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“Is the cheese for you?”
“No. You seem to like cheese.”
“I can’t eat all that. It’ll go bad.”
“You’re supposed to eat more, and a variety of foods.”
She put her hand on the front of the cart and turned it before he could knock down a display of potato chips with his manic forward progress. “After the second trimester, I should eat an extra three hundred calories a day. That does not mean I get to gorge myself on cheese.”
He sighed. “I’ll help eat the cheese.”
“And the fruit? And the bread? And whatever else you plan to buy me and Jelly Bean while we’re in the store?”
“Jelly Bean?” Finally, she had his attention. “You call our baby Jelly Bean?”
“You call our baby the fetus.”
“Apparently I should be calling it an embryo for another three or four weeks.”
She sighed. “Can we talk about this possessed shopping trip and what happened in the doctor’s office?”
“Not here.”
“Fine.” She navigated the cart past the dairy and around several displays until she’d dragged Karl and his cornucopia in front of the shoe polish and laces. “This is as empty as a grocery store gets. Spill.”
He looked over his shoulder. She wanted to smack him, but she also needed him. No one could call her actions patient, but she was waiting. “Hearing the heartbeat was the first time this became real. Until then I expected to wake up. But it’s not a dream and we’re in this together. I want to make sure you have all you need.”
The warmth in his voice glided above the soft hits that were playing over the loudspeakers. For the first time since she’d sat on her bathroom floor in Vegas looking at the third positive pregnancy test in a row, Vivian felt like something other than a problem. She’d come to Karl because he was the father and he was a fixer. But now…she and Jelly Bean might be something more than a speed bump in his perfectly ordered and sterile life.
His hand didn’t feel cool to the touch when she grabbed on to it—a phantom warmth she attributed to the hope rising in her own chest. “We won’t be left communicating with each other through notes about Jelly Bean’s progress in school.”
“What?” Karl hid his emotions most of the time, but puzzlement was clear on his face.
“I had visions of us as divorced parents exchanging notes through Jelly Bean’s backpack.”
“Oh.” And then he laughed. “What a ridiculous thing to think. That’s what text messages are for.”
She laughed along with him, ignoring the looks they got from passing shoppers.
“Vivian.” He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. “I may not have imagined this as how I was going to have children, but I’m finding I could do much worse.”
“It’s not much of a compliment, but I’ll take it.” She lifted up onto her toes and kissed him once on the lips. Then she headed for the cereal aisle before he could read anything other than humor in her expression.
CHAPTER SIX
DINNER EATEN AND the dishes done, Vivian followed Karl around the bar and into the living room. She sat at one end of the couch and picked up her knitting. He sat on the other end of the couch and picked up his book. It was progress. Only a week ago, he’d never been home while she was still awake. Only a couple of days ago, he was sitting in the armchair rather than sharing the couch. They were getting to know each other and, slowly, coming to trust each other.
Sometime in the near future, Karl might even tell her about his day as they sat down to dinner. She might talk about the jobs she was applying for. They might have a relationship outside of the shared parentage of their child.
The rich green wool slid through her fingers. The hat’s shape was slowly emerging out of the yarn and she could begin to picture it on Karl’s head. He needed something more than the righteous fire burning within him to keep his ears warm.
With a child on the way, she should probably be knitting baby blankets and little sweaters, but she wanted to give Karl something that didn’t originate in his own largesse. The yarn was one of the few possessions she’d brought to Chicago that wasn’t a necessity. The wool was soft, and she had needed something comforting with her.
