I stopped by Emrie's after dinner on Friday night. Lexi and Noah were out on a date, but the weather was so nice that I didn't feel like going home yet.

The hope of spending time there with Easton as he worked might have factored into my decisions a little.

Things had been good between us after our conversation in the park, and I daydreamed a lot about how things would be if we ended up together after all of this.

Like I had told Easton, I was entertaining the idea of keeping the baby and raising it with him. I still wasn't sure it was exactly what I wanted. But I had another month and a half to figure it out, so hopefully I'd have the clarity I needed by mid-May to make the best decision for everyone involved.

I stepped inside the ice cream shop to find Easton, with his little paper hat and apron on, wiping one of the tables clean. His uniform was dorky, but he still looked cute in it—it was hard for Easton to not look cute.

He looked up when he heard the bell jingle. And when he saw me, his broad smile warmed me from head to toe. He was happy to see me.

"Hi, Juliette."

"Hi." I looked around the ice cream shop suddenly nervous. As I took in the old photos and classic 50s-style décor, I felt a sense of déjà vu from last summer. I cleared my throat before I could start fantasizing about kissing Easton in a booth. "I'm here to sample all your new flavors." I smiled, hoping he'd remember with fondness—instead of pain—all the times that I had done that last summer.

He finished wiping off the table and grinned. "Margaret created six new flavors since the last time you sampled them all."

"Six?" I raised my eyebrows, impressed. "Margaret’s been busy."

"That she has." He walked past me to go behind the counter, and I joined him on the opposite side of the display case. "So, which ones are new?"

He pointed to a brown one that looked like it had caramel and chocolate chunks inside. "This one is Chocolate Mudslide, which is probably the ice cream flavor closest to what they serve in heaven." He winked at me.

I returned a smile, feeling giddy at his playfulness. "I'll definitely have to sample that one."

"This one is Orange Dreamsicle, another good choice." He pointed to an orange-colored ice cream. "And the others are Raspberry Mango Sorbet, Vanilla Bean Moose Tracks, Tahitian Paradise, and Chocolate Cinnamon Bear." He pointed to each one as he named them.

My ears perked up at the mention of Chocolate Cinnamon Bear. "You already know how addicted I am to chocolate-covered cinnamon bears, so I think I'll try that one first."

"That's what I was thinking when I suggested the idea to Margaret a few months ago."

"So you were thinking about me?" I asked, feeling brave for a moment.

His cheeks turned an adorable shade of pink, and I couldn't keep my smile from growing bigger.

He shrugged as he grabbed a small spoon from a red-and-white container by the register. "You might have crossed my mind once or twice while you were in Paris." He scooped some ice cream onto the sample spoon. 

He wasn't looking at me. Was he embarrassed?

I decided not to say anything more about it.

He held the sample for me so I leaned close to the counter to take it, but my belly hit the glass way sooner than it had months earlier since it was huge now. Easton noticed my new situation and smiled as he extended his reach. Our fingers brushed in the exchange, and my skin tingled as my nerves remembered what it was like to touch Easton.

It’d been way too long since we touched, and I wanted to find an excuse to touch him even more.

It was like last summer all over again. He must have totally seen through my excuse of sampling every single flavor from the first time I did it.

I put the spoon in my mouth then slowly pulled it out, savoring the taste of the chocolate and cinnamon combination. "Okay, yeah, I definitely want a scoop of this one."

"I thought so." He winked.

I tried the other five flavors and had him add a scoop of raspberry mango sorbet to my cone as well. I was eating for two—it was only fair to the baby that I eat two scoops, right?

I looked around the room, trying to decide where I wanted to sit as Easton filled my order. There was only one other couple in the room in a booth in the back.

I didn't want to assume that Easton would join me in the booth like he always had last summer, so instead of going over to one of those, I walked toward the bar. I gripped onto the counter and had to stand on my tippy toes to reach the seat. In the past I'd always just plopped myself up there, but with a huge belly, it wasn’t nearly as graceful an experience as I’d hoped. Instead, I had to scoot way back on the stool just to get my belly to fit behind the counter. And even then I had to hunch over to stay on my seat.

So classy.

"This thing is getting way too big." I pointed to my stomach as Easton scooped my ice cream into the waffle cone.

"I think you look great, Juliette." He glanced up from his work.

I leaned my elbows on the counter. "Pretty sure I look like a whale right now." It was hard to see all the girls at school wearing the latest spring fashion and not be able to be the trendsetter anymore. It just wasn't worth updating my wardrobe when I wasn't going to fit in my clothes for much longer.

At least I really hoped my belly would shrink back down after the baby was out.

Easton set the scooper back in its bowl of water. "You don't look like a whale, Juliette." He handed me my cone. And then he looked me over, a small smile forming on his lips. "You're beautiful."

