“Whoa,” Tristan said, as she rushed to retrieve it for me. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Hey,” I said, delighted to see him. It was still early evening, and he wasn’t usually done with work till about seven in the night. “What are you doing here? Did you want to change before a meeting or something?”
“Nope,” he said, setting the bowl on the table and sitting down next to me. “I came to check in on my beautiful wife and my feisty son.”
I laughed as Tristan placed his hand on my stomach. “He’s feisty alright,” I nodded. “He just kicked that bowl clean of my belly.”
Tristan laughed. “Were you trying to balance it?”
“I wasn’t trying,” I said, pretending to be affronted. “I was succeeding.”
He shook his head at me in amusement. “Are you hungry?” he asked. “Can I get you something to eat?”
“I just finished a plate of pickles and followed that up with a bowl of ice cream,” I said. “So no… I won’t be hungry for at least another fifteen minutes or so.”
He smiled. “Well then, how about we take a walk together?” he suggested.
“Sounds perfect,” I nodded.
About a year into our marriage, Tristan had renovated the space down the hall from his office and turned it into a three-bedroom luxury apartment for the two of us. We had originally intended to move into the island, but a few weekends spent there had made us realize how impractical that was. Not only did we have to make the drive down to the beach, but we also needed a boat to ferry us across in the mornings and evenings.
It was just easier to make our home in the resort itself. But neither one of us had liked the idea of living out of a hotel room indefinitely. So Tristan had created an apartment space for us that was homey, cozy, and felt very much like our little world within the resort.
Sometimes, I would even forget that if I walked outside my hall I would find myself in a resort rather than an apartment complex. Tristan held my hand and we stepped outside and made our way down to the fountain gardens. They were my favorite place to take a walk, comprised of four separate little fountains, each with their own design, statue, and story.
The plants and flowers that decorated the gardens were vibrant and beautiful, and since my maternity leave had kicked in, I’d been spending a lot of time sitting on the lounge swings, reading books, and chronicling my pregnancy in the journal I had started right after Tristan and I had discovered that I was going to have a baby.
“So, are you getting nervous?” Tristan asked. “Or just excited?”
I smiled. He asked me that question every month. “Both now,” I said. “We’re less than two months away.”
Tristan nodded, and I saw how nervous he was. “It’s going to be an adventure,” I told him, kissing him softly on the cheek.
“I know,” he nodded. “I’m just so thankful I have you. Otherwise, I would have been freaking out.”
I laughed, as we sat down on one of the lounge swings in front of the water fairy fountain. “I miss working,” I admitted.
“It’s only been a month since you stopped,” he reminded me. “Do you miss it already?”
“I do,” I nodded. “It’s so weird not to have something to do all day.”
“I thought you were looking forward to reading, writing, and binge-watching Netflix?”
“I was,” I nodded. “Then it wore off after the first week. I’ve spent the last five years working…it’s hard to get out of that rhythm.”
“Well, things are going to change a lot around here after the little tyke gets here,” Tristan said.
I nodded, in awe of the incredible change our lives were about to go through. “By the way, I asked Mom to come down next week,” I said. “I figured I could use the company, and it’ll be nice to have her around during the latter stages of my confinement.”
“No problem,” he nodded. “The guest room is ready for her whenever she comes.”
“She’s so excited,” I said. “Her first grandchild.”
“He won’t be for long,” Tristan smiled. “The way things are going with Jason and his new gir
lfriend, we might have more kids in the family soon.”
“They’ve only been together ten months.”