Hmm, friends.I don’t know if I can just be his friend anymore, especially with this new development in our forever-complicated relationship.“I don’t want you to change.Well…not completely.Maybe we can work on some things that need some polishing, because the bad usually works itself out with the good stuff.”
“I’ll work on them.I promise.”
“Good.”
“I mean it.Again, I’m glad you chose to call me.So, what happened?”
“Passed out at work.I didn’t eat anything, and I haven’t had much of an appetite for a few days.I started feeling funny, went to get a drink, and didn’t make it.”He looks really good in that suit, and he smells even better.“I hit my head on the floor when I went down, so now I’m here with a concussion.”
“You need to take care of yourself; you can’t go around not eating,” he says with real concern in his voice.“If you do, this is what’s going to happen.Did you eat yet?Do you want me to get you something?”
He’s so concerned.I have to tell him.I wonder what he’s going to say?I have no idea, it could go either way.He didn’t believe Kate’s child was his.Would he believe me?I don’t want to go through this again.I thought it would be awkward seeing him after how everything went down, but it’s not.I missed him.
“I’m fine.”I hold my hand up for him to see.“They gave me an IV drip.I was dehydrated.”
He turns his head my way, and his eyes hold me like they always do.He places his hand on my thigh and moves it down my bare leg.His touch is electric, snapping my senses to life.I stifle the groan on the tip of my tongue from his touch and the words tumble out of my mouth before I can stop them.
“I’m pregnant.”
Cue the longest, most literal pregnant pause ever.I can see the wheels spinning in his head.For the first time since I found out I was pregnant I’m nervous and anxious, mixed in with scared, waiting for him to say something—anything.
“You just let that out, no warning?I have to tell you something—prepare yourself.”
“No other way to do it.”
“You Reed women sure are fertile.”
This shouldn’t be amusing, but it is.I’m smiling because I’m relieved he doesn’t sound or look angry.“It’s your super sperm.You gotta wrap that up or you might end up impregnating half the hospital.”
He laughs, looking down as he shakes his head.“Cat, only you can deliver news like this, make me laugh and cringe at the same time.”
“You’re taking it better than I thought...better than I did.”
“I’m calm on the outside.That’s why you passed out, because you’re pregnant?”
“Yes, that, not eating, and being dehydrated.”
“You told me you weren’t pregnant.”
“I wasn’t then.”His hand is still on my leg, and it’s distracting me.“For the past two months I thought I was getting my period.Turns out I wasn’t.”
“How didn’t you know?It’s something that happens every month.”
“The nurse said it happens sometimes where you think what you’re seeing is your period but it’s not.It’s the embryo implanting itself.I thought my periods were off because I was under a lot of stress.I wasn’t eating or sleeping well.It was a really hard time.I thought all of those things together were affecting my period and made it change.”
“How far along are you?”
“About two months.”
“That would mean—”
“I got pregnant on my birthday.Christmas night.”
He bites his lower lip and nods his head.“That’s what happens when you take a chance.You get swept up in the magic of the moment, gold dust and all.”
He puts his hands in his pockets with a sad smile.I give him a weak smile of my own, slightly averting my eyes toward my lap.I wonder what he’s thinking.Probably how utterly ironic and sad it is that on the night he lost one child with my sister, he created one with me.
“We have a lot to talk about.I can’t believe you’re having a baby,” he states flatly.
