Personal Chef

Chapter 88

"Can we please tell them tonight?" Shawn begged.

It was Christmas Eve. His family and my parents were coming over for dinner. Tomorrow we'd all be at his parents' house for the day.

We hadn't told anyone about the pregnancy. I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for the following week, and I wanted to wait until we were told that everything looked good. Shawn was dying to scream to the entire world that we were going to have a baby. I had to take the pregnancy test away from him at the cabin before he posted a picture of it for Instagram. I appeased him by letting him share a bunch of pics of our new second home instead.

"We agreed we'd tell them on New Year's Day," I said firmly.

My parents were having us and his family over that afternoon for a huge midday meal. I loved that our two families were merging for the holidays.

"I can't wait that long! Plus, it would be the perfect Christmas present to our families! They'll be so excited!" he argued.

I knew he was right. Everyone would be overjoyed about the news. I still wanted to wait until the doctor confirmed that things were progressing the way they should be. I knew what Lainey and Drew had gone through when they had to break the news about their miscarriages. It felt safer to postpone any sharing and celebrating until we felt secure.

"It's one week. You can wait," I told him.

We spent the afternoon cooking. First we made a gingerbread layer cake with a mascarpone cream frosting. It was a naked cake, which someone was not pleased about. When I explained that with seven people eating, it was unlikely we'd have cake leftover to play with, he acquiesced with regards to the frosting. Next we baked several loaves of bread to go with dinner. The condo smelled wonderful as the smell of bread wafted through the air. We made a huge tossed salad that we left undressed and put in the fridge. Finally, we made the base for the sausage and tortellini soup that would be the main course tonight. It was made with a rich creamy base, Italian sausage, tortellini, and spinach.

Our home was beautifully decorated for the holidays, and I was looking forward to showing it off. We had our two trees again, but I'd gone a little nuts buying other festive things to place around the condo. I'd set up a pretty miniature town scene on top of the piano. I'd found the set of houses in an antique shop outside of Toronto when I was looking for some extra chairs for the bistro. They were from the 1950's and were all different pastel colors. You could insert a light bulb from a string of lights into the back so that each little house was illuminated. I'd also found little trees to place around the houses and puffy cotton matting to look like snow. Shawn was reluctant to have his piano top covered, but he admitted that it was lovely.

The dining room table had a pretty sage green patterned table runner with holly berries plus a wrought iron centerpiece with red candles. I'd put an assortment of mirror-glass Christmas trees on the sideboard. The coffee table in the living room held a huge silver bowl full of multicolored glass ball ornaments. Even the hall bathroom had a festive Christmas tree shaped rug and matching hand towels. Shawn had strung lights out on the terrace that looked beautiful through the floor to ceiling windows.

My parents arrived first, and of course they brought several bottles of wine. As I put the white in the fridge, I wondered how I'd avoid drinking without anyone noticing. I figured it couldn't be that hard. Shawn and I finished up the cheese platter we'd been arranging and set it on the coffee table. As he was getting my parents something to drink, there was a knock on the door indicating that his family were there. I opened the door, gave everyone hugs, and ushered them inside.

We sat around the living room talking for quite awhile. My parents showed Manny and Karen a million pictures of Johnson and Lucas, which was making Shawn jumpy. I could see in his eyes and his body language that he wanted to tell them I was pregnant. As he wrung his hands anxiously I worried he was going to crack. Thankfully no one else seemed to notice.