'm the worst. Now William thinks we're going to sue him."
"Penny?"
I lifted my head. "I know I've been impossible to please. First I was upset because we weren't talking. And then I got upset because you did open up. And you're allowed to talk to Rob about stuff. I want you to feel like you can talk to your brother. I shouldn't have been eavesdropping. And I way overreacted. Like a freaking lunatic. And I'm so hungry. Where are you taking me?"
"Baby." He wiped away the tears that I hadn't known I had shed. "Do you mind if I say something now?"
I shook my head.
"We're going to that brunch place you like so much. We should be there any minute. And I'm not taking you out to breakfast because I'm upset with you. I'm taking you out to breakfast because I love you."
"Oh." I exhaled slowly. "Yeah, I mean, I thought that was a possibility too."
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