“Nick, I can’t get Willie and Houston to come out of the closet.”

“Tell them we’re going on the big boat.”

“I did.”

“Did you say boat, or big boat?” he asked, his head in the refrigerator.

“I said ‘Come on out puppies, we’re gonna go out on the boat!’” she said, using the high pitched voice she saved just for the dogs.

“Tell them we’re going on the big boat.” he repeated as he extracted 2 bottles of water and some fruit from the open door.

“Fine.” She rolled her eyes, walking down the hall to their bedroom. She stuck her head in the open closet door. “Willie! Houston! We’re going on the big boat!”

As Nick had predicted, the dogs came out from their dark corner, bounding through Rayanne’s legs to the front door. They stopped and looked at Nick, their tails wagging.

“Told you.” he laughed.

“You better not be this dorky with our child.” Rayanne warned.

“If it gets him out of the closet, I’ll do exactly that.”

“If he hides in the closet, I say we should leave him there. We’re gonna be very short on alone time you know.” she laughed.

“Like we’re not now. Ready?”

“Yup.” she said, grabbing the keys to the house.

“All dogs accounted for?”

“Yup. I’m glad we decided to bring them. I feel so bad doing fun stuff I know they love without bringing them.”

“Jesus Ray, if you’re that worried about leaving the dogs home when we take the boat out, how are you gonna leave the baby alone when we go places?”

“I’ll worry about that one when it happens. Hang on, I have to pee again.”

“Lord.” he laughed. “I’m gonna make sure all the dogs are in the boat, come out when you’re done.”

“Alright!” she yelled from the bathroom. “Can we please go this weekend without having to go to the bathroom every twenty minutes?” she asked her stomach. She felt a flutter and pressure against her insides. “I hope that was a yes.” she laughed.

Nick helped Nicky and Sunshine jump in the boat and loaded the cooler and their bags. “Come on Ray!” he yelled when he saw her come out of the house.

“Coming!” She ran across the yard and hopped on the boat, with a little help from Nick. “How long of a ride is it?”

“Not too bad. A couple of hours.”

“Can we stop on the way and go swimming or something?”

“If you want. We have to be careful though, I don’t want a shark eating up my unborn son.”

“What about me?”

“What about you?”

“You don’t want a shark eating up your wonderful girlfriend either do you?”

“Well geez Ray, if the shark ate you up, the baby’s kinda gonna go with you.” he said, as the soft hum of the slow motor came to life.

Her brow furrowed. “What if the baby was already born?”

“Then the shark would probably get a pretty tasty meal.”

“Man you can be an ass.”

He didn’t look away from the water, growing vast before them. “I said ‘tasty’, you should take that for the compliment it is. Watch Rocky, he likes to jump in.”

“You better try to keep that taste in your memory, cause you’re not gonna be getting anymore anytime soon.”

“You know I can have it whenever I want it.”

“That’s only because I like it even more than you do, so I always want to.”

“You’d think from liking it so much, you’d be a little better at it.” Now he turned his attention to her slightly, watching out of the corner of his eye.

“You were just upgraded from ass to asshole. You’re lucky we’re not married, I’d file for divorce.”

“You can put that on your list of things to do the day after the wedding.”

“No way. I’m getting the honeymoon first. Then I’ll file for divorce.”

“You sure you want to be in your early twenties, have a baby and have been married and divorced?” he asked turning his full attention to her.

“If we go on some stellar honeymoon, which we better, I don’t mind at all. I’ll have the baby to keep me company.” she answered, knowing if she looked at him she’d start laughing and not be able to stop.

“I could fight you for custody.”

“You’re never around to take care of a baby.”

“You’re a high priced call girl.”

“Nickolas! What the hell has gotten in to you today?”

“I knew I’d win.” He grinned smugly, unfazed by Rayanne rolling her eyes.

“When can we stop so I can swim?”

“In a few more minutes. We’re not even very far out.”

Rayanne peeled off her shorts and tee shirt, stuffing them into their bag of clothes. She sat in the seat next to Nick, throwing her feet over the side. It felt good to have the sun spread over her exposed skin, warming her from the outside in.

Nick drove for a few miles, enjoying the silence and water around them before her turned the motor off and let the boat float to a half-stop. He looked over to see Rayanne’s head hanging to the side, her blonde hair covering half of her face.

He stripped down to his hunter green suit and dove off the side of the boat as gently as he could. He pierced through the surface of the water, swimming away from the boat. He broke back through the surface a minute later, turning to see how far he was from where he started.

He ran his fingers through his hair, treading water. He hadn’t been out in so long, he missed this when he was gone. He swam by himself, at peace for almost a half hour before Rayanne woke up.

“Somebody didn’t want me to sleep.” she said groggily, leaning over the side of the boat Nick was on.

“Was he kicking?” Nick asked, swimming closer.

“Yup. I think he wants to get in.”

“Bring him in then!”

Rayanne lowered herself down the ladder on the back of the boat, her body involuntarily tensing at the temperature of the water.

“Cripes, we’re in Florida, shouldn’t the water be a little warmer?” she asked before she completely submerged herself.

“It is November, don’t forget.” she heard as she came back up.

“I’m just so used to snow in November.”

“Then your body should be used to this!” he laughed.

“This is the little one’s first time swimming, I wonder how he’s liking it.”

“Is he being still?”

“For once, knock on wood.” She looked around for something wooden, not finding anything.

“Ya know, we’ve been saying HE an awful lot lately. Do you think it’s a boy?”

“I dont’ know any more than you do.”

“But the baby’s inside you, don’t you have instinct or something? Like, a feeling?”

“I never thought about it, I guess I do have feelings. I have a feeling it’s gonna come early though. I don’t know why, but when I picture having this baby, I don’t see April.”

“But you never thought about whether it was a girl or boy?”

“Not really. I picture us with him or her, but I just picture us so happy, it doesn’t ever matter if it’s a boy or a girl. But I guess I have been saying ‘he’, haven’t I?”

“Maybe you want a boy.”

“Do you want a boy?”

“I just want your baby. I don’t care if it’s a girl or a boy, as long as it’s not one of each.” he smiled.

“Couldn’t handle twins?”

“Uh uh. Grew up with that, can’t do it.”

“Aaron and Angel are perfectly behaved.”

His eyebrow involuntarily shot up. “I’m not talking about now, I’m talking about when they were babies, and when they were two years old. It’s not something I’d wish for.”

“If we did have twins, we could always give them to your mom, she’d know what to do.” Rayanne joked.

“Grandma Jane would hand them right back.” he grinned.

“Good, I want to spend as much time with the baby as I can.”

“Me too.” He kicked away from her, flipping on his back. “I was thinking about how hard it’s going to be when we’re on tour.”

“We’ll figure something out. You know we will.”

“There are a lot of different options.”

“Yes there are. Options we don’t have to worry about right now.”

“There is one that sticks out the most.” he said, ignoring her.

“And what’s that? We come on tour with you?” She swam closer to where he was still floating, starting up at the puffy white clouds.

“No,” he said, coming off his back, to face her. “I quit the group.”