That morning my parents came over for breakfast. This time Mack and Gen stayed at home. The kids were still asleep, even Anya, and we decided to let them rest while we drank coffee in the living room. Zac was going to start cooking pancakes within the next twenty minutes so we’d wake them all up then.
My wife and I lounged on the couch, grateful for the alone time we were having. I was leaning up against the arm of the couch, sideways with my thighs reclined out on the couch and my feet on the floor. Clare was in my lap leaning up against my chest, her head over my heart. The rest of the family was spread throughout the room and my Mom was sitting on the opposite end of the couch from Clare and I.
Clare was playing with my hair, twirling it around her finger when she broke our comfortable silence and said, “I can’t believe the kids are still asleep.”
“I can’t believe they slept through last night,” I said softly into her ear. She laughed and hit my face gently. She kept her hand on my cheek and kissed the other one lightly.
“You, Mr. Hanson, are mine.”
“Yes, Mrs. Hanson, I am.”
“You two make me sick,” Dad announced. We looked up at him. He was shaking his head. “This love junk makes me puke.”
Mom made a face at him. “Hah-hah.”
“Yeah Dad, I’ve seen you and Mom showing each other some love before, and don’t try to hide it!” I informed him. I slid my hand around Clare’s body and onto her stomach. I kept it there lightly as I spoke, “besides, Clare and I have a reason to be in love right now.”
“Shush Taylor,” she warned. She put her hand over mine on her stomach. “You know we have to give it time.”
I shrugged. “I’m optimistic, so sue me.”
“I remember when I was pregnant with Zoë,” Clare said looking up at me. She looked back at everyone in the room. “You wouldn’t even recognize this guy! He was so paranoid. One time I was feeling lightheaded and nauseous and he called the doctor and practically dragged him over to the house. I kept telling him it was just morning sickness but he wouldn’t listen.”
I turned red at the memory and tried to sink down into the couch.
“Or the one time when someone opened the door and banged my belly. Taylor was freaking out because he thought the baby was hurt.”
Mom and Andy were laughing at my stupidity.
“I had to explain to him how being pregnant actually works.”
“Taylor, you take the prize for being an idiot,” Isaac told me.
“It was my first child! Give me a break. I was nervous.”
“Tay was so cute for both of my pregnancies,” Clare went on. “After he calmed down a bit that is!” Everyone laughed. “We used to sit around the house and he’d spend hours singing to my stomach.” Clare placed her hand on my cheek lightly and looked up into my eyes. “He was so amazing. Once I woke up from a nap and he was at my stomach talking to the baby inside. He read to both the kids before they were born. When Zoë was born, she and him sang duets to my stomach. It was too cute.”
“Aw, Taylor!” Mom said.
I looked down at the floor in embarrassment.
“He was also the best coach anyone could ask for,” my wife announced. I didn’t even attempt to look up from the floor until she finished the story she was about to tell. “He sat next to the bed the whole time I was in labor with his little pink ‘coach’ pin.” She laughed to herself and I turned a darker shade of red. “He held my hand the whole time and let me dig my nails into him at the most stressful times. When Zoë was born we were both new at this and since my parents and you guys were on the cruise, we were totally blind throughout the whole thing.”
“I remember when you called your mother from the delivery room, Clare,” my mom put in. “And the four of us were at the lounge on the top deck of the cruise ship grabbing for the cellular phone trying to find out what was going on!”
Clare giggled. “Taylor was excited! He was so proud. He kept yelling into our phone ‘I’m going to be a father any minute!’ He sat in that chair next to my bed for eight hours without even going for coffee or bathroom breaks for fear that he’d miss something. He was patient with me the whole time; breathing with me, telling me how much he loved me, never once raising his voice even when I was screaming at him. When the doctor first handed our daughter to us and placed her in my arms we must have cried together for at least ten minutes.” She turned my head gently with her hand down to her face and kissed my lips quickly.
“You were so beautiful that day, baby,” I told her when our lips parted. I moved some of her light brown hair out of her face. “Holding Zoë in your arms, her eyes looking from her mother to her father checking out the world for the first time. I couldn’t help the tears, they just came.”
“When Anya was born Taylor was much more calm and so was I,” Clare went on. “But you were at the hospital that day so you know.”
“If I remember correctly Taylor was running back and forth with a video camera from the delivery room to the waiting room and back again,” Isaac commented.
I shrugged. “Yeah well by then I knew that Clare didn’t care if I was there until she was having contractions. They didn’t need me sometimes. The first time, with Zoë, was different because we both didn’t know what to expect.”
“This time we’re pros,” Clare whispered. I smiled at the thought that we might once again be having a baby.
“Think it will be another girl?” I asked her in a soft voice audible only to her.
“I’ll tell you as soon as my body lets me know,” she promised.
“Hey!” My father interrupted. “What’s with all these secrets?”
Clare and I laughed. “Nothing, Dad,” I assured him. “It’s nothing at all.”