Page 208 of Cara & Gian: The Guzzi Duet

“Eight weeks left—let the countdown begin,” Jenny teased.

Cara huffed as she bent down to pick up the rest of the art supplies on the small kiddie table. “Don’t remind me.”

“You’re thirty-two weeks pregnant, Cara. How can you not know it every second of your day?”

“That’s my point. I don’t need more reminders.”

Jenny laughed. “Uh-huh. Are you nervous, is that it?”

“Excited, but mostly …” Cara waved at her very large stomach that made it hard to sleep, eat, and almost every other function of life, including breathing some days. “I’m just over all of this.”

“Don’t worry. It will all be worth it in the end. Once you have the little one in your arms, all of the hells of pregnancy and birth will be forgotten.”

Oh, Jesus.

Birth.

That was another thing Cara was not looking forward to. Not by a long shot. That, she was scared of. Terrified, even. A baby—a small human—was going to come out of her body. Women might have been doing it for millennia, but sweet Jesus, Cara had not.

“Wow, you just went white,” Jenny noted.

Cara tried to be nonchalant as she put all the supplies away into their proper places. “I guess birth makes me a little worried.”

“When a baby gets in, Cara, it has to eventually come out.”

“Yes, that is the only guarantee about pregnancy. I’m well aware of that.”

“Women’s bodies are made for this, too.”

“Again, I know.”

“Then perhaps you should stop squeezing that glue bottle before you bust the top of it off,” Jenny pointed out.

Cara instantly dropped the bottle of glue into the container. “Okay, so maybe the idea of birth freaks me out a bit.”

“A lot, you mean.”

“Make it easy on me, Jenny.”

The older woman laughed, saying, “You know I won’t do that. My whole job is to make people talk about their deepest, darkest issues. Since no one else is around right now, I might as well work on you.”

“I’m not in need of a therapist, but thank you.” Cara shot the woman a smile. “Really, though, I know it’ll be fine. I’m just freaked out because I’m twenty-seven, very pregnant, and it’s almost at the end.”

“Which means?”

“My whole life is about to change?”

Jenny nodded. “But you know that, too. You know little man is going to change things for you, from your daily life, to school, to work, and that’s just the surface. Emotionally, physically, and mentally, change will come there, too. The fact that you know these things means the transition will come easier for you, from a woman, to a mom. Too many live in the clouds when they’re pregnant, and then baby comes, and boom, back down to reality. It’s a hard pill to swallow.”

“You make motherhood sound … like war.”

“For some, it can be,” Jenny murmured.

“I’m lucky that I have people to help,” Cara said, shrugging. “Like the ladies here, or my aunt and uncle. The father and some of his family, too.”

Cara said that last sentence quieter, and offered little to no information about Gian, his family, or who she meant.

“You say that like you’re leaving someone out,” Jenny noted.