Chapter 22
CHUBBY CHEEKS AND COVERED IN ICING
IVY
The jarring blare of the ringtone I have set specifically for Suzanne Hudson breaks from a deep slumber, causing me to jump up in bed like someone pulled the fire alarm.
Thank god Suzanne always calls when she’s headed over with Sadie because one look down at my body under the sleep-mussed sheets tells me that I fell asleep still wearing the damn harness and strap-on.
The dildo protrudes from under the sheet like morning wood, and I stifle a giggle.
That would have been quite an awkward thing to have to explain if Sadie stumbled in here unannounced.
I answer my phone, and Suzanne tells me they’re heading over in about twenty minutes, so I gently wake up Delilah and coax her into the shower with me.
We rinse off and get dressed; I throw on a pair of jean shorts and black cropped tank and she slides into a pair of jeans that she can’t button and a white sports bra.
“Whatever. All of my dresses are dirty and I can’t go pantsless with my parents in the house,” she bit out when I pointed out that the jeans don’t quite fit and suggested I find her something more comfortable.
I guess her post-orgasm, mid-afternoon nap made my Lilah a little bit cranky, but I’ll take the brunt of her grumpiness. I don’t mind. How could I when she loves me?
She loves me. She loves me. She loves me.
I feel like I should pinch myself to make sure this is all real, but I’m too afraid to find out if it’s not.
Delilah Hudson is in love with me. My heart and soul, my person, my reason for getting out of bed on my lowest days, loves me.
She wants to be with me. I don’t know what I did in a past life to deserve this kind of luck, but I won’t question it.
All I can do is spend the rest of my life making sure Delilah knows just how much I love her and our kids, and doing everything I can to make them even a fraction as happy as they’ve made me.
Suzanne, Henry, and Sadie arrive followed shortly by Dottie Lynn and Stephen carrying a couple of boxes of pizza and we all head out to the dilapidated old back porch off the back of Grandma Millie’s house for slices of cheese and pepperoni and sweating glasses of sweet tea.
Sadie tells us about shopping in Knoxville with her grandma and Auntie Dottie while Stephen and Henry make plans to fix up the porch and give it a few updates along with the renovation, which they are breaking ground on this week.
They say if they break down the old, rotting fence on the property line, they can replace it with something newer and smaller so we can enjoy the view of the wildflower fields behind it.
After dinner, the boys clean up while Delilah and Suzanne watch Dottie, Sadie, and I play tag in the backyard to work off some of the dinner. And as the sun sinks lower in the sky, Delilah leans over the rail of the porch and calls out to us.
“Hey Lollipop, are you ready for dessert?”
My stomach flips, and while Sadie sprints to her mom in anticipation of sugar, I follow behind in anticipation of the big reveal. The regular cupcakes are sitting in the larger pink box, waiting to be consumed in celebration, and the special cupcake is sitting on a plate in front of Sadie’s seat.
“C’mere, Lollipop, this one is for you,” Delilah says, picking Sadie up and setting her in the chair.
It’s unnecessary, and I know it kills her back, but Delilah has been picking Sadie up any chance she gets these days.
I get it, there’s a short window left where Sadie is her only baby.
“Before you dig in, you need to know that this cupcake is very special. Miss Pattie made it just for you.”
“How come?” Sadie asks, eyeing the treat like a lion sizing up its prey.
“Because, Sadie Girl. There’s icing in the middle of the cupcake, and when you bite into it, that icing is going to tell us if the baby in Mama’s belly is a boy or a girl.”
“That’s right, Lollipop. If there’s pink icing inside, that means you’re going to have a baby sister. And if it’s blue—”
“It’s gonna be pink. It has to be, Mama.
I need a baby sister so bad!” Sadie grabs the cupcake and peels off the liner in a hurry, and though we all giggle at her enthusiasm, I mutter a little prayer to the goddesses that she gets what she wants.
I don’t care what the baby is so long as they’re healthy, but a disappointed Sadie will break my heart.
Sadie takes a comically large bite, smearing white icing and pink and blue sprinkles all over her mouth.
The seconds drag on like hours while the six of us wait for her to reveal the inside of the cupcake.
Butterflies take flight in my stomach, and just when I think the anticipation might actually kill me, Sadie sets the cupcake down to reveal…
“I’m gonna have a sister! Oh, this is the best news ever, Mama! I know I said I would love a brother, but I lied. Boys can’t even play soccer right.”
Like a flipped switch, tears pour from my eyes at the sight of the light pink icing spilling from inside the vanilla cupcake and staining Sadie Girl’s teeth.
