Expectations that wouldn’t be met.
Promises that would be broken.
There would be no disappointment for either of them this way. It was the perfect arrangement.
Steam filled the small room quickly, and she envied Rylan. His house was everything she dreamed of right down to the huge tub in the en suite bathroom.
Dipping her head beneath the spray, she reached for the shampoo. Stuart may have complained about her childish fly-away hair, but it certainly made for easy maintenance, even with it being past her shoulders in length, the fine strands took no time at all to wash and condition.
After a quick scrub with her favorite vanilla-scented body wash, she rinsed off and got out only to realize she’d been so up in her own head she’d forgotten to grab a clean towel.
“Shit.” She shook as much of the water from her body as she could and dashed into the hall to the small linen closet. Wrapped in a towel she cursed again when she saw the trail of water on the floor leading back to the bathroom. “Damn it.”
Sighing, she pulled another towel from the shelf and dropped it at her feet, pushing it around to mop up as much of the moisture as she could. Satisfied she’d removed enough to prevent herself from slipping, she raced into her bedroom and glanced at the clock.
“Shit, shit, shit.” It was six twenty. She needed to leave in ten minutes, and she hadn’t had anything to eat yet. At the thought of food, her stomach rolled, and she pressed a hand against it. No more pie or ice cream or cookies for at least a month.
Grabbing panties and bra out of a drawer, she tossed them on the bed and yanked open her closet. Blessing Mercy-Life for making her life easy with a uniform, she pulled one from its hanger and dropped it on the bed with her underwear.
Rushing to the kitchen, she dropped a piece of bread in the toaster then headed back to her room.
The next few minutes were a rush of getting dressed, buttering her toast, and searching for her shoes. It was as she passed the fridge, and the calendar stuck to it with an oversized magnet that Mazey’s entire world stopped.
“No.” Ripping the thing from under the magnet, she frantically flipped backward. “No no no no no!”
It hadn’t entered her mind. Not once had she thought about the weeks between now and then. When had she last been to the doctor?
“Oh god.” Her hand flew to her mouth. She was almost two months late for her birth control shot. “This cannot be happening,” she muttered against her palm.
Racking her brain, Mazey tried to remember the last few days in LA. She didn’t recall going to her doctor’s office, and she certainly hadn’t gone when she arrived in Sunnyville. Hadn’t even looked for a new doctor here.
Why the hell hadn’t talking about the pill with Alyssa reminded her?
She drew in a slow breath and turned the calendar pages back to now, counting weeks and mentally penciling in the only time she’d had penetrative sex in the last three months.
A guttural groan scraped the back of her throat.
Her hand grabbed a boob. Was it tender? Bigger? She couldn’t tell.
The only way to know for sure was to take a test.
Did she have time to stop and pick one up before work?
Should she try to find a doctor?
Her first instinct was to call Alyssa and ask for a recommendation but that would require an explanation, and she wasn’t ready to tell anyone about her suspicions.
Not before she told Rylan.
She closed her eyes on a flashback to the one and only other time she’d been in this situation.
Would Rylan freak out on her like Stuart had?
Would he want her to get rid of it as Stuart had suggested all those years ago?
Mazey knew she wouldn’t have done it back then, and she definitely couldn’t do it now.
But how did she expect to have a child with a man who was her fuck buddy?
