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Finishing up, I spit in the sink before rinsing my toothbrush out and turning on my coffee maker.
It was sitting on the counter beside Nathan’s.
I turned his on, too, and hurried back to the room to get dressed in my nursing clothes that were the only thing hanging up in the closet.
I really, really needed to unpack.
If anyone came over here, they’d see all my shit in boxes.
Speaking of anyone coming over, I turned toward the door just as I was pulling my scrub pants on and yelled, “Hey, are your parents meeting us for dinner?”
There was a long pause and then, “Yes.”
“Do you want me to invite mine? That way we can just get this all out of the way at once?” I reached for my top.
I had it halfway over my head when Nathan emerged with his mouth foaming with toothpaste.
It was running down his chin and into his beard.
“I like how you refer to our marriage as ‘it’ and you say ‘get it over with’ as if we’re admitting to something terrible instead of us being married,” he mused.
I shrugged. “I just… Nathan, they’re going to give us hell.”
They were, too.
We’d spent the last twenty years fighting like cats and dogs.
There was no way that we were going to get out of this unscathed without telling the truth.
“And, to top it off, they’re going to know that we’re having sex,” I continued.
He burst out laughing, spraying toothpaste foam all over the foot of the bed.
I wrinkled my nose in disgust.
“That’s gross,” I told him.
He covered his mouth with his hand and walked back into the bathroom.
I slipped my feet into my socks, then my shoes, and headed for my cup of coffee that was finished and waiting for me to drink.
“Since when do you drink black coffee?” my husband asked as he came into the room.
“Since I started hitting snooze eight times a day,” I told him as I looked at my watch. “I gotta go.”
He frowned. “I’ll be up there as soon as I get my run in and visiting hours are up.”
I shook my head. “Come as soon as you’re done. That’ll give you at least two uninterrupted hours before you know who comes.”
He grinned and watched me gather my nursing bag.
“What do you have in that thing?” he wondered.
I looked down at the rather large bag that I carried around with me when I went to work.
“A few forks, spoons, knives and condiments. Some paper plates. I think I have a couple of nutrition bars, some emergency chocolate, emergency tampons, and an extra set of clothes. And some pen lights, gel pens, and a stethoscope.” I paused. “At least, that’s what I remember. There very well might be more. I haven’t emptied it out in a while.”
He shook his head. “Be careful on the way to work.”
My heart started to pitter patter.
I wanted to walk up to him and hug him. Place my mouth onto his.
Instead, I smiled at him and headed for the front door.
I was just pulling it open when he said, “I want you to kiss me from now on when you leave.”
I froze with my hand on the knob, my heart starting to burst with excitement.
I wanted to kiss him before I left.
In fact, I would like nothing more than to press my lips against his.
To…
“Come give me a kiss. You’re going to be late,” he murmured.
I walked slowly back toward him and stopped right in front of him.
He had miles and miles of bare skin, and I was just about to allow my fingers to touch those muscles along his sides when he reached forward and placed his hands on both sides of my face.
He pressed his lips to mine in a quick, fast kiss, then looked me in the eyes and said, “I forgot to wash my hands after I went to the bathroom.”
I punched him in the stomach and laughed. “Fuck you.”
He winked and stepped away, unaware that he’d just caused my heart to skip a beat.
“Have a good day, Reg. I’ll see you in a little bit.”Chapter 18
Did you fall from heaven? Because so did Satan.
-Text from Reggie to Nathan
Nathan
Yesterday had been scary as hell.
Today was even scarier because now I knew what that little person meant to me.
The moment that I’d seen him, so fucking tiny with a thousand tubes connected to him, I realized that I wanted the baby. That I’d wanted a kid of my own for a long time.
Though, I’d always thought that I’d have one with Reggie, not some other woman.
Even if that baby hadn’t been conceived with another woman the normal way.
Today, though?
Today as I walked into the NICU, I’d expected it to be something like yesterday.
Only, it wasn’t.
But it wasn’t because of my kid.
It was because of someone else’s.
I walked into the room and everyone was crying, even Reggie.
