read, EAT, SLEEP, READ, REPEAT. She was meeting Everly in a few minutes, and this was one of her favorite comfy shirts. “You don’t like it?”
“I think it would be more accurate if it said, EAT, SLEEP, MAKE WILD PASSIONATE LOVE, REPEAT.”
“Hm. That should get Kase’s attention,” she said playfully.
Ben glowered.
She sat beside him on the bed to tie her pink Converse and said, “I think it should say FEED, CHANGE, MAKE LOVE, SLEEP, REPEAT. But then it would sound like I was dating a geriatric man.”
He chuckled, and she leaned in and kissed him.
“You know I’m a one-man woman and only teasing about Kase, right? I have Ten-Inch Ben. Why would I want Granite-Faced Kase?”
He pressed his lips to hers and said, “I’m kidding. I totally trust you.”
She tickled B’s foot. “Are you sure you don’t mind watching her while I work? When do you have to go back into the office?”
“She’s my responsibility, Rels. Of course I don’t mind. I’m going to schedule a meeting with Mason to get that ball rolling, and I’ll call my attorney and Aiden, too. My whole life is about to change around her.”
“It already has, Ben. There are so many things to think about. What about childcare?”
“I can’t even begin to think about leaving her with someone else. Not even my mom, who you know will want to babysit. I’m going to continue working from home except when I have meetings.”
“Oh gosh. Roxie. You need to tell your parents, Ben. They don’t even know about her.”
“Sunday, at dinner,” he said emphatically. “I want a few days with just us before she and my sisters start directing our lives.”
His family was wonderful, but they would definitely want time with the baby and to make sure Ben was doing all the right things. She wanted time alone with Ben and B, too, so they could adjust to their new reality. Getting up three times a night had nearly turned them both into zombies, even if taking care of B was as rewarding as it was challenging. The time they’d spent lounging around and sleeping when they could had been necessary. They were both exhausted.
Despite the fatigue, she didn’t want to leave B with anyone else, either. Not that she didn’t trust Roxie. She adored her and trusted her with her life. But if she and Ben were still adjusting, wasn’t B, too? It didn’t seem fair to thrust her care into someone else’s hands so soon.
“I can take her with me to the bookstore when you have to go into the office,” she suggested. “Then we wouldn’t have to leave her with anyone else. But, Ben, how do you really feel about all of this? It’s a lot for anyone to handle. I mean, I know you love B, but having a daughter will impact your business, travel, family. Everything. Forever.”
“I know. It’s all I can think about. When Vic called, I was terrified of losing her. Almost as terrified as I was when you stormed out of my house saying you couldn’t do this, and the other day when I offered you an out before we met Jenny. I would have understood if you had taken it, but I would have been heartbroken.” He gazed down at the baby and said, “I may not have known that I wanted a baby in my life when we first found her, but now I can’t imagine my life without her.” He gazed into Aurelia’s eyes with the most earnest, grateful expression and said, “I have to believe this was fate, because you’d just moved away and I was doing everything I could to keep you in my life. Then B came along and showed us how good we are together.”
“I’ve always wanted to be in your life, Ben. We were just stuck. We were so young when we had our meet-cute, it made it difficult to figure out how to go from friends to lovers.”
Ben’s brow wrinkled. “What’s a meet-cute?”
“It’s a literary term. Never mind.”
“You’re not getting off that easy. Clue me in to your world a little.”
Oh, how she loved that. “It’s when two people who will later become romantically connected first meet, often in some quirky way.”
“And to think you were going to hold that definition back from me,” he said with an adorably serious expression. He leaned in for a kiss and said, “B might have finally brought us together, Rels. She was definitely our destiny. But the thing you need to