When Constellations Form (Light in the Dark 4)

“Stop laughing at me,” I whine. “I’m being serious here. She could try to bite her.”

“Thea,” he says sternly, “you’re worrying about nothing. Prue will be fine. You’ll see.”

“Ugh,” I groan.

I hate it when he dismisses my worries like I’m being silly. There are horror stories of dogs being mean to babies—yes, I know most aren’t, but you never know. We’ve had Prue for three years, and it’s always only just been her, so what if she has some sort of … oldest child syndrome and wants to take out the weakest link. Weakest link equals the baby, obviously.

We arrive at Xander’s parent’s house and find that we’re the last ones there.

My mom and James are joining us here, but Cade and Rae are spending the holiday with her family. Jace and Nova were invited, but they opted to do something just the two of them. But it’ll still be a larger crowd with both Xander’s parents, his sister, and his brother in for the holiday.

Xander doesn’t bother knocking since his mom gets mad when he does. He swings the door open and waves me inside first, even though he’s holding the heavy macaroni dish.

I scurry inside and out of the cold.

It’s going to snow soon—I can feel it. It’s like something in the air changes, and you can’t help but know that a big snow is coming.

“Ah, there you guys are,” Sarah ushers us inside. “Oh, good, you shaved,” she says when she sees Xander, standing on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “I asked your little brother to shave too and he didn’t listen.”

“Yeah, because I didn’t want to look like a fetus!” we hear Xavier yell through the house.

Xander shakes his head. “Where do you want me to put this, Mom?” He nods at the dish in his hand.

“Just put it on the island on the counter. We decided to do buffet style this year. We figured that was easier than passing at the table.”

Xander heads off with the food and I stay in the hall with his mom. I shrug out of my coat and she gasps at my belly.

“Oh, my God, look at you. Can I feel it?”

“Sure.” I shrug. It’s not like she’s a stranger—though some strangers have no problem touching my belly without asking. A baby being in there doesn’t suddenly give everyone the right to feel me up, but they do it anyway.

She presses her hand to my belly and smiles at me. “Wow. I can’t believe I’m going to have my first grandbaby. I bought her something. Wait here.”

“You didn’t need to do that,” I protest as she starts up the stairs.

She pauses and looks back. “Nonsense. She’s my first grandbaby, and a girl at that. I have to spoil her rotten. She’s a little princess.”

She hurries up the last of the steps and I wait patiently at the bottom.

Xander comes back into the foyer, his brows drawn together.

“What are you doing?”

I point up the stairs. “Your mom said she had a gift for the baby.”

He grins at me. “That was sweet of her.”

He wraps his arm around me, drawing me into his body. It’s hard to get as close as I used to with this big belly in the way, and I still have three months to go so I’m only going to get bigger.

Great.

Sarah comes down a moment later. “Oh, good, you’re here.”

She holds out an ornate decorative box. The box itself is a lacquered shiny off-white finish with pink and gold detailing.

“Open it,” Sarah pleads, absolutely giddy.

Xander and I lift the lid together and I gasp, bursting into tears, because hormones.