Chapter Sixteen
Two days later, Lauren woke up to a cacophony of sounds. Without even opening her eyes, she smiled as she listened to the birds singing outside the window. Far in the distance, she also made out a lawn mower.
Then came the roar of a ferocious dinosaur. A tyrannosaurus rex, to be precise. Otherwise known as the sound she’d assigned to Grams’s text messages.
Rolling over, she grabbed her phone off Ethan’s bedside table.
Grams: Are you trying to give me a heart attack?
She groaned into the pillow before typing back.
Lauren: Always. What specifically are you referring to?
Grams: Your car is parked outside Ethan’s house. Everyone in town knows you spent the night.
Lauren rolled her eyes.
Lauren: Am 33. Get over it.
She may have sounded confident in her text message, but she started having heart palpitations at the thought of going home later.
Grams: Am 80. Watch it!
Lauren gulped. Luckily, her nerves were interrupted by yet another sound. She couldn’t quite distinguish it. Maybe something moving across the floor. Then a small bang, followed by a curse.
Curious, she pushed the covers back and got out of bed. After a quick bathroom stop, she walked down the short hallway to find Ethan in one of the two spare bedrooms. He was facing the wall, hands on his hips, surveying something. She saw he wore wireless earbuds, as well as a backward baseball hat, jeans, and a T-shirt. He looked hot as hell.
She was surprised to see him awake, though. It wasn’t the crack of dawn, but it was early, and he hadn’t returned from work until well after two in the morning. She’d decided to surprise him by waiting in his bed. Naked.
When she dragged her gaze away from his arm muscles, she realized the room was in complete disarray. He’d been using this room for…well, she wasn’t quite sure. A junk room, maybe. There was everything from clothes to lamps to books and suitcases scattered throughout.
Now, added to all of that were about a million boxes, a tape gun, and a ladder.
“Ethan,” she said. He didn’t budge. She remembered the earbuds and crossed the room, tapping on his shoulder. “Ethan,” she repeated, louder this time.
He jumped before eyeing her with a slow grin. “Morning, darling.” He removed his earbuds. “Hope I didn’t wake you. I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’d start getting things ready.”
She glanced around the room again. “Ready for what, exactly?”
He hit her with an odd stare before gently patting her stomach. “The baby.”
She sat in an old director’s chair in the corner, wondering for a moment why he had it. “Well, we have quite a bit of time before the baby gets here.”
“We already have a crib on the way,” he pointed out.
True. “What specifically are you preparing in here?”
He pointed at her. “I think you need some coffee. I have some downstairs.” He spread his arm out to encompass the room. “I thought this would be a good room for the nursery.”
The nursery. The room where the baby slept. She felt her eyebrows drawing together. She hadn’t thought about a nursery here in Ethan’s house. When she first discovered she was pregnant, she’d briefly considered converting her second bedroom in her condo to a nursery and then debated if it would be better to buy a bigger place.
Also, hearing the word nursery made something inside of her stomach flutter. A nursery for a baby—a real, live baby. That she was carrying. This was real. If the crib shopping didn’t prove it, talk of a nursery certainly did.
Good thing she was already sitting down.
Her reaction was ridiculous. As Ethan correctly pointed out, they’d already bought a crib. Where did she assume that was going to go? The bathroom? Of course they needed a nursery.
“Hey, you okay?” Ethan asked. “You went a little pale.” He crouched in front of her.
She tried to laugh, but it came out as more of an unsteady exhale. “I think I really do need that coffee.”
He rubbed her legs and stared at her for a moment. “You know, you look pretty, even in the morning.”
“I…what?” This time she did let out a little chuckle.
“Just sayin’.” Ethan rose. “I liked having you waiting in my bed last night. But I loved waking up to you even more.”
She was glad she was sitting, because if she hadn’t been, she would have melted into a gooey puddle of sparkling hearts.
Unaware of what his sweet words did to her, Ethan continued. “If you don’t like this room, I can always switch and use the other bedroom. I just figured, since I hadn’t set this room up as anything practical yet, it would be good. Plus, it has two windows, and it’s closest to my bedroom.”
“This room is fine. It’s great.” She remembered her promise to Gabby from the other night. She needed to give this a try. After all, Ethan appeared to be trying. Gabby may have been right, too. He was surprising her.
He narrowed his eyes. “You said that like you were talking about a root canal.”
She sighed. “I’m sorry. I just hadn’t thought about where the baby would sleep yet. Or really, anything about the baby actually being here. Like, in human form.”
This time, Ethan laughed. “Come on.”
She followed him to the kitchen, and he served her coffee and toast.
He sat down at the table opposite her. “Did I freak you out?”
She bit into her toast, relishing the burst of apricot jam he’d smeared onto it. “You didn’t freak me out. I think the baby freaked me out. Nine months really isn’t a lot of time when you think about it.”
He pushed a tablet across the table. “Need to make a list?”
“Never hurts.” She ate more toast and thought about the room upstairs. “You know,” she began, “I’m surprised you have all that stuff up there. I would have thought with all of your world travels you wouldn’t have accumulated much.”
