The moon had no reply.

He’d get the reply seven months later, when they had her, and they had a name all picked out for her. But sweaty and red-faced, hair sticking to her skin, Clara’s gorgeous blue eyes came to him with their little girl curled all mucky on her chest, and she said,

“I think she’s Lenora.”

That wasn’t the name they’d picked.

So Buck knew.

His mom approved.

But in that moment, to his wife.

He agreed.

Two weeks after that, he carried Lenora and the bag he had into their bedroom.

Clara was curled up in the chair in the corner, reading.

“Did you guys have fun running your errand?” she asked.

“Mm,” he hummed his answer.

She didn’t hesitate to put her book aside when he handed her their girl.

Buck then went to the bed, dumped what was in the bag on it, and got on with sorting it.

Once he took the thing out of the cardboard envelope and put it in the other, he turned to the dresser.

Making adjustments, he shifted a bit to the side the pic Tatie took with her selfie stick of the four of them wrapped around each other in front of the tree on Christmas morning that was front and center.

And he shifted back the frame that had a pic of the four of them at the foot of Vail Mountain, all in winter gear, the kids with their boards planted in the snow, Clara looking cute with a hat with a big fluffy ball at the top of it pulled down to her ears.

And he shifted the frame that was angled with the first one he’d moved, holding that center space.

A frame that had the pic of Clara standing next to him out in the area beyond the front of the deck. She was wearing a white dress with thin straps, lace with the tiny dots and big flowers stitched in overlying it, sleeves of that lace that went down to her elbows. It had a semi-wide skirt that had a slit up the front to her mid-thigh and a thin white belt tied around her waist.

A gown she’d worn with bright pink, sexy sandals.

She had her arms around his middle, her cheek to his white shirt, her foot kicked back, exposing her shoes and a shapely calf.

A massive smile was on her face.

Same as him.

That was because, beside them, Tatiana, wearing her bridesmaid dress, had just jumped up on Gear’s back.

And Gear had caught her.

Both his kids were full-on, eyes closed, mouths-open laughing.

He had good-looking kids.

He set the new frame down. Eight by ten. Pride of place in the middle.

The couch in the living room.

Buck had Lenora in an arm.

He also had Clara in his lap.

Both their kids were on either side, leaning in, arms around them and each other.

Chap had snapped that shot.

Once Buck had positioned it where he wanted it, he looked to his wife and baby girl.

“Soon, we’re going to have to get another dresser,” she remarked.

“I got no problem with that,” he replied.

Then he took them in, and while he did, he sent out word, seeing as it seemed God had been paying a fair amount of attention for about the last year.

So, since he already had a gorgeous girl with dark hair, he hoped Lenora coming out bald as the cue ball her mother was unable to successfully hit in order to win a game of pool meant his new baby girl would have her mother’s honey.

“You good?” he asked.

“Always,” she answered.

Buck went to her.

Bent deep.

Kissed her nose.

Bent deeper.

Kissed a tiny baby nose.

Then he walked out of the room.

The End