Delilah falls into my arms, her tears wetting the front of my shirt.
The Hudsons and Stephen and Dottie all clap and cry and encompass us into a group hug that lasts a lifetime.
“We’re having a girl,” I whisper, just loud enough for Delilah to hear. My cheeks ache from the force of my grin, but it doesn’t matter.
“We’re having a girl,” she nods through happy tears.
“Oh my god, we have to have a photoshoot! Ivy, Delilah, let’s go!” Dottie Lynn exclaims.
“Aren’t those just for the mom?” I ask, and Dottie huffs.
“They’re for the parents of the baby. Are you or are you not living with my sister-in-law and planning to raise this baby together?” She crosses her arms over her chest and raises an eyebrow at us. And now the whole group is staring at Delilah and me expectantly, even Sadie.
“Way to put us on the spot, Dottie Lynn,” I mutter, running my hand over the back of my neck.
“Yes,” Delilah answers after a beat. “Ivy and I are raising the baby together. We’re together.
” She takes my hand in hers and squeezes tight, resting her head on my shoulder.
Stephen mutters something that sounds an awful lot like, “It’s about damn time,” and I fight the urge to flick him in the forehead, since he’s one to talk.
It took him years to make Dottie Lynn his again, and we all had to sit around and watch him act as the town sad boy for the decade that she was away.
Suzanne and Henry both offer their congratulations and well wishes, but my gaze drops to Sadie. She’s staring up at me from under her long, dark lashes, those brown eyes wide as saucers.
“Are you my Mama’s girlfriend, Vee Vee?”
“I am,” I say, kneeling down without letting go of Delilah’s hand. “Is that okay with you?”
Sadie purses her lips. I can practically see the wheels in her brain turning, thinking over this new information and completely oblivious to the anxiety coursing through me while I wait for her approval.
It isn’t until a smile spreads across her face, all chubby cheeks and covered in icing, that I’m able to take a full breath again.
“You really are staying here forever,” she says. Not a question, a statement, and one that warms me from the inside out. I don’t have a chance to confirm before Sadie launches herself at me, flinging her arms around my neck and burying her face into my skin.
“Forever and ever, Sadie Girl. We’re a family, remember?”
“See? You’re a family; you need a photoshoot. Lucky for all of you, I’m a wizard with a smartphone camera. Follow me.”
Dottie Lynn takes Delilah and me by the hands and drags us across the yard and through the gaping hole in the old fence. Sadie follows along, and there in the field of wildflowers, the three of us pose in the light of the late summer sun while Dottie snaps a thousand pictures of us.
“Sadie, jump on Ivy’s back. Perfect. Now Ivy, grab Delilah’s hand and walk towards me. Amazing!”
“Dottie Lynn would have loved working at the Penny’s photo studio back in the nineties,” I mutter to Delilah out of the corner of my mouth, moving my body as Dottie says.
“You bet your ass I would. Now hush up and pose!”
And later that night, when she sends them all to me, I set my favorite photo—the one where I’m on my knees in front of Lilah, cradling her belly while kissing her bump—as the lock screen on my phone.
“We look pretty damn good together,” Delilah says, peeking over my shoulder.
“I thought you were asleep,” I say, lifting my arm so she can cuddle into me.
“I was, but Little Bean is sitting on my bladder.”
“Go pee then, goofball.”
“I will in a minute,” she sighs, snuggling impossibly closer.
“Now that we know Little Bean is a girl, we should probably start thinking more seriously about names. I like Summer.”
“She’s gonna be born while it’s still summer. That’s too on the nose, even for me. What about Seraphina?”
“Oh, like that ballerina we saw in The Nutcracker when we visited San Francisco? That’s a good one.”
“It doesn’t have to be an ‘S’ name, you know. Me, you and Sadie all have nature-y names. We could go with a flower.”
“Rose?”
“Nah. Lily?”
“Nope. Violet?”
“That’s a maybe. Iris?”
“Oh no. I had a one-night stand with an Iris in Chicago that did not end well.”
“Ugh, definitely not Iris then.” Delilah rolls out of bed and I can’t tear my eyes off her as she waddles towards the bathroom. “You keep thinking, I’m gonna pee.”
“Beans grow on plants. Maybe we just commit to calling her Little Bean and call it a day?”
Something heavy hits the closed bathroom door, but I can hear Delilah’s musical laugh carrying through all the same.
My phone dings and I open it to another text from Dottie.
Dottie Lynn:
Phase Four of Operation Goodbye Earl is a-go. James has everything he needs. He can be here in two weeks.
Ivy:
Hell yeah. Let’s take this mother fucker down once and for all.