“What are we talking about?” Brook walks over with her husband in tow. He’s a bulky, rough-looking New York City police officer with a tiny little newborn in his arms.
“You’re Daddy’s girl, aren’t you?” he coos to her.
Josh looks over at me and smirks. Then he turns to Brook. “We’re pointing out whose New Year’s Resolution came true.”
“Mine did,” Brook says. Then she nods at Carly and Theo. “Carly’s too. Did I tell you? He got her a Learjet.”
I shake my head. “I don’t think that was her resolution.”
Brook nods sagely. “But it should have been.”
Hannah comes over. She’s in a long red velvet dress with a crown braid on top of her head. She looks like a fairy princess. She has the tiniest little baby bump, and I expect she’ll have an announcement for everybody soon.
“Mini gherkins, I love mini gherkins,” she says. She scoops a dozen of them onto her plate.
Brook looks over at me and gives me a wide-eyed stare. I wink at her. She turns to Hannah. “Pickles aren’t on the raw fertility diet.”
Hannah scowls at Brook. “I’m having pickles. Okay? And do not tell me a crazy story about some random pickle crime boss or I will stab you with a toothpick. ’Kay?”
Brook gives a huge smile. “Sure, Hannah. Don’t worry about it. Have as many pickles as you want.”
I cover a laugh. Josh leans into me. “What’s with the pickles?” he murmurs. “You never want pickles.”
I wrap my arms around him and lean my head against his shoulder. “Yeah, it’s all cantaloupe and steak for me.”
He chuckles and then he gently rests his hand over my rounded belly. His hand moves in a slow, loving circle and I feel the baby give a kick.
“He’s awake,” I say.
“She,” Josh says. He gives me a teasing smile and spreads his fingers across my belly. The protective warmth of him spreads through me.
We decided to wait to find out whether our baby’s a girl or a boy. I think he’s a boy, but Josh swears she’s a girl. In four short months, we’ll find out.
“What was your resolution?” Hannah asks.
I’m still looking at Josh, his expression is intimate and I’d like to take him upstairs to someplace quiet so that I can kiss him and…
“Gemma?”
I blink and shake my head. Josh chuckles. He knows exactly what I was just thinking.
“It came true,” I tell everyone. I take Josh’s hand and hold on to him. “And it was better than I could ever have imagined.”
I never, ever could’ve guessed what fate had in store for me when I wrote my New Year’s wish.
“Do you know,” I say to Josh, “everyone in my family had their resolution come true. The kids got their puppy, Dylan got his promotion, my parents went to Fiji. But I never…”
I frown at Josh and wrinkle my brow.
“What?” he asks. He lifts an eyebrow and pulls me closer to him.
“I never asked what your resolution was.”
Every year, when we write our resolutions and my dad reads them out loud and then tosses them into the fireplace, I imagine that there’s a little bit of magic helping make our dreams come true. But I never asked Josh if his resolution came true.
The corner of his mouth lifts into a nervous smile and he shakes his head.
“What is it?” I frown.
“No, it didn’t happen yet.”
My chest pinches. He seems so uncertain. He swallows nervously.
“What?” I ask. “Can I help? What was it? I mean, this amazing guy I know once said, anything is possible if you put your mind to it.”
Josh chuckles, “Did he now?”
“He was right,” Brook calls over her husband’s shoulder.
Hannah’s munching on a pickle, but she says, “I have a quartz on me if you need to manifest your intentions.”
I grin at Josh, and his eyes light up with laughter. “I’m good,” he tells Hannah. “I’m just about to get there, I think.”
“Oh,” I say in surprise. “That’s good.”
Josh nods. “Sure is. Want to hear it?”
“Yes. Of course.”
Josh presses a kiss to my lips. I wrap my hands around his neck.
“That was it? A kiss?”
He laughs and shakes his head. “Not even close.”
Since he’s not talking, I think back to last year’s reading. “Was it to take night classes?”