“Tell her we’ll be right over to cut her a big piece,” Sam says. “We don’t want to keep our favorite tyrant waiting.”
“She is a tyrant,” Caitlin agrees affectionately. “Good thing she’s cute.”
“Crazy cute,” Sam agrees, smiling as Caitlin runs across the grass to scoop Juliet up in her arms, blowing kisses against her daughter’s cheek until Juliet giggles.
Sam has grown closer to all my family in the past year, but she and Juliet have a special bond. They are kindred spirits, strong girls who know what they want and aren’t afraid to let the world know about it. Though Sam has more patience. Most of the time.
“You didn’t tell her did you?” she asks, tilting her head to look up at me, the setting sun making her eyes sparkle, taking my breath away.
“You look like a movie star right now. I swear you do.”
Her smile shifts to the right. “That means you didn’t tell her.”
“I figured it could wait,” I say, kissing her forehead. “I don’t want to ruin the day for her. She’s going to be sad to see us leave, even if it is only for four months.”
“I know.” Sam lifts her chin, bringing her lips closer to mine. “But if we don’t have our adventure now, we’ll have to put it off for another twenty years.”
“Not true,” I say, kissing her, loving that she tastes like sunshine and happiness, exactly the way a bride should taste on her wedding day. “When they’re teenagers, we could leave the kids with Caitlin and Gabe for a few months and sneak off. Teenagers suck anyway.”
Sam smiles. “That’s why they need parents around, to keep them from sucking. And I’m sure Caitlin and Gabe will be busy enough with their own obnoxious kids.”
I bring my hand to her flat stomach, still finding it hard to believe our baby is in there, growing bigger every day. “I can’t wait until I can feel her kick.”
“Or him,” Sam says. “It might be a boy, a boy as gorgeous and wonderful as his daddy.”
I shake my head. “Trying to butter me up so you’ll get laid tonight?”
“Oh, I’m getting laid tonight,” she says, eyes narrowing as she grins. “I have a letter from the doctor saying it is completely fine for us to have sex. I went to her office this morning and made her write it out, even though she thought you were crazy for worrying.”
“I’m not crazy,” I say though I’m secretly relieved. It’s been hell keeping my hands to myself the past week since we found out. Unexpectedly, knowing Sam is pregnant with our baby has given me a hard-on that won’t quit.
“You are crazy,” she says, hand drifting down to pat my ass. “But also very, very sweet.”
“Are you fondling my ass in public?”
“Yes,” she says, still grinning. “I’m allowed to do that now that everyone knows we’re married. It’s one of the perks. At least for the first year. Public butt fondling is forgiven if you’re a newlywed.”
I slide my hand around from her belly to her bottom, fighting to keep my body from responding too obviously to her closeness. “I didn’t know that. I like that perk.”
“I thought you might, but I—”
Sam doesn’t get to finish her sentence before Juliet collides with our knees, wraps her chubby arms around our calves, and howls, “Cake, pease cake, pease cake!” in such a pitiful way you would think the kid hadn’t been fed in a month.
“Yes, Jules, I’m so sorry,” Sam says, scooping Juliet into her arms with a laugh. “It is past time for cake. Let’s go get some. Right now.”
“Yay! Cake!” Juliet’s tears vanish, replaced by a big grin that makes her blue eyes sparkle just like Sam’s.
I stay where I am for a minute, watching my wife carry my niece across the grass to the small tent where our wedding cake sits waiting to be cut. The way Sam holds Juliet so naturally, slung low on her hip with a hand cradling Jules’ diaper-clad bottom, she looks like she was made to be an aunt, a mama.
She looks soft and sweet, but I know she is also a fighter and a survivor. I know she is as strong as she is tender and that I don’t have to be afraid that life will break her again, not as long as we’re together. And there is nothing I need in the world aside from that.
Aside from the one I love.
Halfway across the lawn overlooking the ocean, where the sun is setting slow, as if it hates to miss a moment of this perfect day, Sam stops and turns back to look at me and mouths, “I love you, too,” like she knows what I was thinking.
And I’m sure she does.
* * *