“I don’t know about…” Mia paused when she looked at the tree and then gave him a sly glance. “I stand corrected. It looks like he has.” She went and sat on the sofa and took a sip of her coffee. “Oh, that’s good. Thank you.”
Austin took a sip of his coffee before placing the mug down because he really couldn’t wait. He picked up the box and handed it to her. “I wonder what it could be.”
Her soft laugh was her only response as she carefully unwrapped the box. He sat beside her and quietly watched as she took the lid off of it and then moved the tissue paper aside.
“It’s uh…an envelope,” she said slowly, looking at him in confusion.
“Open it.”
It took her all of ten seconds to rip it open and pull out the stack of papers. He watched as she scanned the cover sheet before she gasped in recognition.
“Oh my goodness! How…I mean…did you…?”
“I’d love to take credit for this, but it was all Violet,” he admitted, feeling guilty now that he didn’t have anything specifically for her. “When she told me what she was able to do, I asked if I could be the one to tell you, so…”
Her smile was bright as she launched herself at him, hugging him tightly. “Thank you! This is amazing!” Pulling back, she waved the papers at him. “We’re going on our honeymoon!”
“Just slightly delayed,” he told her, loving seeing her so happy. “And apparently, she got us an upgrade to a villa, so you know I’m psyched.”
“See? You got your way anyway,” she told him as she put the papers down and walked over to the tree. She paused for a moment before bending over and picking up the small box. When she didn’t turn around right away, he began to get concerned.
“Mia?”
He heard her let out a long breath before she faced him. “O-kay. This is sort of a last-minute surprise,” she said slowly. “Something I didn’t even know I was going to get you until yesterday, and…I hope…well…just open it.”
Now he was really concerned.
And confused.
He took the box from her and watched as she walked around him and sat back down. With her coffee back in her hand, she stared down into her mug.
“Mia, if this isn’t something you want me to have or if you don’t want me to open it right now…”
“No, I want you to open it. I’m just not sure if you’ll like it.”
“Baby, you know I love anything from you. Stop worrying,” he assured her as he unwrapped the gift.
The box was small–maybe the size of a watch or a phone–but it was a plain white box. When he took the lid off, it was a mass of tissue paper and it didn’t feel like there was anything in it.
“It’s in the tissue paper,” she said quietly.
With a nod, he began to slowly unwind the small wad of paper until he had what looked like a thermometer in his hands. “Um…” He turned it this way and that until it suddenly registered what exactly he had in his hands. Eyes wide, he looked at her. “Is this…I mean…did you…?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I kind of peed on that, but I swear I cleaned it!”
The laugh that came out was part humor and part nerves because he was afraid to believe what he was seeing. “Yes+” the tiny screen said, and he’d never been so happy to be holding a pee stick in his life. Swallowing hard, he looked at her, “A baby? We’re going to have a baby?”
She nodded again.
“Holy shit,” he said, a little louder and with another laugh. “We’re seriously having a baby?” And then he scooped her up in his arms and spun her around. “This is the greatest gift in the entire world!”
Mia was laughing with him but quickly started smacking his shoulder. “You need to put me down right now or I may be sick!”
He put her down immediately and gently placed her on the sofa. “Oh my God! You shouldn’t be drinking coffee! We need to switch to decaf! And you had champagne yesterday!” he groaned. “Is it safe to even go on vacation? Should you be flying?” Another groan. “Can you get in to see a doctor tomorrow? We don’t leave until Sunday but with the holiday…”
Tugging him down beside her, she frowned. “Okay, you seriously need to relax. Jill did a lot of research for me yesterday while I was getting ready, and Sydney was right there with me and she’s already had a baby and is currently pregnant so she answered a lot of questions.”
“But you didn’t know about the trip and…”
Holding up her hand to stop him, she gave him a stern look. “Sydney was pregnant on her wedding day and she and Kyle flew for their honeymoon, so we’re fine. I actually had sparkling grape juice in my glass for our toast–thanks to Sydney–and as for the coffee…I’ll wean. Soon. I swear.”
He had a million questions and was already worried about her, but he knew he needed to calm down. “I can’t believe you were dealing with all of this while I was forcing us to get married. Had I known…”
“Austin, do you have any idea how amazing the timing of all this was? If we had stuck to my plan of a summer wedding, we would have had to cancel because I’d be about ready to give birth!” She laughed. “And I realize you can’t really call me old-fashioned because we’ve been living together and sleeping together practically since we met, but I’d much rather that we be married before our baby is born.” She shrugged. “I’m not saying it was necessary, but it’s something that I’m really glad we were able to do.” Reaching out, she squeezed his hand. “So you see, your plan was perfect.”
But he shook his head. “The only thing that’s perfect here is you. Always. Forever.”
And he sealed it with a kiss.
When they broke apart, he sighed. “You know what this means, don’t you?”
“Um…”
“I had planned on us skipping out on going to Garrett and Emma’s for dinner, but now we have to go because I want to tell everyone the news!” He kissed her again. “Would you hate it if we went?”
“Are you kidding? Emma’s an awesome cook and it means another day of celebrating. Besides, being with family is what Christmas is all about, right?”
“That was a very Charlie Brown Christmas thing to say,” he teased.
“Yeah, well…” She paused and smiled at him. “What time do we need to be at Garrett’s?”
“I think he said around two. Why?”
“That just means we can sit and relax for a little while,” she told him. “Just you and me.”
Unable to help himself, he placed one hand on her flat stomach. “And next year, there will be three of us. I can’t believe it.”
She smiled up at him. “I love you.”
“Love you more.”
Epilogue
Four months later…
* * *
“Okay, that is the last of it.”
“Are we sure? I thought we said those exact words two hours ago.”
Austin walked around the downstairs of the house they’d been calling home for almost two years and sighed. “Well, nothing’s left down here. I’ll go check upstairs.”