Olivia
Nathan’s words hung in the air between us like an invisible thread, fragile and easy to snap.
“Isn’t this better than those dumb exercises?”
I looked over at Nathan, his face flushed from running, his blue-green eyes lit up with the joy of reliving a sliver of our carefree past. For a split second, I wanted to say yes, to give in to the whimsy of it all.
But the reality of our present issues, all of our grown-up problems, reasserted themselves. Maybe the old Olivia, the younger and childless Olivia, would have gone along with it; but not this Olivia. I needed to stay grounded in reality, not just for myself, but for the twins and the new life burgeoning inside of my belly.
“It was fun, Nathan. Really, it was,” I started cautiously. “But running around playing a
