“You’re okay? You’re not feeling sick, are you?” Yosiah grabbed me in a panic.
“No, I’m fine.” I laid my hand on top of his. “And this is beautiful.” I turned to face him and hugged his neck.
Just a couple feet from us was a candlelit dinner. A vase of pink roses rested in the center. The night sky was above and the full moon shone down on us.
Breaking away, I allowed Yosiah to lead me to the table where he pulled my chair out.
“I made sure to not get anything that would upset your stomach,” Yosiah informed me, rounding the table and taking a seat across from me. Even though I was way past my first trimester, my sensitivity to food and smells hadn’t gone away.
“Whatever it is smells good.” My stomach grumbled at just the mention. “Baby girl thinks so too!” I rubbed my stomach where my daughter was moving around.
“Then we shouldn’t keep either of you waiting. Let’s bow our heads.”
After blessing the food, we removed the silver domes. Underneath was parmesan-crusted lamb chops with a loaded baked potato and steamed broccoli.
“So, I saw Daddy’s trial starts next week,” I mentioned after a while. The evening was going well, the food was delicious, and I was over the moon.
“How do you feel about that?” Yosiah looked at me over his glass.
“Nothing.” My shoulders lifted. “He deserves to be behind bars for what he did.”
Since he had been arrested, I hadn’t had any contact with my dad, but I couldn’t help checking in on his case from time to time. He was being represented by a public defender and it wasn’t looking good for him. As for my mom, I’d seen her around town a couple times but she always walked past as if I didn’t exist. It stung the first couple times it happened, but now I was immune to it. Oddly, I had grown closer to Yosiah’s parents. His mom had been playing nice after our lunch meeting. She’d been active in my pregnancy and we’d even gone shopping a couple times for baby stuff. We even had dinner with them frequently.
Yosiah reached across the table and grabbed my hand. “You’re right.”
“I’m glad our baby girl has you as a daddy and she’ll never experience the heartache and disappointment I did with my dad.”
He squeezed my hand. “And she never will. I’ma always be here forbothof you.”
My heart skipped. “We only have a couple months until we meet her. You ready for that?” he questioned.
I nodded. “Yeah. I’m nervous. Never been one to handle pain well.”
Again, he squeezed my hand. “I’m going to be right by your side, baby, every step of the way. And just keep in mind that at the end of all that we’ll be staring into the eyes of our beautiful baby girl.”
The corners of my mouth tipped upward. I always loved talking to Yosiah about our baby. His eyes always lit up every time he spoke about her. Knowing he was the one I was about to start this chapter with was better than I deserved but I was grateful it’d worked out.
“I know I’m a couple hours early, but here,” Yosiah said after a few minutes. He reached under his seat and placed a gold bag on the table a few seconds later.
“I’ll never turn down gifts.” I grinned, pushing my now empty plate away and grabbing the bag. “Mmm, I wonder what it could be.”
Snatching out the tissue paper, I tossed it to the side and pulled out a black square box.
Glancing at Yosiah, he watched me with a crooked grin as I eagerly opened the box. “Oh, Yosiah!” I gushed, lifting the pink diamond tennis necklace. “It’s beautiful.” The diamonds were small, perfectly round, and tasteful. Attached was an X pendant. In the center of the box was a matching bracelet.
“I had it custom made just for you. It’s hard shopping for a woman who has everything already.”
I snickered. “I love it. Come put it on me!” I pulled the bracelet out to put it on my wrist while Yosiah rose from his chair and made his way to my side of the table.
My hand brushed over the necklace once it was on my neck. “Fits perfectly.”
“Thank you, Yosiah, I love it. This whole trip has been wonderful.” I inhaled deeply. It was annoying how emotional I’d grown since becoming pregnant.
Tilting my head upward, I stared into the clear sky. Not a cloud in sight.
“It’s beautiful out here. You can really see the stars.”
When Yosiah didn’t respond, I dropped my attention back to him and was startled seeing him staring at me.