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“Oh really? Been doing your research?” I tease. “I would love to be home with the baby for twelve weeks, Nick, but I’m not sure our situation will allow it.”
“You are going to be home for twelve weeks. I’m going to make sure of it. If you want to stay home longer, I’ll make it work,” he says, almost a challenge in his words.
“Badger Creek gives me six weeks of paid leave, but after that it’s unpaid. Honestly, the six weeks is super generous. Most places around here give nothing. Can you imagine having a baby and having to go back to work almost immediately? After talking to Harper, she says it’s really fucking hard.”
“I’m sure it is. Your body just birthed a live human. That’s why I’m going to make sure you get to take as much time as you need,” Nick says.
“We’ll talk about it as it gets closer,” I reply, pushing the conversation to the side. We can’t begin to talk about what things will look like after the baby is born when we don’t even know what tomorrow will look like.
“Lis, I promise you, you don’t have to worry about money,” Nick assures, but he knows that isn’t true.
“Nick…” I start, stopping as I swallow hard, thinking about him leaving, thinking about how we’re going to support ourselves if he leaves the team.
“Elissa,” he says back, smiling at me through the dimly lit room. “It’s going to work out.”
“You have always been confident in everything, and then there’s me, worried as hell.” I laugh, trying to make light of the whole thing. He has always been this way, and honestly, his life just kind of works out that way. He’s lucky or he’s just that damn good at life.
He shrugs, chuckling a little. “Head over to the lodge, I’ll see you later today. And you know what else?”
“What?”
“We get to see our baby today. And according to this book, if you did get pregnant that first day I was back, then the baby is the size of a pear.” Nick holds up a book, showing me the cover. “I got it from Max.”
I laugh, dying at how cute Max and Nick are with mine and Harper’s pregnancies. The book is just for expecting fathers and details a pregnancy week by week.
“Oh my god, you and Max are exchanging books?” I croon, almost in tears with how adorable it all is.
“No, he bought me the book as a dad gift,” Nick admits, and that’s even cuter than I thought. “We’re both reading it and talking about it.”
“You’re having a dad book club!” I squeal, making Nick laugh. “Anything in there about my morning sickness that I haven’t already read?”
“No,” he says, pushing out his bottom lip in a pout. “Same things you’ve already read. Make sure you’re eating, try ginger, carbs, peppermint tea.”
“Thanks for trying,” I tell him, leaning down to give him a kiss. “I’m going to go. I’ll see you soon and then we get to see the baby too!”
“Love you, Lis.”
“Love you.”
I don’t makeit back in an hour, but I come pretty damn close, pulling into the driveway of Nick’s parents’ house about twenty minutes late. Of course this only makes Nick take out his phone and look at the time.
“Just get in the car!” I call out, laughing. “We’re going to be late for the ultrasound if you don’t get moving.”
Nick is standing on the porch, his smile wide as he makes his way to my car. I watch him, taking in his beautiful face, reminding myself that he leaves in less than eight hours and even though we already have plans for me to visit, it’s hard to think about him leaving.
“Hey, looks like you might be a little late,” Nick says as he climbs in, and I reach over and swat him on the arm. “Just saying, not that it matters. I planned for it, so no big deal.”
“Planned for what? I was picking you up anyway. What, did you eat your cinnamon roll, drink your coffee and take your morning poop an hour later?” I tease.
“Sounds pretty accurate,” Nick replies as I back out of the driveway and head toward the medical center.
“Well, your mornings are about to change,” I say, smiling a little, trying to get excited about him going back to the team even when I’m totally not. “I see lots of jumping and skiing in your future.”
“Yeah, I know, and I really wish I could be more excited about it,” Nick admits. “I never thought I’d be pissed about spending my days practicing jumps and being out on the slopes for hours.”
“Weird, right? I never thought I’d see a day where I wasn’t skiing, but here we are.” I shrug. “I guess this is what it feels like to be an adult. We have to make decisions that we don’t want to make, and we have to do things that make other people happy.”
“One day, our life will be to make us and our baby happy,” Nick says, reaching over to rest his hand on my stomach.
