Erik has wanted to be a father for as long as he can remember -- but now that the day is finally here, he's terrified. Surely a ham-fisted Viking of a man like Erik shouldn't be allowed to handle things as tiny and delicate as his new baby girl?<br><br>But it's not just his daughter that's come into Erik's world. His partner has finally returned too. After nine months of watching Andreas struggle with the mental and physical toll of being a man and being pregnant at the same time, the birth of their daughter is both a beginning and an ending.<br><br>Erik is a father for the first time -- but not everything that comes next is new.

Erik the Pink

“Please tell me this is it,” he groaned, the first night that he was woken not by screaming but by a hiccuping, muted sort of whining.


“Nearly over,” Andreas said, and kissed his ear. “You sleep, and then in the morning you can fix the window and we can start on that nursery. I’ll take her downstairs for the night. Come on, cari?o. Vamos abajo.”


Erik sighed as the bedroom door closed on the whimpering and whining, and turned over into the warm spot that Andreas had left behind. He should have paid attention during those ante-natal classes, when the instructor had talked about the most challenging parts coming long after the birth. Nobody had mentioned that teething was a million times worse than the actual having a baby part. For him, anyway.


Then he opened his eyes, and stared up at the darkness of the ceiling.


If she was teething already, how long before she started to talk? 11


“I’m going to join the Park Run,” Andreas said over breakfast.


Chapter 33