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

But it nagged anyway. He grunted, watching her as she twisted to wave at a passing lorry, shouting, “Lala!” as though it were a name.


“I can hear you worrying!” Andreas shouted over his shoulder, and Erik snorted.


“Where was Jo thinking? For a holiday?”


“No idea,” Erik admitted. “I booked the time off work anyway—was thinking if you didn’t want to go, I could just have a nice week at home with the pair of you.”


“Speaking of a nice time at home,” Andreas said as Beatriz cuddled back into his shoulder and began to whine. “I’m trying to keep sunshine here awake.”


Erik raised his eyebrows. “Dangerous game. Why?”


Andreas turned his head to smile—and Erik’s stomach twisted. That smile. That bright, wide, beautiful smile that if he touched in just the right place would dissolve into a look of pure, unadulterated bliss.


“It’s been about eleven months and twenty-three days,” Erik said.


Chapter 36