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“Yes, son!!”
“Go on!!!”
Anthony really liked sports day.
“C’mon, Miles!!”
“That’s it!!!”
Kate really liked sports day, too.
“Ahem!” came a voice from behind them. They both continued cheering like they hadn’t heard anything.
“Excuse me, Mr and Mrs Bridgerton?!” the head teacher bellowed even louder.
“Huh?” Kate was the first to turn her head, “I mean… Yes, Mrs Foe,” she grinned but her eyes were desperate to turn back to the field.
“I am going to have to ask you both if you could step back from the sideline,” her face was serious, Kate elbowed Anthony to break his trance.
“In fact, I’d prefer if you would stand over there, next to the equipment shed,” she pointed to a little outdoor storage cupboard in the distance, hundreds of metres from where they were all standing.
“What? You can’t be serious, surely. We won’t be able to see a thing from there,” Anthony sulked.
“I’m very sorry, but we’ve been having complaints from other parents all day.”
Anthony stated bluntly, “But Eddie has the egg and spoon relay coming up soon.”
“Well, when you’ve been asked to turn it down previously you’ve somehow been getting louder. And it’s been scaring some of the other children.”
Kate looked over at a small blonde child they’d startled during the three-legged race earlier, the girl immediately started to cry and squeeze at her mum’s arm.
“My apologies Mrs Foe, it’s not a problem,” Kate had to use quite a lot of force to tug Anthony away.
“It actually is a problem; we’ll be missing all the good bits for the photo album.”
She shook her head at him, “Come on, we don’t want to embarrass them anymore than we already have.”
“Why not? My parents embarrassed me plenty!” his body followed her, but his eyes were still fixed on the race.
Kate laughed, and then suddenly felt him jerk back.
“Yes!! He’s won, oh my god!” Anthony sprung into the air and started pointing at Miles who had just passed the finish line of the wheelbarrow race, “Kate, look!”
She quickly joined in with him, “Woo! Well done!”
Mrs Foe’s eyes were still on them, this time Anthony noticed and nudged Kate to continue their walk of shame.
He picked up a collapsed lawn chair when they got to the shed, “Ah, well at least they have seats over here,” he unfolded it and plonked himself right down.
Kate was immediately in stitches, “Anthony, I don’t think that is a seat for adults!”
She was right, Anthony was being squeezed in all directions and his face showed it.
“Oh for fuck’s sake!” he looked defeated but couldn’t help but laugh along with her a little bit. Letting out a sigh he said, “Come on, sit down with me,” while grinning up at her.
“Hm? I don’t see another chair.”
He tapped his knee, “There is no other chair.”
Kate smirked but perched herself on the end of his lap anyway.
“Ugh, we can barely even make out which kid is which from down here, they look like little ants!” Anthony wrapped both of his arms around her and quickly scooped her further into his lap so that her back was firmly against his chest.
“Careful!” Kate almost shrieked.
Anthony nested his chin into the curve between her shoulder and neck, “What, why?” he asked, planting a few kisses on her ear.
Kate blushed, “Oh, no reason… it’s fine!”
“Hmm, you never say anything without a reason,” he continued smattering pecks around her ear and started to move towards her neck, but he could feel her whole body tensing up.
Anthony paused, “Kate, what’s the matter? If something is bothering you, you know you can tell me.”
Kate angled her head to look at him and held eye contact for a few seconds before she started to speak, “Um, well… I didn’t want to tell you today. I had a whole thing planned for the weekend!”
“Mhm?”
“Well,” Kate gulped, then smiled at him, “we might have to start redecorating the nursery sooner than we thought…”
Anthony gasped. His hands suddenly became a little shaky around Kate, “Really?”
She nodded back, “Really.”
“W- when did you find out?”
“Just a few days ago,” she twiddled her thumbs nervously, “I was late and took a test, but I still wasn’t sure until my appointment with the GP this morning.”
Anthony had started to well up, and he beamed at her with one of the biggest smiles she’d ever seen him wear, “Oh, Kate…” he couldn’t quite find the words to explain how he was feeling. He just cradled her in his arms, turning her towards him.
Kate shifted in his lap so that her legs hung to the side rather than in front of him, “It’s taken everything in me to not tell you, but I just wanted to be sure.” He gave her a reassuring smile as he nodded slowly and leaned in. Her head met his halfway and their noses brushed. Anthony inhaled deeply and closed his eyes before placing a soft wet kiss on her lips.
“I can’t wait,” he kissed her again, “I love you.”
“Neither can I,” she kissed him back, “I love you, too.”
They’d only been trying for the last month or so and Anthony didn’t think it’d all be happening so fast, “Wait…” he tried to do the maths in his head, “we started on our anniversary, and if you’ve only missed one period, and already testing positive… then…” he stared up at her, “do you think it happened on that night?”
Kate shrugged, but the way her eyes twinkled as she smiled at Anthony made his heart swell. He felt a rush of warmth spread over his body and held Kate a little tighter.
It wasn’t until they heard Miles’ voice that they broke their joyful gaze, “Mummy! Daddy!” he squealed in glee, “look what I got!” he held up a toy gold medal hanging around his neck.
They both gasped and in sung in unison, “Wooow!”
Kate accepted him into her arms as he climbed onto her lap, “I’m so proud of you!” her face was beyond ecstatic.
Anthony grunted a little bit, but gave Miles a kiss on the forehead, “So am I, but, uh I don’t think this chair is going to hold any longer,” Kate chuckled lightly and held Miles close as she gracefully swung up from her seat.
Anthony was not so graceful, but he managed to get up soon after with a few wiggles to loosen the chair’s strange grip on him.
“Eddie’s gonna win too!” Miles pointed to the group of children all lined up nervously waiting with their eggs and spoons at the ready. Kate and Anthony squinted and waved in Eddie’s direction.
“Oh, this is ridiculous, there’s absolutely no way I’m going to miss it!” Anthony quickly scanned and saw no sign of Mrs Foe, “Right, follow me.” Kate stalked behind him with Miles cradled on her hip. Anthony led them behind the main crowd of other proud parents and siblings until they came to a shady tree.
“Okay, there’s still no sign of that head teacher. We’ve got to try and keep it down, but if either of us see her, we have to quietly yell, erm…” he looked at Kate and beamed that way that made her heart skip a beat again, “we have to yell ‘nursery’, then hide behind the tree as quick as we can.”
A smile spread across Kate's face, then she and Miles nodded, “Got it!” they chimed together. Anthony reached towards Kate pulling Miles from her, “I’ll hold him. You won’t be lifting a finger for the next 8 months," she rolled her eyes at him and muttered something under her breath while holding back laughter.
“Hmm, what was that?”
“Nothing, dear,” she replied innocently, “Oh look, the race is about to start.”
They all watched in anticipation as Eddie and his classmates geared up, “Ready… steady… go!” a teacher turned announcer yelled from the side. And off they went.
“C’mon Eddie,” Anthony tried to whisper his usual chants.
“You can do it,” Kate tried alongside him.
They both danced on the spot as they continued to supress their thrill, as Eddie got to the first relay exchange without a hitch, and ahead of the others.
“Yes!! That’s it!!!” all three of them cheered, causing a few of the other spectators to turn back and look at them. “Oh, careful,” Kate warned.
Anthony tutted, “At least we’ve still not seen Mrs Foe.”
Miles turned in his dad’s arms to look behind his head.
“I wonder where that browbeat has got to…” Anthony continued as he and Kate both scanned the field in front of them.
“Nursery,” said Miles, in hushed but urgent tone.