“I don’t know. Mine’s pretty good. I don’t know if I can top her.”
“Sure you can,” says Evander. “Because she’s already taught you all the things she wishes she could do over. She’s basically saved you time, so you don’t have to repeat the same mistakes she did. You can definitely out-mother your mother. It’s simple logic.”
“I can’t argue with that.”
“El?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you scared?”
“Terrified.”
“Me too. Think we can just give it to your parents? They seem better qualified anyway.”
I laugh. “I thought you said I would be a better mother than my mother.”
“Yeah, but there’s no way I’m exceeding your father in fatherliness. The man should write a book on it.”
“Don’t say that to his face. It’ll go to his head.”
Evander lifts himself up onto his forearms. “I’m serious, Ellie.”
“About giving our child to my parents? Because I’ll warn you, if we go down that path, there will be no getting them back. I’m sure my parents already have high expectations for how often our child will be at their home.”
Evander doesn’t smile, even at the joke. “No, I mean about being a father. I don’t doubt you at all. Fates, Ellie. You’ll be a natural. You’re good at everything you do.”
“Well, not glassblowing,” I say.
“Yes, because of a magical curse that made you forget all your skill. But you’ll get the ability back one of these days.”
“You say that with such confidence.”
“How else am I supposed to feel when it comes to you?”
I smile, linking my fingers through his. “You’re going to be a wonderful father, Evander.”
He shakes his head and smiles, though sadly. “You have examples of what parents are supposed to be. I don’t.”
“You have your mother.”
Evander sighs. “Yes, but I’m not going to be the mother, am I?”
“I’m afraid you’re right. That spot’s taken and I’m less than eager to give it up.”
“I wouldn’t dare. But Ellie, I didn’t have a father like yours. I don’t even know what a father is supposed to do with a child.”
“Well, what is it you would have liked your father to do with you?”
Evander frowns, turning away slightly, like his eyes are watering and he wants to hide it from me. “It’s all silly things.”
“Children are supposed to be silly. I think that’s a great start.”
Evander sighs. “Well, I think I would have liked it if he’d acted like he enjoyed being around me.”
“I think you have a starting place,” I say, though I don’t mention that it’s a sorry standard his father has set.
“Yeah, maybe.” He smiles, seeming at least a bit comforted, then pushes my tunic up and lays his head across my belly.
“Still in there?” I ask jokingly, even though my chest always feels like it’s being ripped apart from anxiety anytime he checks for the baby’s heartbeat.
“Still in there,” he says, and I run my fingers through his already tousled hair.
Just then, the tent flap opens and Blaise rushes in. I gasp, grabbing for my blanket to cover my belly, but it’s too late.
“Oh.” Blaise stares at my belly, as if to make out how it appeared like this in the hour since she’d last seen me. Her gaze darts toward the parka hanging on the clothesline, and she nods, almost as if to herself.
“That explains the extra heartbeat,” she says, turning to me and Evander.
And then she plasters the most devastatingly convincing smile on her face.
“I’m so happy for the two of you,” she says.
And then Blaise disappears into the night.
CHAPTER 27
ASHA
