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PART ONE

BABY: DAY 1

LEVI

The world was full of liars I was sure of it It had to be I was sure of it Throughouttheir kids inhow they were so cute How there was no other kid on the planet as beautiful as their child I’d aardly just agree, sive the kid a little nod, and ood enough; beautiful was just the bareit Ulric was pulchritudinous Yes, pulchritudinous, a 15-letter, 5-syllable word thatbeauty effort needed to be used in order to say it Closinghi soundly in my arms He was actually the cutest baby in the world, and as such, everyone else was a bunch of liars

“Shh…” I whispered softly as he started to twist and turn in ht face bunched up as he prepared to de I didn’t want to wake her, but—

“Sory,” she said softly, her head tilted at us in the chair beside her She s up with hi hienius; the , cal over I helped open her gown enough

“Ahh…”

“Does it hurt?” I asked, watching her carefully

She giggled and shook her head s down at hi attached to me”

“Do you need anything?” I asked, stroking the side of her dark hair She shook her head no, unable to look away fro

That’s how pulchritudinous he was He could steal the attention of the love of ladly accept it because … because my heart felt like it was about to burst out of my chest

Feeling my phone vibrate, I pulled it out to see the strea in from both of our families

“Are they really trying to get here at this hour?” Thea asked, finally looking up at me

“As they should be,” I nodded, texting my mother back “What is a New Year’s celebration compared to him?”

“Can’t believe you held out for the new year,” she said to him

“I can’t believe you did either,” I teased, grinning, reed for him to come out

“Shut up”

“Shh…” I reached over, putting ers over his tiny ears “Don’t teach hi to fu—screith that later”

She rolled her brown eyes at me “You’re ridiculous”

“I’ her forehead “thank you…thank you for all the ways you’ve blessed my life”

She sed, nodding, fighting the tears in her eyes I was too

Was it possible to explode from too much happiness? If so, I was sure I was ready to si et to stare at them more

God…these really were the best years of my life Even on the worst days, it was the best

THEA