She had him there.
“Technically, yes.”
She sank into the seat and pressed her fingertips to her eyelids. “It’s a sign.”
“What’s a sign?”
“All of it. All the relief I felt after we picked the gender reveal as the date to tell my mom about the baby. It was a facade, hiding what we both know is true.”
He frowned. She was being damned hard on herself.
“What are you talking about, Georgie? What do we know is true?”
She waved him off. “And we don’t even know the baby’s gender.”
That was an easy fix.
“We can call Dr. Beaver’s office,” he replied.
“And say what?” she asked, her voice going up an octave. “They know this was supposed to be the big reveal for the Battle of the Births. We signed a waiver saying the office could share the information with Lenny and Stu. How do we tell them that I obliterated a spider to defend a fake baby and dropped the envelope with the gender information only to have it get eaten by an asshole goat! Do things like this happen to other people? Is there something wrong with us?”
“There’s nothing wrong with us. We can pull over and call the doctor’s office now. We’ll know the gender of our pineapple surprise in minutes,” he said, doing his best to ease her anguish.
“No, this is the universe telling us something. We’re not supposed to know the baby’s gender. I don’t even know if we’re supposed to be parents,” she added, back to shaking her head.
“Georgiana, you’re upset, and you’re low on pineapple. That’s all. In a day or two, we’ll probably be laughing about this.”
He swallowed hard, feeling her gaze bore into him.
Yep, probably not a good time to throw out the whole laugh-about-it-later comment.
“We don’t know the gender, so we can’t tell my mom,” she said, biting out the words.
“We don’t have to know the gender to tell your mom,” he countered, trying to make sense of what was going on with his wife and the crushing anxiety around telling her mother.
Georgie threw up her hands. “Then why did I want to wait? What am I supposed to say now? In my head, it made sense. We waited to tell them because then, not only were we telling them that a baby was on the way, we were also sharing the exciting news of it being a boy or a girl. And now, we’re not supposed to know the gender. A goat and a spider made sure of that. It’s like the asshat version of Charlotte’s Web, except the spider is a psychopath, and the pig was replaced by an envelope gobbling goat.”
He signaled, then maneuvered the car off the highway and onto the exit ramp, headed toward the market.
“That’s not how I remember that book, babe,” he said gently.
She lifted her chin. “You know what I mean!”
He didn’t. He really didn’t. But he wasn’t about to dissect the plot and character arcs of Charlotte’s Web with his upset pregnant wife when he wasn’t armed with at least three pineapple products.
Georgie stared out the window as they weaved their way through the city and toward the market. He pulled into the parking lot, then glanced at his wife. His heart broke at the sight of her in such pain.
There was nothing he wouldn’t do to make her smile—to make her see how any kid would be lucky to have her as a mother.
“Why’d you pick this location?” she asked.
He glanced out the window. They lived within a few miles of several organic grocery stores, but it had been ages since they’d visited this one—which happened to be the location of their first Battle of the Blogs challenge back when they could barely stand each other.
He stared at the entrance. “I don’t know. I was driving on autopilot.”
“This is where I watched you pick up that woman using honey as a prop,” she said with the faintest hint of a smile.
“And where you ruined cucumbers for poor Save the Whales Steve,” he replied, taking her hand.
Yep, they’d been challenged to use their former blog’s dating philosophies to meet a possible significant other at the grocery store. This was also the location of—
“We had our first kiss here,” Georgie said, reading his mind.
“You were neglecting the science of physical attraction. I had to prove you wrong.”
“And now look where we are,” she said, teary-eyed as she stared down at her baby bump.
He rested his hand on her belly. “Amazing, huh?” he answered.
“Don’t get used to me saying this, but it’s pretty obvious that you were right on the chemistry and attraction hubbub,” she said with a sly twist to her lips.
There she was. There was the snarky bookshop owner who’d stolen his heart.
“Oh, Jordan,” she said on a wistful sigh.
“What is it, babe?”
“After my outburst at the farm, who would trust me with a real baby?” she said, about to sink into the seat again when a sharp knock ricocheted through the car.
“I need you to take my baby!”
Their gazes shot to the passenger side window. Standing only inches away was Brice’s sister Briana with Ollie in her arms, her expression awash with anxiety.
He jumped out of the car and came to her side as Georgie exited the SUV.
“Are you guys okay? Are you hurt?” he asked.
The woman shook her head. “No, we’re fine. But I just got a call from the hospital. A patient I operated on yesterday is experiencing complications, and I need to go in. But no one is available to watch Ollie. Thad’s still not back. My family is attending a big pest control expo in Boulder. My mom is on her way here, but it’ll take her at least half an hour. And I don’t have that kind of time.”
Little Ollie reached for Georgie, and Briana passed the boy over.
“We’re happy to watch Ollie for you,” Georgie said, patting the boy’s back.
Briana pressed her hand to her heart. “Thank you! It’s like the universe put you right in my path.”
“Do we need your car seat?” he asked.
“No, my mom has one in her car, but would you mind doing something for me?”
“Anything,” Georgie answered.
“I’m forever waiting until the last minute to buy formula. Could you pick some up for me? And, of course, I’d pay you back.”
He waved her off. “No need. We’re happy to do it, Briana.”
“You two are lifesavers. Here,” she said, handing him Ollie’s diaper bag. “I’ll call my mom on the way to the hospital and let her know to meet you here.”
“Good luck! We hope everything goes well with your patient,” he said.
The woman nodded, kissed her son’s cheek, then jogged back to her car.
They watched as Dr. Briana Casey-Beaver sped out of the parking lot and disappeared into the city. Unmoving, they stood there for a beat before his wife broke their dazed bout of silence.
“Did someone just trust us to take their baby grocery shopping?” Georgie asked with a bewildered bend to the words.
He glanced at the smiling Ollie as an image of the VR diarrhea baby flashed through his mind.
But this was not virtual reality. This was a flesh and blood baby, who needed formula.