"Good riddance!" I yelled as I slammed the door shut. Whirling around to the room full of dumbfounded men, I fixed my glare on them. "Anybody else think I made it up or overreacted to something?"
Four heads shook as they tried to back out of the living room and into the dining room.
"Good," I said. Stomping past them, I went upstairs to my bathroom with my enormous bathtub.
As I stripped and ran a warm bath, a text came through. It was Adam.
"Of course," I muttered.
I know you're not overreacting. If you ever need anything, I'm close by. Don't hesitate to reach out.
I shut off my phone and tossed it on top of the towel rack. "Ugh."
6
Constance
"I'm sorry." Lucian pulled on his galoshes, giving me a pitiful look. "I know you wanted me to try to start being home more the closer we get to the delivery."
Laughing, I handed him his jacket. "Luc, I'm only thirty-one weeks. I meant like, close to thirty-seven."
He smiled in relief. "Okay. I feel like going to help is the right thing to do."
I stood on my tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his lips. "I love you for it." It had started raining not long after the poker game was called on account of wife-rage, and it hadn't stopped until late the next afternoon. One of Lucian's elderly clients had called because her basement was flooded. He knew she didn't have any family in town and wanted to go help her.
"She's not capable of pumping that water out, and a company won't be able to get out there until tomorrow." I handed him a lunchbox. I'd made Luc and the older lady dinner to take with him, a big sandwich for each of them and a bowl of grapes to split. "You know I'd normally go with you."
"Yeah, yeah," he said and wrapped his arms around me. "But you could slip in the mud or something. You just stay here where it's safe for you and my little turtle."
I giggled as he said goodbye to my belly. I loved him for being the kind of man to leave the comfort of his home to help someone in need on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I wasn't sure I would've gone to help the sweet little old woman myself, even if he’d let me. After all, the next day a professional company could come do it and the insurance company would pay for it. He was a better person than most, for sure.
"I'll be waiting for you to get back," I promised. "Maybe with a special surprise?" I wiggled my hips, which I knew looked ridiculous given the fact that I couldn't separate them from moving my belly.
Lucian chuckled and hugged me close. "That sounds perfect."
Then he left me with my heart full of love for my selfless husband. I walked into the kitchen to clean up the mess from the hurried dinner I'd made him. Humming, I cleaned up the sandwich fixings and put the lunch meat and condiments back in the fridge.
When I closed it, the owl stood in the middle of my kitchen. Screaming, I backpedaled, slamming into the counter as far from him as I could get. Because of the layout of my kitchen, he was between me and both the back door and the doors that lead to the dining room and hallway. I was stuck.
"Shoo!" I screamed, then rolled my eyes. Like that was going to work.
The owl was bigger than he'd looked outside. With his big claws on my kitchen tile, he was almost as tall as me, maybe even taller.
No way I was about to get close enough to find out.
As my gaze darted around the room, trying to find any weapon or way to escape, white light filled my vision, obscuring everything until I had to screw my eyes closed with a whimper.
When the light filtering through my eyelids lessened, I cracked them open enough to realize the owl was gone from the kitchen.
Standing where he had been, was a man. I threw my eyes open, gaping at the man standing in my kitchen. "Who in the hell are you?" I exclaimed, more frightened than ever. Wrapping an arm around my stomach, I inched to my right, closer to the door. He'd have to move over for me to be able to get to it, though.
"There’s no reason to be afraid. I won’t hurt you."
When his voice washed over me, my panic receded. Something about the way he spoke calmed me. I took a moment to get a good look at him for the first time. He had long, blond hair, curling over his collar, which, I belatedly noticed, was made of gold.
"What the hell are you wearing?" I asked.
He looked down at his tunic-toga-wrap-thing. "What?"
