Ace
One year later
I couldn’t believe everything that had happened in a year. On the one hand, it seemed like just yesterday that I was moving back to the States after so many years abroad on active duty with the military. But on the other hand, it seemed like ten thousand things had changed since then.
I definitely didn’t regret any of it, I thought, smiling around at my little family as we finished eating breakfast.
Harper and Ava and I had moved into our own place a few months after we told Ava that I was her dad. Things had been going really well. You might never have known that I wasn’t there for the first three years of my daughter’s life.
And things between Harper and I were great as well, just like I’d known they would be. I tried to help out around the house as much as I could, doing a lot of the cooking while she did most of the cleaning. It was a good system. We worked well together. And there was plenty of cuddling between the three of us.
Finally, just at the start of spring, we got married. Some people might have said it was too rushed, that we didn’t know one another well enough. But things between Harper and I had been comfortable from the first time I’d met her. I couldn’t imagine spending my life with anyone else. And with the added bonus of Ava, our daughter, I felt like our family was absolutely perfect.
The ceremony was beautiful. It was in the botanical gardens, and the weather could not have been nicer. We kept it small: just us, Ava as the flower girl, Sadie as my best gal, Maisie as Harper’s maid of honor, Harper’s mom, and a couple of other guests. It was exactly what I would have wished for.
Not to mention the fact that Harper looked ravishing in her dress. She had somehow managed to score a deal on this amazing lacy number that only accentuated her beautiful, dark skin. I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off her for the whole day.
That had been a few months ago now, though. And we were about to hit another major milestone. “You ready for your appointment, Mama?” I asked as I cleared away the breakfast dishes, giving them a quick rinse before putting them in the dishwasher.
Harper smiled. “I think so,” she said.
“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” Ava said excitedly, already heading for the front door. She paused there, waiting impatiently for us.
“Just like her mom,” I whispered to Harper. “Impatient as anything.”
Harper stifled a laugh. “Well, she’s excited,” she pointed out.
“Good,” I said.
I’d been worried when I first broached the subject of having more children. I knew Harper was still getting used to the fact, sometimes, that she was no longer a single parent. And I wasn’t sure how Ava would feel. Would she resent having to share our attention with a new sibling?
I had put off talking to Harper about it for a long time, not wanting to upset anyone. Things were going so good for us; why rock the boat?
But I’d really enjoyed being a dad. Ava was wonderful; she made it easy to love being around her. But I still felt terrible about missing so much of her formative years. And about not having been there to support Harper through her pregnancy. I wanted all of that stuff.
So finally, I’d approached Harper about it. She grinned at me when I’d laid out all my reasons. I had lists of pros and cons in my head and was ready to counter any argument she might have. But instead, she just said, “Took you long enough to ask.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, caught flat-footed by the matter-of-fact answer.
Harper rolled her eyes. “Come on, I’ve seen you eyeing the itty-bitty baby stuff when we go shopping,” she said. “I know you want one.”
I shrugged. “I can’t help it,” I said.
“Come here,” Harper responded, crooking her finger at me.
I wasn’t sure that that was the time that we had conceived, but I liked to think that maybe it was. It had definitely been a good time. Not that there had been a bad time, in all the times we had coupled, trying to make that second baby.
Today, it was finally time for the ultrasound where we would learn what sex the baby was.
Harper got in the passenger’s seat while I buckled Ava into her car seat. “It’s gonna be a sister,” Ava said authoritatively.
“How do you know that?” I asked her.
“Because I just do,” she said, rolling her eyes at me.
“Silly Daddy,” Harper said, laughing in the front seat.
We waited anxiously in the hospital room together. It was dark in there, and the only thing my senses really picked up on was the fact that it smelled so sterile. I held Harper’s hand as we waited for the picture on the ultrasound. I felt my heart swell when that tiny image showed up on the screen.