Epilogue

"Can you feel that?" I take Daniel's hand and place it on my belly. I move it around until his eyes light up with wonder.

"I felt that." He gasps.

Daniel rubs his hands over my belly, then kisses it.

"I love you," he murmurs.

"I can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone. We'll be bringing our baby home in a few months. Daniel, the nursery isn't complete."

"We can work on it this weekend. Plus I got the notification about the cot. It should be delivered on Friday, so we can build it on Saturday."

"Noah's spending the weekend with his father, so we'll have a little more time to organise the nursery. There's so many things to put away."

"Yeah, and mum has bought more clothes."

"More?" I gasp.

"She's really excited about having another grandchild. My entire family is thrilled to have another child running around the house."

"They've been so helpful through this last trimester."

Daniel cups my belly and with a stern gaze, he says, "be nice to your mother, she's working and taking care of your brother which isn't easy when you give her morning sickness or jump on her bladder."

"But we're so excited to meet you," I whisper.

"So excited."

Daniel leans up and pecks my lips.

Noah runs into the lounge room with a bundle of toys in his arms.

"Do you want to feel the baby kick?" Daniel asks.

Noah drops the cohord of toys on the floor and leaps onto the chair. He crawls onto Daniel's lap. He reaches across and places his hand on my belly.

When we told Noah I was pregnant, he wasn't too fased by the idea, but I also don't think he understood what we were saying.

"Is there really a baby in there?" Noah frowns, still very skeptical.

"Yes." Daniel nod.

"When you were a baby, you were in my tummy too."

"How did it get in there?" He tilts his head to the side.

Daniel and I share a look and he chuckles, offering no support.

"Um," I bite my lip.

I really need to invest in some parenting books to tackle these kind of conversations.

"Well, you see..."

"Hm?" Noah frowns.

"Um, Daniel and I put the baby here for safe keeping. Babies need some time somewhere safe to grow big and strong before they can live on earth with us."

"Did you swallow it then?"

Daniel bites his lip but it does nothing to contain the laughter spilling from his lips.

"What toys did you bring into the lounge room? What game are we playing next?"

"I'm playing inventor," he says.

Noah slides off Daniel's lap and picks something up.

"How do you play this game?"

"We have to build an invention."

He turns around and something goes pop and pink confetti flies everywhere.

Our eyes go wide as we look between each other. I should have hidden the confetti cannon somewhere out of reach.

"I'm sorry," Noah cries.

"We're having a girl." I gasp.

Daniel scoops Noah up and fist pumps the air.

"Noah, you're having a baby sister," Daniel shouts.

"A baby sister." He grins.

Daniel places Noah on the ground and he scoops the pink confetti up and throws it in the air and dances as the confetti billows around him.

Daniel sits beside me and kisses my cheek. He rubs my belly again, but this time it's different.

"I would have been happy with either gender, I'm just so thankful we're having a healthy baby," I say.

"Same, but I'm excited to have a little girl. I have so many nieces, that I've got plenty of practice playing barbies, tea parties and makeovers. My nieces have trained me for this moment."

"You're already the perfect father, regardless."

Daniel pecks me cheek and smiles.

"Should we reveal the gender to our families now?" I ask. "Noah isn't going to keep a secret for another two weeks."

"We could film Noah throwing the pink confetti in the air?" he offers. "There's always Sunday dinner this weekend, we could announce it. I think your mother is coming over."

"I like that idea."

"It's settled then."

Our baby girl kicks and it takes me off guard. I wince and rub that spot of my stomach.

"Are you okay?"

"Just an over excited baby kicking again." I chuckle.

"Maybe you should rest tonight. I'll order some takeaway and do the nightime routine with Noah."

"Thanks."

"Daniel, can we play?" Noah asks.

"Sure buddy."

Daniel reaches across and steals another kiss before joining Noah on the floor to play their game.

As I watch those two playing together, my heart could burst from how full of love it feels.

Falling for Daniel wasn't easy, but he's truly made it feel like flying.

* * *

I went from undecided for MONTHS to writing this in minutes! When the characters speak, you write their stories without questions.