Room for Just a Little Bit More (18 page)

“Penny for your thoughts?” I had to know.

He nodded toward the TV. “They were just talking about the weather for the weekend. They’re calling for rain. I was wondering what size Emma would be.”

“For what?”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “They’re calling for rain. Gonna be a lot of puddles out there. She needs pink rain boots like her big sisters.”

“She’s got a while before she’ll be ready to jump in puddles.” I giggled, picturing tiny rain boots in my head. “What are you doing?”

He’d set Emma down on the couch and pulled his shirt off, exposing his cut chest. Wiggling Emma’s blanket loose from her chest area, he laid her on top of him, skin to skin.

“I read that book, that
What to Expect
book, and it said it’s really good for babies to be skin to skin with their parents, especially dads since we don’t nurse.”

“You read that book?” I asked, surprised by the revelation.
I
hadn’t even read that book.

“Hell yeah. I wanted to be prepared.” He was talking to me, but taking selfies of him and Emma. “Kacie, you should lie down and rest.”

“I will. One more question.” I shifted myself up in my bed. “I started to ask, but then Little Murphy decided she’d had enough of my uterus. How did you get here so fast? I thought Fred wasn’t able to reach you.”

“We never did talk, but he left me a voicemail telling me your water broke in the kitchen. Then my phone died.”

Thinking back to Fred’s face as he stared at the puddle on the floor made me snicker. “He was so freaked out.”

“I could tell in his message. He’s usually very calm, but he was all kinds of flustered. Anyway, it was like a messed-up version of
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
, minus the trains. I could
not
get a flight out of Chicago that would get me home before tomorrow and they had no available private planes, so I took a cab up to the Milwaukee airport and chartered a private plane from there.”

A tiny lump parked itself in the middle of my throat. “You did?”

His eyes shifted from Emma to me. “Of course. And let me tell you, it was the longest five hours of my life.” He swallowed hard, looking back down at Emma. “Once I charged my phone, I kept trying to call Fred and your mom and you, but I couldn’t get through to anyone. I didn’t know if I missed it or what, but I prayed the whole way that I hadn’t.”

I wasn’t sure if it was the hormones or the overwhelming sense of love and gratitude I was feeling, but my eyes filled with tears. “I can’t believe you did all that for her. For us.”

“Watching her come into this world was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. I’m so glad I was able to get here in time.”

“Me too.” I sniffled.

“And I gotta be honest, I thought it was gonna be gross, but I was wrong. It was
so
cool. I can’t wait to see it again.”

“See it again? I’m gonna need a break for a while after that one.”

The corner of his lip pulled up in an adorable smirk. “I told you I read that book. You got six weeks, tops.”

First and foremost, thank you SO much to Pam Carrion and The Book Avenue for the hours you’ve spent organizing my cover reveal, blog tour, teasers and everything else. I’m absolutely crazy about you, Angry Kitty
and
Bob Saget.

Thank you to Kelsey Kukal-Keeton at K. Keeton Designs for another amazing cover photo.

Thank you to my cover designer, Sarah Hansen at Okay Creations, for working your magic and producing another amazing cover.

Thank you to Angela McLaurin at Fictional Formats for working pulling through for me last minute. You are the absolute best formatter in the business, hands down.

Melanie Codina, Michelle Finkle, Melissa Brown & katz… I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to read this book ahead of time. All of your ideas and suggestions helped make this book what it is. Thank you for the absolute bottom of my heart.

Whitney, my mudneck Twinkie. You’re such an amazing friend and I love you, and your boner, dearly.

Michelle Finkle. Where do I begin? What started as beta reading
Room For You
, turned into an amazing friendship and I truly do not know where I would be without you. You’re honest, thorough and creative as a beta reader. More importantly you are funny, sweet and loyal as a friend. You’ve talked me off the ledge more times than I can count and for that I’ll be forever grateful. I love you to pieces, Gayle.

Melissa Brown… who would’ve known at 8 years old, when we stood on that softball field together, that twenty-five years later this is where we would be? There’s no one I’d rather be surfing through this crazy amazing career with. Thank you so much for being my constant right hand man.

Happy Driggs. Namaste, asshole.

Megan Ward. Good or bad, we did it… again! Thank you so much for being the absolute best editor. Your eagle eye is second to none, but your friendship means way more. Thank you for always sticking by my side and giving me a kick in the ass when I needed it. XOXO

Beth Ehemann lives in the northern suburbs of Chicago with her 4 children and her husband, Chris, who is really a big kid himself most of the time. She enjoys reading, writing, photography, martinis, and all things Chicago Cubs.

Twitter:
@bethehemann

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