Knocked Up(38)

"Maybe let's start smaller. A name." Luke shrugged. "I don't even see that on the list."

“Flip to page six, section fourteen B.,” she rattled off and Luke's eyebrows shot up a little higher.

"I guess I should have studied harder," he said. "But regardless, the baby needs a name. Let's talk about it. I'm not interested in Luke Junior, so I was wondering if you had a family member that was important to you that you might want to name him after? Maybe your father?"

She fought the urge to cringe. This was so not going to plan. In her effort to dot some i’s and cross some t’s she had instead inadvertently opened a can of family worms she’d wanted desperately to keep closed.

"Let's put names aside for now and focus on the more practical things. For example, Alhouette has a good school district, but are you interested in a private school instead? I don't know if you're religious, but if you want him to go someplace else, we'll need to factor it into the budget."

"The budget?"

She nodded. "It's the last four pages in your packet. I looked up the cost of diapers, doctor visits, and things like that. We can split the cost according to whatever custody agreement we determine on page three."

Luke shook his head, his mouth half ajar.

"What?" She blinked.

"Well, you sure thought of everything."

"Thank you."

"You didn't let me finish," Luke cut in. "You thought of everything the baby needs, but, no offense…it doesn’t seem like you’re thinking of yourself or the baby himself."

"What--?"

"How much stress did you put yourself under while you were writing this list of yours and trying to plan the kid’s first eighteen years? It can't have been good for you. You're looking at this like a project, not like your life."

She folded her arms over her chest and replied carefully, “I don't understand what you mean."

"I mean a baby isn't something you check off a box." He thumped the list, then set it down on the table. "We have five more months, Tawny. We don't need to make all these plans right this second. We just need to really come to grips with the fact that we are going to have a son and that a thousand things we can’t plan for are going to happen. I mean, have you stopped to think about what it's going to feel like when you hold him for the first time? Or what he's going to smell like?"

Tawny blinked. She hadn't thought of those things. Those, she thought, would be the rewards at the end of the road--the little presents under the tree after all the groundwork had been laid.

"We can't control everything. That's clear, I think. So let’s try it my way, okay?” Resting his hands on his thighs, he pushed himself from the sofa, then held his hand out to her. "Come on."

She stared blankly at his palm. "What?"

"We're heading out. Come with me."

"I don't--"

"Just come, okay? You’re going to have to learn to trust me. After all, we're going to have this baby together."

Together. There it was again. He was still all in for this.

So, even though she didn't know what was waiting on the other side, she took his hand and allowed him to take her wherever it was he was determined to go.



"The Baby Market." Tawny read the bright blue and pale pink sign twenty minutes later, then turned her incredulous gaze on him. "Doesn't that sort of make it sound like they're selling babies in there? Are you...trying to sell our baby?"

Luke chuckled. "This, as it happens, is the biggest baby store in the state. Almost everyone registers here and we are going to do exactly that."

"I'm telling you, we can't register."

"Then think of it like a shopping list. Just think, a whole new list of things to check off. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

"You're mocking me."

"Only a little." He climbed from the truck, and before she knew it, her door was being opened for her and he was leading her from the parking lot toward the huge automatic doors of the mega-complex.

When he'd said the store was big, he hadn't been kidding. It was the Disney World of baby stores, complete with pallets upon pallets of formula, car seats, and strollers. Before they entered, a man stopped them at the door and asked for their ID.

"Oh, we should--" she started, but Luke held up a hand. "I've got it covered."

He pulled a laminated slip from his wallet, showed it to the man, and then he handed them a forklift-sized shopping cart.

"Congratulations on your bundle of joy," the man muttered, and Tawny thanked him sheepishly before following Luke into the store.

"You're not the only one who did their homework this morning," he said, and she stared at him again, incredulous.