January 11th-

My dearest Diary, it has been many months since I’ve set outside the confines of these four walls or seen civilization. What waits for me out there? Has the world changed much?

“What are you doing?” Sam asked as he finished drying a pan from the pasta bake, we had for dinner. “Are you doing that thing again where you pretend to be writing a Civil War-Era letter?” I look away, totally not feeling embarrassed for being called out by my husband.

“No…”

___

“What do you think of the name, Billy?” asked Sam, leafing through a baby name book.

“For Baby A or Baby B?” I ate a spoonful of cereal. “Hm… I’m not sure. I’m getting flashbacks about a bully I knew in middle school.” We had been going through the baby book to try and find the perfect names for our two new arrivals. We’d made it up to the Bs.

“What about Bennett?” he suggested. “Or Bailey?”

“Put them on the list.”

April 14th-

Forgive me for slacking on my journaling duties. I have pregnancy brain. Leave me alone.

The snow has melted enough for me to be able to drive to the city to meet Mr. Barnaby for our meeting.

“Do you really have to go?” Sam complained as I waddled out to the car. “You can stay here and teleconference with him.” Now, we do live in a wonderful age where I could most definitely teleconference with Nana’s attorney and never have to leave the safety of the packhouse. The only problem with this plan was that after the longest winter in history, I was feeling a little cuckoo cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs and needed to get out of the house. I was this close to putting Sam in an actual doghouse.

“We’ve been over this, Sammy.”

“I’ll make it worth your while if you stay.” He started to kiss my neck, which he knows is like my pregnancy Kryptonite. Be strong Kate the Great.

Regretfully, I took a step back. “I’m only going to be gone one night,” I reminded him.

“But you’re about to pop. What if you have the babies?”

I rolled my eyes. Sam was not going to let his pregnant mate go out into the world unprotected. He’d assigned three protection details to guard us. I wonder if this is what Beyoncé feels like? “If I go into labor before I get back, one of the guards will let you know. I promise. I love you.”

He opened the driver’s side door for me. “I love you too.”

___

The offices of Barnaby, Granger, and Rolf Attorneys at Law were quiet when I got there. Their tired receptionist tried to make herself appear busy even though I’d seen her making paper airplanes a few seconds before.

“I’m here to see Mr. Barnaby,” I tell her, still totally not afraid to speak to receptionists.

“Name?”

“Katie… I mean, Kate, no… Katherine Morgan.” Harper, I added in my head. “I’m Mr. Barnaby’s four o’clock.”

I waddled after her down a short hallway and into a tight office. She pointed at a hard-plastic chair for me to sit down on.

“Ms. Morgan.” Mr. Barnaby looked up from a stack of paperwork at me. “You’re pregnant.” It wasn’t a question, just merely a statement.

I pointed at my belly. “Yup, a recent acquisition.”

Mr. Barnaby didn’t ask any additional questions and started rambling off some legal jargon. “Have you completed the terms of your grandmother’s will?”

I shrugged. I’d only lived in the house for a few weeks before moving in with Sam. Two families had been living in the house for the last few months while their homes were being rebuilt. I’d tried a half dozen times to write my book, but each time ended in failure. I handed him my diary. I was nervous for him to read it. We didn’t spread around that Sam was… You know. Instead, Mr. Barnaby quickly flipped the pages and handed the diary back to me.

“Congratulations. You have both written a book and kept a diary, per your grandmother’s request.” Apparently, Nana never specified that I had to write a separate book on top of writing a journal. Gotta love good ole Nana.