“Just because you haven’t seen me do it, doesn’t mean that I can’t do it. Now …
just take a breath. I need to read these instructions.” I was deadly serious. “Just … sit right here.” I patted the spot on the ground next to me.
“If I get down there, I’m never getting back up. I’ll die down there.” She pointed toward her stomach for an explanation. I swear she’d popped even more in just a week.
“Come here.” I was gentle when pulling her to me. “Trust me,” I ordered when she didn’t bend her knees.
On a growl, she let me pull her to my lap, her back to my chest. I then proceeded to go back to reading, my lips brushing over the crown of her head as she looked at the instructions with me.
“Well?” she demanded when I’d spent a full five minutes focusing on the instructions.
“Piece of cake,” I replied, briefly resting my cheek against her head. I didn’t let her up even though she was squirming to get a better angle and look up at me.
“Does that mean you’re going to put it together?”
“It does.”
“When?”
“Shh.” Carefully, I placed the directions to the side and rubbed my hands over her stomach. “Is she kicking today?”
Ruby stopped bugging me about the crib and watched my hands crawl over her midriff. “I think she’s taking a nap.”
“Maybe you should take a nap too,” I suggested. “Don’t they say you’re supposed to sleep when the baby sleeps?”
“That’s after the baby is born.”
“You could sleep now.”
“Are you going to bring someone in to put that crib together while I’m taking a nap and then lie and say you did it?”
“No. I thought you could nap while I’m putting it together. That way there would be no backseat nagging.”
“I don’t nag.”
“Shh.” It wasn’t that I cared about the nagging. She looked tired, though. Plus, I liked the idea of surprising her when she woke up. It felt like something a couple would do.
We hadn’t defined our relationship yet. Nobody had said “we’re monogamous.” Since neither of us were dating other people, though, it didn’t need to be said. Eventually, we might need to have a conversation. For now, I was more than happy floating.
“I’m being serious,” Ruby said after several seconds. “If you can’t do this, I’ll just hire someone.”
“You can’t do it, can you?”
“Can’t do what? Put the crib together? No, I can’t do it. That’s why I want to hire someone.”
“Be quiet.”
“Excuse me? Did you just tell me to be quiet?”
“No, I said you couldn’t be quiet. I wasn’t telling you to be quiet.”
“That’s a slippery slope.”
I laughed. “You argue just to argue sometimes.” Because I could tell she wasn’t comfortable—not because my arms were around her but because the floor was hard—I scooped her up in my arms and carried her toward her room. “This is what’s going to happen,” I said as she started protesting being forced away from her current obsession. “You’re going to take a nap.” I strode into her bedroom as if I belonged there and unceremoniously dumped her on the bed.
“Hey!” She tried to roll to her knees but failed before flopping back. “It’s like being a turtle and I can’t navigate my own shell.”
I laughed at her analogy. “Luckily for you, I happen to like turtles.” I lifted the covers on the opposite side of the bed. “Come on. Get under here.”
