LOST AND FOUND HUSBAND by Sheri Whitefeather Page B

these were cool because the manufacturer gives them birthdays. This one’s is the same day as when the baby will be due. I went online and used a due date calculator to figure it out.”
    “Oh, my goodness. What a special gift. Thank you.” Dana clutched the bear. “A Beanie Baby for Sweet Bean and with a proposed birthday that matches.”
    “When is the date?” Eric inquired. He was the father, yet he still didn’t know. Like an idiot, he kept forgetting to ask.
    “November nineteenth,” came the simultaneous reply from Dana and Kaley. With a mutual laugh, they said, “Jinx,” afterward.
    Obviously they were getting along wonderfully, and they’d known each other all of a few minutes.
    “Can I see the bear?” he asked.
    Dana gave it to him, and he held the little toy in the palm of his hand. In November, he would be cradling his newborn son or daughter. God, he was scared.
    He knew what raising a child entailed: the love, the exhaustion, the tears, the smiles, the laughter, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the loss of a first tooth, excruciating bouts of the flu, arguments about eating too much junk food and not doing enough homework, laundry that needed washing, handing over the key to your car, prom night, college entrance exams.
    He’d been through it all and now he would be going through it again. Was it any wonder he was scared?
    He glanced at his grown daughter, but she wasn’t paying any attention to him. Her focus was on Dana, and rightly so.
    “Are you hungry?” Kaley asked the pregnant mom. “I made some finger sandwiches. I got some other stuff, too.”
    “That sounds great. I’m always hungry. I didn’t used to be, but I am now. Eating helps me from getting queasy.”
    The three of them went into the dining room. Eric was still holding the bear.
    He didn’t sit at the table. He made up a plate for himself and took it into the living room. Although he could see and hear what was going on, his involvement would be indirect, the way he preferred it.
    He put the bear on the coffee table, and one of his tabbies came out from under the couch to inspect it.
    “So you do have cats,” Dana said, from her vantage point in the dining room. “Candy asked me if I thought you were a dog or cat person. I guessed cats.”
    “We have two,” Kaley supplied, before Eric could respond. “They’re brother and sister, from the same litter. Dad calls them the bougainvillea babies because when they were kittens, they used to hide in the bougainvillea on the patio.”
    Dana said, “Oh, that’s funny. Bougainvillea babies, a Beanie Baby, and a Sweet Bean baby in my belly. We’re besieged by babies.”
    The tabby swatted the teddy bear, then climbed onto Eric’s lap while he ate his food. “For the record, I like dogs, too.”
    “Candy will be glad to hear that. She teaches doga. It’s yoga for dogs. She teaches regular yoga, too. Candy is my landlord and my closet friend,” she explained to Kaley. “When I told her we were going to start making wedding plans, she offered to let us use her place for the ceremony and reception. She suggested it because I want to get married in a setting surrounded by flowers, and she has the most beautiful garden in her yard. My side of the yard has a lovely garden, too.” Dana hesitated, then asked Eric, “Would that location be okay with you?”
    “Yes, of course. It’s fine.” The profusion of flowers definitely fit her. Plus the fountain she adored was there, too.
    “Oh, good. Then that’s where we’ll have it.” She turned to Kaley. “We can use my little house in the back as the bridal room, where the women in the ceremony can get ready. I want you and Candy to be my bridesmaids.”
    “Thank you. That’s nice. I’d love to be one of your bridesmaids. What date are you aiming for?”
    Dana recited a date that was about a month away and removed a sheet of paper from her purse. “I printed a checklist from the net about how to plan a wedding in thirty