She was pregnant.
Rylee was so dazed and disoriented that Xander noticed it the second he leaned out of the kiss.
He tilted his head to one side. “What’s that face?”
Rylee parted her lips to speak, but nothing came out.
“Oh, no.Uh-uh,” Xander teased, stepping over the threshold and gently moving her to the side. “You not gon’ look at me like I popped up without calling when youknewI was coming.”
Rylee’s heart was pounding, the words right there at the tip of her tongue… but she refused to let them fall.
“I texted,” he continued, toeing off his Jordans. “And I’m on time. Not early or late, because you said no surprises.”
Xander turned to look her way, then bent his knees like he always did when talking to her. “So what’s up? What’s this face?”
“I… I don’t have a face,” she insisted, forcing a smile.
He snorted. “You don’t have a face, huh?”
Rylee swallowed hard.
“You definitely got a face, Snoop.”
Xander stood to his full height and lifted her chin to give her another peck on the lips. This one deeper.
“A very beautiful face.”
She sighed, blowing the air out through her lips after he stepped out of their kiss.
Xander’s brows wrinkled before he chuckled nervously. “You trippin’ me out right now, but I’mma let it slide because I’m hanging out with my baby today… and ain’t nothing about to bring me down.”
That queasy feeling was washing over her again. She swallowed it back, then clenched her jaw.
“Where should I put this candle?”
Before she could part her lips to speak, he said, “I’ll just leave it here.”
Xander placed the bag on the table near the front door, then started walking toward the bathroom on her main floor.
“I’mma use the bathroom real quick and then we can head out,” he said, gesturing in front of himself.
Rylee was slow to register what he’d said and where he was going.
The second she recalled that the pregnancy test was sitting on the vanity in that bathroom… it was too late.
“Xander, wait?—”
Her words were cut short when she saw Xander disappear into the bathroom.
She didn’t move. Felt stuck to the spot where she stood.
It didn’t take long for Xander to step back out… holding the pregnancy test in his possession.
All he did was hold it up at first before asking, “Rylee?”
Her breaths were heavy now.
“Is… is this yours, baby?”
