*** We spent the day together, setting aside all obligations and worries, easing back into the closeness we had started to establish before the pregnancy. We didn’t have s*x or talk about the baby. We simply enjoyed one another’s company. I threw together one of the meals the housekeeper had left in the fridge, and Maria fed me strawberries for dessert. It wasn’t easy to keep my hands to myself, but we needed the time to connect on more than a physical level. That night, we lay in bed with the light out and curtains open, letting in the brilliant glow of the full moon. For the first time since she returned, conversation migrated to more serious matters. “I went to my parents’ house for dinner last night,” she said, her body pressed against mine with her head resting on my shoulder. “My dad