My insides wanted to warm at his generous words, but there was no way he could think this was beautiful. I had gained thirty pounds since last October. Most days the muscles below my belly were just so tired and sore that I didn't want to get out of bed.

"You know it's not good to lie, right?" I said.

He shook his head and smiled. "I'm not lying, Juliette. You really are beautiful."

I rolled my eyes and licked the melting ice cream before it could drip down my fingers. "Well, you're only saying that because you have to."

He raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms. "Pretty sure I have freedom of speech and so, no, I don't have to say anything if I don't want to."

"Well, you did this to me, so I'm pretty sure that you do."

He gave me a frustrated look before leaning over the bar so our faces were only inches away from each other. "If I didn't think you looked totally hot right now, then why am I having such a hard time remembering why I shouldn't just take you out back and kiss you like I used to?"

I froze as chills raced up my spine. He couldn't be serious. Could he?

But when I met his gaze again, his eyes were intense, and I got the feeling that maybe he really meant what he was saying.

I swallowed hard and spoke as calmly as I could, hoping he couldn't see how flustered his words had made me. And I pretended to be my old, bold self and said, "Maybe you should try it sometime."

His gaze fell on my lips for a second, making my heart bang against my ribs. "Maybe I will."

I couldn't breathe. Seriously, I needed to get oxygen into my lungs or I might faint from the way he was looking at me.

Would it be so bad if I grabbed his hand right now and rushed away to the back room?

The couple in the corner seemed like they'd be talking for a while, and no one else was in here.

Easton glanced at the couple as well. Was he thinking the same thing I was?

But then the door jingled behind us and broke the staring match we were having. A middle-aged couple walked in with two young children and a baby.

Before going to help the family with their orders, Easton whispered to me in a voice that no one could hear. "I get off at nine-thirty. I'm up for a late-night walk in the park if you are."

My cone almost slipped from my hands as the words and their possible implications washed over me. But I switched my grip and worked to rein in my excited emotions so I could say, "Come by my house when you're off. I'll be ready."

Easton knocked lightly on my front door right at nine forty-five. I pulled on my oversized hoodie, which was the only warm jacket that could fit me these days, and met him on the porch.

"Ready?" he asked, and there was an anticipation in his eyes I hadn't seen in way too long.

"Ready," I answered. I was more than ready to see where things could go between us. More than ready to kiss him again if that was on the table.

I leaned back into my house to tell my mom I was going out for a walk with Easton.

"Just be back by midnight, okay?" she called back.

"I will," I told her before shutting the door.

"My dad expects me home by eleven, so you should definitely be back by midnight," Easton said as we strolled down the sidewalk.

"You still have a curfew even though you're eighteen?" I asked.

He shrugged. "My dad may know that I can't get you pregnant again, but that doesn't mean he's still not paranoid."

"I guess that makes sense." Though I had noticed his dad loosening up a little. Lexi had been sure that he was going to put her on birth control after he found out about Easton and me, but he'd surprised her by not saying anything about it. It seemed like maybe he'd realized that hovering over his kids constantly had made them more likely to sneak around and not less.

We made it to the park about fifteen minutes later, walked across the bridge and stopped in the little gazebo. The park was technically supposed to be closed at dark, but hopefully we wouldn't get caught breaking the rules.

"How was the rest of work?" I asked Easton as we sat down on a bench.

"Good. That family who came in while you were there ended up making a huge mess, and the baby wouldn't stop crying...but aside from that it was slow."

I frowned at his mention of the baby crying. Would our baby cry a lot? I'd never been very good with Grant when he had cried as a newborn. I wasn't the "baby whisperer" like Easton had been.

"What are you thinking about?" Easton reached over to touch my knee, breaking me from my thoughts. "I can tell from the look on your face that you're thinking about something."

I shrugged and played with the strings on my hoodie. "I'm wondering how much our baby will cry."

"Probably only when he's hungry, needs a diaper change, or is tired."

"Yeah?" I asked hopefully. That didn't sound so bad.

But then Easton continued, "Or when he's uncomfortable, has gas, or is just having a grumpy day."

I shook my head. "So pretty much all the time then?"

He gave me a lopsided grin and squeezed my knee. "No, not all the time. And usually they're better for their parents because they know them and are used to their voice and smell." He looked down at my stomach. "Our baby is already used to hearing your voice all the time, so that'll give you an advantage when he's out."

"If we don't go the adoption route, that is." I raised an eyebrow, reminding him I still hadn't decided on whether I was keeping the baby.

Easton made a face that told me he didn't like what I'd said, and I worried I may have ruined the moment. But instead of jabbing back, he said, "Yes, if you decide to raise him, then you'll have a head start over me. I mean, I still haven't even felt him kick yet."

