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Carrie flipped quickly through the racks of baby clothes hanging in front of her, every now and then she would pause and look at one intently before letting out a soft and happy sigh and adding it to the already bulging cart she was pushing around the baby store.
“So we’re all there and Lainie is just bawling her eyes out over her knee and I’m doing my best to figure out if it’s just a really bloody scrape or if I need to take her to get stitches,” Carrie said, continuing her story. “And I turn to Eddie and tell him to get me a band-aid and the first aid kit and he says ‘A really big band-aid, mommy’ and I say, ‘Yes, a big one,’ not really thinking too hard about it.”
Liv never ceased to be amused by the endless childhood stories of Ed that Carrie was filled with - much to his mounting horror - and she couldn’t help but think that one day that would be her happily sharing embarrassing moments about her own children.
“And so that little guy -” Carrie paused to chuckle to herself at the memory, “he comes up and hands me a sanitary napkin and says ‘Here’s the band-aid’! He was so proud of himself for helping.”
She couldn’t help but laugh along with her. She was quickly learning that children were a little bit insane. With a hand resting on her now very swollen stomach she let her heart fill with excitement at what lay ahead of her.
“You know, mom,” Ed said as he approached the two of them, completely oblivious that their laughter was at his expense, “You don’t need to buy out the whole store - we have enough clothes and most of the nursery is set up already.”
Carrie just hummed false agreement and put another outfit into the basket. “Yes, but you’re buying for two. Oh,” she said as she snapped her fingers in memory, “that reminds me, there will be a delivery to your apartment on Saturday. They can leave it with the doorman but . . . well, it’s a little large, you may want to be there so the delivery man can set it up for you.”
Ed and Liv exchanged a glance but rather than argue the point they decided to give in to the inevitable purchases of Caroline Tucker. At least she always included gift receipts in case they needed to return anything they already had.
As Ed’s mother moved deeper into the store Ed grabbed Liv’s hand and pulled her to the side. “How are you doing? You feeling okay?” His hands automatically moved to her belly and she couldn’t stop the thrill that ran through her body at the feel of his touch.
“I feel great - it’s actually been nice to walk around.” She looked down at what little she could see of her swollen feet. “I may need to sit down for a bit in a little while, though.”
He nodded his head in agreement. “I’ll tell mom to make it quick - I don’t know how she thinks all those shopping bags are going to get back to the apartment.”
“You’ve got a pretty strong back,” she said with a grin. “I’m sure you’ll manage.”
“Keep it up, Benson,” he said with a grin as he leaned down to kiss her quickly on the lips.
“Hey,” she whispered when he rested his forehead against hers - she loved it when he made these little shows of affection, and he wasn’t stingy about them, “guess what?”
“What?” he asked with a smile, already knowing what was coming.
“We’re going to have a baby!” Even now, at seven months she couldn’t contain the joy inside of her.
“We’re having babies - in case you’ve forgotten - there’s two kids in that belly.”
“I still can’t believe you knocked me up with twins,” she said with a soft sigh.
He stood up to his full height again and ran his hand over her arms and then down to the small of her back to hold her to him. “You kind of asked me to.”
“How was I supposed to know you’d be so . . . proficient?”
“Oh, I’ll show you how proficient I am,” he said with a lascivious smile only to have his attention pulled away from her when he heard a voice being cleared a couple of feet away.
“Olivia?” said a voice behind her and she couldn’t help but tense at the sound of Kathy’s voice.
Kathy. The last time she’d seen Kathy had been when she’d given birth to Eli.
Please don’t let Elliot be with her, she thought but she could tell by the way Ed went rigid that he would be.
With a sigh she turned around to face them head on.
“Hello, Kathy,” her voice went a little hard, “Elliot.”
Elliot’s eyes narrowed and his lips pressed into a thin line but he managed to say, “Hello.”
“Well, isn’t this nice, running into each other like this,” said Kathy with a bright smile. She was holding the baby, Eli, in her arms and from the looks of it she was gripping him to her with all her might. “Liv, I knew you were pregnant but I didn’t know you were so far along.” Her eyes wandered over to Elliot who hadn’t taken his own eyes off of Olivia.
“Yes,” Liv said, a bit nonplussed at how friendly Kathy was acting - she knew without a doubt that Kathy had heard the entire exchange that she’d had with Elliot in the hospital hallway just after she’d given birth. There was no way she hadn’t heard. “Seven months.”
“Oh, good, good,” she said with false cheer. “Those last few months go by quickly. Are you having a boy or girl?”
Elliot looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel and Ed’s hand hadn’t left its spot on the small of her back, but she felt like she had no choice but to play along.
“Both,” she answered. “We’re having twins.”
“Excuse me,” Elliot said and he spun on his heel and walked away from the rest of the group.
“Elliot,” Kathy called after him, but he didn’t turn. “I should go,” Kathy said when she turned back to Ed and Liv. “But Liv -” she hesitated for a long moment, “I’m really happy for you. I mean that.”
“Thank you, Kathy.”
After she’d walked away Liv said, “In a city of six million people we just happen to bump into the Stablers?”
“Sometimes life just isn’t fair,” Ed said sarcastically behind her, but she elbowed him good naturedly in the ribs.
“Life is pretty fucking great right about now,” Liv said to him with a smile. Forget about the Stablers, she had better things to think about.
“Pretty fucking great,” he agreed.
“Edward James Tucker, I don’t care how old you are I will wash your mouth out with soap.”
Ed winced as he turned to his mother who was standing behind him aghast. “Of all the things I do, that’s what you choose to lecture me about?”
“I can lecture you about marrying the mother of your children if you prefer?” Carrie said with a wicked gleam in her eye.
Ed’s eyes went wide and darted to Liv and then back to his mother.
“We don’t need to have this discussion right now,” Ed said.
“No, I guess we don’t,” she said with a sigh. “But I do need your help grabbing a box off a high shelf.”
Ed hung his head for a moment in defeat before letting out a low groan. “There is absolutely nothing in this store that you need to get for us.”
“Well,” Carrie said primly, “I’m not getting it for you. I’m getting it for my grandbabies. Now go.” It really wasn’t difficult to see where Ed got his imperious tone from.
“Yes, mother,” he said as he rolled his eyes at Liv.
She just smiled at him. There were worse things that they could have dealt with than a happy grandmother.