Page 74 of Unruly

“Me, too!” Cece said, darting out from under the table where she had been playing. “I has gifts today!”

Wide smiles all turned on his daughter.

“Oh, what were your gifts?” Catrina asked.

Cece crawled into Cross’s lap, put her tiny hands to the table, and leaned forward as she spoke. “Like Ma’s.”

“All her chocolates are gone, though,” Catherine said, side-eyeing their daughter. “Can’t you tell?”

“That does explain the energy,” Calisto noted.

Cross laughed, and let his fingers drift through the soft waves of his daughter’s hair. Cece preened over her shoulder at him.

“Oh, and a brudder,” she said out of the blue. “I gots a brudder, too.”

Catherine froze in her seat beside Cross.

He, too, didn’t move an inch.

“Cece,” he said quietly, setting his girl in the seat beside him, “we talked about this, didn’t we?”

Cece smacked her little palms over her mouth, and her brown eyes widened in innocence. Her next words came out muffled by her hands. “Oh, I not tell, Daddy. Sorry.”

Cross shot Catherine a look, and she only frowned back at him. Apparently, his wife had been right when she told him not to tell their daughter about the pregnancy. Cece wasn’t very good at keeping secrets, but Cross felt if he told her she wasn’t allowed to tell then she wouldn’t say a word.

He had been wrong.

The table turned deathly silent.

Catherine let out an awkward laugh. “Can we just ignore the toddler at the table?”

“Not likely,” Emma said.

Cross cleared his throat, and avoided looking at his wife again. He had no doubt Catherine was cursing him to the heavens at the moment. She fully believed in waiting until the first trimester had passed before announcing a pregnancy, only because should something happen, it gave them the option to deal with it privately.

Right then, Catherine was only seven weeks along or so.

“When are you due?” Catherine’s mother asked.

Catherine sighed. “September thirtieth.”

Another beat of silence passed over the table before congratulations and cheers lit up the space. Cross peeked at his wife, and gave her a small smile. She shrugged a little, and reached over to pat his cheek.

“You were right,” he told her. “She has no concept of secrets or privacy. My bad. Lesson learned, Catty.”

“I am always right, Cross.”

Cece smiled brightly as her grandparents turned on her with their questions and excitement. Their angel loved being the center of attention, and apparently even more so now that it dealt with her getting a sibling.

“Yes, a brudder,” she told Calisto, nodding enthusiastically.

“You don’t know that,” Cross told her. “We don’t know that. It could be a little sister, Cece.”

“I says a brudder!”

Cross shook his head, and ignored the laugher rumbling down the table. Under the table, Catherine’s hand found his thigh, and squeezed. He snuck his hand around hers, and intertwined their fingers.

Life still wasn’t slowing down for them.