Page 41 of First Comes Love

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“This counts as our second date, right?” I ask Lauren. We dropped her dogs off at the dog park—doggie day care is a real thing and Lauren utilizes it all the time—and stopped for lunch at a small diner. “It should, and then I’ll only have to take you out one more time until I get some.”

Lauren laughs, grabbing a French fry. “I change it to three formal dates then.”

“What, this isn’t fancy enough for you? Come on, I’ll take you to Taco Bell tonight. Bam. Three dates done and over with and we can make another baby.”

She laughs again and shakes her head. “That’s not funny. And don’t tempt me, Noah.”

I wiggle my eyebrows. “So you’re thinking about it.”

“I’m thinking about tacos, notit.”

“Liar.”

She purses her lips. “Fine. I might be thinking about it, but only because of hormones.”

I lean back and run my hands over my chest. “You want this.”

“Stop it!” she laughs and looks around. “People can see you!”

“Right, right. I don’t want to tempt those old ladies over there.”

“Hey, I hear they give pretty good blowjobs when they take out their dentures.”

I wrinkle my nose. “Gross.”

She reaches for her lemonade, laughing. I like this, the laid-back time together, talking and laughing and just being ourselves. I don’t have to put on a show for Lauren. I’m just me. I’ve never been this comfortable around anyone.

The rest of the day is just as easy going, and we spend the evening watching movies. Halfway through the second Harry Potter movie—and, yes, these movies are fucking awesome—Lauren rests her head on my shoulder. I wrap my arms around her and pull her close, stretching out on the couch so that we are both laying down.

“You can lay on your stomach, right?” I ask, suddenly worried she’s going to hurt our baby.

Fuck, that sounds weird.Our baby.

“Yeah. I can for a while. And the baby is like the size of a grape right now. Very small.”

“Oh, good. When can you feel it move?”

“From what I read, about halfway through.”

“It’s like a little alien inside you.”

“Hah, it feels like it sometimes. Well, not the movement parts obviously, but the part where it’s sucking all my energy.”

I’ve had so much fun with Lauren all day, enjoying her company, that I didn’t think about the reason we were together. Now that I’m thinking about babies again, my head is spinning. I hold tighter onto Lauren, anchoring myself. “Do you want a girl or a boy?”

“I don’t care as long as it’s healthy. What about you?”

“I don’t care either, though I think it’s a girl.”

Lauren lifts her head off my chest and looks into my eyes. “I wonder who he or she will look like.”

“This is so weird,” I blurt. What’s even weirder is my imagination getting ahead of me, and I’m seeing this play out like it was planned, like Lauren loves me as much as I’ve loved her, and we’re ready and excited to embark on this stage of life together.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

“It is.” Lauren lays her head back down and turns her attention back to the movie. I run my hands up and down her arms, bare skin under my fingers. Goosebumps break out along her flesh, so I sit up to grab the blanket that’s on the back of the couch. We resituate close together, blanket draped over us both.


Tags: Emily Goodwin Romance