Professional Heir

Chapter 8

Robert

Today was the day. The day we found out the gender of the baby. I for one didn't realise you could find out the sex after twenty-some weeks. I'm also almost sure neither did Kimberly and she's just pretending she knew.

The doorbell rang. "Roos, my family are here," I called up the stairs to my wife. The doorbell rung a second time.

"Coming!" She rushed down the stairs in a white dress with pink and blue flower detailing. Once at the bottom of the staircase, she reached to smooth my tie. "You look cute."

"I look like a marshmallow, Kimberly." Kim had chosen my outfit, and she had chosen a bright pink suit with a blue shirt. I felt utterly ridiculous.

"A cute marshmallow."

I opened the front door. I hadn't even gotten it fully open before my brother's laughter filled my ears. "What happened?"

"Don't start."

"Aw, I think you look amazing." My mother smiled. I turned on my heels and gestured for them to follow me into the living room. "Amazingly stupid."

"Mamma!"

She bit down on her smile. "I'm sorry, it's just different."

"Well, I think he looks fabulous." My wife linked her arm with mine and laid a kiss on my cheek. I grumbled. It was because of her that I was wearing the silly outfit in the first place.

"I can't believe it, our first grandchild." Katherine smiled. "It may be our only, too."

"Hey, what?" Caiden butted in.

I felt Kimberly tense beside me. It may be our only one. A nasty reminder that neither of us wanted. I wrapped an arm around her, running my thumb up the side of her arm.

"Oh come on Caiden, Jessica is almost forty, girls don't run forever, your time will be up soon,"

I spoke up. "What if Kimberly and I have another?"

Kimberly's eyes widened and her head shot to me. "I'm sorry, do you want to carry the next one? I'm sweating like a pedo in a park with this thing."

I laughed. "It'll all be worth it, roos, believe me."

"It will, Kimberly. Nothing will beat the moment you hear your very own child cry for the first time. The baby that you and the person you love made sitting in your arms. Nothing will ever beat that." My mother spoke with a soft smile.

"It better be, or I'm getting a refund."

"Hold on, hold on," Caiden waved his arm about, almost smacking my father in the face. "Who even says I'm getting back with Jessica? Who's to say I won't get with someone younger?"

"Oh shut up boy, you two have had arguments then made up weeks later, I give it two more days until you've made up." Daryl scoffed.

"I won't be getting back with her." Caiden shook his head.

"Mhmm." Kimberly mused with a grin.

"You will." I shook my head. I'd bet money on it.

"I will no-"

"Anyway, let's head out the garden, everyone else is out there and we have to set up a Facetime call to Kimberly's family back in Wales." I interrupted with a clap of my hands.

I led my family out to the garden where a few of my friends stood. Of course, Elijah was one of them, he was still living with us for the time being. Cole, Scott and Savannah made up the rest.

We had already done greetings, and the boys had already taken a good crack out of my outfit so at least that was out of the way.

Kimberly tapped away to find Ella's Skype and then started up a call. The call started, the laptop screen showing Kim's family huddled around the device. "Hiya." Cathy smiled.

"Give me one minute, Kim, I'm linking the screen to the TV so we can all see it properly," Ella spoke distractedly before she disappeared out of sight.

"Oh, Parker wants you to add him to the call so he and Katie can know too," Grace spoke.

"Oh seriously? Him?" I spoke aloud, not realising until it had already been said.

Kimberly turned to face me with a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"Nothing, love. Sorry, nothing." I rambled.

"Do you not like, Parker?" She furrowed her brows. If I wasn't so worried about upsetting my wife, I'd find it amusing that she didn't ask about Katie, already knowing all about our hatred for one another.

"Sweetheart, I don't like most people." How could she fight that logic?

"Fine." She mumbled. "Okay, I'll add him now." I know Kimberly felt it was right, they had known each other for years after all. But there was something not quite right about that boy. Not quite right at all.

She clicked away and found Parker's account, adding him to the call. He answered with a smile and Katie sat next to him. "I can't believe I'm going to find out whether I have a niece or nephew." Katie gleamed.

"What?" I didn't even attempt to hide my distaste. I laughed. "Nice joke. Not happening."

Kimberly pushed me aside. "Shut up. We've been like sisters since we were like twelve."

"Mother. I've acted like your mother since we were twelve." Katie corrected. "I know we've never gotten along Rob, but I'll always be in Kimberly's life even when you try to take her away."

"I didn't try to-"

"Both of you shut your faces up." Kimberly groaned. "Sometimes I feel like I'm surrounded by children. A feeling I do not want when there is one growing inside of me."

"Ella?" I changed the subject.

"Yep, just finished, whenever you're ready." Her voice sounded like it was coming from the other side of the room, the camera now only facing a plain, white wall.

I pulled Kimberly to stand before our friends. "I've never had a baby before, and neither has Kim, so when a gender reveal was mentioned we were both a bit stuck. After watching some videos we realised two things - one, dads are shit, and two, bigger is apparently better. So we decided to go with fireworks."

Kimberly reached for the lighter in my hand. "I'll do it."

"Don't be ridiculous." I stared at my woman like she had three heads.

She squinted her eyes at me like an annoyed child, but I just brushed her off. Pregnancy really had her grumpy. Kneeling down, I attempted to light the fireworks. Failing two times, the third time was indeed the charm.

Once the sparks began to fly, I wrapped an arm around my wife and pulled the both of us away from the thing. My heart was beating one hundred miles an hour. It felt like everything was going in slow motion. I hadn't given much thought to what gender I'd 'prefer', I just wanted a baby. I wanted a child. Was that not a good enough answer? A happy, healthy family is all I wanted.

My wife leaned into me, biting the nail of her thumb in anticipation. As long as she was happy, then so was I.

It went up, meeting the sky with a kiss. It took a moment. Or maybe that was just me. But for a moment I could have sworn the sky shon blue.

"Blue," Kimberly confirmed, voice barely above a whisper.

Suddenly it was all so real. I was going to be a dad. I was going to be a Father.

Kimberly watched in utter silence as a few more fireworks went off. I began to worry. Was a boy not what she had wanted? Had I fucked up? Had I given her a boy when she only wanted a girl?

I held my breath.

She turned to face me with tears in her eyes and a smile on her lips. "We get to have a boy."

And finally, my heart could breathe again. She wanted a boy. We were having a boy.

Our own little baby boy.