(((June 5, 2016)))
Nicole's POV
"Come on, Parker!" I yelled as I started walking to the truck. "We have to go!"
Parker stopped talking to Rick over by the wash plant, and made his way over to the truck. I was now thirteen weeks pregnant, and Parker and I were planning to make our way into Haines for my second doctor's appointment and my first ultrasound. I'm almost in my second trimester, and my belly is getting bigger everyday, it seems like. I'm not too big yet, but I'm bigger than I've ever been, so to me, I'm big.
"You got everything?" Parker asked me as he got in the truck.
"Yep." I smiled.
"You and little baby ready to roll?" Parker smirked as he cranked the truck.
"Ain't we always?" I smiled.
Parker smiled as we drove down the road leading out of the claim.
"You think the guys will be able to cope without us there?" I joked.
"I'm sure they will." Parker said as he leaned back in his seat. "Rick said he could manage both the operations."
"And Bree said that she would make sure the guys ate."
"Yeah, they'll be fine for three days while me and you go to the doctor."
"Oh, my gosh, Parker!" I squealed and pulled on his arm.
"What?" Parker chuckled.
"We're going to see our baby for the first time!" I exclaimed. "Ain't you excited to see your little son or daughter?"
"Yeah, I guess." Parker smiled at me.
"You know you are." I smiled. "Oh, while we're in town, I need to get a baby book. Oh, wait, I won't know whether to get a pink or a blue one."
"Blue." Parker said.
I scoffed and smiled. "What if it's a girl?"
"Get a blue baby book. If it's a girl, you can get another one. But, we're having a boy. I can feel it." Parker smirked.
"Oh, really?" I smiled. "You're not the one with the baby inside you. I feel like it's a girl."
"No, you don't." Parker scoffed. "You were talking the other day to Hannah about how you thought it was a boy."
"Well, maybe my feeling changed." I said.
Parker smirked, "You just don't like me assuming the gender."
I laughed. "I think we find out the gender at twenty weeks, so not the next time I go, but the time after that."
Parker groaned. "So long. And then I won't even know then because you want to do the gender reveal party."
"That reminds me. I need to start planning that with Hannah so we can maybe possibly have it sometime around your birthday." I smiled. "I don't know though, it'll probably be after your birthday when we find out the gender."
"Yeah, it'll probably be after my birthday. So the gender reveal and the baby shower is separate, right?"
"Yeah." I nodded as I was texting Mom that we were on the way. "The baby shower will be a few weeks before my due date. I can't believe I'm already almost in my second trimester, Parker. It seems like I just got pregnant."
"Well, it's only been four weeks since you found out." Parker pointed out.
"True." I agreed. "Hannah said the her and Payson want pictures of the baby from today. So don't forget to remind me to ask the nurse for more than one copy."
"How many copies you need?" Parker smirked.
"A couple for me, Mom wants one, Hannah wants one, and Nana wants one. So probably at least five. Maybe six just in case."
"You're excited about this whole thing, aren't you?"
"Uh, yah." I scoffed. "It's my first baby, I'm beyond excited. And you should be, too."
"I am happy about it." Parker smiled. "I'm just not a girl so I'm not like 'aaahhh', like you and Hannah are. You want me to look through baby stuff on Pinterest and say 'oh, my gosh, that's so cute!' "
I laughed at Parker's mocking of me and Hannah. "No, that sounds pretty gay. You just keep doing what you're doing. Arguing with me about how the baby is a boy."
"It is a boy." Parker stated.
"You're going to be pretty disappointed if it's a girl, ain't you?"
"Nah." Parker shook his head. "I'll be happy either way. I just think a little boy will be cool. You know, play with trucks and have him ride in the machines with me. And you. You know you would love to dress that baby boy up and decorate his room like you've been showing me."
"Yeah." I smiled. "But I got back up. Hannah's Pinterest is all girl stuff."
"I think Hannah is the only one wanting a girl, really." Parker smirked. "Except for maybe Mom. I guess she had two boys, and now she wants to take care of a baby girl."
