“Kev—what are you doing?”

“Mommy—we finished the tree!”

“I see.” Jenny couldn’t stop looking at the tree.

“We changed things up a little.”

“Where’d you get those blinking lights?”

“From the bag,” Kevin said.

“And where’d you find those ornaments?”

“Don’t you like them?”

She gave him a horrified look but then smiled when Gregory was looking at her. The ornaments were little dogs in Christmas sweaters. Sure, they clashed a bit with her classy burgundy and gold, but maybe this year they could have that hodgepodge of a tree Kevin always told them they should do.

Gregory was opening another box and pulling out some silver garland.

“Sweetie, no, no, don’t take that out.” Jenny shot Kevin an irritated look.

“I was just—we were just trying to help out,” Kevin said.

“Why didn’t you guys go to church?”

“I don’t know,” he said, but Jenny knew exactly.

Because I don’t want to sit there and think of my to-do list and hear a pastor tell me all the other things I still need to do.

The lights blinked around the Christmas dogs.

“They’re Santa Buddies!” Gregory said.

“Great—I never even saw these.”

“I think I bought them last year,” Kevin said.

“I see.”

Maybe we should’ve gone to church.

Just as Kevin was about to say something, half a strand of blinking lights flickered quickly, then went out. Jenny shook her head and started to laugh.

Later on that morning, after a pancake breakfast that served as a brunch for all of them, Kevin helped Jenny redecorate the tree. Or more like undo the damage he’d done. After finishing most everything on it, Jenny took a break, sitting on a chair in the living room.

“You feeling okay?” he asked.

Such a redundant question.

“I’m sore,” Jenny replied.

Such a redundant reply.

“You worried about this week?”

She looked away for a moment, nodding as she did. He knew that she was nervous about the next doctor’s appointment. Whenever it crossed his mind, and it seemed to cross his mind all the time, Kevin would begin to worry. Their next appointment was this Wednesday, when Jenny would be thirty-one weeks pregnant.

“I’m just trying not to think about it too much and worry,” Jenny said.

Guess it’s a good thing I brought it up, huh?

“It’ll be fine. I’m sure Baby B has caught up to Baby A.”

From her expression he could tell that Jenny not only doubted his comment, but it was obvious she knew that he was just saying it to make her feel better. “We still need to figure out names.”

“I keep telling you—Cujo and Maximus. Very masculine names.”

“Ha ha.”

For some reason, it was easier referring to them as Baby A and Baby B. If something did happen to one or both of them . . .

Stop it, Kev, don’t go there.

But deep down underneath the joking, he did worry about something happening to one or both of the babies. They were only at week thirty-one, and the doctor himself had said they were entering a critical stretch in terms of the growth of each baby.