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“Can we do that?” Her voice wavered. She bit her bottom lip, finally pulling her gaze off the moose and onto me.
“Absolutely,” I said, turning to face her. “Sorry. I should have offered that first. It’ll take an hour or so—”
“But Whitney never did that?”
“You’re not Whitney, and that’s fine. Listen, let’s get out of here. We can try to get a good look at him from outside the fence, and if we can’t, I’ll sedate him. We can come back when he’s taking a nap.”
“I don’t want to keep you up.”
“I’m here all day. It’s not a problem at all.” I shot her a comforting smile only for fear to flair in her eyes.
Not at me. Behind me.
I turned my head in time to catch a blur of brown, five hundred pounds of moose beelining straight for us. I shoved Dana out of the way, slamming her onto the ground behind a pine tree. A blinding sear of pain radiated down my lower back before my world went black.
CHAPTER28
Thea
I pulledat the leggings currently making their way up my ass, glad I opted to dress for optimal range of motion even if I hated the synthetic, skin tight fabric. A feeling I should probably get used to, but I suspected I'd sew a whole new wardrobe rather than let myself feel this uncomfortable for the next nine months.
I'd abandoned any pretense of clearing out the store the day before. With the pregnancy test in my car, I had headed straight for home to spend the rest of the day having an existential crisis, peeing on no less than three sticks before admitting I was pregnant.
I followed that shock with an awkward phone call to my doctor's office where the nurse, the mother of a high school friend, scheduled a ten-week ultrasound appointment and assured me that Ben was the father. Well, not by name, but it'd been over two months since I'd slept with Chase, so that ruled him out. At least I didn't have to call my ex.
But I did have to tell Ben. After picking up the phone a hundred times and setting it back down again, I’d decided a phone call wouldn’t suffice. No, the “I’m pregnant with your baby and it has solidified my belief we should give this relationship a shot” conversation was a face-to-face conversation if there ever was one.
"Wow, you've really cleared this place out!" Pete's voice called out from the front of my shop. Former shop.
I pushed a lock of hair out of my face with the back of my dusty hand before lifting a packed box off the counter. "I've barely even scratched the surface."
Adam stood at the entrance and behind him stood my movers. The two lanky young men eyed each other. Adam’s son and a friend looking to make some money during the winter when work was hard to find.
"Thea, this is my son, Jake, and his buddy Eric."
The young men nodded politely, murmuring a greeting.
"Nice to meet you both. Let me show you what we're doing today."
I walked the two through the maze of rooms, pointing out which held fabric that would need to be lugged to my new shop, which pile was headed for the auction block, and what needed to go on Main Street. Once I oriented them, I took a seat, sipping my now-cold tea as a wave of exhaustion tore through me. I'd woken up at three A.M., anxiety gripping my chest and my stomach churning. Stress, baby or both, it had been a miserable night. Today I'd only taken a quick break to grab a muffin afterI'd gotten woozy sifting through the mountain of fabric crowding the back room.
I'd known the shop had too much stuff, but until I started cataloging it all, I hadn't realized how much. Mountains. Piles and piles. Almost too much to clear out before closing.
Almost.
With the help of the two boys in the next room and Ben, I could get it done.
Ben.
I patted the sheer pockets on the sides of my leggings, searching for my phone. I retraced my steps, checking every exposed countertop and sifting through my purse. No, not there. Beside the speaker.
I'd purchased the speaker years ago and perched it on the windowsill of my sewing room. Over the years, the sound range had dwindled to the point where you couldn’t hear it if you were a foot away. When I walked in that morning, I'd thrown my phone on the windowsill while I’d repositioned the speaker so I could listen to music while I packed fabric.
A huge pile of fabric stood between me and the phone but I leaned in and groped around the dusty shelf until I brushed my fingers against the corner of my phone. Inching it closer with the tips of my fingers, I was almost able to wrap my hand around it.
"Thea?" Jake, or maybe Eric, called.
"Yeah?" I tightened my grip on the phone, pulling it close. My fingers brushed the screen, bringing the phone to life. The screen was covered by texts and missed phone calls. Great. What website had I given my number too so they could spam me.