I smiled. "You must've turned her against boys, Parker. Because you're so difficult."
Parker smiled and rolled his eyes. "No, she just saw how you acted so much better than me when we were little. You made me look bad."
"Whatever." I scoffed.
"And now you help her cook, and call her to say you love and miss her, and you hug her and all that stuff. Me, I've never been one to be all that touchy-feely."
"You are with me."
"Well, that's different. You're my girlfriend." Parker said.
"She's your mom. She gave birth to you. I think you can hug her and tell her you love her more often."
"I tell her every time I see her." Parker argued. "I'm just not a girl so I don't be like 'oh, Mom!' and run over there to hug her and talk to her."
I chuckled. "Maybe that's why she likes me better."
"She does not like you better." Parker said.
***
After hours of listening to music, talking about anything and everything, and singing along to the radio, we finally made it back home to Haines. I was so happy to be able to get out of that truck and stretch my legs.
When we pulled up into the driveway of Mom and Dad's house, I wasted no time getting out of the truck. I yawned and stretched out, and Parker just smiled at me while he was cutting off the truck and grabbing his stuff. I smiled as I grabbed my things and said, "Come on!"
I waited for Parker at the front of the truck. Parker was taking his sweet time walking, but the second I could grab ahold of his hand, I pulled him along behind me as fast as I could get in the house.
"Mom! We're home!" I yelled through the house as we walked in the back door.
"Hey, what about me?" Dad said, leaning over the side of his chair and looking back at us.
"Hey, Dad!" I smiled as I hugged him.
Parker said hey to Dad and gave him a hug while they did the usual "how are you" greetings. I sat down on the couch and looked around, expecting Mom to come in any second.
"So how's the baby, Lil' Bit?" Dad asked me.
"Good." I smiled, looking down at my belly. "I can't wait to see it for the first time tomorrow, even if it is just a blurry picture."
"My first grandchild's first picture." Dad smiled. "I need one to go in my wallet."
I smiled. "Don't you wanna wait till I have a real picture?"
"I'll replace it every time you give me a new picture." Dad said.
"Whatever you want, Dad, or should I say Grandpa." I smirked.
Dad and Parker chuckled.
"So what did you do with Mom?" I asked Dad.
"She had to go to the store for something. She should be back in a few minutes." Dad explained.
***
"Hi, everybody!" Mom said as she walked in about twenty minutes later with a few bags that she set on the table.
"Hey, Mom!" I smiled as I walked over to give her a hug.
After we had gotten our greetings out of the way, I tried to peek in one of the bags.
Mom slapped my hand away from the bag and scolded, "Nuh-uh. You have to wait a few minutes. It's a surprise for you and Parker." Mom smiled. "Now go sit on the couch while I take these bags into my room and get the stuff ready."
"Dad, what'd she get?" I whispered as soon as she walked out of the room.
"I don't know." Dad shrugged.
I scoffed, "Ugh, fine," as I leaned my head on Parker. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and kissed my forehead.
A few minutes later, Mom came back in the room with three bags in her hands, smiling like a Cheshire Cat. She handed one to me, one to Parker, and one to Dad, telling us to wait a second to open them while she goes to get her camera.
"What's the occasion?" Parker asked her when she walked back in.
"Just open them." Mom smiled. "Wait, let your dad open his first, you two."
Parker and I stopped looking in our bags and looked at Dad who was tearing tissue out of the bag. He looked into the bag and his face lit up as he smiled. Mom laughed and snapped a picture of him, telling him to show it to us. Dad pulled out a gray tee shirt and turned it around. It had black letters that said "Promoted to Grandpa." Mom snapped another picture.
"That is so cute." I laughed. "I love it."
"Me too, thank you, honey." Dad said to Mom.
"There's one more little thing in there." Mom smiled.
