I agreed. “Yeah, Pumpkin, it’s good. I’m your daddy and proud to be.”
Chloe jumped on my lap, and I let out a loud exaggerated groan. “You are getting too big!”
She giggled. “Mommy says I am sprouting like a weed.”
I kissed her forehead. “Mommy is right.”
With a grin, I pulled a box from beside the chair. “I got you something.”
Her eyes grew round like saucers. Chloe loved surprises. She traced her name on the package.
“What is it?”
“Open it and see.”
I helped her open the thick cardboard, then let her pull off the wrapping. She emitted a little coo when she saw the contents. Two new koalas.
“I thought Stitch might like some friends,” I explained. The truth was poor Stitch was getting pretty worn-out, and I worried what would happen when he was no longer up to the task of being hauled around everywhere. I had stitched up Stitch so often, I wasn’t sure there was a seam intact anymore.
She touched the fur. “A mommy and a baby,” she whispered.
“Stitch can be the Grandpa—like Papa Marv.” Gail and Marv were like family to us and grandparents to Chloe. The adoration was mutual on all sides. Chloe was lucky with extra grandparents to love her. My mother adored her, and they chatted regularly via FaceTime. She was surrounded with love.
She slipped off my knee and gathered her new animals tight to her chest. “Stitch loves them! He has a family now—like me!”
Her words made my throat tight. “Yeah, Pumpkin, he does.”
“I have to go introduce them to everyone!”
I chuckled. “Okay. What will you name them?”
She looked at me as if I was nuts. She held up the mommy. “This is Stitchy.” Then the baby. “This is Baby Stitch.”
I nodded sagely. It made perfect sense.
She ran down the hall, talking excitedly.
“That’s her day, probably her month, made.” Sam stood in front of me, smiling.
I pulled her onto my lap. “Since you made my life perfect, it seems only right I can make her smile.”
She kissed my jaw. “You make us both smile.”
I tilted up her chin, kissing her. “Good.”
She snuggled closer, and I wrapped my arms around her. I was surrounded by the sounds and scents of home. Chloe’s little voice, Sam’s body close to me, her curls tickling my lips as I nuzzled them. The feel of the comfortable chair that molded to my body. Knowing in a few moments Chloe would tear back into the room, and we’d move to the kitchen and have breakfast. That tonight, once Chloe was in bed, I’d have Sam alone, and we’d spend hours making love and talking about the future.
Our future.
I leaned down close to Sam’s ear. “I’m gonna marry you one day.”
She lifted her head with a grin, responding the way she always did when I said those words. “Okay.”
“Soon.”
She lifted her eyebrows. I had never added that word before. “Okay.”
I ran my finger over her cheek. “Let’s set a date, sweet Sammy. Make it official.”
She grinned and nipped at my finger. “Anxious?”
“I want everyone to know you’re mine. You and Chloe. I want to be a real family.” I drifted my hand down to her stomach. “I want to make more Chloes with you.”
Her eyes lit up. Her dimples came out, and she smiled widely.
“Maybe you already have.”
For a moment, I didn’t move. I looked down to Sam’s stomach, then back to her face, repeating the motion a few times, unable to speak. My brain worked overtime as I thought about the last few weeks. Sam being tired and sleeping more. Picking at her meals some days and eating ravenously on others. Switching to tea and wrinkling her nose at coffee. Complaining her breasts were sore.
How had I missed the signs?
She laughed, making me realize I had said that out loud.
“I did too, Ian. We’ve been so busy. I figured it out yesterday.”
“Did you take a test?”
She slipped a slim white case into my hand. “Yes.”
I stared at it. Sam was pregnant. With my child.
I pulled her back into my arms, laughing and crying at the same time. “This is the best news ever.”
I stood, carrying her, pacing and planning. “I’ll get Cindy Friesen. She’s the best in the baby field. And a license. We’ll get married next week. We’ll need a house. With a yard. Maybe I should consider private practice. We have to tell Gail and Marv. Your parents. My mother.” I stopped midstride. “How will Chloe take it?”
Sammy looked up at me, amused and alarmed. “Your head is going to