“You have your own things, lots of clothes, some furniture...”

“Rob, there’s no room in your house for me and my furnishings. No room for my desk or the antique dry sink I bought years ago and love. And where are we going to put a baby?”

“We’ll have to clear out a room and make a nursery,” he said.

“Oh, see, there’s no room for that. Do you expect me to grab my toothbrush and recreate my life at your house? Here’s what I think—I think we leave things as they are until later.”

“Later?”

“We’re not ready to live together,” she said. “That’s a big commitment. It would be so traumatic if it wasn’t good and we had to separate. And I like my house. We should wait until... I don’t know...until the boys are older. Maybe until Sean starts college.”

“That’s two years,” he said.

“Maybe not quite that long... But I’m not ready...”

“Okay, but there are some things you’re not thinking about. A baby is going to be a lot of work. Around-the-clock work. How are you going to go to the clinic by day, feed the baby a few times a night, keep up with all the extra laundry and work? You’ll be sleep deprived.”

“I have Helen,” she said.

“I thought she was planning to go somewhere for the winter?” he said.

“I’m sure she’ll stay close if I’m having a baby...”

“Have you worked this out with her or are you just assuming she’s going to be your right hand?”

“Actually, we haven’t talked about what we’re going to do when the baby comes but I told her I was very torn about whether we should live together because I’m just... I’m crazy about you, Rob, but combining households and families... Maybe it would be better to wait until you’re almost done raising your first family.”

“It doesn’t work that way, Leigh. My boys will always be my boys and they will always have a room in my house, in our house. You never stop being a father. You just move on to the next stage of fatherhood. It’s kind of like the way your aunt Helen didn’t stop being your aunt Helen when you hit twenty-one.”

“I don’t think we have all the ingredients to move in together.”

“I do,” he said. “I love you. I know you know that.”

“Oh, Rob, you’re the most serious man I’ve had in my life since I was a kid, but I’m not there yet.”

“Yes, I think you are,” he said. “You’re just scared. You’re afraid you can’t live with someone, share a bed every night with someone, wander around your house in your pajamas with a couple of teenage boys around. But I’ve been sneaking into your bed three or four or five times a week since we crossed that line. I think the house is not your house yet but we can fix that. I can’t do it alone. I have to have your input. The boys won’t be a burden to you. They’re helpful.”

“They’re great kids,” she said. “But they’re yours.”

“They’re also this baby’s brothers! Leigh, you are not having this baby alone.”

“But I can,” she said.

His face became stone. “No,” he said. “You can’t.”

“What does that mean?”

“I love you and I want us to do this together—that’s the best-case scenario. I want to be around when the baby wakes up in the middle of the night and you’re too tired to get up. I want to be around when he’s teething and miserable. I want to be there for the first day of preschool.”

“Your boys are going to flip out,” she said.

“Maybe at first but I think they’ll come around pretty quick. They’re crazy about you.”

“No...”

“I think so,” Rob said. “We’ll find out. I’m going to tell them before they notice. We’ve got to make a few decisions.”

She took his hand and pulled him closer. “Let’s not talk about this anymore right now. We have the house to ourselves...”

“Leigh, would you give up your baby?” he asked.

“Of course not,” she said.

“Neither will I,” he said.

He stared at her for a long moment and she waited for him to just take her into his arms. His expression wasn’t very happy. He wanted her to say she loved him, that she was excited to live with him and his boys. Most women would. Instead, he was making it clear he would fight her for this baby. Tears gathered in her eyes.

“Come here,” he said, pulling her into his arms. “If you’ll just meet me halfway...”

“I’m doing my best,” she said in a whisper.

“Tell me what you need from me to help you make some decisions,” he said.

“I don’t know,” she whispered.

* * *

Rob was facing August and he thought he saw the smallest rounding of Leigh’s middle. Some things that the average person might not be aware of had caught his attention, like the tenderness of her breasts, the darkening of her nipples. Pretty soon she was going to be asked outright. People were going to know, and if people knew, someone would tell the kids.

