“Um, let me take over here, and you see what’s wrong with Elijah,” Memphis said.
“Okay.” I tilted my head toward the entrance to Curious Things knowing Elijah would follow me to the office. The store was closed, so we’d have all the privacy we needed. I expected him to say something right away, but he just paced from one end of the small room to the other.
He finally stopped and pinned me with dark, hurt eyes. “There has to be an explanation. This is my Freckles for crying out loud.”
“I’m sure there is, and if you tell me what’s bothering you, I might help you find it.”
“I wanted to surprise you with some flowers. I knew how tired you’ve been lately and thought you might like to see something pretty and festive when you got inside your SUV after your event tonight.” He must’ve seen the bag with the box of condoms inside. Knowing his history with Brandy, his mind must’ve started jumping to all kinds of terrible conclusions.
“Elijah, there is an explanation,” I said reaching for his hands. “It’s possibly the best kind of explanation. A miracle really,” I said.So much for not getting my hopes up.“I didn’t buy those condoms to have sex with someone else. I bought them because I’m going to need you to start wearing them until I get some test results back.”
“Maegan, this is no way sounds like the best possible situation,” he said wryly.
“You’re not going to catch anything from having unprotected sex from me,” I said, reaching up to tweak his nipple.
“That wasn’t what I meant, Freckles. I resent anything coming between us, including a thin layer of latex.”
“Okay, but you’ll need to explain to my father if you accidentally get me pregnant.”
Silence. Blinking. Pulse pounding at his temple.
“What’s that now?”
“Elijah, I know you haven’t missed how fatigued I’ve been these past few months. I’ve seen the worry in your eyes when I wake up after a nap. I moved up my appointment with my oncologist from January to today so she could run some blood tests.”
“You did this without telling me?” The dark scowl from earlier returned. “You thought your cancer had returned and kept it from me?”
“Elijah,” I said, reaching for him. He stepped back out of reach and turned his back on me to face my office door. “I didn’t think my cancer had necessarily come back, but I knew something was going on with me. Dr. Lovett runs extremely thorough blood panels, and I knew she’d find any abnormalities. I needed to know what I was dealing with before I told you.”
He spun back around, looking crushed and lost. “And?”
“She didn’t find any abnormalities, but after talking to her about my symptoms, she said it sounded like I was ovulating.” I began shaking all over just thinking about the possibility. “She’s running additional tests to see if estrogen is present in my blood. If so, she’s referred me to my gyn—” The rest of my words died because Elijah squeezed me in the tightest hug. I patted his shoulders frantically, so he’d loosen his grip.
“How, Freckles? I thought the doctors said you would never have your own babies.”
I repeated the conversation I had with Dr. Lovett word for word. “Please don’t get your hopes up, Elijah. Dr. Lovett explained there are many places I could land on the spectrum between infertile and fertile. I can only tell you for certain I am not pregnant right now.”
“Freckles, I’m afraid to be happy about the possibility. I don’t want you to think I’ve been lying to you all along about my desire to adopt children with you, nor do I want you to think I’ll be upset if your original diagnosis is confirmed. I want you just as you are, and the kids will just be a bonus, regardless if we created them or adopted them. Do you believe me?”
There was a light knock on the door then Milo poked his head around. He narrowed his eyes when he saw my tears, so I flashed him a happy smile. “I’ll be right there, Milo.”
“Okay,” he said hesitantly and shut the door.
“Can we talk about this more when we get home? I have a bunch of kids waiting for me.”
“Absolutely,” Elijah said. “Not until after you have a relaxing bath.” He looked at his feet for a second and the solemn expression in his eyes when they returned to mine gutted me. “I’m so sorry I even thought for a second you would—” I cut him off by kissing his lips.
“You wouldn’t have jumped to those conclusions if I’d been honest with you and told you about my appointment. I want you to know I deeply regretted my decision while I was waiting for Dr. Lovett to come in. I realized wanting you there to hold my hand doesn’t make me weak, it makes me strong because I can admit when I need someone to help shoulder life’s worries. We’ll both chalk this up to a lesson learned and not speak of it again.”
Elijah nodded then kissed me like he hadn’t seen me in years instead of hours. “How long does this little party last?”
“Two hours. Why don’t you hang around with Gabe and get a glimpse of what your future will look like?”
“Sounds like a good idea. Do I get a free beverage and snack?”
“Did you wear a costume?”
“I dressed as a police detective who’s packing a big gun.”
