Outtake: Lynn #AndinoandHaven
Hey, loves! We are back for another outtake … Andi and Haven again because you know, I do so love them and I might as well get all that love out.
Do enjoy.
*
Lynn
Andino POV
“Clara?”
“No.”
“Christina?”
Andino hesitated on that one. It kind of screamed drama queen, baby of the family, total princess and he liked that, but maybe not for a first child. “Save it.”
The scratch of a pencil against paper resounded in his office, telling him she was scratching of yet another name on her list, before Haven asked, “Marissa?”
“I can’t even pass that one off as Italian to my parents. And could you imagine Dante when I told him that name? Fuck, he would never shut up about it.”
“You’re impossible.”
“I am not, I am simply—”
“I’m not Italian,” Haven pointed out, “and they all know it, so does it really matter if our daughter’s first name is Italian?”
“Matters to me.”
And to his family.
He kept that quiet, though.
Somehow, they ended up at his wife’s due date—today, although the doctor suspected she was going to go a few more days before they became serious about inducing—and still hadn’t picked a name for their daughter. A middle name was simple—he agreed on his wife’s mother’s name. Not Italian, but that didn’t matter so much.
The first name?
That was trickier.
It had to be perfect.
This little girl?
His first child?
Blood from his veins?
Yeah, that name had to be perfect, and he didn’t give a shit what anybody thought about it. Haven might be annoyed that he was being as picky as he was, but oh, well. His daughter was going to have a name that represented her, their legacy, and whatever else he wanted.
Simple as that.
“Rose,” Haven said.
“Save it.”
“What are we saving all these names for?”
“Other babies,” Andino muttered, opening a new tab on the computer to bring up his email. This had been their last two weeks in a nutshell. His wife scouring the internet for baby names, and then incessantly following him around to list them off while he veto’d, said maybe, or asked to save the name for a later date. All the while, she loudly and repeatedly let him know how ridiculous he was being about picking a name. “We might need them.”
“Other babies.”
“That’s what I said, Haven.”
He peered at her over the top edge of the monitor, but he quickly realized that was a fucking mistake. She glared right back at him like if it were possible, he might be dead where he sat. God, he loved that about his wife. She took no shit, and when everyone else around him was willing to bend to him like he was a king, this woman was the first to remind him a king always bowed for his queen, too.
“What?” he asked.
Stupidly.
Did people know that?
Men were stupid anyway, but when their wife became pregnant, hormonal, and in Haven’s case, very much ready to have this baby out of her body … men became impossibly dumber. They said and did stupid things with the intention to make their wife happy or just get a smile out of her, but really … no, it never worked.
Like now.
“You can at least wait,” Haven said, every word measured, “for this child to get out of my body before you start harping on more.”
“I don’t harp.”
Haven pursed her lips before glancing back down at the notepad in her hands. How many pages had she filled with lists after lists after lists of names for him? None of them seemed to fit, and he wished this was easier. Not just for himself, but for her, too.
Everything else about this pregnancy had been rather easy. All things considered. Her morning sickness went away after the second trimester. They didn’t have any problems. All the checkups went well.
Picking a name?
Not so much.
“Andino …”
“Maybe we’ll just know when she’s here,” he said.
Haven peeked back up, smiling a little. “You think? Because you are seriously driving me crazy. You are the most stressful part of this pregnancy, Andino, and even though I love you … if you don’t pick a name for this kid … just pick a goddamn name.”
He knew this whole process was difficult for Haven, if only because she was a planner. As soon as they knew the baby was a girl, the room she picked for a nursery across the hall from their master bedroom was turned into a pastel wonderland. And that huge canopy crowning a circular crib that cost more than the four-poster bed in his room?
Yeah.
Silk and chiffon.
The baby’s closet was full of clothes, dresses, and shoes. More than he had, and God knew he liked to spend money. That child was going to need and want for nothing for the first three or so years of her life because between Haven getting everything ready, and his family constantly buying shit they would probably never use, their house was full.
Ready for the baby.
She just had to make her appearance.
Without a name.
He could wait until the baby was here, and go through those lists again, but a name lingered on the back of his mind, and occasionally, he kept coming back to it. It was one of the first Haven had suggested because she thought it was nice to match her mother’s name with his for their baby girl. He’d only veto’d it back then because, well … he felt like it was too early.
“I do like Lynn,” he said.
Haven raised a brow. “Oh, now you like it?”
“No, I liked it then, too. I just thought … what if we settled on Lynn, and something else came up? Nothing’s come up, and it seems kind of perfect.”
“Your mom would love that.”
Yeah, even though his mother had always gone by Kim, she loved the Lynn to the end of her name. And he liked the idea of carrying it on, too.
“So, is that firm on Lynn?” Haven asked.
Andino grinned. “Well … maybe, we’ll just keep looking—”
“Oh, my God, Andino. Stop it.”
His laughter colored up the office.
“It’s firm, if you like it, too.”
“I loved it. That’s why it was first on my list.”
“So, Lynn?”
Haven nodded. “Lynn Marcello.”
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