I laid on my back lazily watching Mimi walk slowly up and down the room cradling Charles. She was gazing lovingly at his face, and he was looking contentedly up at her. His little face crumpled as his eyes shut and his toothless mouth opened up in a yawn. Mimi giggled happily.

“Dana, I’m gonna have to take maternity leave after you so I can just squeeze this little treasure every day.”

I smiled. Mimi had been a tremendous help with the baby, on top of manning the shop on her own while I acted as designated milk factory. She never yelled at me once when she caught me browsing Amazon for breast pumps.

“Yeah, he’s pretty cute,” I said nonchalantly. My baby was a masterpiece. He had been born with this silky white-blond hair covering his head. His eyes were huge and blue, like his dad’s. His mouth was a little bud in the middle of round, pillowy cheeks. When he smiled, two deep dimples sunk into them.

“If that guy breaks your heart I swear I’ll adopt him and co-parent with you,” she added. I laughed.

“That guy? Are you still mad he broke us up?”

“He didn’t break us up. He just doubled my rent.”

“Please, that was what, two months you had to pick up my half of the rent?”

She shrugged looking back at the baby with the color rising in her cheeks. She had been living with Lawson Foley, and any mention of him made her awkward and shy. It was nice seeing the shoe on the other foot. Who had the crush now?

Lawson... the nice way to put it was that he was a mess. He was disorganized, lost things, had a checkered past and was nothing like the sort of guy you would pair Mimi James with. The guy you would pair her with on appearance alone had been the guy who had dogged her; Lawson’s identical twin brother, Anthony. The house we had lived in together had two bedrooms, but something told me they were not sleeping separately.

“You can’t hate the guy forever Mimi. He’s sort of here to stay.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. You two are in love or whatever,” she said, comically rolling her eyes. “He can’t be all bad if he helped you make this little angel.”

“You still think he’s bad?” I asked her. Adam hadn’t been involved in the underground fights for a little while now. His relationship with her was cordial but with a lot of backhanded compliments and sarcasm. She didn’t actually hate him. She was probably trying to make herself feel better about falling for Lawson. Not her best choice for a mate but at least I could stand Lawson. Anthony had made my skin crawl.

“No... well, I think he’s bad in general. But I know he loves you, Dana.”

Hell yeah he loved me. I sighed watching the most enamored godmother in the world cooing at my child. I was exhausted. All I did all day was change, feed, and burp Charles, but the milk production or something was just taking it out of me. That felt like my new default. I had been worn out all the time when I was pregnant, and now I was worn out nursing. It was a good thing people didn’t yell at pregnant ladies. Pregnancy was hard. I mean, there was the gift of the baby at the end of it, and the excuse to eat as much as you cared for under the guise of eating for two. There was also the pregnancy sex. I was like a bitch in heat, almost every night. Every part of me felt like it was on fire under Adam’s touch. My tits were huge now, and he loved them. Other than that, it was fucking difficult. I wanted to die the entire duration of my labor. Charles was born weighing in at a staggering nine pounds, three ounces.

I heard the car pulling up to the house. After Adam had finished restoring Dad’s Superbird, he had allowed him to keep it, saying you couldn’t fit a car seat on the back of a motorcycle. He walked into the house, smiling when he saw us there with the baby. A lot of the time Charles was asleep when he got home from work.

“Darling,” I said playfully, seeing him. He leaned in to kiss me. I must have looked frightful. Baggy t-shirts I could access my breasts through easily and yoga pants. Daily. Nursing bras were ugly, but they weren’t supposed to be cute. I had gone up a full cup size, and I was lactating which meant Adam had had breast milk squirted in his face more than once when he’d tried to touch me.

“Hey, Doll. Mimi,” he said, politely acknowledging her. “What did I miss?”

“The usual. Mountains of shit. Rivers of spit-up. Oh, he smiled today.”

“He did?”

I smiled at how excited Adam sounded. It was cute. He would hate me calling him that, but it was. It was precious.

“He’ll probably do it again when he sees you,” I said. Mimi smiled at Adam. She handed the baby over carefully.

