"I don't understand why you needed to do all of this research, Shakespeare. I mean, haven't all of your friends had babies recently? Surely you know what to expect by now." Matthew was sitting on the floor, dragging a length of yarn over the rug for Flower to attack. I'd been sitting here with my tablet for the past couple of hours, busily looking over my past research from my brother’s pregnancy and checking out the newest gadgets that had hit the market while I shopped for baby supplies.

"I'm not doing fresh research on pregnancy. I already covered the basics when Cain was expecting. But I have a lot of opinions on the subject that I couldn't get my brother to listen to at the time. And I'm sorry, but I'm not going to do what he and Ezra did and wait until the fucking baby shower and chance that our baby will come early. I've been making my Amazon Prime pay for itself tonight. My cart is loaded with items that we'll need."

Matthew threw his head back with a laugh. "First of all, we just found out that I'm pregnant a week ago. At best, we still have at least two months if not a full ten weeks until my projected due date. Shoot, I don't even get to meet the famous Dr. Wendy until my first appointment next week. I'm pretty sure that it's a little premature to be buying diapers."

"Diapers," I muttered under my breath. "I didn't even think of diapers! Wait, I should probably check the consumer websites and compare the quality for the different brands. Yes, I think I can put that off for now." I was so focused on the screen that I didn't notice Matthew coming closer until he tipped my tablet down and leaned in to peck my lips with a quick kiss.

"Seriously, is everything I say going to send you on another tangent? Should we have the argument now about whether or not pacifiers are a good idea?" Matthew smirked playfully, but I shook my head.

"There are actually two schools of thought on pacifier usage. That is something we are going to need to discuss in depth and decide as a couple but we should…" He cut me off with another kiss, pushing my hand with the tablet aside as he knelt between my legs and wrapped his arms around my neck to pull me closer. I tried to talk against his mouth. "But really, you have to read this one article I found on…"

He kissed me harder.

I jerked back with a screech as sharp talons dug into my thigh. I looked down to see our little puffball had come to join us. She started kneading my leg and purring contentedly. Shaking my head, I smirked at Matthew. "Remind me again why I agreed to having this feline agent of destruction in our home?"

Matthew huffed as he scratched behind her ears and glared at me playfully. "It's not her fault she shredded the corner of the couch. That was my bad for not getting her a scratching post sooner. I forgot she’d need to sharpen her claws. It's instinct, surely you get that. As for keeping her, what else could we have done? Especially when nobody reported her missing. You yourself checked every site and asked around the area more than once. Don't even try and tell me that you didn't."

Grinning, I held up a hand. I mean, I wasn't going to deny it. I'd done everything in my power to see if anybody was missing a kitten—if only to protect our hearts if somebody tried to claim her later after we'd gotten attached. "Hey now, Agent Sugar Bear. I care about her too. You know damn well that I'm also the one who insisted on getting her chipped when we took her to meet the vet and get her shots."

He shot me a baleful glance. "And you're also the one who is going to take her to get fixed when it's time. I'm not going to be the guilty party on that one. Especially when you're the one pushing for it."

"Damn straight I am, are you kidding me? It's only responsible pet ownership to have the cat spayed. Besides, do you really want to have to deal with a cat in heat? No thank you." I reached out and rubbed my forefinger under her chin. "Besides, she's part of our family now. I just wish she'd remember who's the one that cleans her litter box. You get all the love while I get all the crap—literally."

Matthew gave me big innocent puppy dog eyes. "You wouldn't want me to do it, would you? I mean, think of the baby. It's not safe to do that in my condition."

I booped his nose. "I'm pretty sure I know that since I'm the one who warned you against it, although I never heard you argue." My tablet started flashing with an alarm. I glanced at it and grinned before passing Flower to Matthew. "Here, baby. Can you take her? I need to go check the balcony. My Prime Air delivery just arrived, I think."

He looked confused as he cradled the cat in his arm and stood. Matthew trailed me to the bedroom as I rushed to the door and put my pin in the pad to disarm the alarm before opening the door. Sure enough, the drone was just leaving and my package waited on the small bistro table I kept out there.

"Shakespeare, what have you gone and done now?" Matthew skeptically eyed the drone before taking a seat at the table where I was already opening the box.

"Done? What do you mean? Haven't you ever gotten a Prime Air delivery? As long as your purchase is one of the items in that system and under five pounds, you can get your Amazon delivery in half an hour." I was babbling excitedly as I ripped the tape from the box and peeled it open.

"Yes, I've heard of Prime Air because I don't live under a rock. And no, I've never used it because I'm kind of old school—I actually leave the house and go to stores. Now tell me, what was so urgent that you needed a frigging drone to deliver it so soon?"

