“Xander, is it all right if I come in?”
“Um...hang on.”
Something crashed to the floor.
That was it. She was going to find out what was going on. She grasped the doorknob but found it locked. Really?
She knocked again. “Xander, is everything all right?”
There was a slight pause. “Yeah. It’s fine.”
It? What was the it he was referring to?
“Are you sure?”
“I’ll be out in a minute. Just get comfortable. I have dinner warming in the oven.”
Dinner? Her stomach rumbled its approval. It had been a very long time since lunch. As her stomach growled again, she realized that now, being pregnant, she couldn’t let work be her main focus and neglect regular meals.
And that wasn’t the only change this baby would bring to her life. She wondered just how big a role Xander would play in their lives. Would he want to have their child every other weekend? Or would he take a more distant role? The thought didn’t please her. Their child deserved to have both an active mother and father. But would Xander agree?
* * *
Xander sighed.
Putting together baby furniture was more frustrating than he’d ever imagined. And the instructions might as well be written in a foreign language because he’d done what they’d said five times and he still didn’t have the changing table fully assembled. If the furniture was this difficult, he didn’t even want to imagine how daunting it must be to be a good parent.
It made him think of his parents. With distance and a better perspective, he was beginning to think that he’d been too hard on them. Sure, his father hadn’t indulged him, but he knew his paternal grandfather hadn’t been easy on his father. So his father had done what he knew.
So what did Xander know about being a father? Would he repeat his father’s mistakes? Could he do it different? Should he even try?
The questions came one after the other, but the answers didn’t come as easily. However, he couldn’t stand around in his room searching for those elusive answers. He glanced around at the ripped-open boxes and the furniture partially assembled. Maybe he should have waited to start this project when he was fully awake.
He turned his back on the mess. He’d deal with it later. His hand grasped the doorknob, releasing the lock. He opened it cautiously just in case Lea was lingering in the hallway, but she’d decided to move on.
In the kitchen, he found her staring in the fridge. “Are you hungry?”
She jumped and then pressed a hand to her chest. She closed the fridge and turned to him. “You have no idea.”
He arched a brow. “You are eating enough, aren’t you?”
She nodded but then hesitated. “I just missed dinner.”
“I don’t know much about pregnancy but I do know you have to eat regularly for you and the baby.”
“I know. I just got wrapped up in things.” The guilty look on her face stole his heart. “It won’t happen again.”
That was all he needed to hear. He moved past her and opened the oven. With pot holders, he pulled out a casserole dish. “I hope it’s good.”
“It smells delightful. What is it?”
“It’s something my mother used to make. At least, it’s supposed to be similar. I didn’t have the recipe so I called my sister and she gave it to me. I don’t know if it’s good—”
“Xander, relax.” She smiled at him for rambling on. “What do you call it?”
“I don’t know the actual name but it’s lemony rice pilaf with chicken. My mother used to make it when I didn’t feel good.”
Lea continued to smile but she didn’t say anything.
At last his curiosity got the best of him. “Why are you smiling?”
“I’m just happy that you found a good memory.”
She was right. For so long, he’d focused on all the things that had gone wrong instead of the things in his past that had been good. Perhaps he needed a different perspective on the past.
Xander dished up the food and then joined Lea on the couch. It was far too late in the evening to worry about proper etiquette. If he were alone in his condo in Athens, he’d be eating his food in front of the television, catching the end of a European football game.