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“That I need to schedule my twenty-week ultrasound? Way ahead of you. I already called them. The nurse didn’t shame me too much about not coming in before now. I told her I was in the midst of some legal stuff that kept getting in the way. ”
He scowled. “They better not try to shame you when I’m there.”
“I’m sure they wouldn’t.”
“But that’s not what I was thinking. Now you’ve recorded your deposition, you can stop worrying about putting other people in danger from random Thai assassins.”
“Right, those pesky assassins. It’s a good thing I have Moses around now. Also, knitting needles.” She opened her ever-present knitting bag to show off her number tens, with which she was currently working on a feather-soft baby blanket. “I’m ready.”
He put a hand to his heart. “Sugar, you really know how to hurt a guy. I don’t even get a mention?”
She leaned over to kiss him on the cheek, then wondered if that was too affectionate of a gesture. “And my sex machine head of security.”
“Oh baby.”
“Anyway, what’s your point about the assassins?”
“Now that you’re safe, maybe it’s time to tell Carly and Conor that you’re pregnant. Share the news.”
She opened the car door, and in a jiffy Granger was there to open it for her. How did he manage to move so fast? “How about after the ultrasound? Carly just had her baby so she has enough on her mind right now.”
Carly had gone into labor three weeks early and given birth to a perfect baby boy. Theodore Gault Cooper, already known as Teddy. Carly had emailed a photo that Bliss had pored over. Would her baby look like Teddy?
He protectively held her elbow as they strolled past the wrought iron gates that surrounded the park part of Gramercy Park. Only adjacent residents could access the park, which was a lush haven of oak shade trees. Lately, she and Granger had been walking through the little park at night, since he’d read that walking was good for pregnant women, but during the day it got too hot.
“We should take Moses for a walk as soon as it gets cool,” she murmured.
“Did you knit him a new leash?”
“Yes, why?”
He chuckled, and she shrugged. So she liked to knit. It helped keep her sane when she wasn’t running to the bathroom.
“Is there a reason why you want to keep the podling a secret from your siblings?” he asked as they reached the entrance to her building. A doorman waited just inside, taking advantage of the air conditioning.
She detected something in his voice. A wariness, a hint of hurt. Did he think it was because of him? Because of the strangeness of their situation?
She stopped and faced him. Took his hands in hers. “There’s a reason, of course. But it’s not you. It’s not,” she waved a hand between them, “this.”
“This?”
“Us. Our partnership. Relationship. Whatever you call it. I don’t care what they think of that.”
“Okay.” She couldn’t tell if that eased his mind or meant nothing to him. On certain topics, he was inscrutable.
“It’s that they always see me as a flighty, head-in-the-clouds baby.”
“Yeah, because you pull that “Blondie” act you tried with me—”
She flung up a hand. “Believe me, I know it’s my fault. But now I’m…trapped. I don’t know how to change it. I’m about to be a mother and I need to feel confident in myself. When I’m around them, I don’t feel that way. I feel like I’m just going to make a mess of things. If I feel that way, it’s more likely to happen. It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
He was watching her with a slight frown on his rugged face. “Do you think maybe you should give it a chance? Carly just had a baby herself. She’s probably up to her elbows in messes of her own.”
That was true, and sometimes she longed to turn to Carly for advice. But something kept stopping her. Was it habit? The Gault family pattern of disconnection?
Break the pattern.Granger was right. How did he know her so well? It wasn’t fair, when he still wasn’t telling her everything.
“You make a good point,” she told him. “I’ll tell them right away. Thanks for caring.”
