The Kings IV II

61

Hero

"So are we going to find out the gender before or wait?"

I looked over at Amelia, knitting my brows together to hopefully express my distaste. "Whatever you want to do."

"You obviously did not like one of those options," she said, picking off a piece of cotton candy and holding it up to my mouth.

I kept my eyes on the road, opening my mouth for her to drop it on my tongue. I shrugged, leaning back in my seat. "Whatever you want to do. You're the one popping it out."

"You definitely want to know the gender before," she muttered, taking a huge bite of her cotton candy.

"You know me so well," I muttered, "who wants to wait until the baby comes out? Like, don't you want to buy it clothes before and decorate its room and stuff?"

"Well, a lot of people just get unisex things," she said, leaning her head back against her seat, looking over at me.

"No, I want to know what it is."

"Yeah, me too," she said, "just had to make sure we were on the same page."

Her phone began to ring and she picked it up, making me look over at her.

"Hey, Mom," she greeted, "yeah, Hero and I are out. We just went to get cotton candy."

I could hear her mother say she wanted her to come home immediately, making me clench my jaw and stop at the red light with a sigh. An annoyed sigh.

"Alright," Amelia said, "I'll be home soon. Love you."

She hung up, rolling her eyes. "She acts like I'm not already pregnant with your kid. Like I'm going to get pregnant again."

I smiled, looking over at her. "It's fine."

"So you don't want to spend time with me," she said, looking out the window.

"Nope, didn't say that," I said, and this was something I'd had to grow accustomed to — pregnancy hormones. Pregnancy assumptions. About everything. All the time.

I was also learning that I did have a sliver of patience in me, despite what I might have thought in past times.

She leaned her head back against the seat, sighing. "I want pickles and fries. So bad. Right now."

"Would you like me to drop you off at home and go get you some?" I asked, looking over at her.

"No," she said, "thank you, though."

"Alright," I said, gently patting her leg. We drove in silence to her house, and sometimes, that was all both of us needed. Silence. And the best part was that we understood that, so it was always pleasant.

I parked in her driveway, helping her grab her purse from the back. I held it over to her and she smiled, pressing a kiss to my cheek. "Thanks, baby daddy. We'll have to do it again sometime."

I watched as she got out of the car, shooting her a wave as she walked to her front door. Her mother opened the door and looked at me, pulling Amelia inside, but not without shooting me a glare first.

I put my car in reverse and drove home, trying to refrain from thinking about literally everything in my life. Recently, I'd grown to be quite the over thinker.

I made it home and got out of my car, unlocking the front door. I hung up my keys and walked into the kitchen, seeing Dad standing at the counter.

"Hey," he greeted, "you're home early."

"Yeah," I said, "Amelia and I had a free, so we went out for a drive. Her mom wanted her home, though."