I winced even though she was right. Most women didn't hide their baby bumps anymore, but I wasn't sure I was brave enough to do it.
"Forget about the swimsuit thing," J.J. said. "Does relaxing on the beach sound nice?"
I nodded.
"Then we'll figure out where we can go where you'll be comfortable."
I smiled at him and nodded again. "Okay," I added for good measure.
He leaned closer. "I love you, Lee. And your mom is right, you'll be cute in a bikini, even with a baby bump."
My face flushed but I leaned into him further. "I love you, too. I'll think about the bikini."
"That's all I can ask for," he said.
When we pulled apart, he left his arm around the back of my chair and he played with my hair.
"Dad! Dad!"
Corey flew through the door between the kitchen and the dining room, her hair a mess and her face flushed. Robert was already on his feet when she appeared.
"There's a mama raccoon and babies outside!" she said. "They're so cute! Come see!"
"I refuse," Sierra said. "I've seen enough raccoons to last a lifetime already."
I had no idea where that statement came from but Ben, her husband, cracked up and pulled her into his side for a huge hug.
Everyone else got to their feet and followed Corey toward the rear of the house.
J.J. and I were slower to join them, but when we did, I couldn't contain my smile. The mama raccoon had two babies with her and they were all loitering at the edge of the yard where the trees were thicker.
The boys were standing on the back deck, watching in awe, and all the adults were gathered behind them.
"They're so cute," Colette said quietly.
I studied them and silently agreed. Then, I realized that the raccoon looked familiar.
Before I could say anything, J.J. asked, "Is that the same raccoon that you've been feeding, Lee?"
"No, that's Gary," Cam argued.
As soon as she spoke, the mama raccoon stopped moving and lifted her head, looking at us. She took a few steps forward, the babies following her.
"I don't think Gary is a good name now that we know she's a girl," Brody said.
Cam laughed. "I guess you're right." She continued to chuckle. "How about Garina?"
Everyone groaned and shook their heads.
"That can't be your raccoon," J.J. stated. "That's the one that's been at Lee's house since I moved in. I recognize the missing chunk of her tail." He looked at me. "Right? That looks like Rascal, doesn't it?"
"It is Rascal," I said.
"It can't be. Your house is a few miles from mine," Cam argued. "Raccoons don't travel that far, do they?"
"I don't know," I answered with a shrug.
Corey sighed, rolled her eyes, and pulled her phone out of her pocket. "Let's Google it."
I bit back a laugh because even though Corey didn't have siblings, she'd seen how her uncles acted and she knew that a loud, good-natured argument was brewing.
As she typed away at her phone, I looked around and realized I was surrounded by my family. And I was happy.
Despite the chaos of the day, I could see myself doing things like this with J.J. for the rest of my life.
In fact, I looked forward to it.
Epilogue
"Is Lydia ready yet?" I called from the bathroom.
"Almost."
I rolled my eyes at J.J.'s response. That meant that she wasn't anywhere near ready and he was just pacifying me while he continued to play with our daughter instead of getting her dressed.
I heard a big, baby belly laugh followed by a deep chuckle and grinned at my reflection in the mirror.
Okay, so I couldn't be too annoyed when I heard them both laughing.
Six months ago, I'd been terrified that this moment would never happen.
Lydia Camilla McClane made her appearance in this world seven weeks ahead of schedule.
Despite the fact that I'd stopped cleaning houses in December after school let out and all the breaks that Cam made me take at work, I developed preeclampsia in January. Dr. Stubens put me on partial bed rest. She allowed me to continue school but refused to let me work at Crave.
Thank God for Harmony. When I'd first started working at the shop, she called in fairly regularly. Cam had been on the verge of letting her go when we learned, by accident, that her mother was ill and her father had vanished as soon as the cancer was diagnosed.
After that, Cam had worked with her on her schedule in every way she could.
By the time I'd been put on bed rest, Harmony's mother had finished chemotherapy and was doing much better, so Harmony was free to help more at the shop. When she'd graduated high school in May, I'd still been recovering and unable to work full-time, so she'd stepped in.
Now, she was doing the same thing I'd done at her age—she was living at home, commuting to college, and working part-time.
I fully intended to ask Cam if she could take over my assistant manager position at the new Crave location because now that I had Lydia, I wanted to stay at the original store since it was in Farley rather than thirty minutes away.
I had a feeling she would say yes.
Despite doing everything Dr. Stubens told me to do when my blood pressure started to rise, I ended up in the hospital after my seven-month visit. They monitored me closely for a week and realized that there was no way I was going to carry Lydia to term.
My blood pressure kept rising and I developed a persistent, agonizing pain in my right shoulder. After a final urine test, Dr. Stubens decreed that I was having a baby that day.
Within an hour, my little girl was introduced to the world.
For the rest of my life, I would never, ever forget the look on J.J.'s face when he heard her first cry.
We'd both been so scared going into the OR, worried if she would be strong enough to survive being born seven weeks early.
It seemed Lydia was determined to show us all what she was capable of. Within hours, she was off the CPAP machine. Three days later, she was taking a bottle. At twelve days old, they let us take that teeny, tiny baby home with us.
She weighed four pounds when she was born. When they weighed her the next day, she was three pounds and twelve ounces. The nurse in the NICU explained that she'd been swollen with retained fluid at birth and had lost a few ounces due to that.
But she started gaining weight quickly after she got home.
Probably because I followed Malcolm's advice to the letter. I was able to breastfeed and I wanted to, which he said was good since mothers of preemies produced exactly what their babies would need. He also told me to wake her up every two to three hours, even if she was sleeping well, because she was so little that she wouldn't be able to wake up on her own and she couldn't afford to lose any more weight.
Now, six months later, you wouldn't be able to tell that she'd been born early. She was chunky and had rolls of fat on her thighs and chubby cheeks.
She was absolutely beautiful.
I realized I'd been standing in front of the mirror with a mascara wand in my hand for the last few minutes and put the wand back in the tube.
After a quick brush through my hair, I walked out of the bathroom and found J.J. leaning over the bed where our daughter lay, wearing nothing but a clean diaper.