“Do you think you can handle six or seven pounds?” she asked as she took his hand, but he didn’t understand the question. She placed his hand on her belly, a gorgeous smile lighting up the hope in her eyes.
Understanding came with a jolt of shock. “You’re…We’re…?” Joy and fear intertwined, stealing his ability to speak.
“Yes. I took three tests.”
Three tests. “We’re having a baby?”
She nodded. She was having a baby. His baby. Their baby.
Our baby.
You’re having our baby.
Holy shit we’re having a baby.
Images of little Pennys with radiant smiles and loving hearts flashed in his mind, and like kryptonite to Superman, happiness obliterated his fear, and “We’re having a baby!” came rushing out. Penny laughed as he lifted her off her feet and crushed his lips to hers.
“God, I love you,” he said between kisses. “A baby. We’re having a baby!”
He couldn’t believe how elated he was or how free he felt. He kissed her again, longer this time, and as the rest of the world came back into focus, cheers and claps broke through his haze of stunned elation, and he realized they were surrounded by their families and friends, who were cheering and clapping. His sisters were crying, along with half the women there, and Hawk was taking pictures. He looked around them as he set Penny on her feet, keeping her tucked against him.
Kennedy barreled toward them, yelling, “I wanna name your baby!”
He and Penny laughed, and he gazed into her gorgeous glittering eyes and said, “How do you feel about a five-year-old naming our baby?”
“How bad can it be? She named Tallulah.”
“I like Moana!” Kennedy said.
Everyone laughed.
“Want to rethink your answer?” Scott asked.
Penny wrapped both arms around him and said, “As long as I get you and our baby, that’s all that matters.”
“Babies, sweetheart.” He kissed her again and said, “We have too much love in our hearts to hoard it.”
MUCH LATER, AFTER apologizing to Sarah and Bones for intruding on their big day, being passed from one congratulatory embrace to the next, and posing for loads of pictures, which Sarah and Bones insisted Hawk take to commemorate what had also become Penny and Scott’s special day, Penny was still on cloud nine. Toasts were made, Sarah and Bones danced their first dance to “It’s You” by Maggie Rose, the artist they named their daughter for, and after a delicious meal, Scott led Penny out to the dance floor.
When he took her in his arms and gazed lovingly into her eyes, she noticed the shadows were gone. He seemed lighter, happier. She felt it in his embrace, too. Gone was the underlying tether she’d once felt, as if taking charge of his fears had cut it loose.
“Do you remember our first real date?” he asked.
“How could I ever forget? That was the day you let me into your heart.”
It was a cold Sunday in early November, and they’d taken his boat to Capshaw Island, a small fishing town with wild ponies, a wildlife sanctuary, and not much commercialization. They’d walked through the town and gone out to the beach where the ponies ran free. They’d cuddled up, bundled in blankets, and watched the ponies for the longest time. She’d never forget the way he’d slowly relaxed, letting go of the tension she hadn’t even realized he’d carried until that very moment on the beach. The same tension, she now understood, he’d possessed every day since, until just hours ago. That day on the island was the first time he’d told her about the abuse he and Sarah had suffered, the fear he and his siblings had lived with, and the guilt he’d felt for not being able to protect Sarah from their parents’ wrath or Josie from the fights she’d been forced to watch.
He touched his lips to hers as they danced and said, “I realize now that I never finished letting you in. I’ve been living inside a suit of armor, trying to protect everyone else in case my father was inside of me. But when I realized I was going to lose you, I knew I had to find a way to break free from it and see what was left. It turns out it wasn’t my father inside after all. It was fear of becoming him eating me alive. I’d trapped it inside myself for so long, I had no idea how else to be. You changed that, sweetheart. Your love set me free. I am going to do all the things I promised, and I’m sure it won’t be easy for either of us. Thank you for seeing in me what I never allowed myself to see. I’m sorry it took me so long to get to this point.”
She hadn’t thought it was possible to love him more than she already did, but now she knew she was wrong. “I would have waited forever for you, Scotty, even if it meant living in separate houses and raising our child together but apart. I knew in my heart that one day you’d see yourself as I always have and come back to us. That day just came a lot sooner than I thought possible, and I am so glad it did.”
He touched his forehead to hers and said, “I love you, sweets.” He stopped dancing and lowered himself down in front of her, placing his hands to her belly, and said, “I’m going to be the best damn daddy this world has ever seen.”
He pressed a kiss to her belly, and tears sprang to Penny’s eyes. In that moment, beneath the twinkling lights of the colonnade, surrounded by the people they loved most, with a lifetime of love ahead of them, she knew that together they could handle the highs, the lows, and everything in between.
Chapter Seven
THE SMELL OF melted butter wafted into the living room, making Penny’s mouth water as she queued up The Proposal on their television. At fourteen weeks pregnant, she had so many cravings, no food group was safe—including boyfriend à la mode.
It had been two months since Bones and Sarah’s wedding, seven weeks since Penny had moved in with Scott, and two weeks since they’d heard the baby’s heartbeat. She placed her hand over her tiny belly, remembering how she and Scott had cried when they’d heard it. She hadn’t expected him to cry, too, but he’d been surprising her a lot lately. Not a day went by when he didn’t kiss her belly or talk to the baby. He’d even begun asking about paint colors for the second bedroom to make it into a nursery.
“Are you making popcorn?” she called out to him in the kitchen where he was getting her a dish of ice cream.
“Yeah. You want some with your ice cream?”
She turned to look at him, shirtless on the other side of the half wall. She swore he looked even more handsome every day.
“Yes, please,” Penny said. “Would you mind bringing a bowl of blueberries, too?”
He laughed. “You’ve got it, sweets.” His gaze traveled down her body. She was still wearing the off-the-shoulder pink blouse and black miniskirt she’d worn to Roni’s solo dance performance earlier that evening, which was incredible. “Mm-mm. I am one lucky man. You are stunning.”
“You’re not so bad yourself.” She blew him a kiss.
“I thought up a new sundae for you.”
He was always coming up with new ideas for her shop. His latest was the We’re Having a Baby sundae, a banana split made to look like a baby carriage with Oreos as wheels.