Belle, Camden’s cat, who now loved me the most, jumped into my lap, purring. It was as if she knew something had changed with me.
I stroked her head and glanced up at the clock. It was 7:02. Somebody was going to be in trouble. I lived for this time of day. Today, especially. We were both so busy, Camden even more so after his successful IPO. But we always had dinner together and discussed our wins and losses, our hopes and our fears. In the quiet part of our evening we talked, laughed, and loved. No one understood me like he did.
Which he proved when he walked in the door. “Sorry I’m a little late! But in my defense I brought you pizza.”
“If I wasn’t married to you already, I’d marry you again,” I told him. I put Belle on the couch and came over to greet him, kissing him hello and then following him into our kitchen.
He got out plates and set them on the table, finally noticing what I’d put there for him. “What’s this?” he asked.
It was a line of rolled-up pieces of paper. “Open them and find out.”
Camden picked up the first one. “You.”
Then the second. “Are.”
“Going,” he read, then got another. “To.”
“Be,” he said. “This is taking a really long time.”
“It’s how you asked me to marry you,” I reminded him.
“Right. But will you marry me is only four words. This is like a novel.”
“Keep reading,” I said.
He unrolled the sixth one. “A. Okay, I feel like you could have added another word to this one and used less paper.”
I pointed to the seventh rolled-up piece of paper. “Just open it, wise guy.”
“Father,” he read, and it was like it didn’t register at first.
To be honest, I was more than a little bit nervous as to how he’d react. We both definitely wanted kids, but we had decided to wait. Until things calmed down a bit for us professionally. We’d been married for only a month and this didn’t figure into any of our plans.
But I’d already learned long ago that I had to let go of trying to stick to a plan and let life happen, and I was beyond thrilled to be having a baby. It was one of the best things that had ever happened to me, and I hoped he would share in my joy.
The timing wasn’t great, but I knew we could get through anything because we were a fantastic team.
“I’m going to be a dad?” he asked, sounding bewildered.
I nodded, both worried and excited, all at the same time.
Then he came over to me and picked me up, holding me against him. “Are you serious? You’re pregnant?”
“Yes. Are you okay with it?”
He kissed me. Then he kissed me again. And again. “Okay with it? I’m deliriously happy! You’re having my baby! You are going to be the best mother ever.”
I was so relieved and so happy. “And you will be a great dad.”
It was like I got a little glimpse into our future and in my mind I could see Camden running and laughing with a toddler, lifting her up into the air while she giggled. He was going to be such a fun and loving father.
He put me down and looked around, and then dived onto the couch. It took me a second to figure out what he was doing. He had grabbed my phone.
“Ha!” he said. “I get to call your mom.”
“She’s my mom,” I reminded him, but he didn’t seem to hear me. That was probably due in part to the fact that my parents had basically become his parents, too. I suspected they might like him better than me. The dogs certainly did.
“I want to be her favorite son-in-law.”
“You’re her only son-in-law.”
“Which means I can be her least favorite, too.” He had such a pleading look in his eyes that there was no way I could tell him no.
“Fine. You can tell her.” It honestly didn’t matter which one of us it came from. She was probably going to have a heart attack when she heard.
He grinned and turned on my phone, dialing the number. “Mom? Hi! Guess what?”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Thank you for reading my story! I hope you liked getting to know Camden and Rachel and enjoyed them falling in love as much as I did. If you’d like to find out when I’ve written something new, make sure you sign up for my newsletter at www.sariahwilson.com, where I most definitely will not spam you. （I’m happy when I send out a newsletter once a month!）
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