Ella
“Cora?” I gasp the minute I get the phone to my ear, still scrambling out of bed and tangled in the sheets.
“Hey, Ells,” she says, her voice somehow both tight and bored at once. “Sorry to wake you up – ”
“You didn’t wake me – ” I say quickly, reaching for Rafe in his crib and scooping him up in my arms. Behind me, I hear Sinclair climbing out of bed too, coming to my side.
“I didn’t?” Cora asks. “Why actually.” Her voice goes stony. “Don’t tell me. Knowing you and Dominic, I probably don’t want to know.”
A little laugh bursts from me as I shake my head, trying to get back on track with this conversation. “Cora,” I say, looking down at Rafe’s bright, wide -awake face, “what’s up? Why are you calling? Is the baby -”
“Yeah,” she says on a sigh. “Roger insisted I call. Baby’s on its way!”
“Oh my god!” I shriek, spinning to Sinclair and beaming at him for the second time this morning. “It’s time for the baby! We’ll come right away -”
“No, take your time,” she says on a sigh and I frown at her even though she can’t see me.
“Cora, what is going on? Why are you calling in the middle of the night for us to come but then also telling us not to hurry?”
“Because my stupid mate made me call you,” Cora says, her voice annoyed. She lowers her voice to a whisper. ” He’s completely freaking out, Ells, even though everything is progressing totally normally -”
“Awww,” I say, passing Rafe to Sinclair’s waiting hands and smiling up at him. “Go easy on him, Cora! He’s a first-time dad!”
making me laugh again, “if he’s
Sinclair’s face, a silent question in my eyes. Can we go? Is there any pressing national business that means we need to stay back? Sinclair nods
Ella, I don’t think my body is anywhere close to ready to push but
to get himself and Rafe dressed. “Honestly, Cora, if he’s freaking out this
me out of it – anyway,”
anxiety though I can’t hear what he’s saying. My heart swells a little for my
there as soon as we can. And we’ll let Henry know
sigh. “See
practically skip into the closet in my excitement, going immediately
he asks,
at him. “Apparently she’s still got time
It’s going to drive
weird, but also so sweet,” I say, nodding and pressing a quick kiss to his chest before flitting off to my side of the closet and selecting some clothes that I hastily pull on. When I’m ready, I turn to take the half-dressed baby from my
I coo to him, plucking a little squeeze pouch of baby food off its place on the shelf and sitting down with him in
me and I laugh, because the way he looks at me when
with my son, thinking about how he’s going to react when there’s
I realize that in my mind I’ve already stopped thinking
has already
it?” Sinclair asks, and I whip my head up to see that I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t even notice when he walked over to
say, sniffing even as I laugh at
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