When Constellations Form (Light in the Dark 4)
“So what do you think?”
He looks around and shrugs. “It’s not as bad as I thought. I was expecting a coffin or something.”
“Oh, that’s in the front yard,” I tell him honestly. “You must’ve been so excited to see me that you missed it.” I wink.
He shakes his head. “God, I missed you. Talking on the phone every day wasn’t enough.”
“Is that your way of saying you love my crazy ass?”
He chuckles, looking around at the cobwebs above the TV. “Yeah, it is. There’s never a dull moment with you, that’s for sure.”
His phone beeps and he pulls it out of his pocket, looking down at the screen. “That’s Jensen. He says they’ll drop the kids off in an hour. They want to do dinner and a movie and then they’ll pick them back up.”
“Oh, thank God. I know I wouldn’t survive an overnighter.”
He laughs. “What are you going to do with our baby? She’s not going anywhere at the end of the day.”
“Yeah, but she’s ours so naturally, she’ll be perfect and never cry, need to eat, or pee and poop,” I joke.
He chuckles. “You wish.”
Since we have an hour until the kids are dropped off, I spend the time cleaning up and then I make dinner. Since the kids are young I opt to do hotdogs and macaroni and cheese. That’s kid friendly, right?
They finally arrive and I feel … nervous.
Like somehow tonight is going to make or break whether or not I can handle this whole parenting thing—which is stupid, because ready or not, this little girl is coming.
Xander lets them in the gate and they park before bringing the kids inside.
“Thanks for doing this,” Jensen says, shaking my hand and setting down the carrier.
He’s a big guy, huge, really. I call Xander a Viking, but this guy is a tank.
He has floppy brown hair and bright blue eyes with a heavy beard. His wife is tall and curvy with sleek straight blond hair.
She smiles at me kindly and hugs me. “Thanks for doing this. I don’t think we’ve ever been properly introduced. I’m Katrina.”
“Thea,” I reply with a smile, trying to be nice.
“Congratulations on your little one.” She points to my stomach, like I don’t know it’s there.
“Thank you.”
“Anyway—” she smiles, placing a hand on her daughter’s shoulder “—this is Kira, and this is Ryland.” She then points to the floppy haired little boy running in between her husband’s legs. “And the tiniest one is little Finn.”
The baby boy gurgles from his carrier and waves chubby fingers. I have no experience with babies, but I’d guess he’s around four months.
“I’ve written down everything you need to know here.” She hands me a piece of paper, and I promptly hand it to Xander because he’s more responsible and I’ll lose it. “We’ll check in after dinner, and our movie is at eight, so we should be back here by ten-thirty. Thank you both so much for doing this. Jensen said you guys wanted to get some practice in, and I can’t blame you. I wish we would’ve thought to have done that. Going home with a baby is the scariest thing ever.”
“Babe, we need to go.” Jensen urges her to the door.
“Okay, okay.” She drops down and hugs and kisses both of the two older kids. “I love you both, be good for Xander and Thea, please?”
“Love you, Mommy.” Kira hugs her mom back.
“Wuv you, Momma.” Ryland wraps his chubby arms around her neck and smacks a loud kiss against her cheek.
Jensen hugs the kids goodbye and then they’re gone.