DANTE

I woke before her on Thursday and lay in the dark watching her sleep.

Not the managed sleep of the early months, not the careful maintenance of a body running on insufficient reserves. This was the deep total sleep of someone whose body had made its decision about what was most important and was doing it completely, the specific heaviness of late pregnancy, and she was beautiful in it in a way that was different from every other way she was beautiful, which was many.

Four weeks.

I had ...