The second pregnancy did not unfold with the same novelty as Natalie's had.
He was familiar with the sensation of exhaustion settling behind the eyes rather than in the limbs. He knew how quickly an ordinary afternoon could be ruined by nausea, by dizziness, by a child deciding that his internal organs were decorative suggestions and not fixed necessities. He knew what it meant to love something so fiercely while resenting, at intervals, the fact that it appeared to believe his bladder was a military target.
By the fourth month, the household had adjusted around him with alarming efficiency.
Gregoris became worse.
That was Rafael's official opinion on the matter.
His husband had always been attentive in the unnerving, relentless way of a man who could coordinate troop movements across borders and still notice that Rafael had pushed citrus too far at breakfast.
