“It’s no problem.” I could hear sheets tossing, and thought about Cal in his giant California King bed by himself…or maybe someone was there? Of course I’d never seen his bed. And in my mind it was that size, but I really didn’t know anything about his life at home. I’d never been inside the doors of his house.
And now I was having a baby with him…not to mention it took a staff of five to keep my damn dog situated.
“How’s Cabo? Laurel good?”
Of course he knew where I was and who was here. Cal was woven into the fabric of my life in ways I couldn’t even measure, including all those in it.
“Laurel has an ear infection. Probably a little cold, combined with the flight and the pool. Four months old, and she wants to splash all day. It’s so cute—they have one of those zero-entry baby pools with water that shoots up in the air. Of course, we don’t plop her down; she has a squad of four adults holding and supervising her…” I rambled, and Cal was quietly allowing me to go on. “Jamie is cucumber cool over it. But Ford, well, you know him. He would hire someone to sit with Laurel twenty-four seven if Jamie would let him.”
“I’m surprised he hasn’t called me.”
I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the task at hand, but feelings for Cal swarmed my head and heart. We’d been dancing around us almost a year, and now we were potentially going to be stitched together, depending on how he took the news. He was too good to be tied to the likes of me…
These were the thoughts that consumed my mind.
“Jamie took Laurel to the doctor here. The hotel recommended an English-speaking doctor. It was pretty easy.”
“Oh, good. She’ll be fine. An earache is pretty straightforward. More importantly, how areyou, Will?”
His voice was soft and quiet, comforting in a way I didn’t know I needed, while shortening my God-given name, making it feel alluring in the way only Cal could. It was just like him to act like nothing had happened. As if I hadn’t crushed him and whatever was building between us. He was always the one to start fresh, and then there was me.The ruiner.
“Well, the doctor is the reason I’m calling…”
“Oh? Someone I know?”
“Cal.” I breathed his name. I didn’t know why. Usually his presence offered me such peace from all the chaos, but not in this moment. “I saw the doctor too.” The words rushed from my mouth.
“Did you get hurt on the set? Sick? Maybe you caught something from the baby. You know babies carry all kinds of nasty bugs?”
I stood up and moved around to the comfortable side of the couch, dropped down on my butt and stared at the darkening sky through the open sliding doors. I could hear the ocean lapping in the distance, the moon supervising from high above. We were filming in paradise, and all I could think about was whether it was still chilly back east.
“I’m not hurt. Filming is going well, but I haven’t been feeling great. A little tired and lethargic…not sick. I mean, not a cold.”
“Are you resting enough? Eating enough? Do they have you on a strict diet?” Cal was slipping into worry mode, which was not the state I wanted him to be in.
“Doctor said everything is okay.I’m pregnant.” Without taking a beat, I rushed the declaration out, deciding there was no good way to say it.
“What?” I heard a lot of movement on the other side of the line, and I assumed Cal was up and walking around. “You are? What? Pregnant?”
“I am. Obviously, this is unexpected. I’m old and we’re not even talking, which is my doing, I know. I guess accidents still happen. Even at my age. I’m not telling you because I’m expecting anything in return or for you to forgive me. It’s just, you should know. Right?”
“Willa—” Cal interrupted my rambling. “Willa, you’re having a baby. Our baby. Never mind, I don’t mean it like that. What I mean is…this is a good thing. A baby is a blessing.”
I loved that he didn’t question whether it was his.
“We don’t know if it is a good thing,” I countered. “What if…”
“This baby is going to be fine.” As always, Cal knew my worries better than me.
“My age…”
“He or she is going to be perfect.”
“We haven’t talked.”
We continued to go back and forth with this choppy banter.
“Because you needed time. You pretended to be mad at me. I was allowing you to be mad until you sorted whatever was going on in that head of yours.”
