“I’ve got to figure some things out, but I can’t exactly do that now,” he told her.

Not that I’ve ever been prevented from figuring things out late into the night on so many other projects.

“Are you still going shopping tomorrow?” she asked.

“Of course.”

“You don’t have to.”

“No. Jen, I promised.”

“But things are different.”

He noticed neither of them was paying attention to the reality show on television, so he turned it off. “That’s what we said last year.”

“But you don’t have to.”

“No, I’m going and that’s it. Your mom said she could look after Gregory if you want to get out.”

“I’m not worried about that. I just don’t want you spending money we don’t have.”

Jenny’s tired expression now was full of worry. This was exactly what he had wanted to avoid. She didn’t need any extra stress, especially stress caused by him.

“Hey—if the rest of the country can spend money they don’t have, why can’t I?”

Jenny didn’t smile this time.

He sat down beside her and put an arm around her. “It’ll be fine, okay? I won’t spend much.”

“You shouldn’t spend anything.”

“You tell me that, yet you keep buying things for the twins.”

“That was before I knew this,” Jenny said. “Besides, everything I get is on sale.”

“So I’ll look for stuff on sale tomorrow.”

“I don’t need anything.”

He looked at Jenny. She was so beautiful. He didn’t tell her because she would say he was crazy like she always did, but it was true. It wasn’t just the cliché of her glowing throughout her pregnancy. It was more than that.

She looks young. She doesn’t look like someone less than a year away from forty.

Then again, what was a woman who was almost forty and expecting twins supposed to look like?

Jenny waited to see if he would say anything else, but then said she was fried and needed to get to bed. He smiled and told her he’d stay up for a while to watch television even though there was nothing he wanted to watch. After he turned on ESPN, his thoughts were filled with everything he needed to do. Then he thought of what she had said about her not needing anything.

Yeah, you need a husband who can tell you you’re beautiful without feeling awkward or waiting for the right time to say it.

He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he’d been able to tell Jenny every waking thought he had, how long he’d been able to relax in her arms and not worry. He’d tried to keep his worry from her, but in doing so he’d managed to keep other things too. Now sometimes it seemed like they were headed toward this giant glacier and they were on two separate ships.

Make that headed for two giant glaciers. Baby A and Baby B.

For a long time, in the silence of the living room, Kevin wondered what kind of life the twins would have alongside their big brother. He wanted to believe that everything was going to be okay, that he would be able to provide the way any other father would. The future, however, remained very cloudy.