I glanced up to see a wry smile on Matthew's face as he teased me.

"You can joke, but I ordered one of each of the top five wearable pregnancy monitors and trackers, and three of the best baby monitors for when our little one arrives. And the reason I rushed it is because I also got you a Reliefband. It's the latest thing for morning sickness. You can wear it on your wrist. It uses neuromodulation to treat the morning sickness. The reviews on it were promising, and it’s FDA approved." I pulled that particular item out and passed it to him before returning my attention to the other things in the box.

"Seriously? You want me to use a gadget to deal with morning sickness?" Matthew sounded skeptical but he was already reading the packaging. As sick as he'd been all week, I hoped the reviews were right about it working.

"Ooh! Look at this one. WavHello BellyBuds has earbuds with speakers in them to put on your bump so we can play lullabies or stories for our baby in utero. At your halfway point of the pregnancy, the baby will be able to hear sounds and this is a great way for them to start learning language. It's genius, really. Now, I didn't get you any of the things that track your eating, because I thought that was just rude and you are too skinny anyway. But I did get this cool thing from Bloomlife. It has wearable sensors that we can put on your bump and sync to our phones to give us real-time information when you start having contractions. I'm not having our child born on the bathroom floor like my brother's were."

Matthew raised a brow as he wagged a finger at me. "Shakespeare, I need you to listen to me right now and hear my voice. I am not wearing any sensors on my body so you can track my contractions."

"Hey, what about this one? This is the new Fitbit that’s made for pregnancy so we can keep an eye on your health. I also got a Baby Doppler so we can listen to the baby's heartbeat whenever you want. I just need to know which one of the baby monitors works best for us to sync to our tablets and smartphones." I trailed off, deep in thought, only to glance up when I heard Matthew's chair scrape against the cement as he stood and walked into the house with Flower cradled under one arm and the box with the anti-nausea gadget in his other hand.

He looked back over his shoulder. "Whatever those baby monitors entail, they'd better not involve any sensors or straps that get attached to our child's body."

I didn't understand his concern about the sensors; it was just proactive parenting in my book. I looked at the baby monitor in my hand and started to pull my phone out of my pocket as I got an idea. Matthew stuck his head through the open door. "Bring your toys inside, nerd boy. I didn't say you couldn't play with them, I just want to go sit down where it's more comfortable."

After quickly dumping everything back into the box, I snatched it up and followed him inside. I took a quick second to lock the door and set the alarm and then went to find him where he was already snuggling on the couch with our kitten.

"I think I solved the monitor issue. There is a perfect resolution to my problem of comparing the different models to find the one best suited to link with all of our devices before the baby comes."

Matthew patted the couch beside him. "You're so sexy when you talk nerdy. In fact, why don't you pass me that Fitbit and I'll wear it for you. I can handle that; I've worn them plenty of times when I was counting my steps. I doubt this one is significantly different."

While I outfitted him with the new Fitbit and got it running, I had him text my brother. "Cain and Ezra have triplets. It's really the perfect testing ground. They can put a different monitor on each baby and we can observe the data. And bonus, I'll know that my nieces are safe too. I tried to get them to use the under-the-mattress monitors and breathing mats for the girls, but my brother said that my paranoia was over the top and shut that down before I could install them."

Matthew leaned over to kiss my cheek. "Over the top, hypervigilant. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. I love that you had that much concern for your nieces. You're going to be a great father. But tell me, if your brother wasn't down with using those, what makes you think that he will try these for us?"

"Easy." I shrugged. "He knows I'm going to be twice as bad about our child. He'll want to help me out so he won't have to listen to me ramble about it for the entire pregnancy."

Matthew’s phone chimed with an incoming text. He grinned as he showed it to me. "Looks like you know your brother."

Fine. Tell him I will do it for one week—and one week only. And for the record, I'm only agreeing to do it so I don't have to listen to him bitch for the next three months or however long you have left.

Matthew stretched his hand out to affectionately stroke my thigh, but I gasped when I saw the elevated heart rate on his Fitbit. "Babe, your heart rate is making me nervous. Do you feel alright? Maybe you should go lie down while I call the doctor."

He rolled his eyes as he pushed my gadgets aside and attacked me, straddling my lap to pepper kisses all over my face and neck. "I don't need to see a doctor, and I'm not going into respiratory distress. I'm just turned on by my nerdy man. Actually, now that I think about it? I might need an injection." He leaned back to wink. "You know, the kind that's inserted rectally?"

I groaned at my horndog mate. "You call me a nerd, but you're the one that comes at me with cheesy lines like that?"

His hand was already working under my waistband. "Yeah, I do—and you love it. Don't front."

I laughed against his lips as I kissed him. He was right, I totally loved it.