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I sink back down. My water is starting to cool.

I hear Theo shriek and Simon laughing.

“I'm happy, Jamie.”

“I know.”

“Like really happy. And I'm scared something's going to fuck it up.”

“Something probably will.”

I laugh. “Wow. Thanks.”

“Not like that. Life fucks things up. Kids get sick. People lose jobs. Families fight. Random women show up pregnant.”

“Very specific.”

“Hey, it happened to me too. Hudson’s got a half-sibling running around somewhere I’ve never even met.”

Sometimes I forget how much of a mess Jamie’s situation with Hudson’s father is.

“I just really fucking love him, and I really want this baby not to be his.”

Outside, Theo starts yelling. “Mommy!”

I close my eyes. “I think my time is up.”

Jamie starts laughing.

“MOMMY!”

Then Simon, louder. “Mommy is OFF DUTY!”

I slap a hand over my mouth.

Theo yells something I can't understand.

Simon answers, “Because Daddy said so!”

I laugh so hard water sloshes over the side of the tub. “I gotta go, my child is losing his mind.”

“‘Kay, love you.”

“Love you too.”

Chapter forty-five

Simon

The coffee table disappeared about an hour ago beneath rolls of wrapping paper, scissors, bows, gift tags, and a half-empty roll of tape that somehow keeps sticking to everything except the actual wrapping paper. The tree lights cast a soft glow over the mess, reflecting off the windows now that it’s night, and the whole room smells like pine and the cinnamon cookies Theo “helped” Blaire make earlier.

Helping mostly meant eating dough until Blaire threatened to ban him from the kitchen.

Theo's tongue pokes out of the corner of his mouth as he pulls another six inches of tape off the roll.

“Theo,” Blaire says from beside me. “You don't need that much.”

“Yes, I do.” He slaps the entire strip across the package. “There.”