She rubbed her belly and surveyed the room one last time. Lex would be back with Nikki later that afternoon and Aspen wanted it to be perfect. Whatever things Aspen could be accused of being, a bad host was not one of them. She had even stocked the fridge with the barest of necessities in case Nikki didn’t want to join them for meals. Aspen wasn’t sure just how long she would be visiting and, honestly, had no expectations of how much interaction they would have with Nikki. Aspen shrugged and backed out of the room slowly. At nine months, her belly protruded far too much to make moving quickly possible. She felt a foot or an elbow or something akin to Thor’s hammer jab her in the side, and she groaned softly. “Live it up, kiddo. Pretty soon you’re mine.” She and Lex teased all the time that the baby would be born with a black belt in Taekwondo, or at the very least, a kicker for the Patriots. Either way, little baby body parts were waging war on Aspen’s insides.
