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When he arrived, I was in the nursery, with Celeste freshly fed and down for another nap. He paused at the doorway, a stuffed pink teddy bear in one hand and an almost sheepish expression on his face.
Well, sheepish for Archie, anyway.
“Sorry I couldn’t come sooner,” he said, his gaze not quite meeting mine. “Things have been busy at the studio with the floor refinishing and everything.”
Yes, I vaguely remembered him saying that they were going to sand everything down and put on a fresh coat of urethane, a housekeeping chore that needed to happen every year or so because of all the wear and tear the studio floors suffered during those weekly dance classes.
“It’s fine,” I assured him, and it was. While I appreciated all the visits — and all the praise for Celeste — I also thought it wasn’t a bad idea to space things out a bit. “And the teddy bear is adorable.”
I went over to him and he handed me the bear, which I set down on the easy chair in the corner. I’d need to move it before Celeste’s next feeding, but that shouldn’t be for a while.
“You look well,” Archie observed. “Thinner.”
About all I could do was chuckle. “Well, I dropped over ten pounds this week.”
True, Celeste had weighed in at seven pounds, eleven ounces, but the rest of it was my body beginning to shed some of the other weight that had come along with the pregnancy. Calvin and I had both agreed that I wouldn’t worry about trying to get back to my usual size six any time soon, and yet it seemed my metabolism had its own opinion on the matter.
Archie nodded, then went over to the bassinet so he could look down at the sleeping infant inside. “She has a lot of hair,” he observed, making the comment sound almost like a criticism.
“So do her parents,” I replied with a smile. Again, only true. Calvin’s hair was much longer than mine, but we both had thick, straight locks.
Another nod, this one almost distracted. Then Archie turned back toward me, clear blue eyes almost pleading. “Is it…is it hard?”
We’d known each other too long for me to do anything except answer truthfully. “Yes,” I said. “It’s hard. But it’s also the best thing you’ll ever do.”
A corner of his mouth quirked. “Is that more of your fortune-telling?”
“Not at all,” I replied. “It’s just knowing. And I know you and Victoria will be wonderful parents. We’ll all be here to support each other while we learn along the way.”
He watched me for a moment, still with that half-worried flicker in his eyes, and then he inclined his head just the slightest bit. “You’re a good friend, Selena.”
“So are you, Archie. The best.”
A hug so quick I almost didn’t realize it was happening until he’d already let go of me, and then he murmured, “I need to get back to the studio.”
I didn’t say anything to stop him, but only smiled.
After checking on Celeste — who showed every sign of staying asleep for at least the next hour — I wandered into my office and paused there for a moment, gaze moving over the shelves of books and Tarot cards and crystals. I hadn’t been in here very much this past week, for obvious reasons.
I’d had much more important things to occupy my time.
But then a hint of movement caught my eye, and I watched as pale mist swirled in the crystal ball on its shelf. At once, I picked it up, and carried it and its stand over to the altar.
A moment later, Grandma Ellen smiled at me from within the crystal ball.
“Congratulations,” she said.
“Thank you,” I replied. It touched me that she’d appeared like this, unbidden, rather than waiting for me to reach out to her. Before now, I’d always been the one to make contact.
“She’s a beautiful girl,” my grandmother went on. “And thank you for the name.”
Because that was my daughter’s full name — Celeste Ellen Standingbear. Calvin and I had gone back and forth on whether she should be a hyphenate, with my husband insisting that our daughter should carry both our names. Luckily, I’d managed to convince him that was an awfully big mouthful for such a little girl, and he’d relented.
But he’d been fully on board with giving her the middle name of the great-grandmother she’d never get to meet.
Well, unless Celeste ended up inheriting my psychic gifts and decided to use the crystal ball for advice from her ancestor, just as I had all these years.
“Calvin and I both wanted to honor you,” I said.
