My Life as a Holiday Album (My Life as an Album #5) - L.J. Evans Page 0,12

those flutters with you…it’s priceless. You get to see a life you created out of love grow and blossom into its own being. And you’ll get to watch it smile and laugh and find joy.”

I just sat there, taking in all her words and seeing in my head the glorious smile that would take over Stephen’s face at all of those things. Feeling the baby move. Holding our baby. Watching it grow and smile and laugh.

Edie squeezed my hand. “The grandparents are going to be over-the-moon excited. And our little ones will be less than a year apart. They’ll grow up like the rest of us did. With cousins who were there when we needed them to have our backs.”

“My daddy is going to kill Stephen,” I said with a snort.

Edie smiled. “I bet our dad will have some choice words for him as well. He might even hold him down while Blake roughs him up for defiling his baby girl.”

I leaned my head on Edie’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

Edie hugged me. “And the very best part? We really are going to be sisters now.”

“Don’t even start on me about getting married. One huge life event at a time,” I retorted , but there was a smile on my face because I was pretty sure Stephen wasn’t going to let me off the hook that easily. He’d always planned to propose, and I had a feeling the baby was just going to push him into doing it earlier. Marrying Stephen had never felt like a maybe to me. Being married to him didn’t scare me the way having a baby did. Maybe because marrying him wouldn’t be any different from the way we’d lived our lives up until now. We’d always been forever at each other’s side.

Stephen

SANTA BRING MY BABY BACK TO ME

“I just need my baby's arms

Wound around me tight.”

Performed by Elvis Presley

Written by Schroeder / Demetruis

I slammed my way through the house and into my room in a way I hadn’t done since I was a teen and Dad had grounded me for getting home past curfew—after getting Khiley and me both home way past curfew.

Just like then, Dad followed me to my room. I hadn’t realized he was back from the studio where he, Derek, Mayson, and the rest of the band were putting final touches on another Watery Reflection album. Dad was much more than just the band’s bassist; he was the sounding board for Uncle Derek’s songs, guiding them down a path that had allowed them to top the charts for over three decades.

Dad knocked and opened the door, leaning against it. His bulky frame was the same as mine. It was why Aunt Mia had nicknamed him a lumberjack. It was why I’d always felt like a giant out of its natural habitat…except with Khiley. She was the only one who made me feel normal. Everyone else made me feel like my size was something to gawk at.

“You want to talk?” Dad asked, rubbing a hand through the scruff on his face that was mostly gray these days. He didn’t look old, per se, but there was a layer of age to him that hadn’t been there a few years ago.

My tantrum made me feel like a teenager instead of a man almost ready to graduate and start his own family. Maybe Khiley was right. Maybe we shouldn’t do this. Maybe we couldn’t. Maybe neither of us was ready.

My gut twisted harshly, because I couldn’t imagine putting an end to the baby we’d created. The one our bodies had sparked to life with a twist of DNA and magic. Because creating life was magic. It required something more, in my opinion, than just an egg and a sperm. It required determination. It required love. I knew that was ridiculous. Babies were created out of hate as much as love. But I still felt like the baby we’d made could never be considered anything but magical.

Khiley’s Christmas present—her engagement ring—sat wrapped on my desk. I picked it up, turned it over in my hands, and then set it back down, slouching down into the desk chair, head in my hands.

Dad was still waiting for a response, and I finally answered him. “No. I don’t want to talk.”

Dad pushed off the doorframe and came into the room. He picked up the tiny gift decorated with a bow bigger than the present itself. Khiley was the bow to my box. She was the universe of stars to my