Jenni grinned over at him. “You thought it was a boy, didn’t you?”
He nodded. “I was positive it was a boy. The idea of a girl never even occurred to me. I mean, I knew it was a possibility, of course, but every time I pictured our child, I pictured a boy.”
“Well, at least now we can tell my mom to go nuts with pink. Your mom will be thrilled.” She couldn’t wait to call his mom and tell her, knowing the other woman would immediately start making a little Minnie Mouse quilt.
“My mom would have been thrilled with an alien baby, as long as she had a little one to love.” He shook his head. “A girl.” His eyes lit up for a moment. “We need to go get her a little outfit.”
Jenni blinked at him with surprise. She’d decked out the nursery, but he’d not seemed terribly interested. She’d have to buy a few Minnie Mouse things to add to all the Mickeys to make it more feminine, but it would be fun. “I’d like that. Do you want to go to Walmart? Or Babies“R”Us? What are you thinking?”
He shrugged. “Where do you get good baby clothes?” How was he supposed to know where they should go? He’d never had a baby before!
“Any of them will have cute clothes. We can also shop on Amazon, but I think you’ll be happier to look in person.” He obviously wanted something immediately.
He nodded. “We need something today.”
“You do know we still have to wait another four months for the baby, right?”
“So? She needs to know she’s going to have clothes when she gets here. What about diapers? Do we need diapers?” How many diapers would one baby go through? Did they need to have them all before she was born? How did anyone know what they were supposed to do?
Jenni shook her head at his sudden enthusiasm. “Yeah, diapers are always a good idea for a baby.”
“Bottles? Do we have bottles yet?”
She choked back a laugh. “Why don’t we go to Target and register?”
“Register? Register for what?” Did you have to register that you were going to have a baby? And if you did, wouldn’t that happen at the doctor’s office and not at Target?
“When you have a baby, someone usually throws you a baby shower. Kaya is going to throw mine, and we’ve already talked about it a little. We’ll register so people will know what we want as baby gifts.”
“Like diapers?”
She grinned. “Some people will buy diapers, but we won’t register for those, because everyone knows we need diapers. We’ll register for stuff like blankets and bottles and a breast pump.”
“Breast pump? Are you going to breast feed?”
“I’m going to try at least. It’s supposed to be better for the baby to have breast milk.”
He pulled into the Target parking lot. “Is this the best place to buy a breast pump?”
“I don’t even know if they sell them here, but we can register for blankets, bottles, and all sorts of baby paraphernalia.”
“Do we need a lot?”
Jenni shrugged. “What we need and what we’ll end up getting are probably two very different things. You’re going to be amazed at everything that’s out there for babies.” She reached out to open the door, and he stopped her.
“Jenni, we’re having a girl!”
She laughed. “You know there was a fifty percent chance of it being a girl, right?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t know how it would make me feel!”
“Feel? How does it make you feel to know it’s a girl?” She could tell he was excited, but there was something else there as well. This was the most emotion he’d shown since she’d gotten pregnant.
“I feel like I need to have everything she’ll ever need. I’m thinking about a little girl in a little pink dress, sleeping in your arms. Or in a pink tutu at dance lessons. Going off to her first day of school. Kissing a boy—wait, my little girl is never going to kiss a boy. I’ll kill him!”
Jenni tilted her head to one side as she watched him. “It’ll be fine. We’ve got this.”
“But prom—those dresses are so expensive, and she needs to have a car in good working condition. I learned to fix my own car so I could buy an old junker and fix it up. How am I going to teach a girl to fix up a car?”
She sighed. “Girls can fix up cars as well as boys can. Trust me.” She put her hand over his, squeezing a little. “Our little girl won’t want for anything, Tony.”
He nodded, his eyes frightened and a bit unfocused. “I must sound like I’m being sexist, and I really don’t mean to be, but I really thought we were having a boy—someone who would work hard to make his way in the world. Not a girl!”
“A girl can work hard to make her way in the world, too, you know!”
“I know, but—.” He took deep gulping breaths, knowing he was making no sense, but it didn’t seem to matter. “I don’t want our little girl to have to make her own way. I want her to know that she’s got parents to lean on financially if necessary.”
Jenni smiled. “Are we back to the trust fund?”
Tony nodded. “Can we start a trust fund for her?”
“Of course we can.” She studied him. “If we’d been told it was a boy, would you not have wanted to start a trust fund?”
“I don’t know what I would have wanted if it had been a boy. I just suddenly have this need to give her the whole world. It doesn’t even make sense.”
“Sure it does. You know it’s a girl, and you already love her. That’s not a bad thing.”
