“Don’t you think four is enough?” I ask as he massages shampoo into my scalp.
“We’re a family of six now, so we’ve got to get to at least seven. It’s a lucky number after all.”
“What kind of reasoning is that?” I joke.
“I’m going to keep trying until you give in.”
“A few more minutes of this shampoo scalp massage and I just might.” I pause. “But wait. We’ve already gone with Hudson, Harper, Hailey, and Hunter. We’re going to run out of h’s.”
“Hadley, Harrison, Harmony, Hayden,” he retorts.
“Wow, you’ve really been thinking about this. Planning, huh?”
“Haven, Hendrix, Heidi—“
“Ok. Ok. I get it.”
“Hope,” he continues, but I put my hand over his mouth.
“Wait a second. Hope. I like that one.”
“Me too.”
“Hope is exactly what you gave me a decade ago when I showed up on your doorstep on Halloween.”
“And hope is exactly what your father’s family gave me when I was a kid without anywhere to turn.”
“And now we have kids of our own.”
“And a whole lotta hope.”
“Except we don’t have an actual Hope yet.”
“Sounds like you’re warming up to the idea.”
“A few strategic kisses along my neck might be very persuasive, Your Honor.”
“What about a few pounds of my gavel, instead.”
“Gavel? You’re in security, not the judicial system.”
“True, but I make the rules and I hand out the punishment,” he says, and immediately after I feel the sting of his wet hand slapping my bottom.
“Hey!” I say, lurching forward.
“Better than strategically placed kisses?” he teases.
“You know me.”
“And you know me.”
“And I know this Halloween we might just make a little treat for both of us.”
“In nine months the stork will ring our doorbell with the delivery…that kind of treat?”
“That’s the one I was thinking about,” I say, realizing I do want another child just as badly as Henry does.
“If my Little Treat is ready then that’s what’s going to happen.”