It was 8:51am when Tommy woke up that morning; his arms were still circled around Kristin, just as they had been when she had fallen asleep in his arms the night before. He could feel the baby kicking and he wondered how Kristin could sleep through it; he knew if there was something kicking inside of his stomach he would never be able to rest! Tommy had been trying but, even if he could stay in bed and think about it until the baby was born, he didn’t think he would be able to come up with the words to describe how he had felt since discovering that Kristin really was pregnant.

Just as he was about to try to fall back asleep, he heard the phone ringing. He decided to get out of bed and go into the living room to answer it so as not to wake up Kristin.

“Hello?” Tommy said as he sat down on the couch with the cordless phone.

“Tommy?” He was shocked to hear the voice of Kristin’s mother on the other end; she sounded equally surprised to hear him answering the phone.

“Yes,” Tommy answered. “It’s me, Mrs. Yancey.”

“What are you— I thought you had—” Mrs. Yancey stuttered. “When did you come home?”

“I’ve been home for a couple of days,” Tommy explained. “I guess Kristin hasn’t had the time to call you yet.”

“She did,” Mrs. Yancey told him. “I was actually returning her call; she said she’d be up early this morning.”

“Oh,” Tommy replied. “She didn’t tell me she had to do anything but she’s been pretty tired lately so maybe she just forgot to set her alarm. She’s still sleeping right now.”

”I can imagine,” Mrs. Yancey answered.

“Listen,” Tommy began. “There’s something I want to tell you.”

“What is it, hunny?” she asked him.

“Well,” he began. “I have already told your daughter but I wanted to tell you as well. I’m so sorry for what I did; I was stupid and I was a pig. I just hope you’ll be able to forgive me.”

“Tommy,” Mrs. Yancey explained to him. “I love you as my own son and, so long as you know that what you did was wrong, you have my complete forgiveness.”

”I do know that I was wrong,” Tommy said. “Thank you; it means so much to me!”

“Now that we’ve got that out in the open,” Mrs. Yancey continued. “We can forget it ever happened!”

“You don’t know what this means to me,” Tommy told her. “Did you want me to wake Kristin up for you?”

“Oh no,” Mrs. Yancey said quickly. “Kristin’s a trooper but she’s not the biggest person in the world and being pregnant can’t be extremely easy on her body; let her sleep.”

“What do you mean?” Tommy asked; he hadn’t thought that Kristin’s pregnancy would be different from any other woman’s.

“Kristin’s body is going to have to work hard during this pregnancy and it’s not going to be easy for her.” Mrs. Yancey explained. “Take care of my daughter, Tommy. I know you care for her very much and I know you will protect her; that’s not what I’m worried about. Kristin has a tendency to want to do everything herself and, if she doesn’t watch herself, she’s going to get into trouble.”

“Trouble?” Tommy asked, beginning to worry.

“She’s going to push her limits,” Mrs. Yancey told him. “And, if she wasn’t pregnant, it wouldn’t be a problem but she’s not going to want to admit that she needs help with things.”

”What do I have to do?” Tommy asked. “I’m not very good at figuring these things out.”

“Make sure she gets her rest,” she told him. “Don’t let her stand on her feet all day. And make sure she eats more than fast food; she doesn’t like to cook so she doesn’t usually keep healthy things around the house.”

”I’ve never complained about that before,” Tommy told her. “But Kristin has never been pregnant before.”

“Do you understand what I mean?” she asked him.

“Make sure she doesn’t skip nap time and force her to eat her broccoli,” Tommy said. “Got it.”

“Kristin respects what you say, Tommy.” Mrs. Yancey told him. “If you tell her something, she’s going to listen. Use that to your advantage, and hers, and make sure she’s taken care of.”

“I will,” Tommy assured her. “You don’t have to worry.”

“I’m her mama,” she told him. “I’m always going to worry about my baby.”

“I think I’m beginning to understand that feeling,” Tommy told her.

“It’s just the beginning,” Mrs. Yancey told him. “Goodbye, Tommy.”

“Goodbye,” Tommy replied.

As he hung up the phone he realized just how much he respected his mother-in-law; she was such an amazing woman who cared about her family so much. He knew Kristin would be an equally amazing mother to their child.

Tommy decided he’d go back to bed and curl up next to Kristin until she woke up; whatever she had intended to be up early for could wait for another time. He put the phone back and went down the hall to the bedroom. He tried not to disturb her as he climbed back into bed but Kristin woke up anyway.

“Morning,” she said, still half asleep.

“Well, look who finally decided to wake up!” Tommy joked as he brushed her messy hair out of her eyes. “Good morning, my little firecracker!”

“What time is it?” Kristin asked, too tired to roll over and look.

“Quarter to 10,” Tommy told her.

“Mama was going to call this morning!” Kristin exclaimed suddenly as she sat up in bed.

“Don’t worry about it,” Tommy told her. “I just talked to her.”

“You did?” she asked as she lay back down.

“Yes,” Tommy told her. “And I asked her if she would forgive me for what I had done to you.”

“You did?” Kristin asked, her eyes filling with tears.

“I love your mom, Kristin.” Tommy told her. “I don’t think I could stand it if she hated me.”

Kristin wrapped her arms around him and held him close; there was not one person Tommy had ever met who could hug half as well as Kristin.

“Why aren’t you at work?” Kristin asked, still holding him close to her.

“I decided that my wife was more important than my job,” Tommy told her.

“How sweet,” Kristin replied as she pulled back from him and looked him in the eyes. “Now, what’s the real reason?”

“Get out of my brain, woman!” Tommy teased her. “I don’t have any meetings today so I decided to work from home.”

“Fun,” Kristin said as she got up out of bed and headed toward the bathroom.

“Hey!” Tommy called after her. “Come back here, I was comfortable!”

”If you’ll excuse me,” Kristin said, sticking her head out the bathroom door. “I have to pee.”

“Oh,” Tommy replied. “I guess I can let you do that.”