After what felt like forever, I got off the floor of the bathroom and sat on my couch where Badger wrapped her arms around me once more. Her touch was warm and welcoming. Something my mom would have done. The thought made tears fill my eyes. She should be here. She should be here for when her first grandchild was born. Instead, those moments had been taken away from me by a selfish, vengeful bastard.
Badger began running her fingers through my hair as I rested my head on her lap. “You know you need to tell him, right?”
“I know,” I whispered.
“You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”
“More than you could ever know.”
We spent the rest of the day sitting on the couch and eating snacks while reruns of Grey’s Anatomy played on the TV. The girl time was everything I needed and that Badger was there for me meant more than she could ever know.
Telling Kade turned out to be a lot harder than I had anticipated. Mainly because I hadn’t seen him. When I got to RSS the next day, I headed toward his office, but was stopped by his assistant who let me know that Kade was offsite working on a project with Machine.
When I got back to the Hive, I noticed a bouquet of… marshmallows? Yes, definitely marshmallows. Lennie, Ollie, and even Jax, had goofy smiles on their faces.
I gave them a knowing look. They always loved to tease me about my love for marshmallows. Between the intricatebundles of the sugary treat, there were fake yellow roses to complete the look.
“On a scale of one to ten, how excited are you to eat all of that?” Lennie teased.
“We all took bets on how long it will take you to eat the entire thing,” Jax informed me.
“Who is it from?” Ollie asked, handing me the already open card.
I raised an eyebrow and looked at her. She gave me a sheepish smile before cowering to her desk. I opened the gold envelope.
The way to my woman’s heart isn’t flowers, it’s marshmallows in the shape of flowers. Love, K.
My stomach flipped at the gesture, or more likely from morning sickness. I didn’t want to call or text Kade in case he was in the middle of something important. I knew I was delaying the inevitable, however, I wasn’t ready to make this baby thing real just yet.
When I looked up from the envelope, I swore I could see the heart-eyed emoticon in both Ollie and Lennie’s faces. I rolled my eyes. “You know exactly who it’s from,” I teased.
Once I was settled at my desk, I proceeded to finish my marshmallow bouquet in twenty-five minutes flat, making Ollie the winner of the bet.
For the next two days when I came into the office, I had a new gift, but no Kade. The second gift was a pair of Snoozie slippers that had a cartoon version of Alfredo on them.
The third gift was a monstrous black Yeti cup with the phraseLess talkie while I drink my coffee, Thanks a latteon it.I almost choked on my coffee from laughing at it.
But Kade still didn’t know I was pregnant. And I had to tell him. I finally decided it was time to stop with my procrastinating bullshit and text him.
Me:
Are you home?
SEVENTY-ONE
KADE
Evelyn <3 Amore Mio:
Are you home?
I did a double take at my phone and questioned whether I was losing my goddamn mind. Sure as shit, Evelyn had texted me for the first time since our last intimate night together. I had just walked into my penthouse when I received the text and had to sit down on one of the kitchen island stools to make sure I was reading her question correctly.
I quickly snapped out of my shock and responded.
Me:
Yes, you ok?
