Fighting For a Second Chance (Fighting 1)

“It doesn’t matter what time a child normally wakes up. On Christmas, their brain wakes them up before five, always.”

We make our way down the stairs and Cooper puts some coffee on and makes Bella a hot chocolate. We sit on the couch, while she opens up her stocking first, and she’s in heaven! There are new nail polishes, and candy, and tons of Barbie accessories.

Once she’s done with her stocking, she moves on to her presents. She gets excited about every single one and thanks us for the ones that have our names on them. I don’t think there is a single toy this child didn’t get for Christmas, thanks to Cooper.

When she gets to her last present, her smile falters for a second. I don’t care how good of a kid you have, when they realize they didn’t get the couple items they asked for they’re going to be sad. It doesn’t make them spoiled… it makes them human. She opens the present and says thank you to the both of us.

Cooper looks way too happy with himself when he asks if she had a good Christmas. Bella says yes, and then he tells her he has one more gift, but it’s for all of us and it’s not here. I can see she gets her hopes up, but she doesn’t mention it or ask.

“Before we get to your gift for all of us, I have one for all of us as well,” I say.

I pull a box from the back of the tree and hand it to Cooper and Bella to open. Bella smiles as she tears apart the wrapping paper and shakes the top off. Nestled inside are the three shirts I ordered. I made sure to put mine on the bottom.

Bella pulls them out and attempts to read them. She’s not a great reader yet, but she’s definitely improving. “Bella,” she reads the first one. It has a picture of a Minnie mouse with a crown under her name. She doesn’t understand it yet, but I think Cooper does because his lips curl into a huge grin.

Next, she reads Cooper’s shirt. “Daddy.” This one has a Mickey Mouse on the front as well.

And finally, she reads mine. “Mommy. And there’s an arrow pointing down. It says pl…us… plus b.a.by. Plus baby?”

Cooper whips his head around to me, and with wide eyes, asks, “Are you pregnant?”

Forty-Three

Cooper

It killed me to watch Bella open all her gifts, knowing the only three she asked for aren’t under the tree. I was able to take care of two of them, but the baby part is unfortunately out of my control.

Liz telling us she has a gift for us definitely peaks my curiosity. This is the happiest I’ve seen her so it must be good. Bella opens the box and begins to read the names on the shirts. I see Bella’s shirt with her name on it and Minnie Mouse, and I know right away we’re going to Disney. Not only am I excited to experience this with my two girls, but it also makes sense why she was using her credit card and looking up hotels. Although, hopefully she has better sense than to book one of those nasty motels that were up on her page. She pulls out my shirt next, which has Daddy written on it with a Mickey Mouse under it.

Bella gets to her mom’s shirt and she’s struggling to read it, but we both let her sound it out. “…plus, baby?”

Putting all the pieces together, I go into shock. “Are you pregnant?”

Excitedly, Liz nods, and Bella starts going nuts, singing that she’s going to have a baby brother or sister.

Grabbing her by her waist, I give her a kiss then move down to her belly and lift her shirt. It’s too soon for there to be a bump, but I still have to kiss it. I look up with blurry eyes from the unshed tears and say thank you. This woman has just made me the happiest man in the world.

I stand and ask how far along she is. She laughs and says, “I’ll be nine weeks on the thirtieth. I suspected I was pregnant on Thanksgiving and had it confirmed the day we returned. I thought it would be fun to surprise you for Christmas along with a family trip for just the three of us, but I didn’t realize keeping a secret from you for a month would be so difficult.”

Damn, now it all makes sense. The secret phone call and outing by herself, the way she’s been up and down with her emotions, and going out of her way not to talk to me about her credit card. I’m so glad I chose to have trust in us instead of flipping out. Now it’s my turn to give them my present, and with a baby coming, it makes the present even better.