We decided to try for a baby right away, and we were blessed to get pregnant quickly. Dean was over the moon excited when I told him the news—I tried not to think of the fact that Francesca never got to share her news. And Joel never got to hear it.
When our baby was born, it was Dean’s idea to name him Andrew. After my grandmother Angela, who died a month before he was born. I am so sad Nonna never got to meet her namesake. But we keep a picture of her on our bookcase, so Andrew can know his great-grandmother. We hold him by the bookshelf, pointing out his relatives to him so he knows where he came from.
I’ve become friends with Joel again in the last year. I’ve been rooting for him and Cassie. I want him to be as deliriously in love as I am with Dean. I want that so much.
Cassie doesn’t seem like the paranoid type—if she believes someone is trying to kill her, she’s probably right.
And I know who that person is.
Chapter 53: The Ex
Last night, Dean and I went to Lydia and Pete’s apartment for dinner. It was our first night out since Andrew was born, and Dean was both excited and adorably worried. He spent about an hour installing nanny cams around the apartment.
Well, the nanny cams may have been partially my idea.
“There’s a blind spot right here,” I told Dean as I stood in the corner between the kitchen and the living room, inspecting the multiple views of the apartment popping up on my phone.
“Right, I’m on it.” He whipped out yet another camera from the box we purchased a few weeks ago. He concealed the camera partially behind a picture frame.
The cameras were well-hidden. But I was concerned that the babysitter might discover one of them, just based on the sheer number of them.
“Better?” he asked, once the new camera was positioned.
I continued walking around, scrolling through the multiple views on my phone. I stopped near the doorway. “Another blind spot.”
Dean frowned at me. “We’re out of cameras. And do we really need one near the front door?”
“Of course we do,” I said. “What about Donna?”
Donna is our neighbor who lives down the hall. She’s in her forties, married but without children, and every time she sees me go out with Andrew in his stroller, she looks as though she might scoop him up and take off with him.
“Uh…” A crease formed between my husband’s eyebrows. That dimple was nowhere to be seen. “I honestly don’t think we need to worry about Donna. And we’ve got all the other cameras.”
It did take a little convincing and some shifting of cameras, but I finally agreed the visualization of the apartment was good enough. If it were just me, I would have stayed home until we had more cameras. But Dean really wanted to get out of the house. “We haven’t been out together just the two of us since the baby came,” he said as he pulled me close to him. “I miss it.”
“I miss it too,” I said as I tilted my head up for him to kiss me. He grinned and leaned in immediately, pulling me close to him. Dean and I still have the best kisses. It hasn’t changed at all in the last two years. Of all the choices I’ve made in my life, he’s the best one.
Unfortunately, as soon as we got to Lydia and Pete’s apartment, it was obvious this wasn’t going to be the fun, relaxing evening with friends we’d hoped it would be. I had thought Lydia and Pete might be doing better, but clearly not. I could tell they’d been recently fighting by the red that rimmed Lydia’s eyes when she accepted the bottle of white wine I handed to her.
“Bonterra Vineyards,” Lydia said, crinkling up her nose instead of thanking me.
“I love Bonterra Vineyards,” Dean said, because even though he’s a cardiologist, he’s not the slightest bit pretentious. “Nothing wrong with it.”