“Just remembering your amazing wheelie trick.” She reached over and wiped some chili from his chin with a napkin.
“It was gnarly, wasn’t it?” He grinned.
“Where’d you learn that word from?” She sputtered. She shook her head. This son of hers never failed to amaze her.
“Leo. He said his brother says it all the time.” Kian shoveled more of the chili into his mouth then popped a chip in with it.
She wasn’t sure how he got so much food into such a small space, but he made it work.
She laughed, and somewhere deep inside her, hope blossomed.
Tomorrow. She would know tomorrow if there would be another little Maxwell.
And maybe—just maybe—the four of them would be a family.
“Mom, can I ask a question?” Kian paused and looked over at her.
He seemed so serious, panic suddenly filled her.
“Of course, baby. You can ask me anything,” she said.
“Why don’t I have a big brother?”
She paused and blinked. Well, that wasn’t what she was expecting. How the hell did she answer this question?
Well, son, your father and I only met a couple of weeks before you were conceived and then we had unprotected sex a few times.
That sure wouldn’t go over well and would certainly open the conversation of the birds and the bees.
“Babe. Not everyone has older siblings. Some kids don’t have any,” she said, voice gentle.
“Like me?”
“Yeah, like you. Sometimes mommies and daddies just only want one kid so they can give them all the love and attention they would need.” She reached over and placed a kiss to the top of his head. She paused and thought for moment. “What about if you had a little brother or sister?”
She hesitated in asking. She had never thought to even ask Kian how he felt if he was no longer the only child.
“That would be so cool. If I had a little brother, then Ican show him how to do wheelies!” He grew excited and hopped around in his seat.
“But what if you got a sister?” She chuckled.
“Why would we get one of them?” he deadpanned.
She almost choked on her food. She reached for her drink and took a sip.
“We don’t get to decide. God decides if mommies and daddies have girls or boys,” she tried to explain.
He thought about it then shrugged.
“I guess a sister would be okay, but where would we get me a brother or sister from?” he asked.
She sighed and seriously didn’t want to go into how babies were conceived while eating dinner. Maybe she shouldn’t have brought up the question.
“It’s complicated,” she said.
“Can we go get one tomorrow?”
Vic had run through exhaustion before with late meetings, cross-country flights, back-to-back presentations, family dinners, charity events, and investor pressure. But none of those could compare to what he’d been through today.