“Depends how bored he is,” I said. “Bored Noah tends to make trouble.”
“Good point. Maybe I’ll send him something relatively complex to deal with before Emma lands in L.A. Try to distract him from sleeping with the enemy.”
“Hello? Emma is not the enemy,” Samantha said. “And Noah is not going to sleep with her. I’m telling you, she’ll be immune.”
I shrugged and went back to my dishes. Samantha was right; Noah would probably strike out. It would do him good for once after all those years of actresses and models.
After the dishes were finished and Aidan and Samantha had left, I got to go to bed with my wife. As Ava lay on her back I pushed her T-shirt up and gently stroked her belly, feeling the warm, firm roundness of it. Part of the reason I wanted more time for myself was so that we could do all of the pre-baby things: get the spare room ready as the baby’s room, go to doctors’ appointments. So far, Ava’s pregnancy had been textbook, with a few weeks of morning sickness that seemed to have let up and a lot of naps. She was making steady progress on her clothing line, and she was adding maternity clothes to it because she complained that fashionable maternity clothes were hard to find. I’d made her website myself.
“Andrew,” I said, moving my hand over her belly.
“Fiona,” Ava replied.
I shook my head. We were at an impasse on the baby’s name. We were also at an impasse on whether to find out the sex before the baby was born. I wanted to, and she didn’t. So I was convinced we were having a boy, while she was convinced we were having a girl.
“James,” I said.
“Maggie,” Ava said.
“Fine,” I said. “I’m fighting dirty.” I moved my hand lower and slid her panties off.
Ava gave a shivery sigh. “It’s still a girl, you hot nerd,” she said. “I’m not giving in.”
“You will.” I moved on top of her and kissed her, long and deep. When I had her breathless, I pulled away. “Now can we make an appointment and find out the sex of the baby?”
“No.”
“Damn.” I kissed her again. “Now?”
She was shaky, but she held firm. “No. And I love you.”
“You are so fucking beautiful,” I said, and as she smiled and wrapped her legs around me, I knew she believed me.