He finally got out of the car and walked toward the store with her. “Do you need a wheelchair? I can push you.”
Jenni frowned. “You’re not going to get all strange with me now, are you? I’m fine. I’m the same as I was a few hours ago when I was having a baby of undetermined gender.”
“I know, but…It’s a girl, Jenni!”
She just laughed, leading him into the store and straight to the baby aisle. She’d been there alone a couple of times while he worked. “Do you want to register today? Or do you want to wait?”
He looked around him in awe of all the things a baby needed. “We need all this?”
She shook her head. “Nope. We’ll get a lot of it, though. We actually need very little. Register today?”
“I don’t think so. Let’s just pick out a tiny little dress.”
She led him over to the clothes, and found a little pink dress she thought would please him. Then her eye caught a onesie that made her smile. She picked it up and showed him.
“Daddy’s little princess?” He nodded. “We need that.”
She laughed. “I’ve got it.”
Later, she was curled up beside him on the couch, trying to explain the appeal of Lazy Love, her favorite show, but he was still too dazed to really know what she was talking about. “Jenni?”
She smiled at him, snuggling closer. “Yeah?”
“I’m glad you quit your job.”
She pulled back with a frown. “You are?”
“I like the idea of you being home with our little girl.”
“Okay.”
He sighed. “It just seems right. Like that’s the way it’s meant to be.” He shook his head. “I have some memories of when I was little, before I started kindergarten, and I remember how much I hated having to be away from my mom. And I always had to go to a daycare after school. They weren’t bad places, but they weren’t my mom.”
She nodded. “I know what you mean.”
“I’m glad you have enough money that you don’t have to work.”
That stunned her. “Really? You don’t hate me for the money anymore?”
“Hate you? I never hated you!”
“Well, you weren’t happy about my wealth. You know you weren’t.”
“No, but that doesn’t mean I hated it. I was just confused. I cared about you from the first day, but you were this trust fund baby, and I didn’t know how to deal with that. I’m sorry I made you think I hated you.” He folded her close. “I never hated you. I just needed some time t
o come to grips with who you are.”
“I’m the girl you saw in line for the cruise ship with her two obnoxious friends. I’m the same person you’ve known every day. I just come from money. That doesn’t make me any more or any less than who you thought I was when we first met.”
“I know that now. I guess when I found out about the money, I kept waiting for horns to sprout. I’ve never known anyone who was born with that kind of wealth who was normal.”
“So you judged me and discriminated against me? How fair was that?”
“It wasn’t fair at all. I’m ashamed that I treated the woman I love that way, and I’m very sorry for it.”
Jenni stared at him for a moment, a small smile forming. “Wait a minute... Did you just say you love me?”
He frowned at her. “Of course, I love you. How could you not know that I love you?”
“Maybe because you’ve never said it? How was I supposed to know?”
He shrugged. “Why can’t you read my mind?”
She pulled his head down for a kiss, and he quickly pulled away. “I don’t want to squash my princess.”
“You’re going to have to get over squashing the little princess, because I’m going to kiss you when I want to kiss you. Don’t be silly about this!”
“I’ll do my best.” He stroked her hair. “I’m glad we’re having a girl.”
“I can tell. It makes me love you even more.”
When he didn’t react to her declaration, she frowned. “I just told you I love you. Don’t you even care?”
“Of course, I care. But I knew you loved me.”
“How’d you know?” she asked.
“You didn’t kill me when I threw a fit about your money on our way back from the cruise,” he said, logically.
“But I got really mad at you!”
“I deserved a whole lot worse.” Tony shook his head at her. “I should have been kinder from the first moment we met. I’m very sorry I was a jerk about the whole money thing. You deserved to be treated better.”
Jenni sighed, resting her head against his shoulder. “Just so you remember that you love me and little Esmerelda.” She patted her belly.
“We’re not naming her Esmerelda.”
“Pepita?”
He sighed. “You are not allowed to suggest baby names. You can only say yes or no to the names I suggest.”
“You can’t tell me what to do! It’s my baby too!”
“I know that, but you clearly have no idea what a fabulously but not appallingly different baby name should sound like.”
Jenni shrugged. “Whatever. You name her. Just don’t try to breastfeed her, because that’s my job. And you, my dear husband? You’re lacking the equipment necessary.”
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On October tenth, Kirsten will release the first book in a project she is incredibly excited about. Writing with four of her closest friends, she is sure you’re going to enjoy it immensely. Kaya and Bridget will both find their way to the new series, so be sure to be on the lookout for it!
Teasing in Texas (At the Altar Book 10) Page 11