“I have popped out a bit more since the last time you saw me. Wait till you see the ultrasound video! He’s beautiful. Oh my, he has my cheeks, Erik’s nose, he is just perfect!”

“We can’t wait. Come on, let’s get inside. It’s hot as Hades out here,” Alla gushed, hooking arms with Piper as they walked in the house. Cooper wrapped his arms around Erik’s shoulders and they followed behind the two women. Having the two people who knew him best with the person who was breaking down his walls was scary as hell.

* * *

“Oh my God, I just can’t wait to squeeze him and love him to pieces! Oh, Cooper, I want to go shopping!” Alla exclaimed as she held Piper in one arm and Erik in the other. Erik wanted to die of embarrassment from the way his mother was acting while watching the ultrasound video, but it felt good to be in her arms.

“Sure, Alla, we aren’t busy trying to move or anything.” Cooper laughed as he held some of the ultrasound photos in his hands.

“Oh, poo, you are ruining all of my fun,” Alla teased as she turned to Piper. “Don’t worry, we’ll go shopping together.”

Piper nodded. “I would love that, Alla.”

“Well, you are family, darling.”

Erik’s heart hurt when he saw the tears gathering in Piper’s eyes. She took in a deep breath and nodded again.

Erik had to look away. This was all becoming too real, too painful, and he was frightened.

You would have thought this was her first grandchild. His mom talked their ears off about baby stuff and her excitement about moving to Nashville to be close to all of her children.

With a shake of his head, Erik pulled out his phone to mess with as he listened to their background chatter, but soon stopped when Alla asked, “So, have you thought of a name?”

Erik looked over to see Piper with a small smile on her face. “We haven’t really discussed it, but I’d like his middle name to be Blake, after my dad.”

“Aw. That is perfect. You haven’t found any names you liked, though?” Alla asked them.

“Well, a few,” Piper said.

Erik looked over at her. “You have?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“Like what?” he found himself asking. He had been thinking so much about when he was leaving and how he was going to protect his son, along with trying to figure out ways to stop wanting Piper, that he hadn’t even thought of a name for the baby.

Piper grinned as she pulled out her phone. A few seconds went by and then she said, “Grayson?”

Erik shook his head, “No.”

“Bennett?”

“No.”

Alla giggled as Cooper shook his head.

“Jaxon! That’s cute!” she said reading from her phone.

“No.”

“It is cute,” Alla said, “Jaxon Blake, I like it.”

“I don’t,” Erik said with another shake of his head. “Keep going.”

Piper gave him a pouty look before saying, “Elijah?”

“No, I don’t like ‘Ja’ in names.”

Piper was really pouting now. “But I like Jason!”

“No.”

“Eriiiiiikkkkk,” she whined as Cooper’s laughter filled the room.

“No. Jason Blake? That’s stupid.”

“Blah,” she said. “What about Darcy?”

“Hell, Piper, let’s name him Voldemort while we’re at it! Real names here, real names.”

Piper giggled as Alla asked, “Who is Voldemort?”

“I have no clue,” Cooper answered as Piper said, “Fine.”

She spat off a few more as Erik shot them all down. At this point he figured she was getting mad, but instead of throwing her phone at him, she continued with her list of names while Alla and Cooper added in their commentary. Erik couldn’t believe it, but he was having a blast.

“Thatcher?”

Erik blanched as he threw his hands up in the air, “Thatcher? What the hell, Piper?!”

“What? It’s cute!” she protested with her hands on her hips.

“No, it is not. Thatcher sucks as a name. Come on, you are basically making our son a serial killer with that name: Thatcher the hatcher.”

Piper rolled her eyes as a giggle escaped her lips. “You’re dumb.”

“I’m smart! You’re crazy,” he said with a chuckle.

“What would you name him then?” she asked with a little sassy shake of her head. Erik shrugged his shoulders. “I have no freaking clue; that’s why I haven’t said anything.”

Piper puckered her lips and then nodded. “Fine, when you think of something, we will discuss it, but until then, his name will be Thatcher Blake.”

“Over my dead body!” he yelled to her quickly as she walked into the kitchen, giggling along the way. It made no sense how much he didn’t want to be anywhere but with his family, while at the same time, his body wanted to flee. These mixed emotions made no damn sense, and he was starting to think he needed some serious therapy.

“You know,” Alla said, drawing his attention to her, “when we were trying for a baby, before we were blessed with you and your brother, we had our names picked out, didn’t we, Cooper?”

Cooper smiled as he nodded. “Yeah, we didn’t even have a baby yet, but we had our names.”

Piper smiled as she leaned against the kitchen counter, listening to the ongoing conversation. The kitchen and living room were partially connected, so having conversation from room to room was easy to do; in fact, the whole house was designed like that except for the bedrooms. “What were they?” Piper inquired.