Him, Me and You

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The house looked like a bomb had dropped, and inside it was a lot of tiny items which were now scattered in various rooms. The nursery was finished - at last - and everything had been bought in preparation for the arrival of my little kicker. I couldn't stop myself being excited, I was seeing the midwife once a week now and begging her to tell me when she thought my little kicker would arrive. According to her my kicker could decide to come out any day now, my little kicker had done it's last acrobatic trick and somersaulted inside me so that it was upside down and ready to make a spectacular entrance.  

"Three weeks and counting." Caleb said as he walked into the living room, car seat in hand.  

"Why are you carrying that around with you?" I asked sweetly. 

"I was going to put it in the car so that it's ready." 

"You've just said yourself, we have three weeks to go yet, I think you can wait." 

"Please let me put it in, it'll make me feel like a daddy." 

"Alright then, but if you start doing things like setting up the high chair on a daily basis, I'm taking everything down until the second our little kicker's born." 

"Mmmmmm, you have yourself a deal mi'lady." Caleb did a little bow and winked at me, stepping out of the door, with the car seat in one hand and the keys for the car in the other. 

Caleb's mum came around that day to see how we were getting on. She's lovely, a high school teacher with a great sense of humour. She didn't try to get rid of us when she found out I was pregnant. She was the parent we needed.  

"How's my grand baby?" 

"Fine, I think, awfully quiet lately." 

"Does that mean anything?" 

"I don't know, there can't be that much space in there so the little kicker doesn't have the room to kick." 

"Awww, poor baby! We'll just get you popped out and there'll be plenty of room for all of us." The last part she directed towards my stomach. 

"Here's a great idea, let's wait until the little kicker's fully grown and ready to pop out, shall we?" 

"You've just got a bit of pre-birth nerves" 

"I wonder why? There's nothing at all frightening about pushing a fully grown baby out between your legs!" I said with as much sarcasm as I could muster. Lynn just looked at me pointedly. 

"I mean, I know that when I hold the little kicker I'll forget the pain and the mess. But I can't help being a little bit scared." 

"I'd call you a fool if you weren't." 

Lynn stayed with us until after the midwife had left. I begged her once again to guess at when my little kicker would be out of my stomach and in my arms. 

"My guess is as good as yours, any day now." 

I sighed and rubbed my round belly.  

"Hey baby," I whispered to my stomach, "Don't tell your Nana - or your Daddy - but I do wish you'd hurry up and get here." 

Lynn smiled at me with almost sad knowing, I frowned back at her but before I could ask Caleb stepped in front of me and put his hands on my stomach - covering my own hands.  

"I can't wait!" He said, kissing my forehead before moving into the kitchen to make a cup of tea. When I looked back at Lynn, her expression showed only joy. 

Over the next three days I caught Lynn looking at me - with the same sad look - a lot more than I normally would. I don't know whether it was because I was waiting for her to do it or because she was doing it more often. But every time she saw me looking she re-arranged her face and grinned at me.