“Almost everyone,” I joke, thinking of his brother with the dark-auburn fur who grilled me during dinner.
“Don’t mind Ben. It’s not personal. He’s just protective like that.”
“Well, I liked meeting them, too. They’re easy to be around.”
There’s a lull in our conversation, and I realize I should be getting out of the car. I gather my purse.
“Hey,” Ian says softly. “Call me when…” He trails off, but I know what he means. When I get a positive pregnancy test.
“If,” I remind him.
“When,” he shoots back, along with a cheeky, wolfy grin, his eyes dragging up and down my body as I climb out and shut the door.
Eight days later, I’m leaning on the sink in the employee restroom at Dog-Eared Pages, staring at two bright lines on the blue-and-white plastic pregnancy test that Nicole smuggled over to me after I sent her and Heidi an emergency text message that said, “I feel queasy ?.”
“Isn’t it kind of early?” Nic asks, sounding skeptical as she peers over my shoulder. “You guys didn’t bang that long ago.”
“It’s not like I slept with someone earlier in the month who could be the daddy.” Irritation prickles my scalp, sending another wave of nausea through me. Damn it. Pregnancy hormones already. I forgot how hard and fast they hit. It’s like perimenopause times a hundred.
“I just meant for the line to be that dark…do you think it’s multiples?”
“Unngh, I don’t know. I don’t want to think about it,” I moan, hunching forward in case the nauseacrawling up my throat gets worse and I need to sacrifice my lunch to the toilet gods.
Nic rubs my back. “You want to go home? I can give you a ride if you’re feeling too gross to drive.”
I force myself to take a deep breath of the citrusy bathroom air freshener and straighten up. “Nah, I’m going to tough it out so I can save my sick time for when I really need it. I should get back out there before Rashleigh notices I’m gone.”
“Okay.” Nicole’s brows knit together. “Call us if you need anything. I mean it.”
My chin quivers, and my eyes fill up. “I need a hug before you go, I think.”
“Oh, honey.” Nicole wraps me up in a huge, gentle hug, and the scent of her ginger-lime shampoo fills my nose. I don’t know if it’s the hug or the unintentional aromatherapy, but my nausea eases a little bit.
“Thank you.” My voice is muffled against her shoulder.
She pulls back and fusses with my hair, smoothing it out. “You’re going to be okay once you have a minute to process. This is a really happy day. You have a great baby daddy, remember? He’s going to be so excited when you tell him.”
Right. I have to tell Ian. This is his news even more than it’s mine.
My heart trips and flounders as Nic and I say goodbye. Once she’s gone, I shoot Ian a quick textmessage with a pic of the positive test and a note that I can’t talk now because I’m at work. Then, after trashing the test and stowing my phone in my employee locker, I sneak back onto the floor and pretend like I’ve been unpacking the latest shipment of holiday books the whole time.
Only halfway through October, and people are already shopping for Christmas. Cookbooks, children’s classics, and special editions are all flying off the shelves, and the publishers have answered the call with an array of glittering gift options. All the sprayed edges and foiled covers make me feel like a dragon admiring a hoard of treasures. I thoroughly enjoy unpacking them and setting up the displays.
I’m so entranced by the pretty books that I don’t even notice Ian until he’s standing two feet away from me, a periwinkle bag dangling from one hand that indicates he’s already made a purchase and has probably been in the store for a while.
I immediately blush, just like every time he’s close, my body reacting like he’s already touched me. I fumble for words. “Er! Hi! What are you doing here? I didn’t mean for you to come down. We could have talked later.”
He lifts the bag slightly. “I needed a book about human pregnancy.”
“Oh.”
“Oh,” he repeats, a twinkle in his eye, his voice dropping to a soft, low register that doesn’t carry outside the small circle of space that we both occupy, “And I wanted to see my mate. It’s a special day for us.”
“Oh,” I breathe, forcing myself not to turn into a puddle. Why does he have to be so adorable? It’s making it so hard not to crush on him.
“How are you feeling? Do you need anything?”
I give a small shake of my head. “I’m fine. Just a little queasy, that’s all.”