Ethan nodded. “I definitely traveled light. But I managed to pick up some cool stuff here and there. Usually, I would ship it back to my parents’ house. Unfortunately, they retired to Florida and dumped all of those belongings, along with all of my childhood crap, on me.”
“That explains all the boxes.”
Ethan whipped out his phone and also pushed it across the table. “I googled some nurseries.”
That surprised her. “Oh yeah?”
He nodded and bit into a banana. “My Google search led me to Pinterest.” He ran a hand over his face. “You could spend months, maybe years on that site.”
She laughed silently, well aware of the rabbit hole that was Pinterest. “I teach a class on Pinterest,” she said.
“Of course you do. Well, you should have done me a solid and warned me about its time-sucking power.”
Ethan poured another mug of coffee for himself and continued. “Besides the crib we already picked out, I think we should get a changing table, a bookshelf, and a rocking chair. I just want to ask again. Do you want to find out the sex of the baby early?”
“I’m still okay with waiting.”
“I was only asking because we could obviously tailor the nursery if we did find out. But no worries,” he said with a shake of his hand. “We can either get neutral bedding and decorations or just wait until we have the baby and then pick things that are more specific.”
Fascinated, she sat back in her chair. “Be honest. Do you have a preference?”
He cocked his head. “I don’t think so. A son would be fun to take to baseball games and teach him how to catch and hit in the backyard. Of course, you can do those things with a girl, too.”
She folded her hands together and rested her chin on them as she watched him.
“A boy could be a little mini-me. But a girl…a daughter. Wow. That would be crazy.” He pounded his fist on the table. “She’s not dating until she’s thirty-five.”
Lauren grinned. “Is that so? I don’t think she will like that very much.” She gestured toward the window. “Also, you don’t have much of a backyard here to teach either our son or daughter how to play baseball.”
He nodded. “I’m sure we’ll move into a bigger place by the time they’re old enough to learn.”
We? She took a big gulp, and her heart rate sped up. All of this was surprising her. Did he mean they would move into a bigger place in Alaska? Or Nepal or Mars or wherever the fancy took him? She felt herself shutting down. The need to curl into a protective ball and guard her heart was overwhelming.
You promised Gabby. Try.
Lauren called on her inner reserves to gather courage. “Yeah,” she said slowly.
A line formed on Ethan’s forehead as he shot a concerned look across the table. “I know that Alaska threw you for a loop, Lauren.”
“No, it didn’t…” There was no good that would come from lying. If she wanted Ethan to be straight up and honest with her, she needed to do the same with him. “It really did. The truth is, I don’t know where your head is or what you really want.”
“I know it’s hard for you, but I like to live my life in the present. I want you and the baby to feel comfortable here in this house. That’s my current objective.”
She glanced down at the nursery pictures on his phone. How she truly wanted to trust him.
“Even if you don’t stay in Seaside Cove, I am going to have the nursery here for when you and the baby visit.”
She sat back in her chair, put his phone back on the table. “What if you’re the one not staying in Seaside Cove?”
He sighed. “Live in the present, Lauren. I live in Seaside Cove right now.”
More than anything in the world, she wanted to let her guard down. She wanted to push all those worries and anxieties and questions far away. However, it just wasn’t in her nature to do that.
Ethan’s warm brown eyes implored her to believe him. To have faith in him. But she had a baby in her tummy who needed her to protect and defend.
She was torn between her innate personality and her desire to be with the man she was falling for. And she had no idea which side would win.
But maybe for now, just for right now, she could let go a little bit.
Picking the phone back up, she scrolled through the pictures. One nursery caught her eye and kind of melted her heart. Baby stuff was pretty adorable.
She held the phone out. “This is cute.”
He grinned. “I liked that one, too. The wall color is nice.” His eyes rolled upward, as if he could see through the ceiling into the bedroom. “We should paint the walls in that room. They’re just blah-white right now.”
“Painting walls is a very couple-y thing to do.” Again, she thought of her sister and that promise to try. “But it would be fun.”
Ethan relaxed. “Then let’s do it.”
…
They’d gone with a beautiful sky blue that would be great for any gender. Lauren couldn’t wait to see it on the walls.
Ethan got called into the bar, so she took the opportunity to spend more time with her sisters. She shot them a text message to see if anyone was up for dinner.
Brooke, who was working in Kennebunkport for the day, declined. But Lauren and Gabby made their way into town.
Toward the end of Main Street, Lauren spotted Coopers, a family-run ice cream parlor that had been in Seaside Cove for as long as anyone remembered. Her heart gave a little leap at the fact it was still around. Her dad used to take her here after Brooke was born.
“Coopers is still here,” she said, grasping Gabby’s hand.
“I mean, I love ice cream as much as the next girl, but I don’t think I’ve ever teared up about it.”
Lauren rubbed at her eyes. “I’m not tearing up. I’m just…happy to see that it’s still around. Come on, let’s ditch dinner and get ice cream instead.”
“You’re going to be the best mom ever.” Gabby laughed but allowed Lauren to drag her to Coopers, where they each got a double-scoop cone.
