“Yeah, and then we said yes and asked if that meant you would be our brother.”
“We always wanted a brother.”
“And now we have one.”
“Plus, with Denny’s garage, he says that when we can drive, he’ll make our cars go super-fast, right?”
Jordan could barely keep up with the back-and-forth between the tweens.
His father chuckled and gazed lovingly at the girls. “Right to everything but the super-fast cars. That one we’ll have to run by your mother.”
Mya rolled her eyes as only a newly minted twelve-year-old can. “Anyway, Denny got down on one knee and said some super sweet stuff to Mom. Then, Talya and Simon picked us up and babysat us for the rest of the night because Mom and Denny said they were going to go do boring adult stuff.”
“Boring adult stuff, huh?” he repeated, eyeing his father and Maureen as the woman who’d been like a mother to him for the past decade blushed.
“Open the present, Jordan! Open it! Your dad was so excited to get it for your baby,” the girls chimed, pointing to the gift.
He tore the wrapping carefully, then tears blurred his vision.
“Your mother used to read that book to you all the time when you were little,” his father said, growing misty-eyed as well.
Jordan nodded, his throat tightening as he stared at a copy of The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. “Yeah, I remember.”
“Do you like it?” Mia pressed.
“I do. Thank you,” he said, emotion coating the words as he held his father’s gaze.
“Can we go talk to Simon and Talya now?” Mia asked, injecting a bout of tween humor into the wave of emotion that nearly overtook him.
Maureen nodded. “You may. First, tell Georgie and Jordan congratulations.”
“Congratulations, bro!” the girls chimed, then skipped out of the room toward the front of the shop.
“I know your mother is looking down on you from heaven. She’d be so proud and so happy for you and Georgie,” his father said, blinking back tears.
Jordan looked between his father and Maureen. “I think Mom would be happy for the both of us,” he replied.
He passed the book and Faby to his wife, then embraced his father—so grateful to have the man back in his life. He was beyond excited his dad had proposed to Maureen. If anyone deserved to be loved and cherished, it was her. And he knew his father was the one for the job. All he had to do was watch his dad for a second to see the absolute devotion in his eyes when the big guy caught a glimpse of her.
“You’re familiar with this book, aren’t you? It’s about a mischievous bunny who’d disregarded his mother’s warning to steer clear of Mr. McGregor’s farm, only to go straight there, and barely escape by the skin of his teeth.”
“I—” she began when Gene and Marjory handed her a slim rectangular box.
“We should have checked with Denny and Maureen first,” Gene said with a chuckle.
“Go on and open it, Georgie,” Marjory offered.
Georgie handed him the picture book and their fake baby as she unwrapped the gift, revealing another copy of The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
“This book was also one of Georgie’s favorites as a girl,” Gene announced to the group.
She nodded. “My dad introduced me to it.”
“No, he didn’t, dear,” Marjory countered, then shared a look with Gene.
Georgie cocked her head to the side. “Sure, he did. My dad was all about the books—even when I was little.”
Gene shook his head. “No, sweetheart, open it. We added an old photograph to the title page.”
Gently, Georgie lifted the cover to reveal an image of a woman, who looked like the mirror image of his wife, holding a baby in one arm and a book, none other than The Tale of Peter Rabbit, in the other.
Georgie stared at the image. “I had no idea.”
“It was almost a running joke with your mom and dad,” Marjory added.
“How so?” Georgie asked.
The man chuckled, then waved them all over to sit as Barry hung back, capturing the moment.
Gene settled into a chair, then met Georgie’s gaze. “Peter Rabbit was all your mother, Georgiana. Your father wasn’t crazy about that book at all. He hated that Peter was such a naughty rabbit and almost got himself caught by not listening to his bunny mother and avoiding the dangerous farm. But not your mom. That’s not how she saw it.”
Georgie’s hand went to her belly. “What did she think?”
“She saw Peter’s day of dodging the farmer and barely making it out alive as a grand adventure. Naughty Peter might not have gotten the reward of eating bread and berries like his siblings did when he finally returned home, but he had something they didn’t.”
“What did she think Peter Rabbit had gotten?” Georgie asked, her voice barely a whisper.
“Experiences. Your mother argued that, thanks to his wild day, Peter had encountered the world. And that was worth the risk to her,” Marjory explained.
“I would venture to say all those pageants she’d entered you in was a way to give you a taste of the world—a way to gain new experiences and learn about different places,” Gene added, then paused. “And, if I remember correctly, she was also avoiding carbohydrates, so a dinner of bread sounded ghastly to her.”
Georgie released a teary chuckle. “It does sound like her.”
Jordan reached over and took his wife’s hand. “Are you okay?”
Georgie sucked in a tight breath, then leaned forward, and squeezed his hand.
“Stevie Nicks?” he asked, then shook his head. “Paxton Dicks?”
That wasn’t it either!
Dammit! How could he not remember the name of the practice contractions?
“Oh! I’ve got it! Braxton Hicks!” he called out.
She nodded, giving him a thumbs-up, then exhaled as her body relaxed. “Just a little one, but…” she trailed off.
“Do you want some water?” he offered.
“Or a pineapple sherbet seltzer?” Becca chimed, holding up a pitcher of a godforsaken lumpy mixture.
Georgie stared out at their friends and family, then her gaze landed on him.
Her bottom lip trembled. “What if our child wants to enter beauty pageants? There will be so many things out of our control, Jordan. Maybe keeping the pregnancy from my mom was my attempt to hold on to some semblance of control? And more than that, is our child going to think we don’t have his or her best interest at heart? What kind of mother will I be? Will I be a total control freak and not allow them to figure out who they want to be? Am I strong enough to let them reject everything I stand for to allow them to find their way?”
Sweet self-help soliloquy! This got deep quickly.
The room erupted into a flurry of reassuring comments when he said the only thing that he thought could ease her mind—or at least distract her from her worries.
“I signed up a dual sex baby for toddler trombone lessons and the baby NFL.”
The chatter stopped.
“You did what?” Georgie asked as Barry took a step toward him, camera in hand.
This guy was going to hit the baby shower bizarro moments mother lode.
“What’s a dual sex baby?” Hector asked, sharing a look with Bobby, who shrugged.