“Please don’t run down the stairs, little man. You’re giving me a heart attack.”
“What was it?” Nate asked, ignoring my plea.
“Starlight, my baby,” Charli answered. She looked from Bryce to me. “So where is the treasure?”
“Read the clues,” Bryce suggested.
I waited with baited breath as Nate read the clues out slowly, trying to piece them together.
“Photo, R, word having, A, Starlight,” he said. “That’s just dumb.”
Shit! Crap! Balls! That didn’t work.
“Who’s in the photo?” I asked.
“You and Bryce.”
“What’s the letter?”
“R,” they said together.
“What’s the word say?”
“Having.”
Next letter?”
“A”
“What is Starlight.”
“A doll.”
Bryce cracked up laughing.
“No, she’s a baby. Now read those all out again.”
“Mummy and Bryce, R, Having, A, Baby,” they both said together.
Nate’s eyes widened, and I held my breath.
Charli said it again still not quite catching on.
“Mummy and Bryce, R, Having, A, Baby. A Baby...really? A real baby?”
I stood up and rubbed my belly. “Yes. There’s a baby growing in here; your baby brother or sister.”
Nate smiled. Oh thank fuck. Charli stepped closer and touched my tummy. “Can she hear me?”
“I think so,” I answered.
“Hi, I’m Charlotte, your sister,” she yelled like a banshee into my stomach.
Bryce and I laughed, and a tear of joy rolled down my cheek. Bryce leaned forward and gently rolled up my top a little. I still wasn’t overly showing, but when I was standing there with nothing to cover my bump, it was visibly protruding—a little bit.
“You don’t need to yell, Charlotte. Just talk like this.” He placed his lips to my stomach and gave it a soft kiss. I swear I felt a little flutter.
“How do you know it’s a girl?” Nate questioned. “It could be a boy.”
“Are you a girl or a boy?” Charli asked in a lower voice, smiling at Bryce as she spoke into my belly. For some reason we all stayed quiet, appearing to be stupidly waiting for an answer.
“We will find out in just over a month if you have a baby sister or brother.”
“A month? Is that when she’ll be born?” Charlotte was pirouetting in front of me. “I can’t wait. Can I pick her name?”
“Settle, Petal. No, we will find out if the baby is a boy or a girl when Mummy has an ultrasound, then you can help pick a name.”
“What’s an ultrasound?”
“An ultrasound is a special camera that can look inside your tummy.”
Nate walked over and hesitantly touched my bare stomach. “I can’t feel anything.”
I placed my hand on his head and gave it a gently rub. “You won’t be able to, Sweetheart. Not yet anyway. Maybe in a few more weeks, you might feel the baby kick.”
“Kick?” Charli asked. “Why would the baby kick you?”
“Because there is not a lot of room in there, so babies push and kick at their Mummy’s tummies. You used to do it a lot.”
“That would be weird,” confessed Nate. And he removed his hand looking slightly distressed.
Bryce placed both his hands on my belly. “I can’t wait to feel the baby kick.” He flexed his fingers gently. I looked down at him, my eyes suddenly piercing his with an ignited yearning. He registered my gaze and twitched his eye. Fuck, I love this man. This incredibly sexy, sweet, father of my unborn child. I want to undress him and show him just how much I crave, lust, love and appreciate him. I want to show him with my tongue, my hands, my mouth, my wet, sleek—. My tummy rumbled, snapping me out of my inappropriate head-porn. These hormones are driving me freakin’ crazy. One minute I’m horny as hell, the next I’m vicious, angry and short tempered, then after that I could cry a river and eat pickles with chocolate.
“Was that the baby? Did she growl? Is she angry?” Charli blurted out, starting intently at my stomach.
I laughed. “No.”
“Are you hungry, Hunny?” Bryce asked.
“Yeah a little.”
He stood up. “What can I make you?”
“Um...I could go some of that yogurt you made the other day, the one with the raspberry sauce.”
“Sure. Anything else?”
“Um...yeah, maybe one of those turkey baguettes with the Swiss cheese. Oh, oh, and a chocolate brownie. I feel like a chocolate brownie with caramel. Does the hotel kitchen make brownies?”
He raised his eyebrow and smiled then kissed me on the cheek. “They will today, my love.”