The nursery was chaos.
Sky blue walls, freshly painted, the color of a summer sky at midday. The paint had dried a few days ago. A large box containing the unassembled crib sat in the middle of the carpeted floor. A smaller box with the mobile rested beside it. Franz was on the floor, surrounded by wooden pieces and screws and an instruction manual that he'd been studying for the past ten minutes.
Lily sat beside him, her checklist in her lap. She had made it the night before, writing down everything the baby would need. Crib. Mobile. Blankets. Clothes. Diapers. Toys. She'd shown it to Arianne at breakfast, and Arianne had gone through each item with her, explaining what was necessary and what could wait.
Leo was on Franz's other side, the whale tucked against his knee. He'd claimed the box with the mobile as his responsibility, and he was removing each piece from its packaging with great care.