He blocked out some time. He asked them to be sure to be home at five for dinner. He wouldn’t go back to the pub unless everything was calm at home. He whipped up some enchiladas and guacamole dip. He set the table for three.

“What’s the occasion?” Finn asked.

“Man talk,” he said. “Where’s your brother?”

“Late, as usual. He was going to play ball at the park for a while.” Finn got out his phone and started to text when the back door flew open and Sean blasted in.

Rob immediately thought Sean might drive Leigh crazy, wake the baby, track dirt into the house, be a lot of work. Lucky for Sean he was a sweetheart. That might save him.

“Whoa,” Sean said. “Date night?” he asked, winking.

“Guy talk,” Finn said.

“Great,” Sean said. “I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately. This should help.”

“I have a serious issue to talk about,” Rob said. “I guess it’s a well-known fact—Leigh is my girlfriend. And my girlfriend is pregnant.”

That shut them up. They just stared at him with their lips parted in shock.

“Dude!” Sean said.

“How’d that happen?” Finn asked.

Rob decided against any smart-ass response. He aimed for honest. “Failed birth control. So, here’s the deal—it’s going to be obvious before long. I’ve asked her to marry me and she shut that down real fast. She says we just don’t know each other well enough yet. I guess she could be right about that. I’d feel a lot better about us being parents if we checked off all the boxes, you know? So I asked her to move in here and I can tell the idea scares her to death. Move in with a guy and his teenagers and have a baby? I’d be scared, too. But the bottom line is this—I’m going to keep trying to convince her to work with me to find a way we can all get together on this. You’re my family, that baby is my family, we should help each other.”

They were stunned silent. No one touched their plates. Rob gave them a minute to digest the news but a minute was all he had. His nerves were shot. He got up and went for a beer in the refrigerator. He sat back down.

“Maybe you should pass a few of those out,” Sean said.

“I know it’s quite a load to take on,” Rob said.

“What the hell, Dad?” Finn said.

“Well, I’m forty, Finn. And I care about her very much so we got physically involved and bingo—pregnancy. Nature has a mind of her own, sometimes. I’m not sixteen or seventeen and of course I know better, but knowing better isn’t always good enough. Also, I can support a family.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. Do you want to marry her?”

He was quiet for a moment. “I do. But I don’t think she buys it. I have a feeling she thinks I’m just trying to be responsible, but that’s such a small part of it. I think she’s the most fantastic...” He cleared his throat. “I really care about her. We’re compatible and I’m flexible. I’m willing to do whatever I have to do to make her comfortable. I’m going to keep working on that because here’s what I’m after—we should take care of that baby together, under one roof. That baby is my baby. That baby is your sibling and you should have a chance to watch him grow up. You should help with the whole process. And she doesn’t know this yet but she can’t do this alone. Babies are hard. Sometimes they cry for hours. And always in the middle of the night.”

“Sounds great,” Sean said.

“You have headphones,” Rob said.

“When’s this baby happening?” Finn asked.

“I think February. We haven’t exactly nailed down the due date yet, but sometime after Christmas.”

“And it’s a boy?” Sean asked.

“We don’t know yet. I just say him because that’s what I’m used to.”

“There something wrong with our house?” Sean asked.

“Okay, try to look at it from her perspective. We’ve kind of been through this with Aunt Sid. We had to do a lot to make space for her, remember?”

“We got a Dumpster,” Finn said. “So, you want to get a Dumpster?”

“Not until I know what we have to do,” he said. “I tried talking to her about this a few days ago and she started to cry. I’d like her to be involved in making this her house as well as our house, but she’s so emotional...”

“I can’t believe this,” Sean said. “What does she expect you to do? Visit your kid down the street? Would she rather we all move into her house?”

“Her house is definitely too small for us. Here’s what I think is going on. I think when she looks ahead there’s a big blank space after next month. I think she’s in denial. But real soon it’s going to be so obvious she won’t have a choice. She’s going to have to plan something.”