Violet’s mouth moved, but she couldn’t make any sounds. Amedeo jumped in. “She hasn’t made that decision yet, but we’ll appreciate you respecting that.”
Janice pressed her lips together then finally a smile broke the tension. “You’ll need diapers.”
“Diapers, check,” Amedeo said.
Violet was still pondering the idea of breastfeeding. She should probably want to do that, but she wasn’t keen on the idea. This child was going to be so dependent on her. What a concept. Someone depending on her that wasn’t paying her.
“Clothing of course, but they live in onesies for the first few weeks so you’ll need a lot.”
“Then we’ll stock up on those first,” Amedeo said. He stood, reaching out for Violet’s hand.
She took his hand, following him to a rack of the smallest clothing she’d ever seen. In terms of Amedeo’s size they looked miniscule, but then she realized that she was going to push that human out of her in the future. Holy shit.
“What colors, Violet?” Amedeo said.
“Uh, I guess yellow and blue. Girls can wear blue, but a boy looks odd in pink,” she said.
Amedeo rifled through the rack. He picked out several onesies in different colors. “We should probably get them in several sizes, just to be prepared. You could have a big baby. He or she might start out in six month clothing.”
“Were you a big baby?”
He was a tall man so he must have started out tall.
“I was ten pounds.”
“That’s a small turkey,” she said.
He shrugged. “My father was tall and my brothers are tall.”
“Yikes. I hadn’t thought about that.”
Janice, thankfully, had left them alone with their list.
Amedeo had his arms full with onesies. “We need a cart.”
Violet returned with one from the front of the store. They found the diapers and loaded up the cart with those. Next they looked at bottles. “We should get some just in case you don’t breastfeed.”
“Okay. I hope you don’t care which I do.”
“It’s your body. You choose.”
“Thanks.”
Amedeo pushed the cart to the checkout line. It was taller than Violet with all the stuff in it. Once they checked out, he filled the trunk and the front seat of the car. His driver didn’t say anything, but Violet could only imagine what he was thinking. Bet he’d never hauled baby gear before today.
Ensconced in the back seat of the car, surrounded by diapers and onesies, they headed home.
***
Amedeo’s ex had been barred from his company, but apparently she wasn’t done with him. He stepped out to get some fresh air. He needed to clear his head. The shopping trip from last night had brought home some truths for him. He hadn’t slept well, finally leaving a snoring Violet in his bed to go work.
She’d disappeared as soon as they arrived and he hoped she would be free for lunch. He expected not. She could be as much a workaholic as he was.
He stood on the sidewalk outside his building, his face to the sun, when he heard her voice. He opened his eyes to see Tory charging toward him. Shit.
“What do you want, Tory?”
She shoved some papers in his face. He pushed them away. “What are these?”
“Your new skank of a girlfriend has a past.”
“She isn’t a skank. You don’t even know her.”
“She stole you from me.”
He was tiring of pointing out that Tory had broken the engagement off and that Violet wasn’t in the picture then. He pressed his lips together instead. No need to engage the crazy person. “That’s not what happened.”
“Read these. She’s been arrested.”
Amedeo blinked. He didn’t know much about Violet’s past so it was possible that she’d been arrested. Maybe unpaid parking tickets? He doubted she was a murderer. He also didn’t want Tory to know that he was unaware of Violet’s past. This was none of her business.
“Tory, you exhaust me. Go away.”
“Read it, Amedeo. Read about the woman you’ve let into your house,” Tory said.
He took the papers, but only to get her away from him. “Go away, Tory. Or I’ll have the cops escort you.”
She backed away. She didn’t like scenes or so she said but she was certainly making one. “You read it then call me.”
“No matter what is on these papers, I won’t be calling you.”
“You’ll come back to me, Amedeo. She isn’t your type. She isn’t from our world.”
Was that a reference to Violet being black? Was Tory a bigot? Another reason he was glad he hadn’t married her. He didn’t care about the color of Violet’s skin. It was just window dressing. What mattered was on the inside.