“How’s my little Clutch,” he said to the baby. He had nicknamed Charles, ‘Clutch’ almost as soon as we had brought him home. Of course he had. Our Charles wasn’t going to have a boring nickname like ‘Chuck,’ or even simply ‘Charlie.’ No way. Not when Adam was his dad. I insisted on calling him by his full name, Charles because I wanted him to be able to recognize it eventually. I had wanted a home birth, but Adam would hear nothing of it. His parenting style thus far had been ‘frantic.’ He would start pacing and suggesting we go to the hospital every time Charles coughed.

As if on cue, Charles smiled his little gummy smile up at his dad. Seeing the two of them together like that made everything worth it. The hours of labor delivering a nearly ten-pound infant. The sleepless nights caring for him. The six-week sex ban which was three days from being lifted. Adam was completely in love. If I was the first person who had thawed Adam’s cold heart, Charles Forester Holloway was the second.

I had a family. My own. When I saw them together, everything I worried about just disappeared. Was he developing fast enough? Was he making weight? Were we trying to start sleep training him too soon? It didn’t matter because everything was perfect. I had a gorgeous baby with the man that I loved. The bookstore was doing great. Henry was gone, and my parents—all three of them—supported our relationship.

Mimi left soon after Adam got back home. His job was supporting us, but he still helped with the baby whenever he was done. The fatigue showed a little, around his eyes but he never complained. I watched him walk slowly around the room as Charles dozed in his arms.

“You’re a natural,” I said, quietly.

“This is still the easy part. I’ll be fine until the point when he needs guidance and advice,” he said.

“Guidance and advice which you will have because of all the parenting books Mimi got us.”

“I didn’t have a dad, or uncle or any positive male role model growing up, Doll. If not for you, he’s going to be a maniac when he grows up.”

“I have two fathers. They’ll be more than happy to help you if you ask them, Adam.”

“Are you happy?” he asked suddenly.

“So happy I could die.”

“Don’t do that. I wouldn’t be able to do this without you.”

* * *

Charles was finally asleep. Adam took him to the crib in our room before he came back out and joined me on the couch. Mom and Frank had wanted to give us money to help with the baby, but I had refused. Instead, Mom had spent what we could be sure was way too much money on really nice, over-the-top baby stuff. The crib, and car seat. Toys. Mobiles.

Adam put his arm around me and pulled me onto his chest.

“Have you eaten yet?” I asked him.

“No, I just want to go to sleep,” he said. “How long before the doctor said we could bang?”

I laughed.

“A few more days,” I told him.

“I wish you were pregnant again, so you were horny every night,” he said.

“No more babies. Not yet. And definitely not another ten-pounder,” I said.

He chuckled.

“What do we do in the meantime?”

“Spend every day scared to death and deliriously happy raising our child?” I suggested.

“Yeah, I was thinking I could marry you, but that’s good too.”

I sat up. Shut up. He wasn’t…

“Adam… I realize you gave me the best thing I’ve ever had in my life but come on; I’m your baby’s mother. What kind of shit proposal was that?”

He laughed.

“Does that mean you’re saying no?”

“No. I’m saying yes. Is there at least a ring?” I teased him. My eyes widened as he reached into his pocket and pulled a ring out—no ring box. The band was delicate and thin, white gold and the stone was tinted too. Pink.

“Did you know diamonds come in colors?” he said, looking at the ring like he was proud of the selection he had made. “Your mother told me you had a thing for pink diamonds.”

He took my hand and slid it on my finger.

“Dana Penelope Weinstein, there’s no one else I want to see every day for the rest of my life. Marry me.”

I cried and hugged him.

“How did you afford this? How much did it cost?” I asked, looking at the ring.

“Shh, Doll. You’re ruining the moment.” He kissed me. And here I thought there was no getting better than this. A ring. A pink diamond that my mother had helped him pick out for me? That meant he had asked for her blessing first. Adam Holloway, he was full of surprises.

I couldn’t wait to see what he did next.