"Oh, here it is." Dad smiled as he took out a little keychain and looked at it. Mom snapped another picture. "Ain't that cute? It says, 'the best dads get promoted to Grandpa.' "
"I wanna see." I smiled as I stood up and walked over to him. I sat on the armrest of the chair and looked at the metal engraved keychain. "I guess you really are a Grandpa, now, huh, Dad?"
"I sure am." Dad smiled.
I gave Dad a hug, and Mom took another picture of me and Dad together.
"Go get in the picture, Parker." Mom said, ushering Parker over to us.
Parker smiled as he sat on the other armrest and we both wrapped our arm around Dad. Then after she took a picture, Mom ushered both of us back to the couch to open our gifts.
"Parker, now you." Mom smiled.
"Mom." I whined. "Why can't I open mine? I'm the one with the baby."
"I know." Mom smiled. "Save the best for last. Parker, open the present."
"Okay." Parker smirked as he started handing me tissue paper.
Parker started laughing and leaned back on the couch. Mom smiled as she took a picture and I took the present out of the bag. I started laughing as I took it out. It was a black shirt that said in white letters, "the man behind the bump." I smiled as I showed it to Mom so she could take a picture.
"Ain't that just adorable?" I laughed as I held it up to Parker's chest to see what it would look like on him.
Parker laughed, "Yeah. It's funny."
I knew Mom was taking pictures of Parker and me while we were talking, but I didn't care. She loves pictures.
"Okay, Nicole. Now you, sweetie." Mom smiled.
"Yay!" I smiled as I took out the tissue paper.
I started laughing as I took one of the shirts out of the bag. It was white with black lettering that said "Preggers." Mom started taking pictures around that time.
Parker laughed, "That'd be so cute on you, babe."
I smiled. "Yeah, look." I held the shirt up to me. "Cute, huh?"
"Totally." Parker smiled. "What else you got?"
I slapped Parker's hand away from my bag and pulled out the next thing, a white tank top. It had black lettering and said, "Don't eat watermelon seeds." It had pictures of a piece of watermelon and seeds below the lettering. I smiled and showed it to Parker and Dad.
"You ate too many watermelon seeds." Parker smirked.
"Yeah, I totally did." I chuckled.
"Okay, there's more." Mom said after she had taken a few more pictures.
I smiled as I took a blank book out of the bottom of the bag. It was purple, my favorite color. I held it up, smiled, and Mom took a picture, then came to sit beside me on the couch.
"What's this for, Mom?" I smiled.
"It's for me, you, and Hannah to document your pregnancy in a scrapbook." Mom smiled. "See, look." She started flipping through the pages. "I thought we could decorate the cover, and put the pictures we've been taking every week since we found out you're pregnant, and tomorrow we can put your first sonogram picture in it."
I smiled and hugged Mom. "Thank you, I love it. I love it all. You're the best."
"Aw, I'm just enjoying being a soon-to-be grandma." Mom smiled. "I found some ideas online of how we can do the cover and the pages."
"Oh, I can't wait!" I smiled.
"We can do it whenever you want to, honey." Mom said.
"How about I clean up the tissue paper and we can go over to the table and do it?" I smiled.
"Sounds good. I'll go get some craft things, and the laptop and printer so we can print out some pictures." Mom smiled.
"Okay." I nodded.
"Mom sure is excited about this baby, ain't she, Dad?" Parker asked.
"Oh, yeah." Dad smiled. "We both are. It's been so long since we've had a little baby around, and she's trying to do all the things she didn't do with you and Payson. All the pictures, all the memories, everything. She really enjoys it."
"I can tell." Parker smiled.
"Do you wanna help us, Parker? Dad?" I asked when I got through throwing the trash away.
"I'm good, Lil' Bit." Dad said. "I'll just admire it when it gets done. I need to go make some business calls."
"I'll sit over--" Parker got cut off by his phone ringing and pulled out his phone. "Hold that thought, babe. I gotta talk to Rick." Parker answered the phone and walked into the other room. Dad went into his office.
Mom came into the dining room with all the things we needed. I had poured us both some tea, and we both sat down at the table.