Chapter 32

“Thanks for helping us, Mom,” Lucky said, sitting down next to Elizabeth on the sofa.

Laura smiled at the teens and nodded. “It’s my pleasure. Now, what was it you needed to ask me about?” She was curious why Lucky had asked her to meet with them.

“Well, the next part of this project is to plan for a baby. Ms. Kraft suggested we start by talking to someone who’s actually been through it, like our parents. So, that’s why we’re here. We need to know what we would have to be doing,” he explained, hoping his mother wouldn’t make too big a deal out of it.

Laura chuckled. She could tell Lucky was praying that she wouldn’t tease them. “A baby, huh? That teacher of yours sure doesn’t waste any time. Let’s see, there’s a lot that goes into planning for a new child. Of course, setting up a nursery, and thinking of names, those are the obvious ones. But you also need to find a doctor, one for Liz as well as one for the baby. Um...there’s always money issues, you know, figuring out what you need to do to be able to afford having another person around. Babies aren’t exactly cheap. But, if I remember correctly, Lucky, you said the teacher gave you a good job, right?”

He nodded, smiling when he heard Liz groan. “Hey, don’t blame me this time. She brought it up!” Liz rolled her eyes at him and he laughed.

“What? What did I say?” Laura asked, confused.

“Nothing, she just doesn’t like to be reminded that I’m a surgeon and she’s only a secretary,” Lucky explained, still chuckling. Liz glared at him again, which just made him laugh harder.

Laura smiled at the two of them, thinking about how cute they were together. “Anyway, since money isn’t a big issue in your case, you shouldn’t have to concentrate on it too much. You may want to consider putting some aside for the child’s future, though. College, that sort of thing. Um...there’s also decisions like how you plan on raising them. What kind of rules you will set, if you’re going to choose their religion or let them choose it themselves, stuff like that. Most of it is just getting things set up for the baby. Buying clothes, furniture, baby-proofing the house, deciding if you’re going to breast-feed...”

Liz blushed at that and looked down at her hands. Lucky also looked away, and Laura smiled slightly at how uncomfortable they both got, before continuing. “...if not, what kind of formula you’ll use, diapers, baby food, deciding how much you want to document, if you’re going to keep a scrapbook, if you want to videotape everything, things like that.” She took a deep breath and smiled at them. “If I think of anything else, I’ll make sure to let you know.”

“Thanks. We also wanted to know if you had a book of baby names we could borrow. We’re having trouble thinking of some,” Liz said, trying to change the subject a little bit.

“I believe I still have one somewhere. I’ll go get it.” She went upstairs quickly, leaving them alone.

“Sounds like a lot of work,” Lucky said, turning to look at Liz. “I hope we can do it all in a month.”

She nodded. “I know. I was thinking the same thing. I guess we might as well start with the easy stuff and get it out of the way, like the names and the furniture and stuff.”

“Here it is,” Laura said, coming back down the stairs, holding up a small paperback book. She handed it to Liz and smiled. “I’m going to go start dinner. Are you staying, Liz?”

Lucky smiled. “Yeah, I told her earlier that you would insist.” Laura nodded and escaped into the kitchen, once again leaving the two alone.

Liz took a deep breath and opened the book to the L’s. “Well, let’s see what we can find here. Do you want to start with boy names or girl names?”

“Let’s start with boys. I’m still not sure I want to use my name, so let’s see what alternatives we can come up with.”

She nodded. “Okay.” She flipped to the boy section as Lucky looked over her shoulder. She held the book out between the two of them so that they could both read it, their heads close together as they scanned the pages.

“Lawrence?” Lucky asked, pointing to the name.

Liz wrinkled her nose. “No, cause people would call him Larry. Larry Spencer just doesn’t sound right.”

“Yeah, I guess not. Whatever it is, I want it to be different, you know? Not something that a lot of other kids have.”

“You mean, like Lucky?” Liz said with a smile.

“I guess. I know my name is odd, but I kind of like that no one else has it.” He smiled back at her, and they suddenly became aware of how close they were. They looked back down at the book, trying to ignore the feelings they were having.

Liz cleared her throat nervously and nodded. “Yeah, sometimes I wish my name wasn’t so ordinary. Okay, so we agree that the names should be unique. How about Lane?”

Lucky shook his head. “Lowell? No, scratch that. It makes me think of that dumb guy on that old TV show...what was it called?”

She laughed. “Wings?”

“Yeah, that’s it! Hm..what about Logan? That’s kind of different.”

“Logan Spencer? I kind of like that. Okay, we’ll put that down. What else?” Liz said, jotting down the name. They read through the list some more, suggesting names now and then, but couldn’t agree on anything.

“Here!” Liz said, pointing to a name. “Levi. It’s perfect, don’t you think. Very different, short, easy to spell and pronounce.” She looked up at him, waiting for a response.

After rolling the name around in his head, Lucky smiled. “I like it. Levi Spencer. Yeah, let’s use that one. For the middle name, we can still use Lucas, keep the tradition going a little bit.”

Liz smiled. “Levi Lucas it is. Okay, one down, how about a girl?” She flipped to that section, groaning when she noticed how much longer it was. “Layla?”

Lucky chuckled. “You mean like the Eric Clapton song? Nah, she’d be teased too much. What about Lacy?”

Liz shook her head. “I don’t like that one. Lucy’s nice, though.”

“Uh-uh. I already know a Lucy, and no offense to her, but I don’t want to name my kid after her!”

Liz laughed and continued to look. “Lexis? No, that’s too close to Alexis...”

He looked at her. “How did you know I knew and Alexis?”

She shrugged. “Good memory, I guess. She was on the guest list, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah, she was. Oh! Here’s one. Liberty. Now that’s definitely different!”

Liz smiled. “I really like that one. We could call her Libby for short, too. Liberty Spencer. I think her middle name should be Laura, after your mom.”

“Really? I think she’d like that. Liberty Laura Spencer....it sounds good. Does that mean we’re actually done with that part already?” Lucky asked in amazement.

“I guess so. See, that wasn’t so bad. Maybe this baby thing won’t be so hard after all.” Liz said, smiling. She closed the book and jotted down the names they had decided on just as Laura was coming back into the living room. She smiled when she saw how close Lucky and Elizabeth were sitting.

“So how is it going so far?” Laura asked, wiping her hands on a towel.

Liz held the book out to her. “Actually, it went really well. We’re done. Thanks for the book, it helped a lot.”

Laura took the book from her, surprised at how quickly they had decided. “So what did you decide on?” The front door opened and Luke came in just as Liz spoke.

“If it’s a boy, we chose Levi Lucas, and if it’s a girl, Liberty Laura.” She looked up again and smiled, seeing the expression on Laura’s face. She could tell she was touched by the names.

“Whoa, did I miss something here? What’s up with the baby names?” Luke asked, coming into the living room, a huge smile on his face.

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