The test sat on the counter where she’d placed it, bright and impossible to ignore.
Rylee pressed both hands to her cheeks, trying to feel something other than panic.
She’d done this before. Stared down at proof that her life was about to change. Always alone. Always the first to know.
But before, the news was always joyfully tethered to Lennox.
With Nova, she’d told him in person.
With LJ, she’d told him in spirit.
But this time, upon discovering she was pregnant, it wasn’t joy she felt first.
Fear came first.
Fear of doing it alone.
Fear of what people would think.
Fear of how much more room she’d have to make in a life that already felt full and fragile.
Underneath all of that, annoyingly steady, was something else. Something familiar.
A small, stubborn warmth.
She’d barely wrapped her mind around it and already a corner of her heart was reaching for this baby she wasn’t even sure she wanted to keep.
She wasn’t supposed to be here again. Not like this. Not without Lennox.
And yet, still…
Beneath the fear was something small and warm and terrifyingly hopeful.
A whisper she wasn’t ready to name.
Not that she had a chance to.
The chime of her doorbell echoed around the brownstone, pulling her eyes away from the pregnancy test and toward the front door.
Rylee pulled her phone from her back pocket and saw it was already 11 a.m… the time Xander told her he’d arrive to pick her up so they could go out to lunch.
Rylee wasn’t supposed to still be in bed at 10 a.m. She was supposed to have already been up. Just like she was supposed to have used a condom with Xander that night.
“Shit,” she spat, debating for a moment whether to clear the pregnancy test and its packaging or not.
Not wanting to look suspicious or keep Xander waiting outside for too long, Rylee decided to just close the bathroom door.
She ran her sweaty hands down her jeans and made her way to the front door, pulling it open to find a smiling Xander on the other side.
He held up a small bag with the logo of the candle store Rylee loved to frequent in the city.
“Guess what I got?” he said, his smile growing as he winked. “Went out there this morning so we’d have something good to come back here to. I’m thinking a bath with this burning, since you like keeping your candles in the bathroom.”
He laughed as he leaned in to give her a peck on the lips.
Rylee’s head was somewhere between the bathroom and the front door.
The thing every woman would normally love, an on-time man, did nothing to ease her anxiety in that moment.
