“All right. Bye, Darcy.”
“Bye, Arch.”
She hung up, leaving me smirking like an idiot at the kitchen table. Not bothering to lock my phone, I started researching if paint fumes were okay to breathe in during pregnancy. I’d said I’d help her, but if it wasn’t safe, all bets were off. She could scowl and curse at me from the living room while she watched me paint the nursery for all I cared. The internet, however, was largely unhelpful, every website stating different things, but the consensus seemed to be that as long as it was well-ventilated,and she took breaks, it’d be fine. I didn’t see Darcy willingly taking breaks, so I ordered a mask for her to wear when she inevitably fought me on it.
Talking about painting the nursery had me thinking about all the other things that would need to get done. Darcy was waiting for after the baby shower Linnea and Shayna were throwing her to buy a lot of the things, but I started researching baby cribs anyway. The look on her face when we were in the baby section of Target was like a deer in headlights, and I didn’t blame her. There was no way babies needed all that crap, but some things were necessities, and I wasn’t sure if she’d done any of her own research yet or not.
“In the market for a baby crib?” Startled, I whipped my head around to see Ralph directly behind me. How had he managed to sneak up on me? One, he was never quiet, but two, it was damn near impossible to catch me off guard.
I stared at him, weighing my options before realizing I had none. Ralph knew I didn’t have siblings, it’d come out in one of his prying sessions, and he also knew I didn’t have a whole lot of friends. There was also a part of me that wanted to tell him, to share this piece of information with someone who wasn’t Harrison.
“Actually, yeah. I am.”
His hand came down and clapped me hard on the shoulder. “No shit! You’re not kidding?”
I shook my head, smiling at how loud his exclamation was. At this rate, the whole firehouse would know, and strangely I was okay with that. “No, I’m not kidding. My girlfriend is pregnant.”
Ralph’s laughter echoed. “Holy shit! Congratulations, kid!”
Smiling, I couldn’t help but wish Darcy were here to bathe in his excitement, which, for a man who didn’t know me all that well, was palpable. “Thanks, Ralph.”
“Do you know what you’re having?” He pulled out a chair. “Sorry, but god, I miss the baby days! It’s hard to see it when you’re in it, but now that my kids are grown, I wish I could go back and hold ‘em again.”
“No, we don’t know what we’re having. She wants it to be a surprise.”
“Oh that’s fun! That’s real fun—best surprise you’ll ever have!” He chuckled, the shine of fond memories lighting his eyes. “When’s she due?”
“In May. She’s twenty-two weeks.”
He nodded. “The last bit goes by fast. Well, at least for us men it does. My wife would probably tell you she lived a whole year in those last ten weeks.”
I didn’t tell him exactly how fast it felt. Opening up this much felt good, but letting him know the whole thing was an accident was a whole other story. There was also the fact that Darcy wasn’t technically my girlfriend, and he couldn’t know that, so I kept my mouth shut.
“Last ten weeks of what?” Chief Abrams asked as he walked into the room.
All at once, my heart plummeted and leapt into my throat. The whole point of this fake dating plan with Darcy was to secure the lieutenant promotion which couldn’t happen if no one knew that we were together, but using the pregnancy, the baby, to get it felt wrong. The whole thing suddenly felt wrong. It felt like crossing a line, and as much as I wanted the position, I wanted it because Iearnedit, not because I’d lied my way into it. But it was too late.
“Pregnancy. Mack here is going to be a dad.” Ralph answered before I could so much as open my mouth to speak.
The chief’s eyes snapped to me, shock creeping onto his face as his eyebrows hitched towards his hairline. “You don’t say! Congratulations! You certainly work fast!”
I scanned his face for signs of disbelief or skepticism, but found none. If he was suspicious about the sudden roots I’d seemingly sprouted, he was doing a good job of hiding it.
“Thank you.”
Chief glanced over his shoulder at the bulletin, then back to me. “I didn’t see your name on the company’s New Year’s party signup. Are you not going?”
“Uh, I hadn’t really given it much thought honestly. Parties aren’t usually my thing.”
He waved a hand at me. “Nonsense! You should go! There’s still time to sign up, and you can bring your girlfriend. It’ll be a nice night out before the baby gets here.” Smiling at me, he looked at Ralph. “Plus, Ralph here isn’t wrong. The last few weeks fly by, and I’d love to meet her.”
There wasn’t really any saying no to that. “Sure, why not? I’ll text her to make sure we don’t already have plans.”
His smile turned into a grin underneath his mustache. “Excellent. I look forward to seeing you both.”
Once he was gone, Ralph turned his attention back to me. “Well, I know I’m excited to meet this Darcy. Must be one hell of a girl if she managed to lock down the lone wolf in ya.”
“Oh, she is.” I nod in his direction. “You might want to hit the gym because she could kick your ass with her eyes closed.”
