Page 358 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

At all.

His mind raced from one thing to another, and it seemed like all at once, John’s brain made a list of every single thing they would need to do or have done before the baby arrived. It didn’t matter that his wife was still early in her pregnancy or that they had a while to go yet before the baby would come because eventually their child would be there.

And they were not ready.

Nothing was.

It took him far too long to realize that what he was doing might not be … good. The last thing he wanted to do was wake his wife because she needed her rest. Usually, he would call his father and talk shit out with Lucian, but it was far too late—or early, depending on how one looked at it—to do that, either.

John sat on the couch and reached for the phone he’d discarded on the coffee table earlier. Looking at the black screen, he went through the list of who else he could call. Leonard was almost always his first option because the man would pick up a call from John no matter the time or day. Except … despite Leonard being at the dinner and looking well, the man was still undergoing treatments and needed his rest even more than anyone else did.

So, he ended up calling someone else.

Cree.

“John,” the man said, rather cheerfully, when he picked up three rings later. “Isn’t it three in the morning there?”

“Quarter after three,” John replied, “but who’s watching the clock?”

“You, apparently.”

Fair point.

“Don’t you sleep?” John asked.

“Don’t you?”

“Not when I feel like this.”

Cree hummed under his breath. “Are you up? Your cycle, I mean.”

“Feels like it. I’m not usually this aware.”

And after he went up, John always had to come down.

For now, though … “I’m going to be a dad.”

“Well, then.”

“Yeah.”

“Babies are terrifying,” Cree muttered.

“I’m not really scared of that.”

“Then, what are you scared of?”

Everything else.

Every single thing else.