Cones in tow, they jogged across the street, walked through the park, and made their way down to the beach.
“Ice cream and a walk on the beach,” Gabby said. “I could get used to this.”
“Now that you’re back in town, you could do this every day if you wanted,” Lauren pointed out.
“The walk is a plus, but my hips might not love the ice cream portion of this plan.”
They walked along in silence, finishing their ice cream cones. After they passed a couple walking with a toddler in tow, Gabby turned to Lauren.
“Seriously, L, when are you going to tell Grams that you’re preggo?”
Lauren pursed her lips. “Well…”
Gabby pulled her hair back into a ponytail. “You are going to tell her, right?”
“Of course I’m going to tell her.” Lauren looked down and pretended to examine a seashell. “It’s not time yet. ”
Gabby pinned her with a stare. “When is the right time? At the kid’s high school graduation?”
“August 5th, that’s when we’re telling her. In fact, I’ve already set into motion plans for a small, but fun, party. I want it to be a celebratory night with lots of Grams’s favorite foods and music and flowers. I don’t want this to be something I just drop on her out of nowhere.”
“What gives?”
“Nothing. I’m just being cautious and taking everyone’s feelings into consideration. Anyway, we really need to discuss some options for possible savings accounts for you. Or we could talk about you enrolling in some classes I found.”
Gabby groaned, just like Lauren knew she would.
“You don’t play fair,” Gabby said. “Let’s call a truce. For the rest of this walk, I won’t bug you about telling Grams and you won’t badger me about my career. Or my lack of savings account.”
Lauren plastered her most innocent smile on her face. “Deal.”
Not surprisingly, their walk was quite pleasant.
When they finished, they slowly walked back to Main Street. Lauren paused in front of The Thirsty Lobster.
“Thanks for dinner,” Gabby said. “I think rocky road might be my new favorite.”
“My pleasure,” Lauren replied, but Gabby didn’t move. “What?” she asked.
“How are things with Ethan since we talked?”
Lauren thought about the day. About how Ethan took the initiative to start getting the nursery ready. It meant a lot to her.
She only wished she could trust that he was here to stay.
“Better,” she told her sister.
“Ethan seems happy,” Gabby said, looking over toward the bar. “I’m glad. I heard that his divorce really did him in.”
She snapped her head around. “Yeah?”
Gabby nodded. “I was hanging out with some friends from high school last night. They told me he was pretty despondent when he returned to Seaside Cove. I think his ex-wife really messed with his head.”
Lauren got the gist of what had gone down in his divorce, but she wouldn’t mind hearing more details. Obviously, Ethan would be upset about his divorce. He’d conveyed as much. But she hadn’t realized the level of emotion.
“I wonder if there’s more to the story than he told me.”
“Why don’t you ask him?”
“I will.”
“Coming home?” Gabby asked.
She looked toward the door as it opened. She spotted Ethan behind the bar. Her body filled with warmth as she took in everything about him from his solid shoulders to his strong arms to that kissable mouth.
“I take that as a no.” Gabby was laughing as she turned and started to make her way home.
Lauren went into the bar and talked with some high school classmates for a while. Even though Ethan kept sneaking her glances, she realized he was really swamped. With a wave and a wink, she left him to his work, walking back to his house, where she watched some bad reality television, took a bath, and painted her nails.
Ethan ended up staying at the bar through closing. He’d texted around nine to tell her everything was going well, just busy.
When he finally returned, Lauren had been in bed for hours. She’d read a little. She’d surfed around on her iPad for a while. Finally, she’d lost the battle to stay awake and drifted off.
She hadn’t heard Ethan arrive home. But when he got into bed, he’d paused and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. She opened her eyes and smiled at him.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hey, you,” he said. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“That’s okay.”
His nose twitched. “You smell really good. Like a garden of fresh flowers.”
She smiled. “I took a luxurious bubble bath and then slathered copious amounts of lotion all over. It was quite indulgent.” She rolled onto her side to face him. “How was the bar?”
“Definitely not luxurious or indulgent. But good.”
He told her about everything that had happened that night. Sounded like it had been busy. Not surprising for a Saturday night. Naturally, he’d dealt with a million questions about the two of them. The entire place had been disappointed over a Red Sox loss. He thought he was going to have to break up a fight between two guys, which started as a debate over the future of the Patriots. Luckily, after some yelling, they’d worked it out on their own.
He pushed the hair off her face. “I like telling you about my day, er, night.”
“I liked everything about today,” she said.
Maybe she was half asleep. Maybe she was more awake than she’d ever been in her entire life. But for some reason, it felt like the lights dimmed around everything else except Ethan. He was in the spotlight now. He was becoming her world.
That thought should have scared her. But it didn’t. Instead, she felt…happy.
Lightly, she ran her fingers up and down his arm. She noticed he’d removed his shirt and pants. The only article of clothing he wore was a pair of blue boxer shorts with bright red lobsters on them.
She traced one of the lobsters on his upper thigh with a light and flirty finger. Ethan inhaled sharply.
“Ethan,” she said.
“Mmm,” he replied.
“Make love to me.”