Reid
Several more months went by in peaceful bliss. My stomach swelled, lowering my activity level to a crawl. It was all I could do these days to walk up and down the stairs to join everyone for meals, which had led to James carrying me everywhere.
I could hardly believe that he was able to lift me with all the extra weight I'd put on — until I felt his muscular arms wrapped around me, of course. Naturally, this led to gentle teasing that my feet weren't going to touch the ground until the baby was born. I wasn't complaining.
Otherwise, I didn't suffer any of the ailments that I'd dealt with during my pregnancy with Haley. Maybe the second time really was easier, as so many pregnancy and childbirth magazines seemed to believe. I wasn't complaining about that, either.
Dickon had not been located. He seemed to have vanished into thin air. By decree of the queen, his ability to access James's accounts and private information were canceled. He never reappeared to complain about that, which made everyone believe he was guilty as hell and didn't want to show his face.
As time went on, Dickon was forgotten. Life moved on mostly unchanged, except for my growing stomach and Lesandra's increasing bitterness. She seemed to be weaving herself a web of disgust, much in the same way as I was weaving a blanket with my crochet needles.
Haley sat beside me, holding my ball of yarn as I crocheted a new blanket for my baby, just as I had done for her years ago. The rings on my fingers glimmered and glittered as they caught the light with the motion of my hands. The blanket was red and white, reflecting the national colors.
Haley's had been bright pink, because I had known she was going to be a little girl, my perfect princess. This time, James and I had decided to wait until the birth to learn the sex of the child.
It wasn't like I wanted to force a meaningless color description on a child or anything. I just didn't want it to be immortalized by the press that I had assumed one thing and had gotten another. They could twist that in all sorts of ways, and I wasn't going to give them that satisfaction.
Haley watched my needles dance around each other, creating neat little loops of material. "Will you teach me, Daddy?"
"Maybe when you're a little older," I said. "I don't think your hands are big enough."
Haley pouted. She reached over and placed her hand on top of mine, stretching out her fingers. I let go of my needle and did the same. Her fingers were barely half the length of mine. "Maybe not," she conceded.
I smiled and kissed her forehead. "I'd get you one of those toy kits if you would ask for it."
"No way! Those are for babies!"
Speaking of babies, James was on my other side, swiping through his phone. He let out periodic bursts of excitement whenever he came across a particularly cute piece of furniture, or a perfect little pair of socks. We already had a fully furnished nursery at our disposal, filled with the most wonderful and beautiful items that had been taken from storage and cleaned up.
Nevertheless, James seemed determined to fill the nursery with even more things. If it were up to him, we wouldn't even be able to reach the crib, there would be so many obstacles in the way.
"Reid," he said, nudging at me with his elbow.
I finished a tight little loop of yarn and set my needles down. "Yes?"
James thrust his phone at me. "Look! Isn't this the most perfect teddy bear you've ever seen?"
I glanced idly at the screen. "James, that thing is 5 feet tall."
