“Well…” Grace slowly set the phone back on the table. “It’s very…you.”
“I agree with Grace, at least,” Zoe said, scooting in her chair to try and make more space. Lenny handed her the other USB but she waved her away. “I think I’m good. Can we talk about the wedding?”
“We’re thinking New Zealand,” Lenny said. “There’s a beautiful glowworm cave there.”
“See, that sounds romantic,” Grace said.
“Oh!” Lissie clapped her hands, causing everyone at the table to shake. “Moore Events will go global!”
“I don’t think planning one wedding—especially an employee’s wedding—counts as going global. But that reminds me.” Lenny leaned toward Grace. “We could use a girl like you at Moore Events.”
Grace raised a brow. “A barista?”
“Well, I do drink a lot of coffee,” Zoe mused, sipping her coffee for effect. Lissie slapped her on the arm, causing the coffee to splash over.
“If we go global we will definitely need Grace!” Lissie added, ignoring the looks Zoe gave her as she patted the coffee on her shirt dry. Lenny shook her head and the conversation devolved into what constituted going global, and what would happen at the wedding.
“Will it just be you two?” Eli leaned into me while the women discussed the wedding. “I mean, not that I don’t wanna come, but if it’s gonna be like these pictures…” Earlier that week, before dropping the engagement bomb on everyone, Lenny and I had had a nearly identical conversation.
“Should we invite everyone?” I’d asked, then I’d remembered what “everyone” meant. Lenny still had living family members—although, Lenny had once said her dad was simply “taking up space in the world until his heart stopped beating the way it stopped working years ago.” Still, I asked if she wanted to invite him.
Lenny grimaced. “I know it probably sounds terrible, but no.” It didn’t sound terrible to me, but I asked her why she thought so. “I don’t know, because he’s my dad? He’s never done me any harm outright—not like yours, at least. I want our day to be about love,” she continued. “I want us to be surrounded by it, suffocated in it. When he’s around, all I remember is how bereft we were.”
“Sounds reasonable.” It had never seemed more reasonable than that day. While we talked, we folded clothes, tiny little baby clothes that would one day fit our child. We still didn’t know the sex, but it didn’t matter. We bought all kinds of colors and prints. Earlier that morning we’d gone for a walk and stumbled into a baby store, and by stumbled I mean I had walked right inside.
“You’re supposed to say I have to have him there,” Lenny said, holding up tiny socks to the light. “That I need to make up with him and be a family.” I watched her hold the tiny yellow socks, imagining tinier feet inside. The idea nearly made my throat constrict, but then I looked at the whole picture: Lenny, her tummy, our room, and our life.
“I like to think we choose our families.”
“It’s settled, then,” she said, folding the socks. “It will be me and you, Lissie and Zoe, Eli and Grace.”
“Just family,” I replied.
“He’d probably prefer a card, anyway,” she muttered.
“Probably.” I was pretty damn good at folding clothes—you get good when you join the military—but the smaller the clothes, the harder it is. Lenny was on her umpteenth pair and I was still folding the same goddamn shirt.
Lenny spun around, eyes wide with disbelief. “I can’t believe you just said that.”
“Why?” I gave up, throwing the shirt into my pile of unfolded clothes.
“It’s so rude.”
“I thought we weren’t lying to each other any more.”
Lenny’s eyes crinkled and she turned back to her pile of clothes. “I really don’t know what I’m going to do with you, Vic Wall.”
I tugged at her back and pulled her into my arms. “Marry me, hopefully.”
“It’s been way too long, babe.” I pulled Lenny against my chest so she could feel my hardening cock at her ass. Wrapping my arms around her, I slid my hands across her belly, her breasts. I kissed her throat, lifted her hair up, and continued down the base of her neck.
She sighed and pulled away.
That had to be the first time in…well…ever.
“I’m just not in the mood.” She said the words without meeting my eyes. I wasn’t about to force her on the goddamn kitchen counter, but something didn’t sit right. Without eating a single one, Lenny set down the jar of pickles she’d been craving and walked up the stairs, still without looking at me. I followed, watching her ass sway with her hips. With the pregnancy, everything had started to grow: her ass, her hips, her tits. It was pretty fucking fantastic.
“Lenny,” I murmured, leaning against the doorframe. “What aren’t you telling me?”