"Is that something you want?" I asked hesitantly. "To feel the baby kicking?" 

He nodded. "Yeah, of course."

"All you had to do was ask," I said. Lexi had felt the baby kick tons of times as we'd hung out—I should have known Easton would have wanted to feel the baby, too.

"I didn't know if you'd be okay with it," he said.

Which made sense. We’d had an emotional barrier between us for the past couple of months.

As if on cue, the baby started thumping around.

"He's kicking now, if you want to feel," I said, hoping Easton wouldn't feel weird about touching my stomach.

"Can I?" There was an anticipation in his expression that made my heart squeeze in my chest.

"Yeah." The baby kicked again, so I quickly lifted my hoodie over the top of my belly, leaving just my stretchy T-shirt exposed.

He scooted closer and held his hands over my stomach before asking, "Where is he?"

"He's been kicking me here." I took his left hand in mine, trying not to feel too nervous about touching him again, and placed it on the lower right side of my stomach. "And here." I directed his right hand to the center of my stomach.

Easton went still and seemed to concentrate on what he was feeling, and I watched him for his reaction, hoping the baby would cooperate.

"Is he kicking?" Easton asked after a while.

I shook my head. "Maybe he has stage fright."

But the baby must have liked hearing my voice or something, because he kicked again.

"Did you feel that?" I asked, looking up and feeling hopeful.

He frowned and pressed his hand to my stomach a little harder. "No. Which hand would have felt it?"

I moved his left hand an inch higher. "He was just right there. Maybe he'll do it again."

We sat motionless for a moment, waiting. But after a full minute, there was still nothing.

"I don't think he likes me very much." Easton met my gaze.

"Maybe I should have drank orange juice before coming on this walk," I said, remembering the trick the nurse had told me at the hospital.

"Does it usually take this long?" he asked after another long moment.

"Sometimes. Did you ever feel Grant kick when Maddie was pregnant?"

He made a face. "No. That would be gross."

"How?" I asked. Did he think this was gross and he was just being nice?

"She's my sister and I was, like, fifteen. I wasn't going anywhere near that if I didn't have to."

"I guess I can understand that." And I was relieved he didn't seem to think me or my stomach was gross.

I felt a thump again. I watched for Easton's eyes to light up, but he must not have felt it.

So I moved his right hand slightly higher and then covered each of his hands with my own, putting enough pressure on them so that he should feel the baby kick the next time—if he kicked in the same spot, anyway.

Easton bent his head down close to my stomach, letting his mouth hover just an inch away from it, and then said, "Come on, baby. It's me, Easton...your dad." He glanced at me for a second as if to check on whether I was okay with him talking to the baby. My face heated up because it was such an intimate situation to be in, but I nodded for him to continue. "Come on, baby. You know you want me to know that you're real, right?"

The baby kicked me hard, right near where Easton had been talking to him, and Easton looked up with excitement in his eyes. "Was that him?"

I nodded.

He got the biggest smile on his face. "I felt him."

Then the baby started kicking like crazy, like now that he'd broken the ice with Easton he wanted to completely show off all the acrobatics he could do inside my belly.

"Whoa," Easton said when my stomach moved like a wave. "That's crazy."

I smiled, feeling super connected to Easton and the baby in this moment we were sharing. "It's pretty cool, huh?"

He nodded. "So cool."

The baby kicked again, and the expression on Easton’s face melted my heart completely. He was in awe of what we’d made.

He pursed his lips together and looked at me carefully. "Thank you for taking such good care of him." His voice was gravelly. "Thanks for giving this baby a chance. I know it hasn't been easy, but for me, this one moment has made everything we've been through, everything with my dad and everyone at school, worth it."

If I wasn't already sitting, my legs would have turned into jelly because of his sincerity. I'd never had anyone look at me like this before, like I was this amazing person who was doing something great.

And for the first time since finding out I was pregnant, I did feel like I was doing something good. I was growing a baby. I had created life, and this baby had the chance to grow up and do great things in the world.

If I could bottle up this emotion that I was feeling and sell it, I could probably be a very rich woman. It was a different kind of high than I'd experienced before. Love. Love for Easton. And love for the baby.

I would give anything to make this moment last forever. And when I saw the love reflected in Easton's eyes, my whole body tingled.

I needed to be closer to him. And before I could really grasp what was happening, we were gravitating toward each other. I closed my eyes and leaned in even closer, my lips anticipating the moment they would brush against his.

But before we could kiss, a flashlight shone right in my eyes.

"The park is closed at dark." A gruff voice sounded from behind us, breaking me out of the trance I'd fallen under. I turned to see a white-haired cop just a few feet away, with his arms crossed. He was not happy to see us. "You two should not be here right now."