The due date came and went.
This was, Dr. Reyes assured them, completely normal — due dates were estimates, not deadlines, and a week of waiting past the estimate was well within the range of unremarkable.
Dante, however, had clearly not internalized this information at the level of his nervous system, whatever his rational brain understood.
"You're hovering," Mia told him, on the third day past the due date, watching him reorganize the hospital bag for the fourth time.
"I'm being prepared," Dante said.
"You packed the bag two weeks ago," Mia said. "It's been ready. You're hovering."
Dante set down the bag and looked at her — and something in his expression was, despite his best efforts at composure, visibly anxious.
"Charlotte arrived exactly on her due date," he said. "I had a fra
