Phillip sets out on his typical jogging route—down the sidewalk, to the left, and then right onto the trail.
“Let’s go a different way today,” I suggest.
“But I know exactly how long this route is,” he argues.
“It’s fun to go different ways, Phillip. Besides, you shouldn’t be so predictable. What if a killer were stalking you and watching your habits? Predictability makes you vulnerable.”
“You’ve been reading too many spy novels,” he says with a laugh.
“Maybe, but we’re still going this way today.” I point, heading the opposite direction of where we usually go. “Come on. Who knows what we’ll see?”
We take a jogging trail that ends up cutting through a portion of our neighborhood that has multimillion-dollar homes. A lot of Danny’s teammates live here. I’ve always wanted to drive through and gawk at the houses.
Although we enjoy jogging together, we really don’t talk much. We listen to our own music, Phillip playing pump-me-up rock while I play a wide assortment from rap to EDM to country. I’m not sure what Phillip thinks about while jogging. He always says it helps clear his mind, that he doesn’t want to think. I’m the opposite. When I’m stuck on a design or a project, a jog helps me figure it out.
Phillip turns the corner, and we end up going down a hill into a large park area. There’s a big, swirly slide and a bank of swings. I stop running to stare at them. It’s been a while since I’ve been on a swing. My mind flashes back to a few days after my parents’ funeral when Phillip took me to swing. Then, it flashes to a time in college when I was having a meltdown over failing a test. It was the beginning of my sophomore year, and I’d never failed a test in my life. I figured I’d go drown my sorrows at a frat party, but Phillip drove me to a park where we swung and drank vodka out of a flask. We stayed there for hours, playing like kids, until the mosquitoes started attacking us. We went back to our townhouse and watched a movie. I must have fallen asleep during it because I woke up the next morning, all tucked in my bed. Phillip’s arm was draped across me, and he was snoring softly. If I hadn’t known it for sure before then, I knew in that moment that I wanted to wake up with him every day of my life.
Phillip realizes I’m not running anymore because he jogs back to me, pulling out his earbuds and looking at the swings. “Been a while, huh?”
“Yeah, it has,” I say.
“Last one there’s a rotten egg!”
I race after him, catching up and jumping on his back, but I sort of forget I’m pregnant, and my belly bashes into him.
He falls to the ground, laughing about how he’s getting too old for this, and then he rolls on top of me and pins me to the ground.
“If you’re too old and out of shape for a piggyback ride now, there’s no hope of you whooping your daughter’s future boyfriends,” I tease.
He leans down and kisses me.
“Your body isn’t exactly the same as it used to be,” he says gently, pulling me up. “Do you want to swing?”
“I don’t know,” I tease. “You think I can with a belly like this?”
“You’re not that big,” he tells me.
“I know. I haven’t really popped out yet. But I’m glad. Chelsea was telling me that her back is really bothering her.”
“Do you think Baby Mac will like to swing?”
“I don’t know. Let’s find out,” I suggest.
Pretty soon, I’m flying high with my toes pointed toward heaven.
“I want to build our kids a big swing set in the backyard,” Phillip says as we’re swinging. “We used to play on ours all the time.”
“How many kids do you want?”
“I don’t know. A lot. Four, maybe five. What about you?”
“I want more than one because I always wished I had brothers and sisters. Maybe we should see how we do with one first though.”
Phillip laughs. “We’re going to do fine.”
“Do you think we will? I wasn’t worried about it before, but Danny and Lori seem to be struggling. It makes me nervous.”
“I think we have a very different kind of relationship than Danny and Lori.”
“How so?”
“Well, we get along.”
“But what about when we’re under stress? When we’re tired and crabby?”
“We survived four years of finals weeks together,” he offers.
“That’s because we drank a lot in between studying to blow off steam.” I laugh.
“Well, there you have it. We’ll make sure we don’t forget to blow off a little steam together.” He grabs my swing, stops it from swinging, and pulls me into his arms. “And, by blowing off steam, I mean, sex.”
“I read that dating is important after a baby. Not just sex. We need to remember to take time to focus on our marriage, too.”
“Happy wife, happy life,’ is what my dad always says.”
“I think that’s misleading. In trying to make Lori happy, Danny is making himself miserable. I think it has to be a balance.”
He kisses me. “I think you’re right. I’ll try to keep you happy. You try to keep me happy. And we’ll be fine.”
I nod. “I love you, Phillip.”
“I love you, too. Speaking of that, I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Like what?”
He grabs my hand. “Let’s walk home, and we can talk.”
“Okay,” I say as we head back to the path.
“So, I was thinking about getting you a new car.”
“Why? My car is only a few years old.”
Phillip looks up at the sky. “Um, I was just thinking a bigger car would be nice. You take the dog everywhere. We’ll have a baby seat and all that stuff soon.”
“If you’re trying to talk me into a minivan, it’s not going to happen. I’m only twenty-three. I’m not ready for that.”
“I was thinking of an SUV. You seemed to like driving Mr. D’s when you had it, didn’t you?”
“Are you saying you want to buy me a Mercedes? Um, okay. But what if I got a convertible instead?”
“That sort of defeats the purpose of a bigger car.”
“I like my car, Phillip. Maybe you should get an SUV.”
“Fine. I looked up the crash ratings on your car. It’s not as safe as it could be.”
“Is this about my dream the other night?”
“Maybe. Kind of. It just got me thinking. What if it was a premonition, Jadyn?”
His calling me Jadyn stops me in my tracks. “You told me all my wedding-disaster dreams didn’t mean anything.”
“You weren’t pregnant then.”
“You’re being silly,” I tell him. “I’ll be fine. It was just a stupid dream.”
God forbid I tell him about the river of blood. He’d probably buy me an ark.
“Princess, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t argue with me about this. Would you just come look at the Audi and the Mercedes? Surely, you want to keep our baby as safe as possible, don’t you?”
“Can we even afford it?”
“Sometimes, it’s not about the money, Jadyn.”
I guess I can’t argue with that.
