Epilogue Cade

Epilogue Cade

C

ade stood up as Lily brought the pasta dish to the table, but she shooed him back down.

“You cooked!” she said. “The least I can do is serve.”

He put down the flatware he’d been holding on the table and took the dish from her.

“You sit. Rest,” he said. “Doctor’s orders, remember?”

She sighed.

“Fine,” she said. “But this whole getting waited on thing isn’t for me. I’m not confined to bed rest, you know!”

For the first five months, she’d barely shown, but in the past week there had been no denying the belly. It was cute, the way she’d deftly learned to work around it.

“When are you going to give Jean-Michel your notice?” he asked as he served her. “You know you don’t have to work.”

She gave him a look.

“I

want

to work,” she said. “As long as I can. He finally graduated me from desserts to more serious dishes, and I don’t want to give that up now.”

As she leaned over for the bottle of sparkling cider, his eyes roamed to her breasts. They’d grown large and heavy in the past month, and strained at her blouse.

Cade cleared his throat. “You, uh, might want to start wearing some of those maternity shirts Renee got you—”

She looked down and blushed. “Sorry,” she said. “I’m still getting used to these.”

“Hey, I’m not complaining,” he said. “I like it.”

“Right,” she said with an eye roll. “I’m freaking gorgeous, I’m sure.”

“You’re still sexy as hell,” he said. Cade grabbed her arm and pulled her toward him.

Lily let out a laugh. “You don’t always get dessert first,” she said.

“Here, taste,” he said. He dipped a silver spoon into the side of rich marinara and fed it to her.

“It’s good,” she said, and licked her lips. “They teach you well at the firehouse.”

He shrugged. “It’s not gougère, or whatever it is you make at the shop, but it’ll do the trick.”

“So, speaking of tricks,” she said as she held up the envelope, “do you want to do it?”

He eyed the envelope the doctor had given them earlier that day. At first, both of them had been so certain they wanted to know the sex of the baby—but when it came down to it, neither were sure they wanted the element of surprise taken away.

“How about this?” the doctor had said. “I’ll put it in an envelope. You can choose to open it or not. A lot of people these days, they’re doing that baby reveal cake? You can give the envelope to the bakery if you’d like, and they’ll make the inside of the cake either blue or pink.”

“That’s… weird,” Cade had said, but Lily elbowed him.

“I think what he means is, it’s not for us, but that’s neat,” she’d said.

The doctor held up her hands. “I don’t judge. I just share the information I know.”

“I don’t know,” Cade said now. He stared at the envelope across the table. “Don’t you have a mother’s intuition or something? Can’t you just tell me?”

She grinned. “My intuition is all over the place because of these hormones. I don’t know, Renee says I’m carrying low, so that means it’s a boy. But I don’t feel like it’s a boy.”

“So you feel like it’s a girl?”

“I don’t know!” she laughed. “I mean, I guess that’s what the envelope is for.”

“Let’s just do it.”

“Are you sure?”

He wasn’t, but he didn’t think he could go another four months without knowing. How would they shop for clothes? Decorate the baby’s room? Start realistically thinking about names? They already had a list of over twenty for each gender.

“I’m sure,” he said.

“You do it,” she said, and pushed the envelope across the table to him. “I can’t handle the stress.”

“We’ll do it together.” Cade pushed his chair around the table next to hers. He tore open the envelope and Lily reached inside.

“A girl,” they said in unison.

“I knew it,” Cade said. “A father’s intuition! I told you she was a smaller version of you.”

Lily’s eyes welled up. “We’re having a girl,” she said. “I can’t believe it. I mean, I can, but—”

Cade leaned into her and kissed her deeply. He felt her body melt into him.

“Why can’t we have dessert first?” he asked, a growl in his throat.

He stood up and lifted her into his arms. Lily squealed, “Stop! I’m too heavy!”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said. “You’re light as a feather.”

As he carried her into the bedroom, he felt her heavy breasts against his chest and his hardness press into his jeans.